"Heavy Machine Guns On The Attack?" Topic

Hey ya'll another question! Were HMG's used on the attack?

Read Rommel's book to see how.

The Commonwealth nations used them frequently in an indirect fire role as part of the pre-attack barrage

At Vimy Ridge in WW1 heavy machine guns were emplaced in newly captured positions to help consolidate them against the almost inevitable German counter-attack. The problem was carrying enough ammunition.

Two words: fire, movement.

Doug

Yes they were. Just read in "Banana Wars" how the US Marines brought them forward and used them to suppress the enemy while the infantry went in with the bayonet!

The short answer is yes, but there were many practical difficulties in moving them so they often came up as part of the consolidation of captured positions. LMGs became popular as they were more mobile. The same issues applied to trench mortars, even if the tubes were fairly portable (which minenwerfers weren't) the ammo wasn't, so they tended to come up later or be moved into position to bombard bypassed strongpoints etc.

As noted in my manual 'The Tactical Employment of Medium Machineguns', they have good operational mobility but poor tactical mobility and are best employed as fire support from positions in the rear, if they need to move forward, move by covered bounds by section.

The main effect of a belt fed MG is fire, and every minute it is moving it isn't firing. They only need to move to get into better fire positions. The other advantage of not moving is that more ammo could be dumped with the guns, typical base load for a WW1 MMG was 7,000 rounds, but much of that was on the battery transport. Nomansland and horse carts didn't mix very well!

As mentioned above the MG Corps developed arcane practices such as MG barrages, indirect MG fire still being practiced in the Korean War, long after the demise of the MG Corps.

craycaptain560:

Check your "Black Powder" thread (link below)

TMP link

I posted there yesterday, you might be interested.

Cheers,

Two books
Rommel Infantry Attacks
Coppard With Machine Gun to Cambrai

Describes his service with Royal West Surrey Battalion MG section then the Machine Gun Corps. Describes being on the Hohenzollern Redoubt & moving the weapon offensively at Festubert.( true they were set up in an outpost & moved tactically offensively. The way it was described certainly comes across as well practised.)
Well worth a read.

Just ordered Coppard's With a Machine Gun to Cambrai. Under a fiver used on Amazon inc p&p. Never heard of it before.

Yes. Definitely read 'WITH A MACHINEGUN TO CAMBRAI". Its a brilliant book and gives the reader a great insight into how machineguns were used in WW1. Coppard was also quite a good author, so the book is easy to read and absorb the things he is saying.