Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-09-24

new tool, better than anything of its
particular type yet developed, and diff
ferent from every ether weapon in the
world Its nearest prototype is the
French Chaucllat automatic rifle. which
has proved extremely effective in its
work and is now being used by Ameri-
can troops ia France.
AT the present stage of tactics the
Browning automatic rifle will be SUI
perlor tool for perhaps three definite
jobs in trench warfare First, being
as portable as the ordinary army rifle,
1t can be quickly brought into action
along every part of a trench by de-
Tenders 10 stop the advance of an
enemy. With the heavier types of ma
chlne gun fired from tripod and re-
curing considerable time for getting
into position. if not permanent EN-
placement, such resistance of invaders
IN pinch might prove difficult. With
the new Browning firing 20 shots auto
l>atlcally in less than three seconds. or
70 shots Semiautomatically as fast as
one desires to pull the trigger. loading
with fresh magazine each 20 shots
in couple of seconds, an entire trench
front can be protected with outbursts
Of machine-gun fire, which will not
have TO be continued long TO do the
work-not long enough Tor heating of
the gun to become a problem
The second job of work comes when
American soldiers are ordered over the
top themselves. Despite all the won
derful refinements in high-explosive
shells, shrapnel and barrage fire, there
has been single soldiers task during
the advance across no mans land for
which the efficient tool was lacking.
While the intensively trained modern
platoon advances behind its own bar
rage equipped with rifles and bombs,
the Hun from his pill box had had the
advantage with his machine gun, and
in that particular moment in the battle
there was nothing with which to an
swer him. The light automatic riff is
exactly the tool for this Job. 1t can
be carried, instead of a rifle, by hun
dreds of men in the advancing squads,
each with his ammunition bearer be-
hind him, and its speed and accuracy
of fire in bursts, while soldiers are
walking, will be sufficient to put ma
chine guns out of action, or at least
drive their operators down into their
trenches during the advance.
Sweeps the Trenches.
The third job for this characteristic
Yankee notion comes when our fellows
have reached the enemy trenches. At
tbat moment, even though but few
arrive, the Browning automatic rifle
bomb under certain conditions. and
multiply the effectiveness of each sol
der who gets across No Mans Land
for the rapidity and accuracy of the
Browning fire is such that it will be
only a matter of seconds to sweep an
enemy trench in both directions.
There are other tactical uses for the
weapon. AS few as a dozen of these
automatic rifles are sufficient to lay
down a temporary barrage at right
angles to a trench front, and even two
of them quickly placed at opposite
ends of a trench front can establish a
cross fire as effective as barrage I'M
der some circumstances. For with
each gun firing along one leg of a let
ter Y meeting and passing somewhere
out in No Mans Land, the chances of
an enemy getting through this V will
be very slim-tfis will be defense
equivalent to frontless rifle fire from
dozens of individual soldiers, and can
be established with the minimum of
exposure.
These are the tactical points of the
new weapon, and one has only to CON
slider it from this viewpoint to under
stand that technical questions such as
have been raised by laymen during
recent discussions of the merits of one
machine gun as against another do not
touch the heart of the military prob
1em-both the design of this gun and
its use as tool in battle are palpably
matters to be left to military men.
Another interesting viewpoint on
both the light and heavy types of
Browning guns can be gained by brief
ly considering the general development
Of machine guns as fighting tools
From the days of sings and stones
and arrows fighting man has sought
ways of delivering enough missiles in
to the ranks of an advancing foe to
stop him. With gunpowder and port
able guns the number of missiles in
creased, and also their deadliness. The
matchbox fired clumsily from a tri-
pod was replaced by smOOth-bOre muZ-
zle-loading guns, and then muzzle-load-
ing rifles, breech-loading rifles capable
of firing shots singly, and finally the
repeating rifle, with a capacity of five
or six shots in rapid succession. Then
came shrapnel, delivering a spray of
bullets over a considerable range, and
also the first machine guns equipped
to fire hundreds of shots in rapid sue
cession, but at first so heavy and
clumsy that they could not be moved
much more quickly than artillery.
Fired From Shoulder and Hip.
These first machine guns are known
as the heavy types and were presently
reduced in weight and developed in
mobility, becoming what are known as
the portable intermediate types of
which the Lewis gun is an example.
Still further lightness and mobility
were wanted. however; something that
would convert an ordinary rifle into
an effective machine gun for brief out
bursts of fire. In other words, the
true type of light machine gun as ex-
empIif1ed first in the French Chauchat
and now in the light Browning. These
two fighting tools are thus far the only
ones of their type. and at present only
the French and American armies are
eouinped TO use them tactically, the