O'reilly, Greg/Shumate. Johnny (Illustr.) Machine-Gun Tactics on the Western Front 1914-18

During the First World War, machine guns made an enormous contribution to combat, both in the ranks of the Entente and the Central Powers, not only during the trench warfare of 1914 to 1917, but also in the more mobile decisive battles of 1918. While light machine guns and automatic rifles were issued in large numbers to the infantry at platoon level, this book focuses on the rapidly evolving tactics of special forces equipped with weapons such as the British and Commonwealth Vickers, the German MG 08 and the French Hotchkiss Mle 1914. In this volume, Greg O'Reilly presents a novel analysis of the machine gun as a decisive weapon on the battlefields of the First World War. While all belligerents recognised the value of the machine gun as a close-range defensive weapon, this study shows how innovators on both sides learned to use concentrated machine gun fire as an effective long-range weapon, skilfully exploiting the terrain. This hard-won expertise was far from evenly distributed among the various armies and, despite its potential to decide battles, was often underestimated at the time. Specially commissioned illustrations and carefully selected archival and contemporary photographs show the weapons used and the innovative machine gun tactics employed on the battlefields of the Western Front.