Crew of a machine gun (“Schwarzlose”) of the Austro-Hungarian infantry in the field, title page of the Österreichische Illustrierte Zeitung, issue of 16 July 1916

Among all the different branches of weapons of World War One, the machine gun held a prominent position. Thousands and thousands of soldiers were killed in the blaze of gunfire. Yet the full military potential of these automated guns was only to become apparent in the course of the war.