Some Notes on Lewis Guns and Machine Guns

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S O M E NOTESON

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L E W I S I T h S A N D ~IACRINEU N S[These notes are written by a regimental officer with

considerable experience in handling Lewis guns and

Machine guns in the present ~var. They should beread in conjunction with S.S. 106.]

s s u e by the Gene ra l Staf f

SEPTEMBER, 1918.

LONDON:

HARRISON AND SONS, ST MARTIN’S LANH , W .O.,PItINTEI:S iN OOLiINARY TO 1118 MAJEsTY.



SOME NOTES ON LEWIS GUNS

AND MACHINE GUNS.

I. PRINCIPLES OF EMPLOYMENT.

I. Now that two Lewis guns are added to the equipment of each

Company, any officer may find himself in command of this new

weapon, and he should therefore have sonic notion of tho best useto which it can be put.

These notes are designed to help officers in this. A good many

of the remarks may be platitudes to the more experienced officers,

but I know that many have had little opportunity of studying any

form of machine gun.

2. The principles of machine gun~,in their simplest form, neces-sarily come into such a subject, and I have dealt with them at some

length for three reasons

1 A Lewis gun is a form of machine gun arid takes over some

of tile work previously done by Maxim and Vickers guns.

Some of this work they do as weii as aVickers, somebetter,

some worse. An officer commanding a Lewis gun ought

to know what work is best left to a Machine gull andwhat

he can take on better himself.

2 Machine guns work so cioseiy with infantry that much

misunderstanding can be removed if the infantry officers

know something of the principles on winch they are used.

3 One of the main jobs of Lewis guns is knocking out enemy

machine guns. And to hunt anything successfully you

must know its habits.

II. CHARACTERISTICS OF LEWIS GUNS AND

MACHINE GUNS.

1 . Lewis guns share with Machine guns the following character.

istics :— i. They can at any moment open a heavy concentrated fire,

and the volume of fire is not decreased till more than

66 per cent, of the team become casualties.

In a Company, every casualty sustained lessens the volume

of fire.

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ii. They can give a maximum volume of fire fromaminimum

of front.

For a short burst, the fire of a Lewis gnu equals that ofabout 20-30 rifles, and it can be fired from a single loop-hole, or, in the open, from a frontage of two men.

iii. Fire control is easy, since all time firing is done by one man.

2 . Lewisguns differ from Machineguns as follows

i. They aro cooled by air and not by water. They therefore

get hot much sooner end will be red hot if 700 or 800rounds are flied rapidly. If more are fired theymay burst.Compiny officers, therefore, if requiring only one gun~

should useboth alternately. Again if one company hasa

hot time while anotherhas nothing to do, the latter shouldbe prepared temporarily to exchange guns with time former.

ii. They are morO open, and therefore more exposed to dust,

wet and mud than Machine guhs. They also contain a

greater number of easily broken parts.

iii. Time magazines are more easily damaged than the belts of

Machine gulls. If a full Of lO is dropped on lmardgro rindit will probably be so dented that it will not lit, the gun.

The bulk of time magazines therefore must be carried in

boxes sufficiently strong to protect them and these areVery Imeavy .

846 rounds in time boxes issued to us weigh 1 02 lbs., while a

box of 1,000 rounds of S.A. ammunition in bandoliers

only weighs 75 lbs. more. Boxes carrying 1,000 roundsof Machinegun ammunition in belts weigh 78 lb.

iv. Time main advantage claimed for Lewis guns over.Machineguns is that, needing no \vatcr, they are lighter and somore mobile,

But company officers must remember that th~mobility of a

gun depends largely U~Oflthe mobility of its ammunition. Theymust’ therefore be prep~.redto provide men to lend a hand witim the

heavy magazine boxes in cases ofa long rapid advance orof casualties

among time section carriers.

3.. To sum imp, a Lewis grin is rather like that inetitable starter irs

the Grand National about which all the prophets say that “it willwin if it stands imp.” That generally means that it hasn’t a chance

unless it has a first rate training with a real good jockey. In the

same way stoppages and breakagcs in a Lewis gun can only be

prevented andminimized by having realgood menwho will keep their

guns inorderand use then properly. Company officers, in selecting

men, should imagine that they have a new motor car amid wish to

eboose one of their men to be trained as ehauileur. A Lewis gun is



a more delicate piece of mechanism than a motorear and needs more

constant attention. A rough stupid man can put it out of action

for a long time in cleaning it ; and a careless irresponsible man willwaste endless ammunition if lie fires it, and will have his gun red hot

at the critical moment.

IlL—TACTICAL HANDLING.

The simplest way to arrive m i t the purposes to which Lewis guns

may be put is to consider first the work machine guns have done in

thepast, and then see what part of this werkLewis grins should takeover, and also if there is any further work forwhich they are specially

adapted.

I. Trench Defence.

I. In normal times in the trenches the first duty of machine guns isdefence. For this purpose brigade machine gun officers make

arrangements for theirmachine gun~in the front trenches to join in

forming wlmat is called a “ belt of fire “ across the entire front..Every machine gun officer, on taking over a sector of the line, is shown

or provided with a map something like Fig. 1.If this h)el t is properly constiucted it is clear that no considerable

body of the enemy can cross No-man’s land without terrific losses,so long as time machine guns remain in action. Time emplacements

from which Machineguns fire to form this belt of fire are called

“ battle emplacements” ; they must be well concealed arid strong

enougim to resist anything but a direct hit from a large shell. Each

gun should have analternative battle emplacementcovering the sameallotted field of fire, in case one should be knocked in. “ Defence

emplacement would probably be a better name than “ battle

emplacement for these emplacements are designed for defence, and

f o m an attack different positions would often be selected.2 . Two points should first be noted about the siting of these

emplacements

i. Time guns all fire diagonally.This is for three reasons. a They cover more ground. A

greater space of No-maim’s land can be swept without

altering the aim, and together they form a belt of firethrough which the enemy attack must pass. Fewer mciiwill thus be needed to Imold t ime tiench. b) They are les3likely to be seen, because they are d c f m l m m m l e d from the

nearest part of the enemy’s t r encimes . c They enfilade

an enemy attack, and shots which miss or pass through a

nearparty may hit time next..



hence it follows that a gun sited in one company is probably

looking after the front of another company oreven another

battalion. Time men on duty with niachine guns must not,therefore, be looked ocr by company officers as sentries in

theordinary way. Theironly concern is to keep their gunstuned up to prevent anyone from tampering with them,

and to lookout alongtheir line of/ire. W’c had one emplace-ment, for instance, in tile middle sector at Ypres, wimere

the sentry could only watch his line of fire at night through

Ilie loop hole in his emplacement.

ii. Each gunhas its own p~rticulargound to cover which may be

large or small and s bag as it cov3:s t im it sitisfactofily it fulfilsits main purpose.

Company officers sometimes look t imrough an emplacement and

criticize it adversely on the ground ilmat it has a small field

of fire. Sucim criticisms cannot be intelligently imiadc unless

the critic knows t i m e r ~ 1 m m pose for w i m i c i m the gun has becim soplaced.

3. The formation ofsuch abelt of fire looks very easy on amap, but

in practice many points have to be considered. In time first placeall time guns, so far aspossible, must be sited forgrazing fire anti not

for plunging fire. In otimer words, time trajectory of time bullet should

coincide with time slope of time ground foras longadistance aspossible.One of time great advantages of time Maxim or Vickers grin is its fixed

platform. The gun can be laid along its line at dusk and fired witlmcffect at any hour of the night, but this advantage is lost if the sins

of time gun lies to be continually changed. Time Gcrnman front line

machine guns surely traverse at all. The traversing fire that sonic.

times comes over our lines is generally from a rcseri-c t rencim.) itfollows, therefore, that a hugh commanding position is a disadvantage

for afront linegun, especiallyatnight. See Fmg. 2.

4. When your trench line runs rip a slope, it is generallybetter to

cover the front by siting your grin at time bottom and firing up the

Slope for tim~ollow~greasons :— i You are more likely to get an

attacking party atnight on the skyline. ii Time emplacement at time

top of time ~bpe would be more easily spatted, and when spotted will

be mare easily shelled. iii When firing down a slope time bulletsthat miss their immediate object generally bury themselves

in the ground. Wimen firing up over a ridge time outside bullets of

the comic may do damage on the other side. In fact one can

generally site a grin with this secondary object in mind, and work

out the aim with a map, chnomne t . e r and compass so that such bulletsare likely to fall somewhere us uful—cither to enfilade an enemy

trench further up tue line or lilt a village, headquarters, dump, or ross-roads behind.

.



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“Mad Ahick” of — the generic name of a family of

machine guns in that neighbourhood, is a good instance of this

practice. He fires at the top of our parapet where he canpartially enfilade it, but is so placed that shmots which pass overit will fall in tim neigimbourhmood of—.—. Luckily lie h m a s mistaken

the contours and cannot get observation of his fire, withm the result

that the centre of his effective beaten zone is gemmerally halfway

up the tower of — Church. If lie retired two or three hundredyards amid fired at the same mark anti elevation, he would make

street a much more unpopular promenade.

5. This is an important point for Lewis guns as well as Machine

guns. TIIC main criticism that c~nbe brought against bothis that they fire so rapidly that eveiy shot cannot hit and therefore

they are wasteful of ammrmnition. This charge can largely be

answered by so firing that time outside shots of the cone imave a

reasonable chance of hitting a secondary target. To accomplishthis successfully the directing gunner must imave a’ good bump of

locality and a thorough knowledge of time map.

II. Straftng in Trenches.

1 . While the formation of a belt of fire, to economize infantry indefence, is thie first duty ofmachine guns posted in front line trenches,a certain amount of useful strafing can also be done on occasions.

But only in exceptional circumstances should this be indulged

in from the battle emplacements or they will soon be discovered.This work can generally be best done by reserve guns from rising

ground behimmd the trenches. Dunips, approaches, cross-roads,

~c., can often be fired on. But if an attack is contemplated, anyapproachmes or communication trenches that can be reached should

be hef t alone till the day of attack, or the enemy will defliade themwith traverses or choose a safer line,

2 . Patrols, working parties orgaps in the enemy’s parapet can bestrafed from the front line and for thus purpose less elaborate

~e.mp1aeements may be made, often in comnmanding positions.

IlL Lewis Guns in Tren*hes.

1 . Now arises the question, what part of the machiine gun work in

the trenches can Lewis grins usefully take over 1

The “ belt of fire” business is, in the main, best left to Machineguns when these are available, because, owing to their fixed

platfornms~they can better cover their lines by night; but there

are occasions whmen Lewis guns can usefully supplement them.

For instance, your trench line may run over a flat-topped ridge.

Botim slopes may be swept by machine guns shooting upwards, but

neither may sweep time flat top. The top would be an unsuitableplace for a permanent emplacement and in any came it would be

wasteful to retain a Machine grin for so small a space. A Lewis gun



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placed near would make this secrire, see Fig. 3a. Again, in the

middle sector at Ypres thiere was ahollow with a hedge in it running

at right angles to our t r enc imes and we had to keep one Machinegunsolely to watch it—see Fig. 3b Here a Lewis g r i m m would do the

work perfectly well.

2 But it is in the strafing thirst Lewis guns will be most usefuL

There is practicallyno front.line strafing that cannot be bettor done

by Lewisgrins. Time work does not need long-continued fire; amid two

or three Lewis guns couhh quickly he concentrated to join in mmcli

worlt without leaving any gaps in the belt of fire, as would occur iffront line Machine guns were moved for this purpose.*

3 . Again, any work in front ofourown lines is more suited toLewMguns. At Fleurbaix last J u m m e the Germans used often to work inthn daytime on a new trench 40 yards in front of their line—dead

ground from our parapet. I asked peri imission to take out a. Maxim

througim time hong grass to stalk thmern, but time Colonel refused because

if we were surprised by an e n m e m n y patrol we would have difficulty iii

getting so heavy a gun away. Here was an ideal opening for a

Lewis grin. Similarly inan enterprise on the G e r n m a m m trenches two

Lewis guns pushed out into No.ma~’sland on either side of the

point of attmmck would keep clear the raiding party’s hue of retreat.

IV. The Attack irons Trenches.

1. In any attack tue duties of all forms of machine guns are ito cover time advance of time infantry by keeping down orunsteadying

the enemy’s fire; ii to prevent or delay the enemy fronm bringing

‘reinforcements ‘to the threatened points; iii to help in the fight for

superiority of fire before time assault.

In a trench attack iii) will not occur. The necessarysuperiority

must be obtained beforehand by greater ‘weight of artihlery.and byholding thc supremacy of No-man’s land.

‘Let us picture atypical trench attack and seo how Machine guns

and Lewis grins can attain the first two objects.

F~rs1phase.

In the preliminary bombardnient Lewis guns can do nothingend Machineguns very little. 1 have seen it suggested that machine

guns should enfilade any communication trenches that thmey can in

order to catch Germans retiring to the shelter of the second line.I ‘do not agree with this. Impatience is a very general fault on our

‘side. Whenwe see m u chance of inflicting sonic small danmage on times m n e n m y we are far too apt to do it at once instead of saving up the

‘blow for some time when it will have a real importance. As an

example of t l m i s when officers in time front line spot an enemy machine

~Note by General Staff.—Lewis guns are not, however , sui table for “strafing”by lmidircct fire and should not b e uicd fo r this purpose se e S.S. 100,Append ix A, 3 a .



gun, even if it is doing no damage, they often call on the artillery to

shell it. Even if our guns k m m o c k it out, another will quickly be

brought rip to sweep t i m e same g r o r m m m d f r o r u m a safer position andnothing material m s bean guinel. On the other h m a m m d , if time gun

were left in fancied s curit; till time morning of an attack, and then

kmmocked out, the G e r m i m u m s ~nobably could not replace it in time to be

of any service. In just time same way, by enfilading conmmunication

trenches early in a bombardment you may c m r t c h m a few men. But

time trench can be easily cleared and will be marked as dangerous.If you leave it alone and strafe it anionthe enemy are returning to the

front line to meet one attack, time eflect will be far greater. You

may block time trench and upset the German orgmnisution.3. ‘When t i m e bomnbardnment ceases, our imifantry goes “ over the

top.” As soon as time enemy sees them, every loophmole will beopened

and parapets mnanumed. An intense fire will bepourcnl upon our men

both from time enemy’s front line and from any positions behind

commanding No-man’s land. However severe our bombardment,some m a c h m i m m e grin emplacenments are sure to be left, and it is from

these that time gmeitest losses will be dealt.

4 Time Vickers in rear can deal with time enemy’s second line

positions; thmey can alsodelay reinforcements. They can do this byenfilading communication t r enclmes ; by shooting over others whichcannot be directly enfiladed they will make tire enemy stick to time

t rencim instead of c o m ’ n i m m g up nmore quickly over time top. They can

also often search ground which time artillery cannot effectively shell,

as it is lucre that reinforcements will probablybe collecting.5. But before time arrivalof Lewis g u m m s itwas always very difficult

to silence time e r m c m m m y ’ s front line, It is clear that this cannot be

properly done fronm our own trenches beeauso our fire would at once

be nmaskcd by our own attacking troops. As a suggestion, ga-psmight be left in our attacking line, especially in a salient opposite

well-shelled trenches, for machine guns to fire through, see Fig. 4.Brit this covering fire must chiefly be clone by g r u m m s placed well in

front of orir own trenches, which can COimt inUe firing till time imafantryis past t h i e m m i . For this purpose t ime higlmt and eas~ concealed Lewis

gun is particularly well adapted, and Vickers gumis can also be usedin tiremost favourable positions for cdver. How these guns get there

is immaterial provided that they reach theirplaces unseen before the

attack. They may go out the night before, dig themselves in andstop there; or t imey mayprepare their shelter at niglmt and crawl out

to it in time later stages of time bombardment orunder cover ofa smokecloud. ~ They s i m o u m l d get as far forward as possible so long as tirey

are out of bombing distance of enenmy sapsand not in time line of fireof our own wire.cutting grins. Since they will fire diagonally, aposition behind a hillock wlmere they are covered f r o m m a time trenches

opposite m u ighmt be a goodone. But each positionmust be chosen on

its merits.



0. If Vickers guns anti Lewis guns were used‘ togethaa- , time Vickers

guns shonuld sweep time enemy’s parimpets and thmeir breastworks at

loophole height, since they a m ’ o u m m o r e sinted to sustained traversingfire.

7. Time special job of Leavis guns is knocking otut macimine guns.

But to do this one must study their imabits. If a Lewis gunnerhears a machine gun firing straigimt opposite h m i n m it is a great

temptation to fire at the sound but this would m n l u m i o s t always bo

useless becausa Gerrmman gums like our own fire diagonally and are

clefiladed from time front.

German front line machine guns have narrow loopholes because

they traverse very little. They all have strong head cover, Corninglow down in front so thmat they can only b e hit by short range fire.They fire diagonally so that they can only be hit from the dimect ion

in which they are firing. Lewis gunners, therefore, have t im e bestclmance of putting out time grin whose builcts are coming nearest

themselves; and the strike of machine gun builets on the gioundis time best guide to the place from which you can put that machine

gun out. German machine gun loopholes are generally near the

g ronmnd level.

8 . Every gum, Viekers or Lewis, must have assigned to it its ownparticular length ofenemy t r e m m c l m before it is sent out. The Vickers

guns will cover, between them, time wirole parapet: while Lewis guns

W O U 1 1 be given a particular length of parapet to watch for machine

guns. All t lmese lines should be diagonal. Sec Fig. 5.9. Only two menshomulni go out with time gun, time rest waiting in time

trench behiimd ready tobring on ammunition when time gunadvances.

V i t } m time gun must be sufficient a u m m n m u u m m i t i o i m for its iimmmnediate pur-pose as well asa load for No. 2 to take forward.

Second phase.

10. Time Lewis guns, Imaving ceased fire as time infantry passed,

w o m m i n l r e m m m a i n in position m m m s t i i they were assured that the trenehms

had been carried. In ease of failure timey would cover the retreat..As soon as time infantry were well into time front trench the guns

would move forward anti join thmeir compammies.

1 1 . If the attack was proceeding feir t imer they would endeavour tocover the next advance precisely as they covered the first. If,

however, t h m e . y imave to meet a conmnter.attack at once, they mustbe arranged to form abelt of fire across time front preciselyasmachimegrins do i m m the trenches, and they will continue to do this until a

further advance is to be made, or time machine guns come i m p to

‘consolidate time positions won. Occasionally a Lc~visgun may be

used to defend a straight communication trench b r m t thmese arerarely found near the f r o m m t line; g e m m e r m u h l y these trenches twist too

m r m c . l m and are better defended b u y bonmbers , while time Lewis grins

prevent a direct rush over the top. If time counter-attack c onmes



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before you imave time to organize a belt of fire across the whole

battalion, companies ~houhchseparate their Lewis guns, to fire

inwards across each other’s front.12 . It may happen that X Battalion captures its trench, but Z

Battalion on its hef t fails to do so. ‘One or two guns of Battalionmay then be usefully employed with time bombers working t imeir

way alomig t i m e t rencim to time hef t . Agood position for such a gun is~hmownin Fig. 0. In any case where one battalion finds itself in

front of time general ahigmmunent, the Lewis grins of time middle com-panies must be prepared to forna the belt of fire by tiuemselves across

time entire from’it, because the grins of time f l m u m h t conupammies may have

to be drawn back to protect time fiamiks of time battalion.13. The bestpositions for time Lewis gnus should always be chmosen

before the gums thiemselves follow rip time attack. It is very

dangerorms to nmove guns laterally across time firing line. Time guns,

fohlowiumg up from time rear, shouldalways bedirected straigimt to theirpositioums. Company commanders should arrange with their

Lewis gun officers as to who is to carry orrt timis iimportaiat duty.In the authmoriZe h personnel of a Lewis gmu team, no provision is

nmade for seormts, range-takers or observers. I suggest that Lewis

gun officers simould, have a liberal allowance of rurrners trained in

this work.14. Provided time gun is not overimeated, ammunition may be used

freely from time first position time guns occupy. But time moment

gurus go forward thucy must fire more sparingly. Ousce you arein time emmemy’s t r ene imes every round of arnmnunition increaseS 10

times in valnie, anti must be econonmized accordingly. All fur t imer

supplies will have to pass through time enemy’s curtains fire.

V. Lewis Guns in Open Fighting.

1 . The main principles that goverus time rise of Lewis guns are the

same us open fightimug as tinder time circumstances already described.

2 . The guns will sometimes have to he used for covering fire. If,

for instanmce, the conspany is surprised by rifle or macimine-gun firewhile in artillery formation, all Lewis guuss will at once get into

action to cover time deploynment.

3. Similarly in an attack, where the infantry imas to advance over anexposed piece of ground, Lewis guns will be pushed ahead sec~ethy

to cover time movement. In former timures companies would ~masssuch ground by advanciimg by altcrrmate platoons or sections,. oneplatoon firingwhile t ime umext advanced. NowLewis g u u m s can provide

time necessary fire and the whole comumpany can pass quickly overwitimorut halting. But where there is a l o u m g stretch of open ground,

time cover inug can better be done by time overhead fire of Machine

guns. Maciuine guns can fire farmore continuously and c a m s put in



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accurate simootiag at rangesup toa mile and a half. At this distance

thmeir bullets have a steep angle of descent and are tlmerefom-e better

calculated to demoralize troops in t rcnchmes. Still for shuortdistances of exposed ground Lewis grins are better, because, by time

use of pre-arrangcd signals, they can open fire at time exact moment

t imat tire iumfantry advances.4. Lewis g u m m i s are also useful for shift i img hostile advanced pickets

or unexpected nmachhie grins.5 . Sue m covenimmg lure often h m u r s to be m m s r d when no clear target pre.

scnts itself, but even so it may be of real value, in Souitim Africa the

men of time squadrons used to jibe at our machine guns and say

they never hit anything but, they added, “ we like to hear thempopping because they imuake time Boers sbmoot so badly.”

0. Tlmormgh in a war like this covering fire often has to be used,

gunners , m m r m s t never lose sighmt of time real object of all kinds ofmachuine g u m m m s which is the anniluilat~onof a body of time enemy.

They are weapons of opportunity, and in general jurist lie Ion’

till they cars get the greatest effect. They n m m m s t get as near as they

safely can to the enemy, when ourside is advancing,and conversely

they must allow an attacking enemy to connie as near as they can

without unnlue risk. This margin of safety varies according tocircumstaumces. An enemy patrol of 50 men might he allowed to

approach within 50 yards. if, there are several patrols eoumverging

on tIme grin, this distance must he increased. The distarr.ce wouldbe lessened if there were concealed barbed wire in front of the

grin, and so on.7 . If one g u m s is firingata party of the enemy it shouldopen fire at

that part of time enemy nearest to hihtely cover and traverse inwards.Time encimsy will probably ruin into time line of fire in tryimmg to reach

cover.S. If two or snore grins are used for the same purpose each mnist

have a separate point of aim. With two guns e u n e i m would start atan

extremmae flank of time party and traverse inwards; ~f there were four

g m m n s , the otimer two would lay on time centre and traverse outwards

to heft a,’d right. All t imese points of aim must be settled before-hand.9. It is impossible to go over all time situations that m u m a y occur in

open figimting, but time following remarks may cover seine of thmem.Time best mark a Lewis grin can have is cavalry. Cavalry has no

terrors for airy machine gauss if time latter are ready for action.

Except in time case of covering fire, it is ageneral rule forLewisguns that they should not open fire n m u m l c s s tiuey imave a reasonable

chance of inflicting very severe losses. There a m ’ e tiuumcs, howeverwhmen this rule will not hold good, viz. :— i In a rcaignmmrmd delaying

action, guns would open at extreme range to delay time enemy by

making h u b s ’ . deploy early. ii If an enemny is retreating lucky burst



12

t imere is no object in waiting, because yonir target will get no nearer.

hi It is worth having a long shot at particularly tempting marks.

A battery limbering imp, a machine gun section on time move, ageneraland his staff, should, like awoodcock, be strafed by everybody.

If thmere is a gap in our hiuse, a Lewis gun on ei t imer side of it,

sluooting diagonally across each otimer’s front, will prevent an

enemy getting t h r o n m g h m till it is filled i m p .

In almy orgmusized scheme of attack or defence as opposed to

patrol workor sumiall emuterpri so) eacim Lewisgun must begiven its ownpartictular line to deal with, arnl from this line of flue it must emily

move in exceptional circumstances, Sucin a case might be a local

raid by time emsemny. If time rakhing party seemed likely to gain afooting inA sector and B sector was m m o t attacked, thegun defending

B sector nsighmt be swung uound to iselp time defence of A. But inall s n u c i m casts oneman of thegun team must beoudered to keep watch

along time original line, so timat i m e c a m s switch time gunback time moment

a tmmrget presents itself on that line.In defence Lewis guns should m a o t beordered to cover to

9wide

it stretch of front. This would o m a l y lead to an imscfficient watch, wimile

if several targets presented t imemuselves time gun would be constantly

changing from ouse to the otimer and do little meal damage to airy.It is much better to give a gun a smaller line—say, one field and ahmedge—evcn if the whole line is not covered. For if you prevent

tiseenemnyfromcrossingtwo fields here and two fields t imere , you will

break U I and disoiganise his hue, and im e will attack your infantry

with little chance of succcss.

Fimmahly, ‘Len- is gums simould be h m m m m d l e d as a sailor handles a

submarine. In a square straigimt figimt with a Vichurs a Lewis gun

stands no more cimanee than a submarine in a similar encoumater with

a battleship. Botim only succeed by popp imag up ummexpec ted ly ,delivering a rapid c m r m s h u i n g blow, a m u d then, when they are dis.

covered, trusting to escape by their mobility and invisibility to some

other unexpected place from whicim tisey can repeat time dose.

IV .—GENERAL REMARKS.

1 . T I m e qrmes t i on may be asked. Is it wortim wimile to try towork

timis somewhat elaborate organization? Why not use time Lewis

g r u m s s as a kind ofsuperior rifle, just hike any other rifle is usednowTo this t imere are two answers.

i At time lmrcseuat moimsent rifles are not, in practice, used to the

best advantage. Time most iumsportamst principles s u m u m m m c d up in thae

expression “ Fire control” are, owing to the cxtreme difficulty ofap~mhyiumgt imeni in action, ingravedammg~rof beiumg disregarded. Even l m t rencimes o m a e sees seustrics at u u g h m t f i r i u m g off mounds imapimazarch in

time direction of time opposite tm’ench, imus tead of each bay beiumg given

some definite a i n m i u m g nsark along w i m i e h m its occumpants c a m s fire witim



13

greatly simplified, since only one milan I S firing Ire equivalent of

twenty rifles, and therefore time fullest attentioim devoted to this

subject is never wasted. ii All autommaatic rifles and machine guns are extreumuely wasteful

of arnumunition unless used on time principles already described. It

is only by sucim methods that they get their Itill effect. Hithertowe have been far behind time Gerimmaims in material of this kind now

we may be aborut eqrualto them. But even ifwe get a prepommderancethe advantage will largely be lost umsiess we get out of everyweapon

the full workof whuicls it is capable.

2 . And from this another poimat arises. It has been said that

Lewis guns and macimine grins get tbmcir best effects by diagonal fire.Why not carry fimis to its logicalconclusion 7

Many of us saw s o m s s e t h i m m g of time fiasco of time 9 th of May, 1915.

I got full accounts from men wimo wemit t imrouglm and came back. Allof them told the simile story thmat, once they were timmough the

Germuman fromat line they were swept by machine g m m n s from both

flanks, but not a r m s a m s could tell inc even roughlywhere those iuachmine

grins were situated.

3. And ifyou thuink of o m u r on-n pract~eattacks it is easy to see howsuch a thing imapp en ed . We are given a compass bcarimig on which

to march. The officers fund some objectat w i m i c i m tIme flanks of timeircommand m i r e to aim a m s d their best N.C.O.’s are wimohiy occupied in

keeping this direction. Time officers divide their attention between

seeing timat thedirection is kept, s t smdying thedangers anddifficulties

of time gm’ound to be traversed and looking for sigims of time enensy in

their objective. The remimainder are watciming for the officer’ssigmmais. But nobody is hooking to time place f r o m i m winch casualties

will conic—the flanks, imahf m i g h u t n m m m d half left, where machine gunsmay be hying safely dcfiladcd from their own front.

Nowthis sidelong glance m m m i g h m t well be time special duty ofLewisgun

teams. In their pesit ioma in the fourthm line tisey have fewanxieties

about diu-cction. if a few grins with a small supply of ammunition

were sent for-ward to assist time advance, time remnainder of the teams

carrying hmeavy amusUnition would suflice to mark time line which the

grins could rejoin as tire battalion passed. Similarly no injury

would be done to the direction of time line if spare mcmi of Lewis gun

teams were sent forward to points ofvantage from which thmey couldwatch our flanks and signal the guns forward if tisey saw signs ofany

danger from timose directions. I feel confident ilmat if seine such

arrangenment were made, our losses in an attack would be very

greatly lessened, and no German machine guns would inflict imeavy

casualties upon us, as they did on May 9th, without being in any

danger themselves.





5

Frauni~2

MACHINE GUN DEFENJ JNG A LTN~.

A Machine Gun in a commanding position.

B M~ehineGun in ‘ow position.

I~emembcrthat both guns are shooting diagonally, so that A positionwould leave many gaps through which an enemy might pass. In 13)

position there are no gaps.



1 4 3

Finuna 3 .

A .

B .

Exsani’r~Esof ground in front of trenches better defended by Lewis guns

than by Machine guns. ~

In botis cases you are supposed to be looking straigimt to your front

out of your on-n trench. The machmine guns are firing away from you

diagonally.

Similar eases will occurwhen any sunken road or

- deep ditcis cuts our line.



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Documents

Some Notes on Lewis Guns and Machine Guns