During the attack on Wangtai Fort the Japanese used machine guns from the high ridge N.E. of the fort, and thus brought a heavy fire against the Russian interior line. The Japanese invariably brought up their machine guns with the assault and lost no time in placing them in position to hold captured works. This is indeed their true rôle in the assault, as they will seldom be able to support the actual stormers with fire, but once a foothold is gained in a work, they may be invaluable for the purpose of holding it and thus set free the storming party for another advance. CHAPTER VIII EMPLOYMENT IN THE FIELD IN MINOR OPERATIONS SMALL WARS Callwell, in his well-known work on this subject, defines the small war in the following terms: “It comprises the expeditions against savages and semi-civilised races by disciplined soldiers, it comprises campaigns undertaken to suppress rebellions and guerilla warfare in all parts of the world where organised armies are struggling against opponents who will not meet them in the open field, and it thus obviously covers operations very varying in their scope and in their conditions.”[50] The British Empire, “upon which the sun never sets,” is seldom without its small war in some remote part of the globe, and it is safe to affirm that there is never a small war in which the machine gun does not play a prominent part. Wars against savages or semi-civilised peoples differ fundamentally in principles and tactics from war against a civilised enemy, and the tactics adopted will be governed by the object of the expedition and the tactics and arms of the enemy to be dealt with. Callwell says: “The tactics of such opponents differ so greatly in various cases that it is essential that these be taken fully into consideration. The armament of the enemy is also a point of extreme importance.” In dealing with machine-gun tactics in small wars, it is obviously impossible to treat with all the situations that may be met with or to attempt to lay down definite rules for their use under all the varying conditions of country, race, and arms before mentioned. It will therefore be sufficient for our purpose to show how machine guns may be used generally in warfare in uncivilised countries, and then to take a single typical campaign to illustrate their employment. “Against an enemy who fights outside stockades, machine guns are very efficacious; and in any case against all uncivilised people a sudden burst of fire from these is often most paralysing.”[51]