The age-herald., 1900-03-11
HOW ARTILLERY IS AIMED
The Method Used in England in Late
 Years Copied from Germans

From the London News.
 I 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 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 incal- culably improved our artillery practice, de- pends on the firing of at least those two shots-one over, one under. Indeed, as I shall explain presently, a gunner would On reading such reports be 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 so. A battery commander is ex- ceptionhlly lucky if he gets the range by two trials These he does not fire with the deadly time" fuse which makes his shell burst at the point he wishes in the air, but only with "percussion fuse" as it is called-that is to say, with one that makes his sheN burst only when it strikes the ground As l am quite sure from reading the various reports that the deadly efn- ciency of our artillery in its practice as compared with the Boer artillery, despite their much longer range of weapons, has been due to the Boers being ignorant of our methods, it may interest many readers to understand them.
 There is very little difficulty for artillery ito lay their guns accurately in point of di- rection 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 number of infantry bar rels placed -together-so as to deliver by mechanical means a vast volume of infan- try fire, did at Modder Spruit. When a 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 difficult for the observer some thousands of yards away from the object to know whether 1t has been a good shot or quite ineffective one. It has been calculated that the Boers, by an expenditure of Mttle short of 5000 shells on Lady smith, many of the shells be- ing large, heavy and costly, have suc- ceeded in killing eight men, Obviously for war purposes artillery would be very inefficient 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 or pr1CIlce WHICH we WGic Cdl HE Oh.
 In those days we had no practice ground for artillery, 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 1S66 set themselves to improve their practice. They gradually arrived at the fol- lowing method. Though, when a shell bursts in air you can not tell whether it has been fired effectually or quite useessly; you can get certain indications from a 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 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 out clear and the dust behind it, you know that your shell has gone beyond the ob- 5ect.
 Suppose, then, that I estimate the range at 3,200 yards. I wunt to be quite sure of seeing that don't fire over the object be- cause if do. not only will my shot be use- less. but shall have no means of correct