Artillery gun

“ When the country is flat or the features devoid of natural cover, it will be necessary to provide pits for the machine guns practically in the firing line. If this is carried out with skill, the guns may be perfectly concealed, and protected even from artillery fire. These pits should be made along the whole front and as widely scattered as possible, and when a gun is discovered by the artillery it should immediately be lowered into the pit, out of sight, where it will be perfectly safe, until the artillery directs its fire elsewhere. ”

“ Altogether, artillery service is not a light business in the French Army—it is not in any army, for that matter. Both gunners and drivers must take themselves seriously, and officers of the artillery must take themselves most seriously of all, with the possible exception of engineer officers. The modern rifle is a complicated weapon when compared with the musket of a hundred years ago; but in comparison with the rifle, the big gun of the Army of to-day has advanced in construction and power to an enormously greater extent. ”

“ The modern rifle and machine gun add tenfold to the relative power of the defence as against the attack. This precludes the use of the old methods of attack, and has driven the attack to seek covered entrenchments after every forward rush of at most a few hundred yards.
It has thus become a practical operation to place the heaviest artillery in position close behind the infantry fighting line, not only owing to the mobility afforded by motor traction but also because the old dread of losing the guns before they could be got away no longer exists. ”

“ To begin with, only that portion of the Artillery which is in the strictest sense mobile can participate to any extent in open warfare. The employment of Artillery is, therefore, confined to a few and to the smaller natures of Ordnance, namely, the 18-pounder field-gun, the 41⁄2-inch field howitzer and the 60-pounder, which are all horse drawn and which are capable of being moved off the roads and across all but the most broken country. Heavier guns, from 6-inch upwards, are in practice confined to roads, and are too slow and cumbersome to keep pace with the Infantry. ”

“ In spite of new infantry weapons that forced cannon ever farther to the rear, artillery was to become so deadly that its fire caused over 75 percent of the battlefield casualties in World War I.
Many of the vital changes took place during the latter years of the 1800's, as rifles replaced the smoothbores. Steel came into universal use for gun founding; breech and recoil mechanisms were perfected; smokeless powder and high explosives came into the picture. Hardly less important was the invention of more efficient sighting and laying mechanisms. ”

“ Thus in the past the evolution of artillery has been the monopoly of no one nation; it has been progressed by each in turn; each in turn has attained superiority, and each has contributed something of importance to it, in the day of its greatness.
Two ancient and preventable practices seem to have operated in chief measure to retard the progressive development of a mobile land artillery: first, the custom of setting the trunnions of a gun at an appreciable distance below the horizontal plane of the gun-axis ”

“ Guns and machine guns come into action for the first time by order of the leader.
Para. 502.—As a general principle, fire is to be opened on those portions of the enemy the defeat of which is likely to influence the decision of the fight. Under anything like equal conditions, a duel with the hostile artillery cannot lead to rapid results. But should the hostile artillery expose itself, the opportunity must be seized with rapidity and energy. It may be also necessary to engage hostile artillery in order to draw their fire from the cavalry. ”

“ The first consideration is the concealment of the gun from the enemy’s artillery, which can easily silence them if exposed. It is also necessary that the positions selected should be sufficiently commanding to enable the battery commander to see the attacking infantry during the whole advance, so as to fire only when they are moving, while at the same time he must be able to see the position of the enemy’s trenches and thus direct the fire on any part desired. ”

“ Within effective range, however, machine guns, if concealed, should inflict considerable loss on hostile artillery. Engagements with their lines of skirmishers should be avoided, for the risk of disclosing the position of the guns and the heavy expenditure of ammunition involved will rarely be justified by results. Since the gun is not well adapted for keeping up protracted fire, it may be often expedient to withdraw it from action, move it elsewhere, or hold it in reserve for a more favourable opportunity. ”

“ The seizure of ground likely to be of use to the main body—particularly artillery positions—must be the first consideration of machine guns with the advanced-guard infantry, once the infantry are in action. That they can hold these unsupported is certain. “There never has been and cannot be such a thing as a successful attack on a line of machine guns in a favourable position in action, until the machine guns have been well battered by artillery fire,” says Lieutenant Parker in his book Tactical Organisation and Uses of Machine Guns in the Field. ”

“ THE SHELL GUN The chief function of land artillery in its earlier days was the destruction of material. The huge engines of the ancients were of value in effecting from a safe distance what the tortoise and the battering-ram could only do at close quarters: the breaching of walls and the battering-in of gates, doors and bulwarks. After the invention of gunpowder the use of artillery remained, we have seen, substantially the same. ”

“ Machine guns will often be used to cover the advance of infantry from “long” to “effective” range when the artillery is still occupied in the artillery duel and the infantry first come under effective rifle fire from the enemy. The ease with which they can instantly open and cease fire, concentrate on a particular spot, or sweep a line of trenches, renders them particularly suited for this purpose, and the Japanese constantly used them to keep down the enemy’s rifle fire in this manner during the late war. ”

“ The gun is a remarkable object among the rest of our artillery. Its barrel, immensely long but very slender, has a well-bred, aristocratic look compared with the thick noses of our field-guns. It drives its forty-five pound shell about seven miles, and shoots, I am told, with perfect accuracy. It is an enlarged edition of the beautiful little twelve-pounders which we have hitherto been using, and which exceed the range of our fifteen-pounder field-guns by about a half. Why should naval guns be so vastly superior to land ones? ”

“ The gun’s narrow frontage in action renders it easy to conceal, and when discovered it presents a very small and difficult target to the enemy’s riflemen; on the other hand, when once discovered if it cannot be moved unseen to another position it is liable to suffer a prolonged and concentrated fire from the widely scattered riflemen of the enemy, to which it cannot effectively reply, and which must in time cause loss. Again, its range being limited, it is powerless against artillery except under special circumstances at effective rifle range. ”

“ Machine guns afford a means of developing fire without dismounting men from the squadrons. During the cavalry fight they will usually be massed under one commander, but may be employed in pairs when necessary. They will co-operate with the horse artillery, the great volume of fire which they are able to bring to bear from a narrow front being particularly effective. Their presence with the artillery will often admit of the latter dispensing with any other escort. ”

“ Para. 4.—It is more important to shield machine guns from artillery fire than to obtain a long range for them. Their position, therefore, should be always concealed, and cover from fire should be provided. They are best utilised to sweep with their fire spaces which are particularly exposed, but which the enemy is compelled to cross; to flank salients, cover obstacles, deny the passage of roads and defiles, or to guard the flanks of the position. It will be at times expedient to retain the guns in reserve until the enemy reaches effective ranges. ”

“ Thus artillery development has gone steadily forward. Every military power has striven with the aid of its best engineers, designers and manufacturers to get a stronger gun, either with or without a heavier projectile, but in every case striving for greater power. As a special development and a not too important one, due to its lack of effectiveness in comparison to its cost, we find the now famous long range gun of the Germans, successfully delivered a projectile approximately 9 inches in diameter into Paris punctually every twenty minutes from a point about 75 miles distant. ”

“ There is one important duty which machine guns are able to perform better than any other arm, and that is escorting artillery, but more especially horse artillery. When cavalry are detailed for this purpose they not only deprive squadrons of much-needed men, but can only provide three rifles in action to every four men of the escort, owing to the necessity of providing horse-holders. In addition to this drawback, the horses provide a costly fire-trap for the shells of the enemy’s guns which may go wide of the battery. ”

“ But in view of the facts that if once the advanced guns are submerged in the tide of the enemy’s assault, they will be irrecoverable, and that a modern Q.F. gun, with plenty of ammunition at hand, may use “rapid fire” freely, artillery opinion, as a whole, is in favour of having fewer guns and an abnormal ammunition supply in the forward entrenchments, and the bulk of the artillery (with the ammunition columns at hand) in rear. But the purely passive defensive is usually but a preliminary to an active counter-stroke. ”

“ The form of gun best suited for all purposes has yet to be determined; and we have pointed out these defects in our artillery with the hope that some of the great practical philosophers of the present age may devote themselves to the study of this question. It is nearly allied to the science of bell-making, and a few more fractures of Big Ben will extend our knowledge of the subject, and produce a remedy which lies not very deep below the surface. ”

“ Machine guns are also valuable in purely cavalry engagements, especially when it is possible for them to take the enemy in flank. If this be impossible, they can effectively follow up a success, or cover the retirement of their own cavalry. If some of the machine guns act as escort to the artillery, the cavalry escort can be dispensed with. This will increase the effective strength of the cavalry and also give the artillery a wide choice of position and great security, thus increasing its efficiency. ”

“ The failure of the Americans to produce during the great war a practical breech-loading field-gun is doubtless due to the fact that the field artillery in use at that time answered fully all the requirements then existing. Owing to the nature of the country in which the armies were operating, the range of the 3-inch rifled gun was fully as great as could have been desired; and on the broken and wooded ground which generally formed our field of battle, the smooth-bore Napoleon gun, firing shrapnel and canister, seemed to have reached almost the acme of destructiveness. ”

“ His artillery as it comes into action will frequently offer very suitable targets. The majority of machine guns, however, will be placed in the line of defence (or at least immediately in rear of the sections to which they are allotted) as soon as the direction of the enemy’s attack has been ascertained. This presence in the front line will make it possible to reduce the number of men actually in that line and will thus economise troops. ”

“ As the amount of ammunition to be held in readiness for the opening of the battle averaged 500 rounds per gun, it became necessary to handle a total of about 300,000 rounds of shells and a similar number of cartridges of all calibres, from 31⁄2 to 12 inches, not to mention fuses and primers, or the immense bulk and weight of infantry and machine-gun ammunition, bombs, flares, rockets, and the like, for the supply of all of which the artillery was equally responsible. ”

“ While differing in mechanical features, the field guns of the different European countries are practically of the same type and, though constant effort is being made to improve details, they can be stated as generally satisfactory to their own governments and not liable to any radical changes. The general type of field gun, while capable of fulfilling most of the division artillery missions, must be supplemented by a proper howitzer. There are many instances where the terrain or the lay of the land offers such protection to the infantry that the field gun cannot bring an effective fire. ”

“ So, during 400 years, cannon had changed from the little vases, valuable chiefly for making noise, into the largest caliber weapons ever built, and then from the bombards into smaller, more powerful cannon. The gun of 1600 could throw a shot almost as far as the gun of 1850; not in fire power, but in mobility, organization, and tactics was artillery undeveloped. Because artillery lacked these things, the pike and musket were supreme on the battlefield. ”

“ The greater efficiency of the iron ball, together with an improvement in gunpowder, further encouraged the building of smaller and stronger guns. Before 1500 the siege gun had been the predominant piece. Now forged-iron cannon for field, garrison, and naval service—and later, cast-iron pieces—were steadily developed along with cast-bronze guns, some of which were beautifully ornamented with Renaissance workmanship. The casting of trunnions on the gun made elevation and transportation easier, and the cumbrous beds of the early days gave way to crude artillery carriages with trails and wheels. ”