Evening star., 1899-04-13
MODERN FIELD ARTILLERY.
Guns Capable of Firing Eighteen and
4.ss Twenty Shots Minute.

From the Courier des Etats-Unis.
Field artillery has passed through COM
plete evolution during the last few years.
Increase in rapidity of firing has become
an essential condition of the existence of
the modern field piece. All military au-
thorities agree upon the necessity of being
able to produce at a given moment terrible
effects in the shortest possible time. The
difficulty in the problem consisted in avoid
ing a waste of munitions.
Upon the subject Lieut.. Poncet has pub
lished in the Revue d'Artillerie an interest
ing article which has been partially inspired
by the works of Gen. Langlois upon field
artillery. Up to the end of the sixteenth
century little attention had been paid to
rapid firing. The artillery, moreover, was
heavy and clumsy. At the battle of Gran
son, in 1475, according to Meyer, in his
Technology of Firearms the pieces OF
Charles the Bold were charged and pointed
against the Swiss at the beginning of the
combat. The firing began in voHeys, but
the aim was too high, and this caused the
loss of the battle, because there was no
time to recharge the pieces. At that PERIOD
the average artillery fire was about thirty
shots a day for each piece. The heating
of the pieces also proved to be an obstacle
Attempts at increasing the rapidity OF
artillery fire go back as far as the seven
teenth century when the Germans employ
ed the first breech-loading cannon. More
serious results were obtained in the time OF
Frederick II, when the field artillery was
made very much lighter. Up to the end of
the eighteenth century, with the return of
the heavy pieces of artillery of Grebeauval,
as we'll as in the wars of the revolution
and of the empire, the maximum rapidity
of the fire in battle was from one to two
shots a minute for each piece.
Moreover in the time of smooth-bore
guns, the cannonade which preceded the
battle was never intended to crush the en-
emy. 1t covered the deploying of the
troops and presented a chance TO gain time
without serious loss to the enemy. During
the greater portion of the action the artil-
lery fire was almost continuous, but always
extremely slow At the decisive moment,
marked by the employment of shrapnel or
grapeshot, the artillery discharges We're
carried on with extraordinary violence. and
reached a rapidity of two and one-half and
even five shots minute for each piece, as,
for instance, at Wagram and Friedland,
when the batteries opened the breach for
the infantry by their grape and canister
fire.
With rified cannon the action was rarely
decisive at long range. At an ordinary dis
tance the effect produced was satisfactory,
but it was never crushing. For example,
at Sadowa two lines of artillery fought for
five hours without either being knocked
out During the Franco-German war the
rapidity of fire of the French guns reached
one shot a minute with the twelve-pound
pieces and two shots minute with the
three and four-pound pieces, and the same
for shrapnel fire. The rapidity of the Ger
man breech- loading guns was very little
superior to that of the French
Since 1871 the progress of field artillery
has been considerably increased. In the
first advance the range was increased. In
the second the destructive power of the
projectile was developed by "a methodical
fragment alton, and in the third and last
step this same power has been augmented
still more by the general use of the tir
fusant, which extends by 800 to 5000 me-
ters and even more, the crushing effects
of the old shrapnel fire.
It is undeniable that to crush an enemy
1t is only necessary to increase the Of
fensive power of artillery fire, and to do
that the maximum of rapidity is required.
ARTILLERY" says Gen. Langlois, ''by it's
fire ought to be just like an oid-time charge
of cavalry with this difference. that it is
charge that nothing can stop and which
smashes down everything before it, The
means employed to that end consist In di-
minishing the recoil, in accelerating the re-
turn of the piece in battery, and in facili-
tating the pointing, the charging and the
firing of the gun. Thanks to the combina-
ton of these different advantages, the guns
recently made show an increase in rapidity
of firing.
The field piece of 1896 adopted by the
German government is made to fire regu-
larly five shots a minute; but that Is a lin
tied speed to avoid waste. In reality, the