American forces used the light and
heavy
machine guns mostly at a few hundred yards or
less, contrary to their design concepts. This was
the nature of the battles our company and platoon
sized forces faced. Not possessing smokeless
powder at the start of the KW, when this MG was
first fired it was equivalent to setting off a
small smoke bomb and shouting "here we
are". These troops would have been
immediately detected, and brought under
counter-fire by the excellent NK mortars.
The North Korean armies used
smokeless powder. They were well supplied with
the Maxim heavy machine guns, with metal
shields, by the USSR, and used them in large
quantities in the Pusan Perimeter battles. The
NK, well trained and largely veterans of
China's civil war, would site these weapons
at long distances to place grazing fire on slopes
we were attacking. Beyond hearing range, using
smokeless powder, sighted in with great
professional accuracy, the first inkling our
troops would have that they were under aimed fire
would be when their comrades' bodies and
faces were suddenly torn and shattered.
