Evening star., 1917-09-14
Crews Americanized Throughout.

There are no longer any French Off
GERS or poilus actually serving at the
guns, the crews having been American
lied throughout. At the observation
posts and in the schools of instruction
French officers sit now only in an ad-
visory character. Through various re-
ports received from trained observers,
attaches and other confidential sources
during the last three years the Ameri-
can artillery officers of the Regular
Army have been enabled to keep in
fairly close touch with all the gunnery
development in the world war-suft-
ciently close, in any event, to change
many of their older practices within
the last twelve months, while at the
same time keeping. them abreast the
more modern theories of the various
artillery schools What the American
artillery has now-and never had be-
| fore-is plenty of shells. 1t is easily
| conceived what this means to enthusi-
astice officers and men, whose bat1
| teries are expending within two or
three weeks ten times the number Of
| shells formerly allotted to them for an
| entire year.
| Modern artillery training is maze of
| technical details. a labyrinth of mathe-
| matical problems. a never-ending series
! of intricate puzzles. in which such elu-
| sve and subtle subjects as orientation.
/ triangulation. detection, rift, eleva-
| ton calibration, meteorology, range
| finding and dozen other branches of
| optics and geometry and the general
| application of the concentrated powers
| of destruction are involved.
U. S. Units Get Latest Output of 75s.
| In beginning the fulltilment of its
! contract with Washington. the French
| government has supplied the American
| artillery units with the latest output
| of the famous seventy-fves. which it is
| generally conceded is the finest light
! field piece the world has ever known.
| 1t corresponds with and takes the place
| of the old three-inch gun in the Amer
! lean Army. The French also have sup
niled the Americans with siX-inch how
| itZers-a gun of great power and ac-
! curacy, which corresponds with the
! noted German SO. probably the most
effective weapon in the entire German
The Americans have been quick to
master the details of the French wea-
| pons. and are handling them now as
if they had been friends of many years's
| standing. Under the watchfuI super
vision of a splendid old French major,
who speaks English if it were his
| own tongue. they have taken down and
reassembled the two types of guns
| with which they have been training.
! so that the most minute detail of con-
| struction and the particular use of each
part, no matter how small, has become
thoroughly known. The mastery of
artillery as whole, however, is mat
ter of months rather than weeks, and
there still remains much for even the
first American artillery contingent to
| learn.
Balloons and Airplanes at Work.
| The work Of cooperation with bal
| looms and airplanes has only recently
been started. The airplane service has
attracted many of the brightest young
| officers in the artillery, who are prac-
| ticing now to qualify as observers. The
| American chief Of artillery in France
recently gave each officer Of the lower
grades an opportunity to indicate his
preference in any special branch OF ar
] tillarY. work. 1t ia striking aYideucs