The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-21
GETTING THE RANGE.
1t Requires at Least Two Trial shots,
One over and One Under.
From the London News.

seat of war that il is mentioned that from
the artillery the first shot fell short, the
second went over, but that after that the
firing seemed to become deadly. This may
perhaps 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 intellectually improved our artil-
lery practice, depends on the firing of at
least those two shots-one over, one under.
Indeed, as l shall explain presently, a
gunner would on reading such reports be
a little tempted TO think that the battery
commanders had been rather over-anXious
10 think that they had obtained the range
before they had really done so. A battery
commander is exceptionally lucky if he
gets the range by two trial shots. These
he does not fire with the deadly time
fuse which makes mis- shell burst at the
point he wishes 10 the air, but only with
d percussion fuse" as ii is called-that is
to say, with one that makes his shell burst
only when it strikes the ground. AS l am
quite sure, from reading the various re-
ports, that the deadly efficiency of our
artillery in its practice as compared with
the Boer artillery, despite their much long
er range of weapons, has been due TO the
DOtIS DCluS Oh our HlSInOuS, II
may interest many readers to understand
them.
There is very little difficulty for arti-
lery to lay their guns accurately in point
of direction right and left. Our instru-
ments are 50 fine that that can be easily
accomplished. 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
barrels placed together so as to deliver by
mechanical means a vast volume of in
fantry fire, did at Modder Spruit. When
shrapnel shell burst in the air or when
a shell that does not burst is fired into
the middle of a town, it is excessively diff
ncult for the observer some thousands of
yards away from the object to know
whether 1t has been a good shot or
quite ineffective one. 1t has been caIcu-
lated that the Beers, by an expenditure
of little short of 5000 shells on Ladysmith,
many of the shells being large, heavy and
costly, have succeeded in killing eight men.
obviously for war PURPOSES artillery would
DE very Ineffective instrument If that
represented its best work. Yet substan-
TALLY when the great change took place
winch multiplied more than twenty-odd
the effective range of the guns at Water
loo, that was the kind of practice which
we were carrying on.
In those days we had no practice ground
Tor artllIerw such as we have now at Oke-
hampton and in other places. The Ger
mans had practice grounds connected with
every garrison town in the country. There
they, having made a horrible mess of their
artillery work during a war with Austria
IN 1866, set themselves 10 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 effectively or quite uselessly,
you can get certain indications from a shell
winch bursts on the ground, such as en-
able you to know whether it has gone I'M
der or over the object at which YOU aim
Thus The shell raises a certain amount of
dust and smoke, and if you see that the
object is partly obscured by this you may
be pretty sure that your shell has fallen
short. If, on the contrary, you see the
object standing you know that your shell
has gone beyond the object.
Suppose, then, that I estimate the range
at 1920 yards. want 10 be quite sure of
seeing that I don't fire over the object. be-
cause If l do, not only viii my shot be
useless. but l shah have no means of cor
recting 1t. Therefore, at first | fire at
300 and if l find that my shot is short l
fire a second round, say. $500, in order 10
go beyond the object. If I see that my
shot does go over / am satisfied that |
have established what is called "a long
bracket" that is to say, I have found two
ranges 200 yards apart, between which the
object must lie. 1t does not, however, fol-
low THAI it lies exactly midway between
them and it is very probable, in fact, al
most certain that it will be better to get
two shots nearer together, within which
the target must still certainly lie. l there
fore fire another shot to shorten the dis
lance within which l can then know that
the target must be- This we call on the
same principle the other "a short
bracket" l try then to fire a shot actually
close to it l am satisfied that l have the
range"
Even then, however my work is only
half done before I can fire with effect,
Hitherto have not tried at all 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 l want, in order that
the bullets may scatter properly on the
target to make one or two experiments
to insure that the fuse will burst the shell
in front of the troops at which l aim and
burst it neither too high nor too low, too
near nor too far. 1t is only when I have
made all these trial shots that 1 know
that the battery is really ready to bring
an effective fire on the enemy. Day after
day, and almost all day long, our bat
teries at home have been going through
the dreary drudgery that is necessary for
the perfecting of the mechanism of this
down to carry out the practice very per-
fectly at Okehampton, or very imperfect
ly at Shoeburyness, while the irish bat
terles 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, defeat
ed the Beers whenever the conditions ad-
mitted of their getting within range of
them. That is why the Beers have not
been able to make Ladysmith untenable;
while, as Lord Methuen has declared, II
was the fire of our artillery that made the
capture of the Modder position possible
From another point of view II is inter
estng to note that the commander with
his whole battery, in order 20 produce a
decisive result, has, under the excitement
of action and the bewindering effect of
the enemy's fire. to carry out on the field