| Rule303 |
| (.416 member) |
| 10/01/17 04:16 PM |
Re: Why is an SMLE so Fast
|
Quote:Quote:Quote:
Wasn't this called the 'mad minuet' back in the day?
Cheerio,
Roy
Not that I am aware of. The mad minute was more a US thing where they did a clearing patrol by firing with every thing they had as fast as they could for a minute. Hoping to clear any enemy from in front of their pits. The British Commonwealth Forces used this method to fend off mass frontal assaults. Firing went on for as long as it was needed. A minute was the benchmark for judging the rate of fire, that is where you might be confusing a mad minute. The recorded record as far as I am aware is 60 rounds on target at 100 yards in one minute, held by a British Warrant officer. How ever there are reported case from the Gallipoli Peninsular of higher rates of fire. Of course the targets were closer and getting closer so plenty of practice and adrenaline may of helped.
I know the ANZAC's at Gallipoli used this method to good effect. I believe all Commonwealth troops were trained in this method of firing the SMLE. Probably the reason the Germans, after their first serious contact with the Tommy's, reported that all the English were using machine guns.
With all due respect, am I seriously to believe that someone was actually counting, with a stopwatch during an action on the Gallipoli Peninsula? Seriously, people were living cheek by jowl with blackened, bloated fly-blown corpses, and bits of fly-blown corpses, day-after-day with all the attendant stench and disease that accompany such conditions yet someone had the presence of mind to conduct a 'mad minute' speed test. Really? Are we being serious about this?
Fair dinkum are you serious? I do not know how they reached the conclusions as reported. As I said, it was reported. Maybe some knew how many rounds they fired and roughly how long it took, maybe, as the troops liked sport, they had a contest-not during battle- to see how many rounds they could get off in a given time. If they did this you can bet there would of been a few bets laid. Could of been a few of the lads waging against each other on how many rounds they could get off during an attack. All speculation, but some how they came up with these figures.
I would also speculate that the number of rounds fired in what ever time, could have been extrapolated up or down, to obtain the rate of fire per minute.