Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-09-24
RELYING ON MACHINE GUNS.
German lnfantryman's Rifle Does Not
Count Any More.

Infantrymen as such, according to q
war correspondent Of the Philadelphia
Ledger, have ceased to exist IN the
German army. This statement is tax
en- from an official Allied report. IL
means that the fighting unit in the
German army Is not longer the rifle
but the machine gun. All the German
forces are being organized. not on the
old basis of the number Of rifles to a
force. but on the basis of machine
guns. Rifles. instead of being the pri-
mary weapon. have been relegated 10
inferior importance.
The term German machine gun thus
used means a light gun which can be
carried by one man, and which Is ope-
rated by two men. The type Is the
Maxim. The Germans retain heavy
machine guns in small units. as we do;
but the new development is to turn the
whole infantry force into a force OF
machine gunners. Not that every two
men have a Maxim, but one Maxim is
given to every eight soldiers. SIX are
equipped with rifles, but for purposes
similar to those for which the artil-
leryman carries a revolver.
War of Machine Guns.
The primary purpose of group OF
eight Is to work a machine gun with a
rifleman to protect the gunners and
take their places IL wounded or killed.
The German command has decided to
fight the war with the machine gun In
stead Of the rifle.
I give these facts to lend weight 10
the opinion that the fald or sAes
on the western front for the American
light Browning gun now being made
in America has vastly grown.
Not only is the Maxim a more eff
cacious weapon, but every one knows
that the Germans are using many more
light Mayims than we are using auto
matte rifles. One thousand German
infantrymen would have under the
present German plan about 125 light
Maxims. One thousand American in
fantrymen have far less than that
number Of automatic rifles in opera
ton in the front line. The Maxim
shoots more bullets than our automat-
ic rifle. The record made in tests OF
the Browning light gun indicates that
it will give us weapon equal to the
German light Maxim.
Well-filled graves scattered about
the tops of the hills between the Marne
and the Vesle tell the story Of how
well the Germans used their machine
gun warfare against the Americans.
Eight out of every ten of our men kill
ed in that sector were victims Of ma
chine guns which the Germans plant
cd along the roads of which they made
shooting galleries.
Foe Fights Defensively.
The fighting recently north Of Sois-
sons is showing that our men have
learned how to take these guns with
less costly methods, but 1t Is safe to
say they will continue to be the most
against the Americans. Examination
Of some thousands of prisoners taken
in the last ten days shows the general
opinion among the Germans that the
war task now Is to fight defensively,
inlicting such severe losses on the AL
lies that they will make terms.
1t might seem a glittering generality
to say that the infantrymen, the man
with n rifle. who has always been re-
garded as epitomizing the fighting
man. Is to pass into history. But un-
qucstionably that is what the Germans
intend to attempt.
The Allies have supremacy Of artil-
lery. Germany counts on supremacy
with machine guns. Now, there is one
way only to oppose artillery fire and
that is with artillery fire. There is
only one way to fight gas and that is
with more gas. II II is trus that one
way to overcome an army of machine
gunners is to have more machine guns,
II seems to be true that the Browning
light machine gun has a great destiny
to fulfill. Washington has already an
nounced a big production plan for
Brownings. a plan with forehought
adopted months ago.