Battery (weapon)

“ As a rule, each battery makes a second or alternative gun position, in case it should be shelled out of its existing one, so that no delay takes place in getting into action again. When night fell there was subdued excitement in the wagon line as the time drew near to take the guns “in.” This was actually the beginning of our first venture—would we have the luck to get there without being caught in the enemy’s harassing fire? How would we behave under shell-fire: would we be steady or otherwise? ”

“ 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. ”

“ The number of batteries to be opened before the place must determine the number of pieces of ordnance; and on the quantity or ordnance must depend the proportion of every species of stores for the service of the artillery.
There must be a battery to enfilade every face of the work to be besieged, that can in any way annoy the besiegers in their approaches. These batteries, at least that part of them to be allotted for guns, need not be much longer than the breadth of the rampart to be enfiladed, and will not therefore hold more than 5 or 6 heavy guns ”

“ If the situation will admit of the battery being sunk, even as low as the soles of the embrazures, a great deal of labour may be saved. In batteries without embrazures, this method may almost always be adopted; and it becomes in some situations absolutely necessary in order to obtain earth for the epaulment; for when a battery is to be formed on the crest of the glacis, or on the edge of the counterscarpe of the ditch, there can be no excavation but in the rear of the battery. ”

“ The one you have just made is a simple one frequently used for doorbells. Other batteries are more complicated. Some are made with copper and zinc in a solution of copper sulfate; some, even, are made by letting electricity from a dynamo run [pg 206] through a solution from one lead plate to another until a chemical substance is stored on one of them; then, when the two lead plates are connected by a wire, the electrons run from one to the other. This kind of battery is called a storage battery, and it is much used in submarines and automobiles. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Battery, bat′ėr-i, n. (Shak.) a wound: a number of cannon with their equipment: the place on which cannon are mounted: the men and horses attending one battery, constituting the unit in the artillery: an instrument used in electric and galvanic experiments: (law) an assault by beating or wounding: apparatus for preparing or serving meals.—Cross batteries, two batteries commanding the same spot from different directions; Floating battery (see Float) ; Masked battery, a battery in action out of the enemy's view; To change one's battery, to alter the direction of attacking. ”

“ Glancing Batteries are such whose shot strike the object at an angle of about 20°, after which the ball glances from the object, and recoils to some adjacent parts.
when several guns fire on the same object at the same time. When 10 guns are fired at once, their effect will be much greater than when fired separately.
Sunk Batteries are those whose platforms are sunk beneath the level of the field; the ground serving for the parapet; and in it the embrasures are made. This often happens in mortar, but seldom in gun-batteries. Battery sometimes signifies the guns themselves placed in a battery. ”

“ Turn on the lights in parked cars so that the battery will run down.
(3) Mechanics can ruin batteries in a number of undetectable ways: Take the valve cap off a cell, and drive a screw driver slantwise into the exposed water vent, shattering the plates of the cell; no damage will show when you put the cap back on. Iron or copper filings put into the cells i.e., dropped into the acid, will greatly shorten its life. Copper coins or a few pieces of iron will accomplish the same and more slowly. ”

“ The battery took up a position in our former front line facing Bourlon Wood, with the ruined village of Mouevres immediately ahead, while the forward section was placed in part of the Hindenburg line itself, south-east of Pronville. Wire cutting was undertaken and carried out by all field batteries, and the heavies pounded enemy emplacements and communication trenches in the rear.
Bombing by aircraft became intensive on both sides, and the enemy adopted new tactics by coming over after dark, and, waiting for the gun flashes, proceeded to drop bombs on the batteries. ”

“ Do not bring any open flame such as a lantern, candle or match near a battery and do not go near the battery with a lighted cigar, cigarette or pipe, especially while the battery is charging. Hydrogen and oxygen gases form a highly explosive mixture. An explosion will not only injure the battery, but will probably disfigure the one carrying the light, or even destroy his eyes.
It is a good plan to keep the windows of the battery room open as much as possible.
Engine. The engine which drives the generator requires attention occasionally. ”

“ 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 ”

“ I explained to her that while it was no easy matter to make an adjustment on a moving target even in a quiet sector in closed warfare, the observer, at least, had the advantage of knowing where the battery was located, what the battery’s signal panels would look like and what code signals both would use and what method of fire the battery would pursue. ”

“ Each battery commander will tell you that a British plane has flown very low, as a test, without being able to locate his battery. If it is located, there is more work due in "make-up" to complete the disguise. Competition among batteries is as keen as among battleships of our North Atlantic fleet.
Situation favoured this battery, which was Canadian. It was as nicely at home as a first-class Adirondack camp. At any rate, no other battery had a dug-out for a litter of eight pups, with clean straw for their bed, right between two gun-emplacements. ”

“ Ammunition.—The vehicles of a battery include (besides guns and limbers) ammunition wagons, store and provision carts or wagons and forage wagons. On the amount of ammunition that should be carried with a field battery there was formerly a considerable diversity of opinion. The greater the amount a battery carries with it, the more independent it is; on the other hand, every additional wagon makes the battery more cumbrous and, by lengthening out the column, keeps back the combatant troops marching in rear. ”

“ Reclining there under a tree while the skirmishing is going on in front and the shells are tearing up the sod around us, I observe how evidently hard pressed is that battery yonder in the edge of the wood, about fifty yards to our right. The enemy's batteries have excellent range on the poor fellows serving it. And when the smoke lifts or rolls away in great clouds for a moment, we can see the men running, and ramming, and sighting, and firing, and swabbing, and changing position every few minutes to throw the enemy's guns out of range a little. ”

“ A half-sunken battery has its interior space, or terreplein, sunk some inches below the natural surface, and its parapet is composed of the earth thus obtained, and of that taken from a narrow ditch in front.
A sunken battery has the whole of the earth taken from the interior space to form the parapet; and it must therefore be lowered from 2 feet to 3 feet 6 inches, according to the height of the gun carriages to be used.
The half-sunken battery is constructed the quickest, as the diggers can work both in front and rear, at the same time. ”

“ The entire surface of the battery, wings and all, is to be painted a dull blue, as near the color of the water as possible. The necessary iron decoys, to bring the whole structure down to a level with the water, are set upon the platform, and the stand of stools, not less than a hundred and fifty, and double that number is better, are placed around the battery, mostly at the foot and towards the left side if the shooter is right-handed. ”

“ It will seem ludicrous to put our guns into pits again—the guns that we have seen bounding over rough ground behind the straining teams. To be cooped up in a brick O.P. staring at a strip of desolation will be odious after our bivouacs under the stars and our dashes into action under a blazing sun. Worst of all, perhaps, is the thought that the battery will be split up again into ‘gun line’ and ‘wagon line,’ with three miles or more separating its two halves, instead of its being, as it has been all these weeks, one complete cohesive unit. ”

“ The battery is said to be no larger than a man's finger, and to be attached to the barrel near the muzzle by simple rubber bands, so arranged that the act of attaching the battery to the barrel automatically makes connection with the sight ”

“ Barbet batteries have no embrazures, the guns being placed on traversing platforms to enable them to fire over the parapet.
A direct fire from a battery is when the line of fire is perpendicular to the parapet, and an oblique fire when it is oblique. The direct fire being preferable, the battery should be placed parallel to the object against which the fire is to be directed.
The line of fire is an imaginary line drawn through the centre of an embrazure, in the direction of the object against which a battery is constructed. ”

“ Batteries on a Coast—generally consist of only an epaulment, without much attention being paid to the ditch: they are, however, sometimes made with embrazures, like a common gun battery; but the guns are more generally mounted on traversing platforms, and fire over the epaulment. When this is the case, the guns can seldom be placed nearer than 31⁄2 fathoms from each other. The generality of military writers prefer low situations for coast batteries ”

“ 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. ”

“ The central battery is situated about the middle of the segment of a circle I have already compared to a horseshoe in shape, though it may be better understood by the term ‘crescent.’ This battery stands on a bluff so high that a vessel in passing immediately underneath cannot elevate her guns sufficiently to reach those on the battery; neither can the guns on the battery be sufficiently depressed to bear on the passing ship. ”

“ Occasionally two or more batteries are placed inside one line of obstacles, but usually each 2-gun battery is complete in itself.
Cases arise, e.g. with sites on the top of a cliff, where no obstacle is required; in such places the parapet merges into the surrounding ground. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Before the first year was out the battery had, through its own elements, and the discipline of the Captain, become a cohesive force, and a distinct integer in the Army of Northern Virginia. Young farmer recruits knew of its prestige and expressed preference for it of many batteries of rapidly growing or grown reputation. Owing to its high stand, the old and clumsy guns with which it had started out were taken from it, and in their place was presented a battery of four fine, brass, twelve-pound Napoleons of the newest and most approved kind, and two three-inch Parrotts, all captured. ”

“ One battery exhibited the power as well as the beauty of that mysterious force which we call electricity. It was the large Grove battery. A current passed from it to copper wires, in a certain manner, produced a dazzling green light, and the copper melted like wax. With silver a still brighter and purer green flame was the result. With platinum an intense white light was given off, and the molten metal fell in globules of exceeding brilliancy. ”