, Master of Fencing, Harvard R.O.T.C., 1917. It is more
completely described in his "Manual of Bayonet Training."]

Machine Guns.

1. Properties of the machine guns are divided into three general
classes: Mode of action, fire, and inconspicuousness.

(a) THE MODE OF ACTION.--The machine gun acting only by its fire
can prepare an attack or repulse an offensive movement, but it
does not conquer ground. The latter role is almost exclusively
that of infantry which is fitted for crossing all obstacles.
When it will suffice to act by fire, employ the machine gun in
preference to infantry, preserving the latter for the combined
action of movement and fire. By the employment of the machine
gun economize infantry, reserving a more considerable portion
of it for manoeuvre purposes.
(b) FIRE.--Machine gun fire produces a sheath, dense, deep but
narrow. The increase of the width of the sweeping fire gives to
the sheath a greater breadth, but when the density becomes
insufficient, the effect produced is very weak. Machine gun
fire will have its maximum power upon an objective of narrow
front and great depth. With the infantry fighting normally in
thin lines the preceding conditions will generally only be
realized when these lines are taken in the flank. "The fire of
the machine gun parallel to the probable front of the enemy--a
flanking fire--must therefore be the rule." The fire
perpendicular to the front will be employed generally on
certain necessary points of passage as, bridges, roads,
defiles, cuts, roadways, communicating trenches, etc., where
the enemy is generally forced to take a deep formation with a
narrow front, or where he is in massed formation.
(c) INCONSPICUOUSNESS.--By reason of its small strength the machine
gun section can utilize the smallest cover, and can consequently
hide from the enemy; the machine gun therefore, more than the
infantry, has the chance to act by surprise. The opening of the
fire by surprise will be the rule; the machine gun will avoid
revealing itself upon objectives not worth the trouble. Flank
action and surprise are the two conditions to try for under all
circumstances.

2. OFFENSIVE REINFORCEMENT OF A FRONT MOMENTARILY STATIONARY.--The
machine guns assisted by small elements of infantry cover thoroughl