[1] Each battery consisted of 18 motorcycle/sidecar combinations, carrying six Vickers machine guns, ammunition and spare parts, eight motorcycles without sidecars, and two or three cars or trucks.

However, as the war became bogged down in the stalemate of trench warfare, few opportunities arose to exploit the tactical mobility of the MMGS batteries.

The units did perform useful service on occasion, for example during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle (March 1915);[2] and the MMGS received an official acknowledgement from BEF HQ in April 1915 of the "invaluable" work it had rendered in the fighting line.

[5] Early in 1915, following trials (the decision allegedly being taken by Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty), the army settled on the Clyno as its standard machine for MMGS outfits.

[4] Nevertheless, the surviving mobile batteries eventually came into their own during the advances of 1918,[9] as well as in other theatres of the war, notably Palestine, Mesopotamia and East Africa.