The Rifle at one time was considered the main weapon, offensive as well as defensive.
"The machine gun is a vastly over-rated weapon; two per battalion is more than sufficient." It was Kitchener himself who came up with that one.... and he was right, from his own experience with Gardners, Gatlings, Nordenfeldts. The Maxim Gun was a whole different kettle of fish, one might say and the Lewis was yet another. British troops went into the Great War with TWO MGs per battalion, ended the War with a hundred-plus.... but that ALL came about DURING the Great War.
British Army entered the Great War with a peacetime establishment of artillery and not even enough ammunition to run the guns they already had, (being that they had shot off most of their War Reserve in training because the Government wouldn't give them enough money to buy shells), much less train men on the ones they were having made. Artillery ammo ration as late as the Summer of 1916 was TWO ROUNDS per gun per day, even when supporting a major attack. NOW you know why those casualty-lists are so horridly long.
The whole concept of infantry/artillery/machinegun co-operation only came about during the Great War. Regina Trench was the KEY: that was where the Canadians developed the new techniques, largely between October 1, 1916 and November 13,1916. THESE were the techniques used to TAKE Vimy Ridge; they provided the road-map, so to speak, for the rest of the War.
BIG instance of infantry/artillery/machinegun/armour co-operation was at GAZA, late in the War. Bombardment went on for 4 days and nights, increasing from slow fire to rapid, then the MGs opened up, the Tanks went in, the PBI followed...... and Johnny Turk just wasn't there any more. Sgt. Angus Kellie, 380 Siege Bty, 51 Div Arty, PEF, told me that they unloaded and stacked ammunition for the 100-pdrs for two WEEKS, then shot it all off in 4 days. After that, he hitched his Mark VIII How up to his Holt Tractor and chased Johnny Turk all the way to Jerusalem and then on to Damascus.
THAT was co-operation..... but it did not exist, nor did the technology to create it exist, only three years previously.
BTW, one of the engineers who sorted out the Shell Scandal, and then the Aircraft Production mess, was Clifford Hugh Douglas, the man who also designed SOCIAL CREDIT, the ONLY scientifically-designed monetary system in history. Bears reading up on, one would think.
For the "coming year", read what J.F.C. Fuller put together in his "Plan 1919"; he was ready to unleash the Blitzkrieg and knock Germany out of the War in 2 weeks or less. Only guy who took him seriously was a fellow named Guderian...... who taught it to a guy named Rommel....... twenty years later.
But at the outbeak of the War in 1914, the infantry rifle was considered a very important piece of equipment and so was sighted to do any job demanded of it, including half-mile shots when and as required simply because the machine-guns required did not exist.
Hope his helps.
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...it's fun & good (and hotter ) stuff ! 
....I think the German model was the one eventually adopted by the majority of post-WWII armed forces ? ....
