How did the machine gun change the nature of fighting?

Answer 1

The Gatling Gun was similar to the machine gun in that it could kill multipule people fast.

The Gatling Gun was not the first machine gun, but it was the most practical up to that time. Gatling refused to sell them to the Confederate Army, and the Union Army did not want them, although a few were purchased and used. The US Army and other armies bought them after the war. Actually, the Gatling Gun had little impact in battle. Custer has been criticized for refusing a battery of Gatlings, but he did so because the guns were heavy and slow, and had to be mounted on the same carriage used by the artillery for their cannon. Thirty years later in the Russo-Japanese War, cavalry machine guns were available which could easily be packed on the back of a horse, but these came much too late for Custer. It could be said that the Gatling Gun changed warfare because it was the precursor to later machine guns.plus it was the best gun at it's time got the job done with out a problem.

Answer 2

Prior to the machine gun armies often deployed their infantry in massed frontal attacks (assaults/also sometimes called human wave assaults). With the advent of the machine gun, massed frontal infantry attacks (human wave assaults) resulted in mass slaughter...consequently, those tactics had to change.

Answer 3

It made cavalry attacks and bayonet charges obsolete. This led to the development of trench warfare.

Answer 4

Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun was a gas-actuated and air-cooled weapon enabling French infantry to defend trenchlines and added offensive capabilities during assaults .