Artillery piece

“ The purpose of the artillery support is to guard the artillery against surprise or attack.
Artillery on the march or in action is ordinarily so placed as to be amply protected by the infantry. Infantry always protects artillery in its neighborhood. ”

“ The first consideration in selecting a position for the artillery is that it shall be able to open fire on an enemy at long range, and thus compel his infantry to assume an extended formation at the greatest possible distance. ”

“ The artillery, it is popularly supposed, suffers little in this war. This is largely true of the heavy; when it comes to the seventy-fives, they are kept close to the actual fracas and used somewhat as machine-guns. Besides, there is in every battery one dangerous post; it is that of officier de liaison, the man who keeps the artillery in close communication with the infantry. ”

“ Our history of ancient artillery would be imperfect without a few words on the modern artillery of metal balls propelled from hollow tubes by the explosive force of gunpowder, which superseded the slings and bows and darts, the catapults and trebuchets and mangonels and battering-rams, which had been used from the beginning of warfare in the world, and also drove out of use the armour, whether of leather, bone, or steel, which failed to pay in security of person against shot and cannon-ball for its weight and encumbrance to the wearer. ”

“ Opportunities have been afforded to note the progress made in armor and artillery, and though the smooth-bore shell is still operative against unarmored vessels, the advantages of the rifled gun under all the circumstances of navy experiences have been admitted, and in the transition through which our naval artillery is now passing we are not embarrassed by the presentation of views antagonistic to the principles on which it has been determined our new artillery is to be constructed. ”

“ The artillery assigned to a field army should be of such mobility, power, variety and number as to insure the success of its purpose and to enable this success to be gained with the minimum of casualties. The latter point must receive careful consideration in studies of organization, for without adequate artillery preparation and support the successes of the most gallant infantry can in a series of actions become little more than pyrrhic victories. ”

“ Positions in the rear of the line are bad for artillery, because they alarm the troops, and offer a double object to the fire of the enemy.
Positions which are not likely to be shifted; but from whence an effect may be produced during the whole of an action, are to be preferred; and in such positions a low breast work of 2 or 3 feet high may be thrown up, to cover the carriages.
Artillery should never fire against artillery, unless the enemy’s troops are covered, and his artillery exposed; or unless your troops suffer more from the fire of his guns, than his troops do from yours. ”

“ My brigade was on the left of the Guards. On the face of the slope immediately in front of the Light Division, the enemy had made a large redoubt protected on each side by artillery on the heights above and on either side, covered on flanks and front by a direct as well as an enfilading fire. This artillery was supported by numerous large masses of troops near their guns, and also by other [86] large masses in rear on the inward slopes of the heights. ”

“ The artillery tunic, trousers and cap are dark green, the piping and shoulder-strap red. The Guard Artillery has black collar and cuffs, red-edged. The engineers are distinguished from artillery by their having silver buttons and appointments instead of gold. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The dividing line, indeed, in the case of the heavier weapons, varies with circumstances; guns of position may remain on their ground while elaborate fortifications grow up around them, or the deficiencies of a field army in artillery may be made good from the matériel, more frequently still from the personnel, of the fortress artillery. Thus it may happen that mobile artillery becomes immobile and vice versa. ”

“ The amount of cavalry will depend upon the topographical features of the country, being in some cases as much as one-fourth of the infantry, and in others as little as one-tenth. The amount of light artillery depends upon the character of the country. There should be at least two guns to every thousand men. The quantity of heavy artillery, or number of siege-batteries, which enter the composition of an army, will depend to a great extent upon the plan of campaign and the probable use for which they may be intended. ”

“ I think that all realised the impossibility of reducing the number of guns in front of the enemy, and one scarcely ever heard a word of grumbling, but it is well that the fact should be placed on record that the artillery practically never got a rest. ”

“ It is not to be inferred that the modern improvements (as they are called) are copied from the more ancient inventions. Two men of different ages, or even of the same age, sometimes fall upon the same identical discovery, without either's borrowing from the other.
The materiel of artillery employed in modern warfare is divided into two general classes: 1st. Siege Artillery, or such as is employed in the attack and defence of places. 2d. Field Artillery, or such as is used in battle, or in the field-operations of an army. ”

“ The reserve of artillery is employed either to reinforce the centre or a wing, and in the defensive is frequently distributed throughout the whole line of battle. In offensive operations, it may be well to concentrate as much fire as possible on the intended point of attack. The mounted artillery either acts in concert with the cavalry, of is used to reinforce that arm; the light-foot acts with the infantry, and the batteries of heavy calibre are distributed along the line, or concentrated on some important point where their fire may be most effectual. ”

“ Is a certain number of pieces of artillery so equipped as to be available for attack or defense, and capable of accompanying cavalry or infantry in all their movements in the field. There are allotted to a field-battery 4 pieces in time of peace and 6 in time of war, and it is divided into mounted artillery, which usually serves with infantry, and horse artillery, which ordinarily serves with cavalry. The main difference between the two consists in the cannoneers of the latter being mounted; in rapid evolutions of the former they are conveyed on the gun-carriages. ”

“ The equipment of the artillery of the guard is probably the completest in the world;—each gun of the horse artillery is followed by three tumbrils of ammunition, and the artillerymen being all mounted and armed, a battery of horse artillery is fitted to act in a double capacity. One of these batteries, of 12 pieces, on the march, with all its accompaniments, takes up fully half-a-mile of road.
The regiments of infantry are of various strength; all are composed of the finest men, in point of strength and military appearance, but they appeared to us rather inadequately officered. ”

“ All guns and howitzers of greater bore, up to the giant 15-inch, were known as Heavy and Siege Artillery.
Regarded from the point of view of mobility, all field guns and that wonderfully useful weapon, the 60-pounder, were horse-drawn, the larger ordnance were tractor-drawn, and the very largest were mounted on railway trains and hauled by steam locomotive.
Finally, as regards tactical utilization, some natures of ordnance were invariably employed for barrage or harassing fire, others for bombardment, others for counter-battery fighting, and yet others for anti-aircraft purposes. ”

“ Apart from neutralizing all enemy artillery likely to engage our troops, our artillery will be employed to keep under fire enemy centres of resistance and selected targets—in front of the advance of the Tanks. Artillery detailed for close targets will work on a prearranged and detailed time-table which will be adjusted to the time-table of the [47] Tank and Infantry advance. ”

“ My personal observations lead me to estimate that the percentage of casualties from artillery wounds has been nearly 50% of the total.
There are very distinct differences in the methods of the French and German field artilleries. The French field artillery is always used in indirect fire and the positions are usually a long distance behind the infantry—from fifteen to twenty-five hundred yards. The emplacements are often in deep wooded valleys. Too close proximity to the infantry is avoided. ”

“ When these arms reached such a degree of excellence that horses and gunners could be shot down at a distance of one thousand yards, the old-fashioned smooth-bore artillery was deprived of its prestige. To retrieve this disadvantage and restore the superiority of artillery over musketry in length of range, methods of rifling cannon for field service became an important study. For assailing distant lines of troops, for opening a battle, for dispersing bodies of cavalry, for shelling intrenchments, for firing over troops from hills in their rear, rifled guns are of invaluable service. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The present organization of the artillery into regiments is liable to obvious objections. The service of artillery is that of batteries, and an organization of batteries into a corps of artillery would be more consistent with the nature of their duties. A large part of the troops now called artillery are, and have been, on duty as infantry, the distinction between the two arms being merely nominal. ”

“ The result of this procedure will be that the artillery of both sides will engage each other’s attention with only a small part of their guns, and concentrate the remainder on the hostile infantry. It is obvious that the infantry will very soon demand of its artillery in definite terms that it should first annihilate the hostile artillery before the infantry can think of continuing the attack. ”

“ The artillery corps will have a total of 18,862 men, of which the coast artillery will have 13, 734, organized into 126 companies of 109 men each; and the field artillery, 4,800 men, organized into 30 batteries of 150 men each. ”

“ If you attack on a wide front, your artillery is bound to leave some of the enemy's machine-guns unharmed. And when you have to mop up the small points that are left, and attack on [Pg 84] a small front, he gets you with his artillery—you get it one way or the other." One took it for granted that the head of this attack had been turned.
Suddenly, out of the mist, came the sound of a few rifle shots. Then bursts of a machine-gun. It could only be the Germans firing on advancing British infantry. ”

“ The prompt use, at the proper moment, of the reserve, may decide the battle. The movements of heavy artillery, therefore, are too slow for the reserve, which should have most of the light pieces. Horse artillery is especially suitable for it. ”

“ The brilliant Field Artillery of the great war would have otherwise become a mere tradition, whereas, under the system adopted, it remained a reality, a model, and a standard. The adoption of the other alternative would have vitally injured the Horse, without much benefit to the Field Artillery ”

“ The word artillery was formerly applied to every implement of war, though since the introduction of musketry it has been used only to designate guns of large calibre drawn by horses, as distinguished from portable fire-arms. Nevertheless, the first specimens of artillery, in something like the modern sense of the word, were of small bore, and the projectiles were the balls used in connection with the crossbow. The French employed artillery of this kind as far back as the battle of Crécy (1346) . ”

“ In the century we have seen the change from the smooth-bore to the rifle and from the ordinary to the repeating rifle. We have seen the modifications of artillery, which are beginning to give an application of the quick-firing principle to field artillery, and the use of high explosive shells, likely to affect by their explosion even those who are near the bursting shell and who are not struck by its fragments. ”

“ It must be left to the imagination to conceive the complexity of the task of keeping this enormous mass of Artillery regularly supplied with its ammunition, of multifarious types and in adequate quantities of each, of allocating to each Brigade and even to each Battery its appropriate task in the general plan, and of advancing the whole organization over half-ruined roads and broken bridges, in order to keep up with the Infantry as the battle moved forward from day to day. ”

“ If the infantry has been severely taxed by marching or fighting, a large part of the outpost may be temporarily formed of cavalry.
Artillery is useful to outposts when its fire can sweep defiles or large open spaces and when it commands positions that might be occupied by hostile artillery. The guns are carefully concealed or protected and are usually withdrawn at night.
Machine guns are useful to command approaches and check sudden advances of the enemy.
The field trains of troops on outpost duty generally join their organizations; if an engagement is probable, they may be held in rear. ”