At the battle of Hei-kow-tai, the Russians at Shen-tan-pu made no less than five determined attacks against the Japanese entrenchments, in which was a machine gun, but were repulsed each time. The machine gun is said to have done great execution, and _one thousand dead Russians were reported to have been found before it_.[30] The 8th Division of the Japanese Army are reported to have made several fine attacks upon Hei-kow-tai, _but were each time repulsed mainly by the fire of the Russian machine guns_.[31] The same report says, “Throughout the campaign in Manchuria the Japanese have suffered severely in attacking those points of the Russian front which have been armed with machine guns,” and proceeds to quote an episode in the operations of the 5th Division at the battle of Mukden, to show to what lengths the Japanese went in order to silence these weapons. It appears that the Japanese were so galled by the fire of four machine guns that the attack was materially affected. They decided to bring up two mountain guns to within 500 yards of these machine guns, to try to destroy them. The mountain guns were brought up behind a wall and fired through two holes bored for the muzzles. Two machine guns were at once destroyed, but so well had the others been concealed that they were able to be withdrawn in safety. Sufficient has been quoted to show that both the Japanese and Russians made the greatest use of machine guns in the defence, and that when employed on sound tactical principles they not only afforded material assistance, but were often the predominant factor. On the other hand, when these principles were neglected or ignored, the machine guns merely wasted ammunition and were impotent to affect the situation. The lesson to be learned is this: _that machine guns are only useful when their tactical handling is thoroughly understood, and then their effect is more decisive than that of any other arm_. CHAPTER VI EMPLOYMENT IN THE FIELD WITH INFANTRY (_contd._) THE RETREAT The reply of the British drummer-boy when asked by the great Napoleon to beat the “Retreat,” is historical, and, following the traditions of the British infantry, the word will not be found in the index of _Infantry Training_. Nevertheless, although British infantry never retreat, they may be called upon to perform that most difficult operation of war--“a retirement in the face of the enemy.”