The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-09-24

is helpless. This contingency has, of
course, been provided for. 1t is done
/ by the detail of a special infantry or
cavalry escort or support for the artil-
lery. If you are that infantry. then
here for YOU falls one of the greatest
! OF obligations. You are never to forget
what yon are there for, and YOU are to
be there within supporting distance not
running off on some side issue on vour
| own hook, no matter how tempting the
| chance. lou are never to leave vour
artillery without support, or suddenly
| YET viii moi have any artillery. Re
, mRmhet that.
Give Him P. P. G. Card.
Again, if you happen to be posted in
actual or threatened battle near artil-
| iery, even though not detailed as its
support, it is yet your duty. and to
your interest, to give it voluntarily,
all You can, your support; and if YOU
| should have at any time to withdraw or
leave your position near it, do not fail
to notify the artillery commander that
you are going This is important be-
tween all troops in line ofFbattle: it is
most so between infantry and artillery.
Aerial Warfare Undeveloped.
The use of artillery against balloons
! and air craft does not as vet much
concern the infantryman. It is a mat
| ter Of interest, however, for him to
know that balloon guns are made to
shoot straight up into the air, by sea
from a fixed mount on shipboard, by
land from a special carriage; or, mount
ed on an automobile, to try to chase
along under and fire up at the air craft.
! Opinion seems to be that none of them
! are effective. on account of the difficulty
of estimating the distances to craft in
the air and of hitting them in their
swift, variable, swallow Ike flight But
the air craft have got to fy high, or
they'll be done for. Light rapid fire
guns and hand bombs can also be car
RED and used from various air craft;
but the whole subject of aerial war
| fare is still in the stage of Imagination,
theory, prophecy and expectation
For an infantryman, here are some
last small things to be borne in mind
| about artillery:
First-It would be well for an in,
fantryman to know the requirements of
an artillery position. II may often hap
pen that ne will know and can direct
| the artillery to it.
Second-ln marching, do not, if
avoidable, tie artillery to the pace of
| infantry. At its slowest gait, artil
lery can make mile per hour better
than infantry, and it is very tiresome
to make less
Third-Before or III action YOU can
probably get the ranges from artillery
near you.
, Fourth-In action. do not think that
/ because the enemy's artillery grows
| silent YOU have necessarily put him out
of business. For this very purpose of
deceiving and surprising you, to save
| his ammunition or to make you think
he has left his position, it is a part of
the hostile artilleryman s stock in trade
today to shut up every little while and
then burst forth again, vomiting hell
of fire upon his enemy.
Finally, of artillery fire there are two
etfects-materia upon the enemy alone,
moral upon both enemy and friend. The
material effect is the absolute damage
done the enemy; the moral, the fear,
the discouragement it causes him, and
the corresponding citation and encour-
| agement it gives our own. The ma
terial effect is often small The great
est for any war was, l believe, for the
Russian japanese War. about seven per
cent of the killed and wounded. The
moral effect is almost always great,
When the Blood Surges.
Guns do not utterly smash things
but when you hear them you can not
help thinking that they are doing so,
and if they are being used by you and
your friends your blood surges with
iov at their sound; if on YOU and your
friends, your feet turn cold. 1t is the
sound of the gun. Except with the most
experienced, it is taken to signify much
more than it really does. With new
troops the effect is enormous for or
against you. 1t may almost he said
to make or spoil them il their first
fights. On January l, 1900, at SAM
Crestobal bridge, in the Philippine Is.
lands. | led regiment of volunteers
in their first fight The first whiz of
the enemv's bullets stopped them; then,
at the boom of our artillery, cheer
broke out and they went at the enemy,
drove him from his trenches and chased
him seven miles without stopping. A
more fortunate initiation no regiment
could ever have had; from that moment
they felt and believed themselves in
vincihle. and they became so. That is
how it works with new troops. Remem-
her it; it may profit you. Nor is this
effect lacking even with experienced
troops In the Island of Sulu, in De-
cember, 1908, I led against savage
Moros, in deep mangle swamp at the
seaside, a battalion of regulars that had
been fighting Moros for a year. We
were at close quarters, going deeper and
deeper into the mud and cropping in the
dense brush, not knowing when or what
, numbers might fall upon and surround
us The situation was tense; many of
Us looked pale, and ] felt distinctly
weak in the knees.
Pom Pom-Pom of Guns.
! suddenly we heard the "pom- pom