Machine Gun in WWI

Machine Gun in WWI

The machine gun appeared as one of the most lethal and key weapons during World War I, and assisted to add to the trench war deadlock that typified much of the 1914-18 conflict. Soldiers venturing over the top out of their trenches to assault the enemy were regularly met by barbed wire and contemptuous machine gun fire, resulting in horrendous casualties. Throughout the centuries, war has always advanced technology, but in World War I technology transformed war as it never had before. Machine guns had been used since the American Civil War (1861-65) but they came into their own in WWI conflict. The new machine guns were capable of firing more than 600 bullets a minute. Their dominance over the more traditional open tactics of the infantry condemned the troops of both sides to take cover in trenches for the rest of the war. Artillery had also seen advances. The Germans introduced Big Bertha, which could fire shells 120km, and both sides had high-explosive shells filled with pellets that were devastating. It became an established tactic to shell the enemy trenches before an offensive. Unfortunately often the shelling simply alerted the enemy to the possibility of an attack.

The idea of a gun that would keep up a continuous stream of fire attracted inventors early in the development of firearms. In 1718 James Puckle invented what he called his Defence Gun. Placed on a tripod it was a large revolver with a cylinder behind its single barrel. Although the cylinder had to be turned manually it could fire 63 shots in seven minutes.

The American Civil War provided an incentive to inventors and Wilson Agar was able to sell 54 of his Coffee Mill guns to the Union Army. The Billinghurst-Requa was also used by Union forces in the war. The gun comprised a wheeled frame carrying 24 rifle barrels. Once the gun was loaded a single percussion cap was placed on a nipple on the iron frame and fired by a hammer, the flash passing through the frame to ignite all 24 cartridges.

In 1861 Richard Jordan Gatling, a trained dentist from North Carolina, produced an effective mechanical gun. The Gatling Gun consisted of six barrels mounted in a revolving frame. The United States Army purchased these guns in 1865 and over the next few years most major armies in Europe purchased the gun. The British Army tested it at Woolwich in 1870, and found that the 0.42 Gatling Gun fired 616 shots in two minutes. Of these, 369 hit their intended targets.

In 1879 the Gardner Machine Gun was demonstrated for the first time. The gun fired 10,000 rounds in 27 minutes. This impressed military leaders from Britain and the following year the British Army purchased the gun. It also adopted the ten-barrel Nordenfelt Machine Gun.

In 1881 the American inventor, Hiram Maxim, visited the Paris Electrical Exhibition. While he was at the exhibition he met a man who told him: "If you wanted to make a lot ...