Machine Gun Companies
Of the Provisional Infantry Regiment of 1930
On 29 June 1927, the US Army adopted tables of organization that called for a war-strength infantry regiment that, among other things, possessed thirty-six rifle caliber machine guns of the Browning persuasion. Three years later, the US Army Infantry School began to experiment with a ‘provisional infantry regiment’ that might well be described as an up-gunned version of the earlier organization. To be more precise, the new outfit took delivery of twenty-four additional machine guns.
The establishments of 1927 placed all machine guns in the machine gun companies of infantry battalions. Thus, as each regiment broke down into three battalions, each of the machine gun companies rated a dozen machine guns. The framework for the provisional infantry regiment added four machine guns to each of the battalion machine gun companies. At the same time, it provided, in the form a regimental machine gun company, a home for the twelve remaining weapons of that sort.
