Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-12-25
HOW ARTILLERY IS AIMED.
The Art Explained AprOpos of News
Now Arriving From Africa.

HOW ARTILLERY IS AIMED.
The Art Explained AprOpos of News
Now Arriving From Africa.
From the London News
| notice in many reports from the seat Of
| war that it Is mentioned that from the ar
| tillery the first shot fell short, the second
| went over, but that after that the firing
| seemed to become deadly. This may per-
| haps be read by many as meaning that the
| first two shots We're 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 in
| calculably improved our artillery practice,
depends on the firing of at least those two
| shots-one over, one under. Indeed, as I
| shall explain presently. gunner would
| reading such reports be little tempted to
| think that the battery commanders had
been rather overanxious to think that they
| had obtained the range before they had
| really done so. A battery commander is ex
| ceptiona1ly lucky If he gets the range by
| two trial shots. These he does not fire with
! the deadly time fuze which makes his
, shell burst at the point he wishes in the
| air, but only with a percussion fuse. as
| it is calied-that is to say. with one that
makes his shell burst only when 1t strikes
| the ground. As am quite sure from read
| ing the various reports that the deadly eff
| cheney 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
| methods. it may interest many readers 10
understand them
| There is very little difficulty for artillery
| to lay their guns accurately in point of
direction right and left. Our instruments
are SO fine that that can be easily accom-
| plished. The difficulty is to prevent the
| guns from shooting too short or too long,
/ as it will be observed that both the Boer
| artillery and the machine guns" which
are practically a number of infantry bar
| rels placed together so as to deliver by me-
| chanical means vast volume Of infantry
| fire. did at Modder SpruS. When a shrap-
| mel shell burst in the air, or when shell
| that does not burst is fired into the mid
| die of town, it is excessively difficult for
/ the observer some thousands of yards
| away from the object to know whether it
| has been good shot a quite ineffective
| one. 1t has been calculated that the Beers,
/ by expenditure of little short of 5000
| shells on Ladysmith, many of the shells be-
| ing large, heavy and costly, have succeed
| ed in killing eight men. Obviously for war
| purposes artillery would be a very ineffi
| cient instrument if that represented its
| best work. Yet substantially when the
| great change took place which multiplied
| more than twenty-fold the effective range
| of the guns at Waterloo, that was the kind
| of practice which we were carrying on.
| In those days we had no practice ground
1
| hampton and in other places. The Ger
| mans had practice grounds connected with
| every garrison town in the country. There
| they, having made horrible mess Of their
| artillery work during a war with Austria
! in 1866, set themselves to improve their
| practice. They gradually arrived at the
| following method. Though, when a shell
| bursts in air you cannot tell whether it has
| been fired effectually quite uselessly, you
can get certain indications from shell
| which bursts on the ground, such as enable
you to know whether 1t has gone under or
| over the object at which you aim. Thus
the shell raises a certain amount of dust
| and smoke. and if you that the OBJ
| ject is partly obscured by this you may
be pretty sure that your shell has fallen
short. If. on the contrary, you see the OBJ
I ject standing out clear, and the dust be-
| hind it, you know that your shell has gone
beyond the object.
| Suppose, then, that l estimate the range
at 300 yards. l want to be quite sure of
| seeing that L don't fire over the object, be-
| cause if l do, not only will my shot be use
| less, but | shall have no means of correct
| ing it. Therefore, at first 1 fire at 800,
| and if 1 find thai my shot is short. / fire
a second round, say, $500, in order to go
| beyond the object. If l see that my shot
| does go over, am satisfied that have es-
| tahished what is called "a long bracket;
| that is to say, have found two ranges, 300
yards apart, between which the object must
\ lie. 1t does not, however, follow that it 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. 1 therefore fire 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 If 1 seem to get
\ very close to it, am satisfied that l have
1.-The range.
Even then, however, my work is only half
done before l can fire with effect. Hitherto
| | have not tried at ell to get the correct
setting" of the fuse which will make the
| shell burst in air at the right point 1t 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
! OF two experiments to insure that the fuse
| will burst the shell in front of the troops
at which I aim and burst it neither too
high nor too low, too near nor too far. 1t
| is only when / have made all these trial
shots that know that the battery is real
iy ready to bring an effective FIRE on the
enemy Day after day. and almost all day
long, our batteries at home have been going
through the dreary drudgery that is neces-
! sary for the perfecting of the mechanism of
this system Year after year they have
| gone down to carry out the practice very
perfectly at Okehampton, or very imper-
fectly at shoeburyness, while the Irish
batteries have had their own practice
grounds, and the batteries in the north
theirs.
That is why, despite the fact that as this
campaign has shown, though it was well
known before, they require a new gun, they
have yet, gun for gun, defeated the Beers
whenever the conditions admitted of their
getting within range of them. That is why
the. Beers have not been able to make
Ladysmith untenable; WHILE as Lord Me-
thuen has declared, 1t was the fire of our
artillery that made the capture of the Mod
der position possible. From another point
of view, 1t is interesting to note that the
commander with his whole battery, in or
der to produce decisive result, has nm
der the excitement of action and the bewii-
dering effect of the enemy's fire. to carry
out on the field of battle the trained nab;t
of the practice ground. 1t is in this respect
that our artillery has proved itself 50 SUI
perfor to the Beers, despite the heavy ma