Machine guns counted for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the war
Machine Guns
Most machine guns could shoot out 600 rounds per minute and could be used over a larger distance, about 3000m from the trench. The machine guns could wipe out thousands of men quickly and efficiently but their weight was a large problem as it meant that they could not be carried forward to support the assaulting troops.
However, towards the end of the war, Light Machine guns were being developed so that they could be carried and shot by one man. They either had a circular magazine or bullets were attached to a belt, which could hold 100 or 250 rounds. The British and the Germans used them as they were extremely useful and effective and by the end of the war, the German’s had ten’s of thousands of Light Machine Guns.