Monday, May 18, 2020

Machine gun Monday, Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade


The Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade was formed in 1914 as an idea of Canadian resident and recent French immigrant Raymond Brutinel who, seeing the future of warfare, had bought a large shipment of Colt machine guns and was planning to join the French Army. He was convinced to join the Canadian army instead and incorporating his ideas, the brigade was formed.  He purchased eight armoured cars of his own design from the Pennsylvania company, Autocar. Backup and support were provided by 8 trucks, 4 cars, 17 motorcycles and 16 bicycles operated by a 134 man crew.
 When the brigade was organized in September of 1914 it was the first self-sufficient motorized unit in the Allied forces. It could be described as the precursor of the WW2 mechanized method of warfare. 
The success of the brigade led to reorganization in 1916 and the formation of the First Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade as it absorbed other machine gun batteries. 
 Brutinel continued to develop machine gun strategies and by 1918 he had been promoted to Brigadier and was in charge of all aspects of machine gunnery in the Canadian army.
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