
Machine Guns and the Great War
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The machine-gun is one of the iconic weapons of the Great War-indeed of the twentieth century. Yet it is also one of the most misunderstood. During a four-year war that generated unprecedented casualties, the machine-gun stood out as a key weapon. In the process it took on an almost legendary status that persists to the present day. It shaped the tactics of the trenches, while simultaneously evolving in response to the tactical imperatives thrown up by this new form of warfare.
Paul Cornish, in this authoritative and carefully considered study, reconsiders the history of automatic firepower, and he describes in vivid detail its development during the First World War and the far-reaching consequences thereof. He dispels many myths and misconceptions that have grown up around automatic firearms, but also explores their potency as symbols and icons. His clear-sighted reassessment of the phenomenon of the machine-gun will be fascinating reading for students of military history and of the Great War in particular.
"For those wanting a little more in-depth information about the role and development of machine guns during the war, this book offers an excellent, well written and easily accessible account of what became the iconic weapon of the war, mainly due to the massive casualties it was able to inflict ... This really is well worth reading." -Great War Magazine
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Content
- Intro
- Front Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Acknowledgements
- Prologue: Taking Aim
- The machine gun in context
- The scope and limitations of this book
- Chapter 1. A Revolution in Infantry Firepower: 1883-1914
- A triumph of engineering
- A technological leap
- First blood
- The second wave
- Tactics and procurement
- Chapter 2. The Search for Superiority of Fire: 1914-1915
- Machine guns and modernism
- Issue, organization and doctrine
- The BEF: trials and errors
- Ballistics
- A new form of warfare
- The Vickers gun
- Procurement and production
- 1915: evolution
- Chapter 3. The Little Gunners
- A corps d'elite?
- British equipment
- New methods of fire
- British machine guns on the Somme
- The machine gun barrage
- The Germans and French in 1916
- 'Tommy and his Machine Gun'
- Chapter 4. Walking Fire
- The British and the Lewis gun
- The 'Chauchat'
- The German response
- The Bergmann gun
- On the Eastern Front
- American controversy
- The birth of the submachine-gun
- A machine pistol
- Chapter 5. 'Like the Whistle of a Great Wind'
- The set-pieces
- Universal tactical developments
- Third Ypres
- Command and control
- Enter the USA
- Chapter 6. From Triumph to Dissolution
- The MP18 mystery
- Old solutions to new problems
- Mobility
- Vanguards and rearguards
- The AEF in combat
- Towards modern warfare
- The great British machine gun controversy
- Epilogue: The Machine Gun Legacy - Reality and Myth
- The tactical legacy
- The technological legacy
- The machine gun myth
- Notes
- Bibliography
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