A commenter at YouTube answered my query about the song:
it was written by Pipe Major William Laurie of the 8th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Pipe Major Laurie never saw the end of the war but his tune lives on and we the Argyll's still own the pipes that this tune was first played on.
oh and it was first played in late 1916 before the end of the battle.
I have never seen a video of a Maxim being fired - seems slow. Then, somewhere off to the gunners left, we hear a proper machine gun with about twice the rate of fire. Ah, that's better.
@Sixty: I'm not sure what that other weapon is next to the MG 08 -- it sounds too slow to be an MG 42 which is what our guys faced at D-Day. The MG 42 was the deadliest machine gun of WW II.
Oh and, that rate of firing in the WW I gun was the normal rate of firing. That's why you often read the gunfire described as "staccato," or "stuttering."
The British Army did a study using a "laser" Maxim to demonstrate how casualties could have been drastically reduced had the soldiers simply been allowed to run instead of walk, and to carry lighter packs -- basically to be more evasive targets. Damn, I lost that link.
6 comments:
A commenter at YouTube answered my query about the song:
it was written by Pipe Major William Laurie of the 8th Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Pipe Major Laurie never saw the end of the war but his tune lives on and we the Argyll's still own the pipes that this tune was first played on.
oh and it was first played in late 1916 before the end of the battle.
I have never seen a video of a Maxim being fired - seems slow. Then, somewhere off to the gunners left, we hear a proper machine gun with about twice the rate of fire. Ah, that's better.
' - I forgot an apostrophe. No worries, I am sure there are some extra's around somewhere.
@Sixty: I'm not sure what that other weapon is next to the MG 08 -- it sounds too slow to be an MG 42 which is what our guys faced at D-Day. The MG 42 was the deadliest machine gun of WW II.
Oh and, that rate of firing in the WW I gun was the normal rate of firing. That's why you often read the gunfire described as "staccato," or "stuttering."
The British Army did a study using a "laser" Maxim to demonstrate how casualties could have been drastically reduced had the soldiers simply been allowed to run instead of walk, and to carry lighter packs -- basically to be more evasive targets. Damn, I lost that link.
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