The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-12-23
HOW ARTILLERY Is AIMED.
The Art Expiained Aprspos OF tine News
Now Arriving from Africa.
fFrom TIE London Nswsl

(From The Lonoon NoWaD
1 notice In many reports from the ssai
Of war that 10 10 mentioned that from
the artillery the first shot fell short. the
second went over. but that after thss the
firing seemed TO become deadly. This
may perhaps be rad By many a. susan-
ing that the first two shots were bad
shots, and that the process Of getting the
correct range was rather slow. The fact
is Just the opposite. The method By
which Of late years. taking example from
the Germans, we have intellectually I'm
proved our artillery practice. depends on
the firing Of at least those two shots-ons
over. one under. Indeed. a. l shall az
plain presently, Q gunner would on road
Ing such reports tie . little tempted to
think that the battery commanders had
been rather over anxious to think that
they had obtained the range before they
had really done 90. A battery command
or IL exceptionally lucky II he gets the
range By two trial shots. These he does
not fire with the deadly "tims' fuse
which makes his shell turst at the point
he wishes In the air, but only with "per-
cussion FUSE" 10 ID 10 oslled-thas Is to
say, with one that makes his shell burst
only when 10 strikes the ground. As !
am quite sure from reading the various
reports that the deadly effioi ENJOY Of our
artillery In Its practice as compared With
the Boer artillery. despite their much
longer range Of weapons. has been due
to the Beers being ignorant OF our meth
DDS, It may interest many readers to un-
dsrstand them.
There is very little diff ,ulty for sitil-
lery to lay their guns accurately In
point Of direction right and left. Our
Instruments ere SO fine that that can Be
easily accomplished. Tbs difficulty Is to
prevent the guns from shooting too
short or too long, as 1t will be observed
that both the Boer artillery and the ina
chine guns" which are practically a
number of infantry barrels placed togeth-
vast volume Of infantry fire, did at Mod
erd Spruit. When shrapnel she'll burst
in the air, or when shell that does not
burst is fired into the middle Of q town,
1t 10 excessively difficult for the observer
some thoufaods Of yards away from the
object to know whether 1t has been a
good shot or quits Ineffective ons. 1t
has been oalcuia.sd that the Beers, By an
Of little short OF 5000 shells
on Lady smith. many of tho ahells being
large, heavy. and costly, have succesdsd
In killing eight men. Obviously for war
purposes artillery would be very In
efficient instrument IL that represented
Its best work. Yet substantially when
the great change took plac) which multi
piled more than twenty fold she effective
range of the guns at Waterloo, that was
the kind Of Iraotics which we were car
ryiug on.
In those days we had no prastics
ground for artillery such az We have now
at Okehainpton and In other places. The
Germans had practice grounds connected
with every garrison town In the country.
There they. having made u horrible mess
of their artillery work during n war with
Austria In 1865. set themselves to I'm
prove their practice. They gradually ar
rived at the following method. Though;
when shsll bursts In air you cannot tell
whether IL has been fired etfectually or
quite useiessiy, you can get csrtAin in
dications from a shell which bursts on
the ground. suoh as enable you to know
whether It has gone under or over the OBJ
jsct ct which You aim. Thus the shell
Laieee y Ctfshiu hinouub Vi uuse anu
smoke, and IL you sse that the object is
partly obfcured by this you may be pref
ty sure that your shell has fallen short
II. on the contrary, You see the object
out clear, and the dust behind
1t, you know that your shell has gone be-
yond the object.
Suppose. then, that 1 estimate the
range at 200 yards want to bs quite
sure of seeing that don't fire over the
object. bee ause II do, not only will my
shot be useless, but shall have no means
OF correcting It. Therefore, at first 1
flro at 300, and II l find that my shot
Is short. IRE a second round, say. 800.
in order to 60 beyond the object II see
that my shot does go over. 1 am satisfied
that / have established what 10 called ~
long Bracket" that Is to say, ! have
found two ranges, 100 yards apart. be-
tween which the object must lie. 1t doss
not, however. follow that 1t lies exactly
midway between them, and It Is very
probable. In fact almost certain. that it
Will be better to get two shots nearer to-
gether within which the target must still
certainly lie. l therefore tire another
shot to shorten the distance within which
can then know that the target must be.
This We call on the same principle as
the other, "a short bracket" l try then
to fire shot actually at the object. and
II seem to get very CLOSE Of II, am sat
isfisd that have "the range"
Even then, hswever. my work Is only
half done before can fire with eject.
Hitherto have not tried at all to get the
correct "sstting" of the fuse which will
make tbs she'll burst In air at the right
point. IL was necessary first to make
sure Of the range, but want. In order
that the bullets may scatter properly on
the target, to make one or two expert
ments to insure chat the fuse will burst
the she'll In front Of the troops at which
aim and burst IL neither too high nor
too low, too near nor too far. IL Is only
when have made all these trials shots
that know that the battery IL really
ready to bring an effective fire on the en-
emy. Day after day, and almost all day
long, our batteries at home rave been GO
ing through the dresry drudgery that Ia
necessary for the perfeoting Of the mech
auism Of this system. Year after year
they have gone down to carry out this
practice very perfectly ~ Shosburyness,
while the Irish batteries have had their
own practice grounds, and the batteries
in the north theirs.
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