Authored by: Kirstin Winters-Williams
About the Weapon: This machine gun worked by being positioned on a flat tripod, usually requiring a gun crew of 4 to 6 people. This gun was very powerful; the bullets were fed off of a metal strip or a fabric belt. This machine gun fired off about 400-600 rounds per minute! This weapon killed off many people. But this weapon was mostly used for near-sight. Unfortunately, this weapon's bullets were not very accurate the further the range.
The Machine Gun of World War I:
-The most common Machine Gun of World War I was called the Maxim because the Inventor of the gun was Hiram Maxim.
Impact and Consequence of Machine Guns:
-Machine Guns had a great impact on World War I because before they were invented, using rifles in battle was too slow and inconvenient. With rifles, you could only shoot one bullet at a time and then you had to manually load the next bullet. But Machine Guns were built to continuously shoot bullets. The effect it had ultimately was to kill many soldiers
-Sometimes the Maxim would rapidly overheat and could not be operated without the aid of cooling mechanisms. But this gun was also very light, weighing 40-60 kg.
-One machine gun in the year of 1914 was worth as many as 60-100 rifles. So, this gun was very special and useful during World War 1.
This weapon was deadly, especially to the soldiers up on the front line. This weapon hardly ever missed its target up close. So the soldiers on the front line had to be very cautious.
I would say that Machine Guns were useful and important, but I wouldn't say that they had the greatest overall influence on the War. This weapon often overheated, and most of these guns didn't perform as well shooting far out at the enemies.
Connections to Today:
A common Machine Gun today would be a .50 Caliber M2. This type of Machine Gun does not need to be placed on a platform. Machine Guns today are mobile and easier to use in War. Most soldiers have a belt or a strap around their shoulder, where they carry their gun at all times and it has easier access.
-The most common Machine Gun of World War I was called the Maxim because the Inventor of the gun was Hiram Maxim.
Impact and Consequence of Machine Guns:
-Machine Guns had a great impact on World War I because before they were invented, using rifles in battle was too slow and inconvenient. With rifles, you could only shoot one bullet at a time and then you had to manually load the next bullet. But Machine Guns were built to continuously shoot bullets. The effect it had ultimately was to kill many soldiers
-Sometimes the Maxim would rapidly overheat and could not be operated without the aid of cooling mechanisms. But this gun was also very light, weighing 40-60 kg.
-One machine gun in the year of 1914 was worth as many as 60-100 rifles. So, this gun was very special and useful during World War 1.
This weapon was deadly, especially to the soldiers up on the front line. This weapon hardly ever missed its target up close. So the soldiers on the front line had to be very cautious.
I would say that Machine Guns were useful and important, but I wouldn't say that they had the greatest overall influence on the War. This weapon often overheated, and most of these guns didn't perform as well shooting far out at the enemies.
Connections to Today:
A common Machine Gun today would be a .50 Caliber M2. This type of Machine Gun does not need to be placed on a platform. Machine Guns today are mobile and easier to use in War. Most soldiers have a belt or a strap around their shoulder, where they carry their gun at all times and it has easier access.
The image to the left is an example of a Machine Gun used in World War I.
The image above is an example of a more modern day Machine Gun.