The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-09-12
Men are Taught
to Judge Distance
BY CAPT. H. b. POLLARD.
OF the British Army.
written for the United Press.) }

London. Aug. 15.-tBy Maii.)-
Every British soldier is expected to
be able to judge distance approximate
ly and every non-commissioned Off
Ger and officer is expected to do II
with fair accuracy. Without it he
cannot give his orders correctly
Most people have their own mental
unit OF comparison. Such and such
place is mile away. and they al
ways think of distances in terms of
comparison with that mental picture.
But though to the ordinary man, half
mile or so is close enough reckon
ing. the soldier must be able to esti.
mate distances in units of so yards or
less and he can only teach himself TO
do this by hard practice. II is by
practice that he gets a store of mental
units of comparison which enable him
TO Judge distances In the field.
One of the best ways Of teaching
men distance judging is on route
marches. At halt the men estimate
the distance objects visible ahead
of them along the road. When the
march is resumed these estimates are
checked by pacing the distances. In
this way the men are taught TO take
an interest in distance judging. and
a competitive spirit is. encouraged
among them.
In the same way the ranges OF all
~
fully taken with range finder. and
the men are taught by heart the vari-
Gus distances. Natural objects such
as houses. average sized trees. or
roads where men or traffic move are
preferred 10 merely landscape feat
ures for men retain a mental picture
of such objects best.
ACCURATE RULES HELP.
In addition to the mental picture"
method of estimating ranges there are
certain rule-of-thumb methods. One
of these is the observation of objects
through a service rifle barrel with the
mediately above the butt plate. Thus
standing man completely fills the
diameter of the barrel at 300 yards'
distance. II he occupies one half he
hundred yards he occupied a third.
This system is good for ranges up TO
800 yards. but II requires a good light
to see a dismounted man through the
barrel at this range.
For close ranges the following
table is an accurate guide to a man OF
normal vision: Mouth and eyes OF a
man can be seen at SO yards.
Eyes appear as points at 100 yards
Buttons and details OF uniform can
be seen at 200 yards.
Face can be seen at 800 yards.
Shoulders are square al 400 yards.
Shoulders go bottle-shaped at 500
yards.
j.. Head is invisible at 700 yards.
Head is invisible at 700 lards.
Man looks like a post at 800 yards.
HALFWAY LANDMARKS.
In long distances the best way is
to select an object which appears TO
be half way. TO estimate the distance
10 IL by one or other OF the methods
and then to double the estimate.
Flashes Of guns at night are useful
for range finding. Sound travels
about $50 yards second. A more
accurate computation can be made by
counting II beats to seconds. each
beat between the sight Of the flash
and the noise Of the sound eQualling
100 yards. But here again practice
is required to estimate the beats cor
rectly.
All the foregoing rules are for good
light and level ground. In bad light.
in mist. when looking across valley
or when estimating distance lying
down. the tendency is to over-estimate
distance.
A distinct object will lead to under
estimation and an indIstinct one to
over-estimation.
Practice alone can teach correct
range finding without instruments.
but Il can be learned.
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