MACHINE-GUNNERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3152, 2 August 1917, Page 8

MACHINE-GUNNERS

IN TRAINING AT FEATHERSTON TICKERS'AND LEWIS GUNS In more than one book describing tho fighting in the curlier stages of tho war the writers refer to the machine-gunners as members of the Suicide Club. But to-day the name is a misnomer; the methods of fighting machine-guns havo been altered, and the machine-gunner takes no more risk than tho -infantry, aud considerably less than other of the special arms of the service. When a draft of recruits enters camp in New Zealand, volunteers are called for machine-gun specialists, and -there is always a keen response. Prom these volunteers, likely-looking men are selected, and after being equipped they proceed to Feat'herston Camp, where the maentfie-gun instructors, under Major iTfaser, Chief Instructor, take them in haJid and spend patient weeks \n making tham efficient fighters with that "weapon of surprise and opportunity," the ma-chine-gun. The machine-gun school at Feathereton is situated in the artillery Hnos. At one end is tho harness room, where tho ivu<k>saddlerv is kept. On active service the machine-guns are often transported, with their ammunition—the ammunition being' the larger quantity—by pack teams. PamnUarity with tho packing or the loads has to bo acquired, and tho Xspw Zealand machine-gun specialists arc instructed thoroughly in this work, not forgetting the filling of the leather cylindrical water-bottle which is carried on each pack-saddle to supply extra water for the jackets of the guns. The centre of the school is open at one side, awl has a concrete floor. Here the squads are trained in wet weather, and lectures are given by tne Chief Instructor evary evening. Leading from this room is the gun-room. On wooden horizontal racks rest three Lewis guns automatic rifles they liave been called, on account of their lightness and the ease with which they are operated. Resting on a platform near them are four Maxim »nns; their days of active service with tho squads in training are over since the Vickers guns arrived in numbers, but they are> kept for purposes of instruction and comparison. And it may bo said that, while the more modern guns have displaced tliem, the Maxims are still regarded as good machine-guns. The Vickers- machine guns are at Papawai. There are fifteen of them, and the battle practices which are held "at the Kunmahanga River, near the end of tho periods of training, are now most minressivc and realistic' events, with fifteen Vickers doing their best and the Lewis guns joining in the' mad chorus that sends the bullets humming overhead and splashing in the rivor. There is, of coirrse, much more in these battle nractkes than meets the ciyilinn eye. They are tests of organisation more than of marksmanship, and the scheme in' which the trained gunners work is similar to the schemes which thev will take part in in actual battle.' But there is ono thing which no civilian ever guesses at, as ho listens to tho war-songs of the guns, and that is that every gun and. everv gun-barrel lias its histoTy recorded in official papers, from the time it is landed in New ZeaInnd until it goes upon tho retired list. Every shot that is fired is entered in its history, sheet, every item of repairs is written down and, in short, the gun's history i*. kept as carefully as is that of a soldier. The machine-gun, however, is not the only weapon with Which the machinegunners are armed. The drafts are trained in the use of the new short rifle, sn that they are, first infantryman, and second machine-gunners and probably tho most deadh ot the various arms which go to make an army.