Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

25th Machine Gun Company 5th MG Battalion, 5th Division

The 21st - 25th Companies were each raised to form the fourth machine gun company for each of the soon to be created Divisional Machine Gun Battalions in early 1918.

As tactical doctrine developed in WW1 amomg the Commonwealth and Dominion armies, ,  Fire Support units (Machine Guns, Morrtars and Artillery) were progressively concentrated and aggregated with control being drawn upwards in the Chain of Command.  This was to maximise the effect of available resources. 

MG Companies and Battalions were equipped with the legendary Vickers Medium Machine Gun. This weapon was served by a crew of three and mounted on a tripod.  It was not easily portable and was generally sited in a prepared (usually dug in) fixed position.  Its direct counterpart on the German side was the Maxim 'Spandau' MG08, a weapon of similar appearance and capability, based on the same parent design - the Maxim.

Both the Vickers and MG08 had a distinctive appearance largely because of a cylindrical water jacket sleeve around the barrel which was designed to cool the barrel when firing at the rapid rate. The MG08 was mounted on a characteristic 'sled' rather than the tripod of the Vickers. They both achieved continuous fire through the provision of ammunition in canvas belts (see photo).

The Vickers was renowned for its reliability and it could maintain blistering rates of fire for extended periods, thanks to its robust design and the fact that it was water-cooled. These weapons were capable of firing at extended ranges, out to 3,000 yards.

They would be sited to provide flanking fire across a defensive front, often covering belts of barbed wire or other obstacles forcing the enemy to attack through their line of fire with devastating results; a tactic known as "enfilade fire". 

It was largely the effect of well-sited German machine guns that caused such devastation among the attacking British and Dominion formations on the first day of the Somme offensive in 1916.  The British "Pals" Battalions at La Boiselle and the Newfoundland Battalion at Beaumont Hamel were cut to ribbons by machine guns over 2km to their flanks that they would not have been able to hear firing at them.

They were often the lynch-pin of defensive positions and thus the object of enemy attempts to neutralise them as a prelude to attack, by mortar, artillery fire or even raids by parties of grenadiers with hand and rifle grenades.

In attack they would be sited to provide indirect 'plunging fire' into enemy positions in depth at long range to prevent enemy reinforcements reaching the objective of the attack, or to disrupt attempts to withdraw, in a manner not dissimilar to artillery.

Some machine gun teams would also be assigned to follow the assaulting formations where they were to establish themselves in order to provide defensive fire across the front of the "limit of exploitation" of the attack as protection against counter attack by the enemy. 

Machine guns, mortars and artillery between them were the dominant influences on the battlefields of the Great War until late in the war when manoeuvre regained importance with the advent of armoured vehicles and ground attack aircraft that could suppress enemy defences.

See the parent entries for the Machine Gun Battalions (from 1918) which were aggregations of Machine Gun Companies originally under command of the 15 x Brigade Headquarters of the AIF:

1st Machine Gun Battalion; (/explore/units/427)  1st 2nd 3rd and 21st Machine Gun Companies.  Allocated to the 1st Division

2nd Machine Gun Battalion (/explore/units/370): 5th 6th 7th and 22nd Machine Gun Companies:  Allocated to the 2nd Division

3rd Machine Gun Battalion (/explore/units/377): 9th 10th 11th and 23rd Machine Gun Companies:  Allocated to the 3rd Division

4th Machine Gun Battalion (/explore/units/516): 4th 12th 13th and 24th Machine Gun Companies:  Allocated to the 4th Division

5th Machine Gun Battalion (/explore/units/375): 8th, 14th, 15th and 25th Machine Gun Companies:  Allocated to the 5th Division

The 'disjointed' numbering is due to the fact that the 1st Division started the War with 4 Brigades.  The 4th Brigade was detached as part of the ANZAC Corps at Gallipoli to conform to British organisation of 3 Brigades per Division.  Back in Egypt when the 'Doubling of the AIF' took place, the 4th  Brigade became the basis of the newly forming 4th Division.  The 8th Brigade originally intended to be part of the 2nd Division, became the basis of the 5th, this disrupting the most logical structure the Australian Army never enjoyed.

Battle/ Campaign / Involvement 

The Machine Gun Battalion's involvemnt if in the fighting of 1918 relfects that of their parent Divisions

German Spring Offensive (/explore/campaigns/80) - includes 

Dernancourt / Ancre Heburterne (/explore/campaigns/35)(4th Division) Morlancourt (3rd Division) 

Villers Bretonneux (/explore/campaigns/23) (13th and 15th Brigades of the 4th and 5th Divisions)

Merris  / Meteren (/explore/campaigns/59) (1st Division)

Peaceful Penetration (/explore/campaigns/31) - all five Divisions

Le Hamel (/explore/campaigns/33)(3rd Division elements of each of the others less the 1st)

Amiens / 8th August (/explore/campaigns/14) - (all five Divisions)

Last Hundred Days (/explore/campaigns/11) - (all five Divisions)

Mont St Quentin / Peronne (/explore/campaigns/15) - (2nd 3rd and 5th Divisions

Breaching the Hindenburg Line (/explore/campaigns/81) - (all five Divisions) 

Montbrehain (/explore/campaigns/128) - 6th Brigade of the 2nd Division

Originally prepared by Steve Larkins July 2013.  Updated Feb 2025 by Steve Larkins

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