On Jan 3, 6:30*pm, "David R.Birch" wrote:
Wes wrote:

"Only accurate rifles are interesting."- Col. Townsend Whelen

This thinking led us to fight two World Wars with target rifles
instead of battle rifles and to use squads of riflemen supported by
machine guns instead of the more useful unit of machine guns supported
by riflemen.

David

The accurate rifle concept apparently came from the Boer war where an
army of experienced hunters scored hits at half a mile plus on the
British. Previously gunpowder smoke often obscured the enemy too much
for carefully aimed fire.

It isn't really true of WW2, GIs carried a mix of the semiauto Garand,
the assault-rifle-like carbine, scoped Springfields, the BAR and
several 45 Cal submachine guns. Requirements varied rapidly in thick
forest or jungle, across the open fields around a town, and then in
its streets and buildings. The Germans who originated that tactic used
it for defense more than offense, and issued bolt-actions in quantity
until the end.

In WW1 the US was preparing Pederson sub-gun adapters for the
Springfield for the Spring 1919 offensive. In 1898 we had experimented
with machine guns in the attacks around San Juan Hill, but they were
too heavy to lead the advance.
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/thgtl10.txt
(It's tedious before Chapter VI)

jsw