At the Somme, Ypres and other major battles of the First World War, most attacks turned into a complete slaughter. The defensive weapons of the machine gun, artillery and magazine-fed rifle were too powerful for even the most courageous of soldiers. A soldier’s skill or experience did not count when faced with weapons which were the most efficient killing machines known to man.

The British Army had yet to discover the true effectiveness of these weapons. The First World War was the first major war between two industrialised nations and this meant weapons could now be mass-produced, thus contributing to the slaughter. At the beginning of the war, Lord Kitchener felt four machine guns per battalion would be more than adequate. This view was shared by most other countries - apart from Germany which had sixteen per battalion. But lessons were hard won, and by the end of the war the British had eighty per battalion.

What was needed was a weapon that would be immune to the enemy’s defences, and so could deliver that vital breakthrough. During the war each side believed they had found it.

The earliest guns fired only one shot. Slowly, however, they evolved into the magazine rifle which held around eight bullets in each magazine. Although the rifle was useful, many soldiers favoured shovels and hand grenades for attacks, and – for defence - the machine gun.

Machine guns could fire 600 bullets a minute and could kill men faster than any other weapon at an infantryman’s disposal. The British went to war with two types of machine-guns - the Maxim and the Lewis. The Maxim, and later the Vickers, was the staple heavy machine gun (Fig.7). The gun was devastatingly accurate but was not, however, aimed in the normal sense of the word. Instead , it was swung to and fro on its tripod. Because of its immense power it had a tendency to overheat and jam. To counter this it was surrounded by a jacket of cooling water.