John Ellis (1) (1945–)

From the machine gun reading program; compare with Bullets and Bureaucrats, Machine Gun, and Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel. In The Social History of the Machine Gun, author John Ellis has a couple of basic arguments:

1) The machine gun was a tool of imperialists to use against less “civilized” people and of capitalists to use against the proletariat; and
2) European militaries, while accepting the efficiency of the machine gun when used to shoot down African natives never realized it would be equally efficient against European troops, leading to the ghastly carnage of World War One.

Interestingly enough, Ellis points out that once indigenous people, in Africa or elsewhere, got their own machine guns – usually the ubiquitous AK-47 – the colonial powers were defeated. I’ve read an interesting argument (forgive me for not being able to remember where) that bears on that; as long as African natives had an item to trade for European weapons – slaves – imperialists were unable to make any headway against native armies; it was only when the slave trade ended and the natives were left with increasing obsolete and worn-out firearms that colonization took place. I don’t know if I fully buy that but it’s worth investigation.

As far as European military bureaucracy goes, Ellis seems on pretty solid ground. The English and French armies were committed to the infantry charge, with the belief that elan and fighting spirit would overwhelm the enemy and allow the cavalry to break through. It didn’t. The dominance of cavalry on military thinking is emphasized; European observers of the American Civil War and the Russo-Japanese war should have noted that cavalry charges just weren’t effective in the face of rifle fire, but like their horses they had their blinders on.

There seem to be a couple of errors of fact here and there; Ellis gives the impression that the mining town of Ludlow in in West Virginia (it’s in Colorado) and claims that the German army had equipped troops with an automatic rifle in the First World War (I can’t think of anything meeting that description; the closest is some Imperial German Flying Corps observers were briefly equipped with Mexican Mondragón semiautomatic rifles).

Well referenced with endnotes for each chapter, good bibliography, illustrations of machine guns in action.… (mehr)

Interesting reading. Developed on the premise that the Allies won primarily by the shear volume of military armaments thrown against the enemy. Granted leaders had to coordinate all the manpower, training and assets against the enemy. However, the author tends to focus instead on the manufacturing of military assets that won the war. The numbers presented are impressive. Considering all of the challenges war leaders had between a past victorious enemy, internal politics, some poor military leaders and other less-than-positive variables, the author's argument seems plausible. With any reading about WWII, I think it is important to keep a balanced perspective. Learn the other perspectives on how the war was waged before relying on a single book to draw wide-ranging conclusions.… (mehr)