The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-07-19
By Frederic j. Haskin.


QQ.
Now is the real skill of the artl- |
1ery officer tested He must be able
to tell whether these explosions four
miles away have been over the tar
get or short of it. This might seem
an easy matter, but In point of fact
is very dffsicult Everything depends
UPON correct sensing" as 1t Is teen
nfcally called. The object OF the
game is to succeed in placing some
it, when it viii be easy to hit almost
any point between.
Bracket your target. and Walk
through it," is the way the artillery
officers express it.
When the officer has thus located
the exact range OF his mark by SER
les of experimental shots, he Is ready
to go into fire for effect. All four
guns of the battery are now fred In
Z series OF salvos, the shrapnel burst
ing, If the shots have been well aim
ed. lust above and in front of the
target, SO that they will hurl their
charges of balls directly upon IT.
When the firing is over the COM
mand, .Omcers assemble" Is given.
The militia captains gather about the
regular army officer who is acting as
instructor, and are lectured by him
precisely as an instructor In maine
mates lectures lot of schoolboysI
about a problem on the blackboard.
The good points and the mistakes OF
the problem which has just been
worked out are stated and explained.
Bad work is severely condemned An
officer who makes fundamental err
rors is told that he must learn the
..A-B-C's" of his business before he
can fire any more government am
munition at $40 shot. Really cap
able firing is somewhat mildly
praised.
This battery practice occupies the
greater part of all the time at the
School of Fire. 1t reproduces almost
exactly the condition of troops oper-
ating in the field. It has made COM
petent artillerists out of many mil
itia officers, who. without 1t. would
have known almost nothing about
actual fire.
Three Inch Guns.
The guns used in this practice are
the regular three inch light artillery
of the United States army. Each
battery consists of four guns, with
timber and caisson drawn by six
horses and manned by 133 men, att
peace strength. The artillery of the
United States army also includes
horse batteries. which are still light
er, and six and nine inch howitzers,
which are, of course. much heavier.
But in every army the three inch field
piece, or field piece of approximate
ly that caliber and. capable Of rapid
movement. is the basis of an effec-
tive artillery. If we had sufficient
number of militia three inch light
batteries, one of the most important
parts of an effective fighting force
would be provided for. Hence
the School of Fire all efforts are con-
centrated on developing such batter
les.
The artillery officers of the regular
army say that the European war has
brought out nothing which will cause
a substantial modification of our light
batteries. The German army has
used a great deal of portable heavy
artillery aga nst Notifications, but
there are no heavy Notifications to bel
on this continent, and It'll
is regarded as certain that the Unit
ed States is not going to invade any
other continent. There have also
been reports that automobile artillery
is playing an important part in the
European engagements; but its isl
pointed out by our regular army Of
f1cers that the efficiency of motor ar
tilIery is absolutely dependent upon
the fine roads in Europe. such as do
not exist over any extensive area in
this country. Hence the three inch
light batter drawn by horses re-
mains the backbone of the artillery.