Jim Wilkins wrote:
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.

I say this more a testimony to the skill of the Boers compared to that
of the Brits.

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.

The MG34 or MG42 supported by small arms was integral to the
Blitzkrieg concept, just as they used infantry to support armor, when
we were still doing it the other way around.

In WW1 the US was preparing Pederson sub-gun adapters for the
Springfield for the Spring 1919 offensive.

Fortunately, the war ended before that poor idea had a chance to fail.

In 1898 we had experimented with machine guns in the attacks around
San Juan Hill, but they were too heavy to lead the advance.

Gatling guns were repeaters, not machine guns. The Marines used 6mm
Colt-Browning potato diggers in Cuba, but there were still no medium
machine guns in use then.

David