Germany's initial tactic of specialist machine-gunners and proliferation of Maxims gave them the upper hand in a defensive position ... of machine-guns was the main reason why the German army ...

Approaching enemy lines, I heard German voices. Visibility in the thick fog was about six feet. From the sounds I heard, I calculated that I was twenty yards from an enemy machine gun position.

Popkin, a Vickers gunner with the 24th Machine Gun Company, was in a more plausible position had he fired, as he claimed, when the Baron gave up chasing May and turned back toward the German lines.