In June of 1911, the French cavalry journal (Revue de Cavalerie) published an article that called for the provision of five Madsen light machine guns to each peleton of cavalry. (At that time, a war-strength cavalry squadron of the French Army broke down into four peletons, each of which consisted of a leader and thirty-two troopers.)
Known only by his initials, the author of this short piece argued that the five Madsen guns could produce a lot more firepower than the ‘less than thirty’ carbines of a dismounted platoon. (The regulations then in force called for one trooper per squad - and thus one man in eight - to hold the horses of his dismounted comrades.)
In addition to this, employing ten men to load and fire the Madsen guns left the lion’s share of the peleton free to remain on horseback and thus, if the situation so permitted, to exploit the fire of the light machine guns with a charge à l’arme blanche.
Marvelous to say, in the course of comparing the weight and rate of fire of Madsen guns against thirty carbines, the author implies that, rather than supplementing the firepower of the carbines of the unit, the light machine guns would replace most of them. (I presume that he presumed the retention of two or so carbines for the arming of sentries.)
The diagram imagines a peleton configured for this mode of employment.
Sources
F. de R. ‘Le Combat à Pied de la Cavalerie et les Armes Automatiques’ (‘Dismounted Cavalry Combat and Automatic Weapons’) Revue de Cavalerie (June 1911) pages 625-630
Ministère de la Guerre. Règlement Provisoire sur les Exercices et les Manoeuvres de la Cavalerie, Tome 2 (Provisional Regulations for the Exercises and Maneuvers of Cavalry, Volume 2) (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1914) pages 33-34
All links will take you to Gallica, the digital branch of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
For Further Reading
Planning and preparing for war; Everyone a Rifleman and crew served weapons support.*
Results of war throughout 20th/21st century; every soldier and marine and ground fighter wants more firepower and gets crew served or explosive weapons , with the notable and praiseworthy marksman or sniper.
Snipers for some time do far more than sniping and call for artillery, air strikes, or observe, or mark targets.
*Support Rifle tactics that remain at heart and mind closing with the bayonet to close quarters combat. This is religion.
Now one can get green troops to do anything once. They won’t keep doing it… one way or another.
Replacing almost all of the cavalry peloton’s rifles with Madsen light machine guns works great, but only so long as the Madsens do.