WW1 - Machine Gun Corps

[Mervyn Mitton]

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_05_2014/post-6209-0-38141800-1399644117.jpgclick

When War started in 1914 , each Battalion had two Maxim Machine Guns - served by an officer

and 14 men. This was increased to four machine guns per Bn. in 1915.

This was found to be quite inadequate to counteract the number of machine guns in use with the

German infantry. After much research it was decided that machine guns should be dealt with by

their own unit - and not spread out under local authority.

The Machine Gun Corps was created on October 14 1915 - it was to consist of Infantry Machine

Gun Companies ; Cavalry Machine Gun Squadrons and Motor Machine Gun Batteries. The old

Maxim Gun - slow in it's firing rate - was changed to the Vicker's .303 Machine Gun. This was to

be in service for at least the next 50/60 years.

The MGC was to continue until disbandment in 1922.

The overall total of Officers and Men who served with-in the Corps is shown as 170,500, during

the seven years of it's existance. From this number 62,049 were shown to have been killed,

injured or, were posted missing. That is nearly a third of their total. Brave men.

Complete sets of buttons are fairly rare for this Unit - I came across these in an old box. They are

for an Officer and have his Cap Badge. I will put them on our Sales Forum at a later date. Mervyn

[Jerry B]

Very nice Mevyn, thanks for the history and for showing these uncommonly seen full set of buttons and OSD badge. I'll keep an eye out for them in the sales section.

[Brian Wolfe]

Another interesting post Mervyn; thanks for the information and sharing the photo with us.

I'm sure several of us will be waiting to add these our collections by way of the Sales Forum.

Regards

Brian

[Tony]

Just in case anyone's interested I have a copy of the diary for 56 Battalion MGC for the first couple of weeks in October 1918, it shows the number of rounds they were firing which would possibly be similar for any MG unit no matter which uniform they wore.

Tony

[Mervyn Mitton]

Tony - they make very interesting reading. The numbers of rounds fired during back-up for troops and on minor

ops. is quite staggering. I don't know how many to a box - but, the number of boxes would have been enormous,

just for one Division. You sometimes have to think that some of the real heroes were the supplies sections.

Thankyou for this glimpse into the past. Mervyn

[Taz]

Tony very interesting!

I think the guns would have used 250 round belts with probably two belts per box (500 cartridges)

Belt size seems the norm, box size can however vary.

Regards Eddie

Edited May 16, 2014 by Taz

[peter monahan]

And, in all but one case it looks as if the 'fire missions', in modern parlance, were i direct fire - harassment and interdiction, on enemy areas, so some chance that no one actually died as a direct result of all that ammunition expended. I read an account recently of one incident in which three MGs were kept firing continuously for 18 hours in a long range, indirect fire, role against a piece of ground hundreds of yards away behind German lines . The expenditure of rounds was in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of rounds - I've forgotten the exact number but it was staggering.

In fact, supply trains and columns supplied ammunition, fodder for the horses and food in that order, I believe. Hospital trains full of wounded were sixth or seventh on the priority list and often spent days on sidings waiting for clear lines. A sign of someone's priorities.