<P> The Germans embraced the machine gun from the outset--in 1904, sixteen units were equipped with the' Maschinengewehr'--and the machine gun crews were the elite infantry units; these units were attached to Jaeger (light infantry) battalions . By 1914, British infantry units were armed with two Vickers machine guns per battalion; the Germans had six per battalion, and the Russians eight . It would not be until 1917 that every infantry unit of the American forces carried at least one machine gun . After 1915, the Maschinengewehr 08 was the standard issue German machine gun; its number "08 / 15" entered the German language as idiomatic for "dead plain". At Gallipoli and in Palestine the Turks provided the infantry, but it was usually Germans who manned the machine guns . </P> <P> The British High Command were less enthusiastic about machine guns, supposedly considering the weapon too "unsporting" and encouraging defensive fighting; and they lagged behind the Germans in adopting it . Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig is quoted as saying in 1915, "The machine gun is a much overrated weapon; two per battalion is more than sufficient". The defensive firepower of the machine gun was exemplified during the first day of the Battle of the Somme when 60,000 British soldiers were rendered casualties, "the great majority lost under withering machine gun fire". In 1915 the Machine Gun Corps was formed to train and provide sufficient heavy machine gun teams . </P> <P> It was the Canadians that made the best practice, pioneering area denial and indirect fire (soon adopted by all Allied armies) under the guidance of former French Army Reserve officer Major General Raymond Brutinel . Minutes before the attack on Vimy Ridge the Canadians thickened the artillery barrage by aiming machine guns indirectly to deliver plunging fire on the Germans . They also significantly increased the number of machine guns per battalion . To match demand, production of the Vickers machine gun was contracted to firms in the United States . By 1917, every company in the British forces were also equipped with four Lewis light machine guns, which significantly enhanced their firepower . </P> <P> The heavy machine gun was a specialist weapon, and in a static trench system was employed in a scientific manner, with carefully calculated fields of fire, so that at a moment's notice an accurate burst could be fired at the enemy's parapet or a break in the wire . Equally it could be used as light artillery in bombarding distant trenches . Heavy machine guns required teams of up to eight men to move them, maintain them, and keep them supplied with ammunition . This made them impractical for offensive manoeuvres, contributing to the stalemate on the Western Front . </P>

The stalemate of trench warfare arose in the west at which site of battle