 After the war , the Australian Army moved away from the machine gun battalion concept and no similar units were raised . The machine gun role was subsumed into the support companies of individual infantry battalions . The idea was arguably misunderstood by Australian commanders throughout the war and this may have influenced the decision to move away from the concept . When the units had been established , the intent had been for machine gun battalions to provide highly mobile fire support but this only worked where the principles of open warfare worked . Once the focus of Australian Army combat operations shifted to the Pacific , the machine gun battalions were largely misused , being employed in a static defensive capacity against short and medium range targets or for <unk> tasks , rather than as offensive weapons for long range fire support . The medium machine guns were also largely used in the same manner as light machine guns , such as the Bren . Other reasons identified for the concept 's limited use include distrust of overhead fire by some commanders , a preference for organic fire support over attached sub @-@ units , over @-@ estimating the difficulty of transporting Vickers guns in the jungle and a tendency to ignore targets that could not be seen . The difficulties of target acquisition in dense jungle also contributed . 
