Has not anyone read the Emma Gee’s and a Sniper went to War by Captain Herbert Mcbride?
Captain McBride was a frequent article contributor to the Arms and the Man in the 1920’s, under the name “Sniper”. He also wrote the two classic books I mentioned above, about his service with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry during WW1. The Canadian’s took Vimy Ridge, almost no one today understands the sacrifice it took to do that.
Captain McBride is not the only WW1 author I have read, and sprinkled throughout personnel experiences are descriptions of machine gun barrages. The Vickers/Maxims of the period were heavy, and extremely accurate at distance. While they were only 300-400 round per minute weapons, they were capable of extended periods of fire, and when companies of Emma Gee’s got together, they could control a battle space, till knocked out by artillery. I believe Captain McBride describes a night where several machine gun companies fired over a million rounds, to control an area, before a dawn attack. They made sure the Germans were not moving over the ground to position themselves.
He, and others, described long range “sniping” by machine gunners. As the static war progressed, aerial maps were shared down and artillery and machine gunners knew the cross roads and collection areas of the enemy. Since everyone moved at night, machine gunners would use basic geometry and figure out the azimuth and elevation to a particular cross road or known collection area, and spray the places at night. At extreme distances, the bullets would be subsonic, and men would just fall. That would be most disconcerting. Silent death is un nerving as people feel out of control. I recall one account, the Germans were in the habit of punctually bringing kitchens up close to one area, and the machine gunners decided to ruin their early breakfasts, And so they did, absolutely hosed down the area before day break and waited for the sun to rise to see what happened. There were dead Germans in the area, and the kitchens had to go even further back, when meant the poor Germans got cold food for breakfast.
You can imagine that long range was a desired capability of bullets, and it was post WW1 that the 174 FMJBT was developed for long range machine gun work. While there were static battle lines in WW2, few locations were as flat and featureless as Beligum or France, so long range machine gun fire was not as common.
After WW1 the US Army assembled experts to recommend what was needed for the next war, and it is worth looking at the Organization and Tactics, AEF Superior Board Report, 1919 but one of the surprising things is, even though artillery created 60 to 80% of causalities, the Superior Board emphasized accurate rifle shooting.
And this is reflected in my Dad’s pre WW2 Junior ROTC book. A lot of pages are devoted to describing how a junior office takes his platoon out in the field, searches for, identifies the enemies location, and then gets his squad to eliminate the enemy with accurate, long range rifle fire.
Captain McBride was a frequent article contributor to the Arms and the Man in the 1920’s, under the name “Sniper”. He also wrote the two classic books I mentioned above, about his service with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry during WW1. The Canadian’s took Vimy Ridge, almost no one today understands the sacrifice it took to do that.
Captain McBride is not the only WW1 author I have read, and sprinkled throughout personnel experiences are descriptions of machine gun barrages. The Vickers/Maxims of the period were heavy, and extremely accurate at distance. While they were only 300-400 round per minute weapons, they were capable of extended periods of fire, and when companies of Emma Gee’s got together, they could control a battle space, till knocked out by artillery. I believe Captain McBride describes a night where several machine gun companies fired over a million rounds, to control an area, before a dawn attack. They made sure the Germans were not moving over the ground to position themselves.
He, and others, described long range “sniping” by machine gunners. As the static war progressed, aerial maps were shared down and artillery and machine gunners knew the cross roads and collection areas of the enemy. Since everyone moved at night, machine gunners would use basic geometry and figure out the azimuth and elevation to a particular cross road or known collection area, and spray the places at night. At extreme distances, the bullets would be subsonic, and men would just fall. That would be most disconcerting. Silent death is un nerving as people feel out of control. I recall one account, the Germans were in the habit of punctually bringing kitchens up close to one area, and the machine gunners decided to ruin their early breakfasts, And so they did, absolutely hosed down the area before day break and waited for the sun to rise to see what happened. There were dead Germans in the area, and the kitchens had to go even further back, when meant the poor Germans got cold food for breakfast.
You can imagine that long range was a desired capability of bullets, and it was post WW1 that the 174 FMJBT was developed for long range machine gun work. While there were static battle lines in WW2, few locations were as flat and featureless as Beligum or France, so long range machine gun fire was not as common.
After WW1 the US Army assembled experts to recommend what was needed for the next war, and it is worth looking at the Organization and Tactics, AEF Superior Board Report, 1919 but one of the surprising things is, even though artillery created 60 to 80% of causalities, the Superior Board emphasized accurate rifle shooting.
And this is reflected in my Dad’s pre WW2 Junior ROTC book. A lot of pages are devoted to describing how a junior office takes his platoon out in the field, searches for, identifies the enemies location, and then gets his squad to eliminate the enemy with accurate, long range rifle fire.
