Alachine guns are used on all modern men-of war, but the importance of the smaller ones has decreased with the improvement in the rate of fire of larger pieces, the probable increase of battle ranges, and the improvements in tor accurate shooting and compel a resort to single shot firing.
The general question of the method of employ ment, organization, etc., of machine gun units is one of the problems of modern military science. Unlike the field gun and heavy ordnance gener ally, the machine gun cannot be used against field works, fortifications, etc., and only iu a limited sense and under rare circumstances against the defenders of such defenses. Since the Franco-German War of 1871 the French have constantly fostered the machine-gun arm of their services both naval and military, al though the practical results of the mitrailleuse in the campaign mentioned were not by any means what Fren•h military opinion had been led to expect. Machine guns were used by the English in their various Egyptian and Indian frontier expeditions with considerable advantage, although in the earlier Egyptian campaigns their value was sometimes a doubtful quantity, owing to the ease with which the guns became jammed, whether through defective feed, a too delicate mechanism, or the presence of sand, dust, etc. In the British-Boer War of 1899-1902 every mod ern form of machine and automatic gun was em ployed, but the conditions were such that nothing very definite could be arrived at regarding their future method of employment. It was found, pedoes and torpedo boats. To stop a torpedo boat, or to so disable her as to render it impos sible to proceed with the attack, is beyond the probable power of even a 6-pounder. Shrapnel from guns of 3-inch calibre and over are con sidered by many authorities the best defense against torpedo-boat attack.
In shallow-draught vessels and boats operating at close range in rivers and contracted waters, machine gulls of small calibre do great service. In several eases during the Philippine insurrec tion machine guns in boats and on the small gunboats have driven off the enemy and pre vented the loss of many men. The value of the lar,t;er calibres is less pronounced. The effect of the bursting of a 1-pounder shell is very slight— against a ship it is nothing,. The idea that an
automatic gun can be •Ilandled like a hose' is fallacious. The jerk of the recoil is so rapid and violent that aiming, the smallest automatic pieces is well-nigh impossible, while the automatic 1 pounder so powerfully that good shoot ing even at the shortest ranges is out of the question. The larger machine guns, however, are so fitted that they may be fired singly at the will of the operator, and this is probably the best way to use them. Very rapid-firing, machine guns of large calibre must have the weights and moments of the moving parts balanced about the axis of the bore; if not, the jump will prevent however, that although they had not the moral value with an enemy that the regular field gun and shell seemed to have, yet they exercised a moral influence peculiar to themselves. It fre quently happened that the noise of the Pom-pom (q.v.) in action had, if anything, a more de moralizing influence than the bursting of shrap nel shell. The organization of machine-gun details differs in nearly every country. In America and England they are attached to regi ments of cavalry and infantry, while in Ger many there is a machine-gun attachment for each army corps with a personnel of 3 officers, 9 commissioned officers, 58 privates. and 43 horses. The detachment consists of 6 guns and 2 ammu nition wagons which are grouped in bnttery. Whether this system is preferable to the detailing of one or more guns with each regimental unit had not, in 1903, been finally settled. The ad vantage of machine guns to an army in the field lies in the fact of their great mobility. At the best they are an auxiliary to, and not by any means a substitute for, the regular field battery.
For further information, consult: Annual Re ports of the Office of Naval Intelligence, U. S. Navy Department; Proceedings of the United States Naral Institute ,•• Annual Reports of the Chiefs of Ordnance. U. S. Nary; Annual Reports of the Chiefs of Ordnance, United States Army; Ingersoll, Text-book on Ordnance and Ounnery (Annapolis, 1Sl99) ; Bruff, Ordnance and Gunnery (New York. 1900) ; Arms and Explosives (monthly, London).