Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-09-28
DISPUTE ON GuNNERY.
Lively Controversy Between the Army
and Navy.


and Navy.
A dispute about the relative merits
of army and navy. target practice
seems probable as Il result of the atti-
tude of officers of both branches of the
service, says Il Washington special dis
patch to the New York Times.
Commander Sims, director of target
practice for the navy, went to Fort
Monroe some time ago to witness the
work of the coast defense gunnerS. He
prepared 4 report for Acting Secretary
of the Navy Newberry. Some of the
army people who saw the report were
aStonishcd to find Mr.. Sims had gone
into the question of the coast defense
gunIrery in critical way and 1igura-
lively had torn it all to pieces" show
ing how and where the navy gunnels
had made better records.
ITS bad enough" said an army Off
Ger, without rubbing it in. The army
is the unpopular branch of the service,
but it has not been obliged to get out
moving pictures to gain recruits"
The statement made by Commander
Sims is likely not to remain long I'M
answered.
The army believes the navy has per-
fected its system and is fully persuad-
ed that our navy is the finest on earth,
but is confident it has a far better syS-
TEN of gunnery of its own.
Since the war with Spain the army
and navy have made startling adj
Vances in gunuery.
1t was found that at Santiago about
> per cent of the steel shells hit their
marks. That had been sufficient to do
the work, but the officers of the navy
thoughtfully went to work to figure out
why the efficiency of their fire had not
been greater. The men in charge OF
the gun practice set to work to aScer-
tain what could he done. What has
been done seems nothing short of mar
vicious.
Whereas formerly the biggest guns
could be fired about once in five min
uteS, now they can lie fired twice in
one minute, and, whereas they former
~ rarely found the target. now the
twelve and thirteen inch guns make
about 50 per cent of hits. With the
other guns practically no misses are
made.
But what has the army been doing?
''Why, bless you, sir" exclaimed one
of the army officers. the navy shoots
at Il range of 1000 yards. and our
coast defense guns are fired at Il range
up to 5000 yards. If we had any gun
nerS in the army who could not hit the
target every time at 1850 yards we
would run them out of the service or
put them where they would not have
to do with the artillery
THE nayy's system is based on a
sort of guesswOrk. Ours is based on
purely scientific principles. At long
| range their system would prove seri-
| Ously at fault
Its all very we'll for the navy to talk
| about hitting a canvas thirty feet or so
| square at 1000 yards, but at Fort
| Banks the twelve inch guns put six
| shots into space that could have been
| covered nicely by an armor plate and
! did it at G000 yards in the quick time
| of , minutes 40 seconds That would
| have sunk the biggest battleship afioat
The navy's system is based on a sort
! of guesswork. Ours is based on pure
scientific principles. At long range the
nayy's system would prove seriously
at fault.
THE navy makes use of what is call.
cd the 'spotting system An observer
aloft with Il pair of binoculars watch.
eS where the shots strike If the splash
shows that the shot is over the target
the gtmners depress the muZzle of the
guns. If the splash shows that the shot
falls short, the observer orders tho
muzzle raised. The opportunity for err
rors in judgment are great. If that is
what Commander Sims wants the ar
my to adopt. it is hard to see what use
could be made of his system at the
long ranges the army has to shoot at
AS matter of fact. the army aban
doned the spotting system years ago"