was "slow aimed," while the fire of the machine gun was "rapid continuous" for the number of rounds at each range. The machine gun took 30 seconds to fire 250 shots at each range, or a quarter that of the troop.[1]
The two experiments are particularly interesting, as showing how closely the results agree, although the conditions are dissimilar in one respect: viz. that in the first case the number of rounds was unlimited and the result had to be obtained within one minute; while in the second case time was unlimited, but the number of rounds fired by each was the same. The result of the two experiments show that both in accuracy and rapidity a machine gun is much superior to 42 picked shots, whether firing the same number of rounds at known ranges or firing an unlimited number of shots in a given time at an unknown range. We shall not be wrong, then, if we say that a machine gun is at least equal to 50 rifles in fire value,[B] but there are other factors to be considered as well as fire effect in determining its tactical value, and it is in these other factors that machine guns are so far superior to riflemen as to make a reliable estimate of their relative value almost impossible; these factors are: (1) Mobility; (2) Visibility; (3) Vulnerability.
Mobility.—The mobility of the infantry soldier is limited to the rate at which he can march, which
- ↑ Lieutenant A. E. Phillips, in the Journal U.S.A. Cavalry Association, July 1909.
