The Motorcycle Machine-Gun 



WILL the motorcycle supplant the 

 cavalr>' horse in modern warfare? 

 Our army officers are not ready 

 to give an answer one way or the other 

 at present, but since March 30, 1916, up 

 to which time the motorcycle had been 

 used only for messenger serv'ice in the 

 United States Army, Brigadier-General 

 George Bell, Jr., had been testing the 

 armored machine-gun car to determine 

 whether it may not eventually supplant 

 the cavalry horse. 



After exhaustive tests over every 

 conceivable sort of road, including no 

 road at all, the sidecar attachments 

 were adopted. Single machines carr>'ing 

 two men were found to be useless in deep 

 sand or mud. With sidecars carrying 

 three men in all, all manner of roads 

 were used. At the present time a motor- 

 cycle company is patroling the one 

 hundred and thirty miles of Mexican 

 border between Laska, Texas, and 

 Noria, New Mexico. 



Fort Bliss of a 

 miles down the 

 hours later the 



Compared with cav- 

 alry troop movements 

 the motorcycle has done 

 things which seem al- 

 most incredible. On 

 Memorial Day a report was received at 

 bandit raid fifty-four 

 border. Exacily two 

 motor cycle company, 

 with each machine carrying three sol- 

 diers, was on the spot where the raid was 

 reported to have occurred. 



A few weeks later a raid was reported 

 at Canutillo, eighteen miles from Fort 

 Bliss. The motor cycle company reached 

 this place, ready for action, thirty min- 

 utes after the order was received. The 

 first trip would have taken a troop of 

 cavalry- two days, and the second four 

 hours to make. 



It is said that a machine-gun car and 

 two men are equal to fully one thousand 

 riflemen. Because of its speed army 

 officers are looking upon it with favor. 



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