Thucydides wrote:Forward observers should become a very important part of the Imperial Army as it evolves, and various forms of non electrical signalling can certainly be done to deliver effective long range fire.
Even without radio and telephone signalling, pre planed artillery fire programs and detailed Infantry/Artillery training and coordination can still make things work. This is, after all, how the Canadian Corps under General Sir Julian Byng and later General Sir Arthur Currie became such a fearsome fighting force in the Great War. (radio was primitive and unreliable, and telephone wires tended to be cut by enemy counter barrages).
you know you are using a lots of hyperbole in your argument, are you aware that to maintain communications during the battle of Vimy Ridge, particularly with the artillery, field units laid over 1,400 kilometres (870 mi) of telegraph and field telephone cabling, normally at a depth of 2.1 metres (7 ft and that there were one gun every 18 meters?. Without electricity and fast means of communication you will not see a rolling barrage anytime soon. Interesting fact that attackers expected 10% casualties from their own artillery fire. And while pre planning artillery programs sound good they are not as effective as you may think without observation and corrections.
Since we are still actually working at Franco Prussian war levels of technology, massive fire plans, creeping barrages and Infantry advancing at the "Vimy Shuffle" behind the wall of shellfire are still a way in the future.
You are absolutely right about that
As a parting point, while it is fairly easy to conceptualize things, ironing out the details and creating a working product takes time and experience. The French developed the idea of an automatic weapon at squad level in 1903, but did not get around to developing a "practical" weapon to deliver this firepower until the introduction of the dreadful "Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG".
Why would you want to keep repeating earlier mistakes if with gentle guiding hand of OWL you could skip them?
The British eventually developed and refined the Lewis Gun as a platoon level weapon, and the BAR made its appearance at the very end of the Great War.
Gas operated weapons which concept is still unknown on Safehold, and BAR is really complicated design to produce.
While I proposed a weapon which is recoil operated.
[]In Canadian service it is known as the C-9; in US service it has been called the "SAW" (Squad Automatic Weapon), or M-249).
Canadian infantry squad or section is only 8 people while ICA is 12 plus corporal ( enough bodies to have a machine gun designed to use the same ammo as rifle ) I don't know if you are aware C9 is not only belt fed but can use a rifle magazine too.
Other factors that led to a 71 year gap between the idea of an automatic weapon at the squad level and the introduction of the Minimi include advances in metallurgy, low cost mass production of gun bodies and parts (including using metal stampings and spot welding), manufacturing and mass production to close tolerances and the adoption of ideas that were tested and "passed muster" over the previous 70 years (such as firing from an open bolt and the "two stage" feed pawl system to feed the belt into the gun).
MG 42 was being made out of stamped metal required considerably less tooling and was much simpler to build, the only issue I see is if they can produce barrel strong enough to withstand the prolonged firing.
While it is true that in this story OWL and Merlin could probably introduce a Gauss gun using micro railgun barrels and miniature homopolar generator to launch 4mm hypervelocity rounds in 3000 rpm bursts (or a plasma rifle in the 40 watt range), the idea is people are supposed to learn how to figure things out for themselves. A long learning curve is included in the deal.
