What was the pupose of, and impact, a machine gun in WWI?

Question

I can't find anything really useful.
I just need a quick discription.

Any help would be good, thanks.

Answer 1

Trench Warfare.

The introduction of the Hiram Maxim water-cooled machine gun compelled the closely ranked marching troops to get down under cover. Digging down to protect oneself from the efficient effects of a rapid fire machine gun promoted trench warfare and maintained trench warfare until the Armistice.

WWI was unprecedented in the history of warfare at that time and broke the Napoleonic strategies dominant in European strategic thinking. The Russian cossacks led cavalry charges to no avail against machine gun nests, so the machine gun also made horse back cavalry charges obsolete almost overnight.

But the main impact of the introduction of the machine gun in WWI was trench warfare.

Answer 2

The Machine Guns in the early part of WWI were the Vickers and the Maxim Machine Guns. They were big, water-cooled, tripod-mounted, and heavy. The main use for the early machine guns were to be defensive and keep infantry from taking a position. A single MG will hold up a lot of men. The big impact was now a solder can't attack a position and the start of trench warfare in the first world war. The Governments made light machine guns like the Lewis and others to give the infantry the firepower of the heavy MG but easy to move around. The only problem is that they are air-cooled and you can't fire as long or risk overheating the barrel. The British made the tank to protect the infantry from the MG's bullets and destroy the MG's best partner in death, barbed wire.

Answer 3

The purpose of a machine gun was to allow a two man team to be able to fire as many bullets per minute as an entire Company used to.

Early machine guns were very heavy and cumbersome so were mostly used as defensive weapons. Without any real weapon against this firepower the attackers were very hard pressed to make any progress.

This caused the trench warfare to become a stalemate, with neither side really being able to attack effectively. The development of the tank returned mobility to the battle field and by World War Two trenches did not completely stop a determined attacker any more. Also the development of light machine guns gave the attackers the same level of firepower as the defenders.

Answer 4

a machine gun is usually used to hold the enemy from advancing. Machine gun greatly changed how war is fought now that charges may be destroyed just by a single machine gun.

It also greatly helped people to come up with new innovations like the tank and airplanes to counter it.

Answer 5

i've got examine that it had a extensive effect on the conflict. not have been squaddies taking single pictures from the two a mag or reloading. now they might permit a barage of pictures fly hitting numerous targets in speedy succession. one guy or woman ought to defeat many enemies. a single soldier ought to hold positions with the aid of retaining up a hail of gun fireplace that should basically be maintained until now with the aid of a squad or greater of guys.

Answer 6

the machine gun wasa rapid-fire means of defending a trench against an enemy bonzai charge. instead of firing single-shot rifles, which had to be reloaded and consequently could not bec fired rapidly, allowing an advancing enemy to get closer, the machine gun was loaded with pre-prepared ammo belts and spat withering death against the incoming lines of infantry, halting an attack and cutting down the enemy force.

Answer 7

Purpose; kill people faster, and scare the living.
Impact; Drag the war out for years, because it was so hard to move forward. It may have been the only war were 'defense' was more effective.

Answer 8

The purpose to kill quickly and efficiently. The impact was the implementaton of trench warfare.

Answer 9

the germans killed all the numerous russian troops who came their way...
the russians only had numbers to throw at them so the machine gun helped the germans get rid of the masses