- tirely helpless on the march and when going into position, and
require the support of the other arms. German machine guns, whether on their wheeled carriages or on their sleds, are capable of warding off cavalry. The fire of the guns should be distributed over the entire front of the mounted attacking line. Special attention should be paid to lines following the first attacking line, to the flanks of the guns themselves, and to covering the carriages when they are not with the guns. Machine guns are able to advance on open ground without regard to cavalry, so long as the latter is not supported by artillery or infantry, or is not so superior in force that it can attack simultaneously from several directions, or in several lines.
In action against artillery it should be borne in mind that artillery possesses an unquestioned superiority of fire at the longer ranges; at ranges at which machine guns are able to fire at all, they must seek to find protection under cover, or by distributing the guns. Artillery is very susceptible to flanking fire. When that arm is to be engaged, the machine gun sleds should be brought as close as possible to the hostile batteries. In this case it is, moreover, advisable to have large intervals between the machine gun platoons. The great mobility of the machine gun battery, when limbered, will sometimes enable it to take up a position from which it can flank the enemy. In distributing machine gun fire it would be well always to assign the same task to two guns. It is not a good plan to have all the machine guns sweep the entire front of a firing battery (artillery).
The opinions in regard to machine gun employment in field warfare—mountain
and fortress warfare are not considered here—differ considerably.
In England machine guns are attached to battalions, and Japan of late leans
toward this mode of employment. In Switzerland machine guns serve in
addition as a substitute for horse batteries, which their army lacks.
The English view is obviously affected by their experience in colonial wars.
The following are given as the duties of machine guns in attack:
1. The machine gun is above all to be employed at long ranges. In
