That is what the magazine cutoff is for. The magazine would hold 5 rounds in reserve and the soldier loaded and fired one round at a time. By the the military thought process of that day, the soldier is not wasting ammunition. Kind of like the automatic, 3 round burst, semi auto selector switch controversy from several years ago.
But to answer your question, yes, that can be done.
Oh, by the way, did you know that the US M1917 held six rounds in the magazine? But that's a story for another day.

BEAR (BDY)