In order to enable machine-gun sections to be trained in tactics and to co-operate with larger units in war, it is essential that they should be trained under a senior officer during peace. The late Colonel Henderson said of the Volunteers in Mexico: “The ideal of the battle is a combined effort directed by a well-trained leader: as individuals they fought well; as organised bodies capable of manœuvring under fire and of combined effort, they proved to be comparatively worthless.” This is precisely the case of regimental machine guns. It is easy enough to use a section or even a single gun apart from its battery should occasion require, but it is impossible to improvise a battery from a number of separate sections. It is therefore essential before attempting the tactical training of machine guns, much less their tactical use, to organise them in batteries during peace. For this purpose it is suggested that when a battalion is brigaded with others, either for administration or training, the six or eight guns should be formed into one or two batteries, under a selected field officer, who would be solely responsible for their peace training and tactical efficiency, and who would command them on manœuvres and on service. There would be little or no innovation in this, as our regimental signallers are at present trained and commanded on similar lines under the divisional signalling officer. A cavalry brigade under the present organisation (1909) would have one battery of six guns, and an infantry brigade two batteries of four guns each. The batteries of a Division would be commanded by the divisional machine-gun commander. While such organisation would in no way prevent the regimental machine-gun section being used with its own unit as at present, it would ensure a very high standard of tactical training, and enable the Divisional General to have a splendid reserve in his own hands for use at the critical moment of the fight as mobile as cavalry, in fire action more powerful than infantry, occupying the smallest possible front, yet capable of delivering a storm of some 10,000 bullets a minute with the maximum of accuracy and concentration. The tactics in this book are based on the understanding that the machine guns are trained on this system, and that they are mounted on light, adjustable tripods and carried on trained pack-horses with the entire detachment mounted. The failure of machine guns is due to two principal causes: (1) Insufficient training in working the guns. (2) Improper tactical employment.