Battery (artillery)

“ A battery in the field should never be [21] discovered by the enemy till the very moment it is to open. The guns may be masked by being a little retired; or by being covered by troops, particularly cavalry.
To enable the commanding officer of artillery to choose the proper positions for his field batteries, he should of course be made acquainted, with the effect intended to be produced; with the troops that are to be supported; and with the points that are to be attacked; that he may place his artillery so as to support, but not incommode the infantry ”

“ When possible to avoid it, a field battery should not be opposed to a battery of position, or, generally, a battery of light guns to one of heavy guns. For even when the numbers of pieces on the two sides are equal, the enemy's superiority in range and in weight of metal would give him such advantage in the duel that our own battery would soon be destroyed or silenced. ”

“ In this case artillery must not fear to come into action in the open, although in this situation a battery usually forfeits its freedom of manoeuvre.”
Even the introduction of shielded guns will not affect this loss of mobility, for batteries which are brought to within effective rifle range of the defence must expect to lose a considerable proportion of their horses. ”

“ By these delicate instruments we could locate the exact position of an unseen enemy battery. Following that location, the battery would immediately be visited with a concentrated downpour of hot steel intended to wipe it out of existence. The enemy did as much for us, so that in the artillery, when the men were not actually manning the guns in action, they were digging gun pits for reserve positions which they could occupy if the enemy happened to get the proper range of the old positions. In this casual counter battery work our artillery adopted a system by which many lives were saved. ”

“ About five o'clock a horseman was seen to ride over the hill from which the rebel battery had shelled us in the morning, followed almost immediately by the teams of a battery, and rapidly making the left about, drop their pieces into battery, but before they had fired a shot, twenty-nine projectiles of various kinds and sizes were flying towards that unfortunate battery, creating, a few seconds later, the greatest consternation, as they exploded among the pieces and limbers ”

“ Owing to smokeless powder, batteries of artillery are more exposed to the fire both of the enemy's artillery and of sharpshooters. A hundred sharpshooters at a distance of half a mile can, it is estimated, put a battery out of action in less than two minutes and a half. Let it be added that the high explosives used by modern artillery are extremely liable to explode, owing to being struck by the enemy, or owing to concussion caused by an enemy's shell, or to mishandling. ”

“ When in order of battery, the pieces are formed in the same way as for battle, except that the guns are directed towards the enemy and prepared for firing.
The movements and manœuvres of foot artillery correspond with those of infantry, and of mounted artillery with those of cavalry, a battery being regarded as a battalion or squadron, of which the pieces form the platoons. Mounted batteries can seldom move with greater rapidity than the trot, except in cases of emergency, and even then the gallop can be kept up only for a very short time ”

“ The battery had taken position in line from column under an infantry fire from an entire division at ranges of from 200 to 400 yards. Shells from the rebel artillery were also crashing through our line. We opened fire at first with shell. This shell fire proved so effective that a rebel assault on the battery was ordered. A division of Price’s army rushed to the charge. The battery changed from shell to double charges of canister. The effect of the canister was [Pg 9] terribly increased because of the rebel method of charging in masses. ”

“ Sometimes the large magazines are made either to the right or left of the battery, in order to deceive the enemy; they are generally built 5 feet under ground; the sides and roof must be well secured with boards, and covered with earth, clay, or something of a similar substance, to prevent the powder from being fired: they are guarded by centinels. The balls are piled in readiness beside the merlins between the embrasures.
The officers of the artillery ought always to construct their own batteries and platforms, and not the engineers, as is practised in the English service ”

“ The first Russian unit to which I was attached, a battery of horse artillery, was practically rendered non-existent; and other batteries were lost on the actual field of battle, every man being shot down, and the guns smashed, or taken by the enemy. Many Russian batteries met such a fate as that described, as they were often subjected to the fire of guns much heavier than their own; and, indeed, it is [189] useless to withhold the fact that the German artillery is altogether superior to that of the Russians. ”

“ The machine guns must not be re-horsed until after the battery has limbered up and moved off, as they are then most vulnerable. They should endeavour to come into action before the battery unlimbers—though this will seldom be possible with horse artillery. ”

“ An experience I had, led me to believe that the trouble was more with the personnel than the material. In each artillery regiment in trench warfare, there was one battery designated to fire upon a sudden call from the airplane. This battery was known as the fugitive 108target battery and the wireless crew was supposed to be constantly on duty from daybreak until nightfall so that when an airplane called, the designated battery could be immediately notified and the adjustment of artillery fire undertaken at once. ”

“ For the bright day, with enemy aeroplanes overhead constantly, exposed the batteries to discovery, particularly when they galloped up an open hillside into position. A blanket covering two still figures just beside our path, several others farther away without such cover, and white bandages gleaming on the bodies of some of the battalion of engineers who, with pontoon bridges, were waiting in readiness in the woods below, were evidence that the shells which whirred over and burst a ways beyond us were not always so far from their mark. The battery went up the hill one carriage at a time. ”

“ Every man was perfectly familiar with [Pg 22] his duty, and determined to do it. Guns were never served faster than were these; round after round of canister is thrown into this mass of approaching rebels; and it is thrown in such a manner that it is most effective, and more than the enemy can stand, and they fall back to the brook.
While Battery D had been thus engaged, battery after battery had been placed in position by the enemy, and these were now filling the air with bursting shell and case-shot; but our position being so far down the hill about all of their shots went over us. ”

“ It is almost axiomatic that artillery shall give no signs of life while an enemy’s aëroplane is above, and as the result of this, one well-recognized method of temporarily silencing an enemy’s battery is to keep an aëroplane flying over its neighborhood. Volunteer observers are frequently disguised and sent forward [Pg 320] to hunt for a place from which they can observe the hostile trenches of artillery and thus direct and correct the fire of their own batteries. ”

“ Artillery
3. If the enemy’s guns have, in some instances, the advantage of ours in range, we have the advantage of theirs in mobility, and we should make use of them by not remaining in position the precise distance of which from the enemy’s batteries has evidently been fixed beforehand. Moreover, it has been proved that the Boers’ fire is far less accurate at unknown distances. In taking up positions, compact battery formations should be avoided, the guns should be opened out, or it may be desirable to advance by sections or batteries. ”

“ Work had been dropped, after a couple of days, on the position begun by Battery B some distance in front of the one we occupied. Gun drill and instruction in various phases of the battery’s work was the sole occupation of the men. Only once did the battery fire. At 1:30 a. m., June 5, the gun crews were hurriedly aroused, and fired for about an hour, in response to a heavy enemy barrage, to which all guns in the sector replied. ”

“ The older method of placing the wagon at some distance behind the gun is still occasionally used, especially in the case of unshielded equipments. No horses are allowed, in any case, to be actually with the line of guns. According to the British Field Artillery Training of 1906, a battery in action would be thus distributed: first, the “fighting battery” consisting of the six guns, each with its wagon alongside, and the limbers of the two flank guns ”

“ In the British service the term is applied to field, horse, field-howitzer, heavy and mountain artillery units. “Battery” is also used to imply a mass of guns in action, especially in connexion with the military history of the 18th and early 19th centuries. In siegecraft, a battery is simply an emplacement for guns, howitzers or mortars, constructed for the purposes of the siege, and protected as a rule by a parapet. In fortification the term is applied similarly to permanent or semi-permanent emplacements for the artillery of the defence. ”

“ Artillery. The Field Artillery consists of 19 brigades (one to each Army Corps) , each of 2 regiments. One of these regiments has 12, the other 11 batteries, including between them 3 batteries of Horse Artillery, so that each Army Corps has 23 batteries. Each battery has 6 guns, fully-horsed even in peace-time. Besides these, some mountain batteries are going to be formed, but only in case of need.
The Artillery is armed with an excellent (3·53-in.) gun, on the De Bange system. It was entirely re-armed with these after the 1870–71 campaign, and at an enormous cost. ”

“ This news of death in our own battery—the first enlisted men lost in action—caused a heavy sorrow and grief that could not be shaken off, among the men of the battery, whose friendship by this time had become very close.
On the night of August 10, the battery moved back to a spot within a few hundred feet of that it had occupied before making the last advance. The caissons drivers made trip after trip to bring back all the ammunition, under frequent shell fire on the road. Horse after horse, weakened to exhaustion, dropped in harness, and had to be taken out of the hitch. ”

“ At about 11 o'clock the battery formed in a new position on an elevated piece of ground, and whenever the rebels undertook to cross the field in front of them the artillery raked them down with frightful slaughter. Several times the rebels placed batteries In the timber at the farther end of the field, but in each instance the guns of the First battery dislodged them before they could get into position. For hours the rebels vainly endeavored to break the lines of the Union forces, but in every instance they were repulsed with frightful loss, the canister mowing them down at close range. ”

“ Subsequently muskets were used, and with old style field pieces it took part in the expedition to Acote’s Hill in 1842. In the year 1847 it was equipped as a light battery with four guns and caissons, battery wagon and forge. The first parade was made at a training on Smith’s Hill, in Providence, Oct. 17, 1847, and it was known as “flying artillery,” being the first light battery ever organized in the United States outside the regular army.
2In 1852 it made an excursion to Boston, with four guns, battery wagon and forge, and encamped on the Common. ”

“ In the battle before Petersburg, Va., April 2, 1865, Captain Allen with his battery bore an honorable part. The battery went into action at four A. M., with one section under the immediate command of Captain Allen. It moved forward with the division, and, after crossing the rifle-pits, opened upon a section of rebel artillery which had a flank fire on the Federal infantry. It was soon driven off, when the battery ceased firing, moved to the left, towards Hatcher’s Run, bringing up the caissons and awaited orders. ”

“ This position is called by the men the “tower position,” from the high observation platform built of wooden scaffolding by the Germans half-way between the position and the edge of the woods. Being in the open field our batteries escaped the fire of the enemy, which was directed several times on the French batteries at the edge of the woods and in the depths of the woods also. Sometimes the bursts and fragments came dangerously close to the gun-pits, but they were not many enough to seem directed at our position.
Berney came close to providing the battery with fresh beef while it was here. ”

“ The men of the battery have to work guns of all sorts and sizes in the different forts where they are quartered, and, as a rule, have no guns of their own.
Of the 96 Garrison Batteries, 4 are Siege-train batteries, quartered in the United Kingdom, and armed with heavy guns for battering purposes, and 4 more are “Heavy” batteries, quartered in India, the [Pg 7] guns of which are drawn by elephants and the wagons by bullocks.
The Garrison Artillery is grouped in 3 divisions: the Eastern (29 batteries) , Southern (42) , and Western (25) . ”

“ Our smooth bore 12 pounders were always at a disadvantage in artillery duels, but with time fuses and at masses of men, or at a battery in open field, 800 to 1,000 yards, they did good service, and with canisters they could sweep the earth. ”