Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-24
FRENCH FIELD GUNS.
Artillery Arm Of Service Brought to
High Point of Perfection.

Paris Cor. New York Tribune.
The French field artillery Is still consid
cred by the highest technical authorities an
the best In Europe. For the last five years
Germany has been making extraordinary
efforts to bring this important arm OF the
service up to the French standard Mean
while the French parliament, on the recom-
mendation of M. Etienne, minister Of war:
OF Gen. Hagron, commander-in- chief and
OF the supreme war council composed OF
the most eminent generals Of the active
army will almost certainly adopt the meas
ure already under consideration to increase
the Held batteries from four guns as at
present, to six. The expense will be enor-
nous but Is deemed necessary, a means
OF national security, because in November
OF the present year the German field artil-
lery will be fully supplied with the guns of
the new model.
1t is interesting to note that when Ger
many adopted for its field artillery the
model &C. 1896" 1t retained its batteries of
SIX guns: and although Emperor William
new rapid firing. recoilless gun, which is
said to be exactly similar to the French
model. the number Of guns in each battery
remains six. as hitherto. the German au-
thorities deeming that 1t is useless to re-
duce the number to four, as the French did
when they introduced their present model.
The result Is that the French field artillery
While no longer superior in quality to that
Of Germany, would soon be inferior to It in
the number OF guns. A French army CORPS
mobilized for war. comprises two divisions,
OF artillery Of six batteries each. and a
separate corps of artillery Of eleven bat
ter1es, OF which two are horse batteries
that Is to say, those in which the gunners
are mounted on horseback instead of being
seated on the caissons. This gives for each
French army corps ninety-two pieces of
field artillery, while owing to the advan-
tage OF six-gun batteries, a German army
corps would In time Of war have LA pieces
OF field artillery. The new German field
artillery guns Of the 1899 model are capable
Of diSchargtng from twenty to twenty-five
shots minute. while the old model &C.
1862 could be discharged only seven or
eight times a minute.
The technical artillery committee in
France, when the rapid fire. recoilless field
piece was adopted some years ago. accepted
the principle that it would be practically
impossible for a commander of battery
Of rapid-flre guns to direct more than four
pieces, and as this view also carried with 1t
great economical advantages the four-gun
organization was decided upon. Until the
been fully reported upon by French artil-
lery officers there was tendency to in
crease the number Of batteries while still
retaining the organization OF four guns for
each battery. Now that the French au-
thorities have had time fully to weigh the
artillery lessons Of the war In Manchuria
they are Of opinion that battery COM
mander can control and direct the fire OF
six guns in each battery. and consequently
the problem will be solved by simply adding
two additional guns to every battery OF field
artillery In this way it is believed that
the French field artillery. II 1t does not re-
tain its former superiority over that Of Ger
far as the quality and number OF guns are
concerned,