horse drawn transport. Each section of four guns required two wagons for the guns and a third for 32,000 rounds of ammunition. The Guards Division formed its own machine gun support unit, the Guards Machine Gun Regiment. The Cavalry Branch consisted of Machine Gun Squadrons, one per cavalry brigade. The Motor Branch was formed by absorbing the Motor Machine Gun Service and the armoured car squadrons of the recently disbanded Royal Naval Armoured Car Service. It formed several types of units: motor cycle batteries, light armoured motor batteries (LAMB) and light car patrols. As well as motor cycles, other vehicles used included Rolls-Royce and Ford Model T cars. The Heavy Section was formed on 1 May 1916, becoming the Heavy Branch in November of that year. Men of C and D Companies of this branch crewed the first tanks in action at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, during the Battle of the Somme on 15-16 September 1916 and throughout the Autumn. In July 1917, the Heavy Branch separated from the MGC to become the Tank Corps, later called the Royal Tank Regiment. There was also a Canadian Machine Gun Corps. First World War The MGC saw action in all the main theatres of war, including the Western Front in France and Belgium, Sinai and Palestine Campaign, Mesopotamian campaign, Egypt, Salonika, East Africa campaign and Italian front. In its short history, the MGC gained an enviable record for heroism as a front line fighting force. In the latter part of the war, as tactics changed to defence in depth, it commonly served well in advance of the front line. It had a less enviable record for its casualty rate. Some 170,500 officers and men served in the MGC, with 62,049 becoming casualties, including 12,498 killed, earning it the nickname 'the Suicide Club'. While the undeniable bravery and self-sacrifice of the corps stands testament to the men and their regimental esprit de corps it is also a symptom of the fixed belief on the part of senior commanders that machine guns were confined to a marginal if useful role, that of an adjunct to massed rifle fire, ignoring the proven potential of this weapon in the indirect role (in effect rifle-calibre fire employed as ultra-short artillery.) By correctly setting up the same weapons more commonly used in the direct role (over open sights) the delivering of accurate and sustained fire at high elevation