THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
425 
for the Prussian staff to decry their powers, and to disabuse the minds 
of their men of an exaggerated fear regarding the destructive effects of 
the mitrailleurs, which had been much vaunted by the French. 
The experience, however, which was gained during the war of 1870, 
and careful official investigations made since that time by the War 
Departments of various powers, have cleared up the subject very much, 
and enable us now to form a fair estimate as to the value of machine 
guns, and to see more plainly the uses to which they should be applied. 
We may say with some certainty that their employment will, in 
general, be restricted to the following 
I. For Field Service. —An addition of a light nature in small num¬ 
bers to the reserve artillery of an army, for increasing the fire of 
infantry at critical moments,* and for the defence of bridges, villages, 
field entrenchments, &c. 
II. For Fortresses or Siege Works.—hi caponnieres, tetes du pont, 
breaches, and flank defence generally, and for use in advanced 
trenches. 
III. For Naval Purposes. —Firing from ships' tops, and in boat 
operations. 
To understand how these conclusions have been arrived at, we must 
take in detail the several modes of employment possible. 
I.—Employment in the Field. 
In the field, mitrailleurs would have to oppose either artillery, cavalry, 
or infantry. 
To be effective against field guns they must have long range, be 
comparatively heavy, and carry such a weight of ammunition that the 
number of horses required would be almost the same as that used with 
a field gun; while for many purposes they would be quite powerless— 
for instance, against walls, stockades, entrenchments, or cover of almost 
any kind. 
Against the horses and men of artillery exposed within their range 
such mitrailleurs might indeed be formidable ; but that would not make 
up for their impotence in shell fire for destroying villages or materiel, 
blowing up ammunition wagons, driving troops out of cover, &c. 
General Walker, who accompanied the Prussians, states that “the 
French mitrailleurs were invariably driven off the field the moment they 
showed themselves so that the Prussian artillery could get at them." 
(The best range for the Prussian guns was 1800 yds.) 
Captain Gurdon, R.N., who was with the French army of the Loire, 
says that, when opposed to artillery, mitrailleurs always had the worst of 
it. He only saw one case when they had any effect upon the former— 
“at the battle of St. Jean-sur-Eroe, where three Prussian 12-prs. came 
down a road and opened fire upon us at a distance of 2400 yds. We 
As batteries of position would be used to strengthen fire of field guns. 
