The Washington herald., 1911-04-10
LEETSSHATTER
BATTLE TARGETS
Long Range Firing in Prac-
tice Breaks Record.
GUN POINTERS DISPLAY SKILL
Few Ships VIII Continue Work.
Placed on War Footing-Targets
Firing Is Rigid Test-Aeroplane
Target Practice to Continue.

The battle practices for the battle ships
of the Atlantic. Pacific. and Asiauo
fleets have been completed, with the ex-
Ception of a few which have yet to fire-
the night practice The final scores OF
all vessels have not been received, but
the results of firing show remarkable
accuracy at ranges of 10000 yards and
over.
Tho relative standing Of the competing
vessels cannot he definitely determined
until the scores from the Pacific and
Asiatic fleets are received. The value OF
each hit depends on the range at which
it was fired. the department giving much
more weight to shots fired at the longer
ranges. The average range on this prac-
tice was something more than 10000
yards. Several vessels fired at 12Ooo
yards and over.
The problem for this years firing WASP
such as to put the firing vessels on an
actual war footing. 1t not only gave Il
measure of the Sunnery efficiency of the
competing vessels. but also developed the
skill of division commanders and COM
manding officers in handling their vessels
under actual battle conditions. They had
to choose the proper courses to secure
the most favorable conditions
Targets Arc Elusive.
The ship towing the targets changed
course and speed frequently. SO Gunners
were unable to predict anything more
of the movements of the targets than
would have been the case in actual bat
tie In addition to these, the firing ships
were required TO steam AZ varying speeds
UT to their maximum. and a failure to
keep up the speed throughout all the
firing would have counted as heavily
against the firing, and a breakdown
would have meant a zero score, even
though the guns would have been ca
pable OF excellent shooting
Firing Breaks Record.
The accuracy of the gun pointers and
the skill of the fire control party showed
a remarkable increase over the work of
last year. The twcIve-inch guns made the
greatest percentage of hits. and the num-
Der of hits was far greater than appeared
possible on such a small target area prior
to this practice. 1t is believed that these
unusual results are due largely to the re-
cent training of the fire control parties
against the old battle ship San Marcos.
The problem for night firing was made
as difficult as possible and was so ar
ranged that it would represent a sur
prised attack of five or six dcStrOye-s
against one battle ship. The targets
were SO placed that nothing could be-
known beforehand of their direction or
of the relative speed at which they ap-
parentIy approached the battle ship This
required d most careful organization so
that no matter from whatever direction
the destrOyers appeared to come each
one would be met with well-directed
fire before it could arrive in torpedoinS
range.
Interest was displayed in the expert
ments against aerplane kites and the best
methods for quickly disposinS of aero
planes that might come within the range
Of ships guns. These experiments will
be continued until the fleets have arrived
at definite conclusions as to the best
methods t. be employed