Battery (weaponry)

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ These batteries drew not only the artillery file of the enemy, but they furnished a point for the concentrated fire of all the infantry in front. To be in supporting position was to receive all the bullets that were aimed at the battery, and which, of course, usually vexed the rear. The shells intended for the battery in your front have a habit always of flying too high or bursting just high enough in air to make it pleasant for the troops who are held in comparative inactivity. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On the car the battery is always being charged when the car is running at a moderate speed or over. The battery must fit in the limited space provided for it on the car, and must not lose any electrolyte as the car jolts along over the road. It is subjected to both high and low temperatures; and is generally on a car whose owner often does not know that his car has such a thing as a battery until his starting motor some day fails to turn over the engine. All starting batteries have wooden cases (some now use rubber cases) , hard rubber jars, and sealed on covers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Other methods are also used to hold the battery in place, but whatever the method, it is vital to the battery that it be held down firmly so that the jolting of the car cannot cause it to move. The battery has rubber jars which are brittle, and which are easily broken. Even if a battery is held down firmly, it is jolted about to a considerable extent, and with a loosely fastened battery, the jars are bound to be cracked and broken. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ When starting and lighting systems were adopted in 1912, storage batteries had been used for many years in electric power stations. These were, however, large and heavy, and many difficult problems of design had to be solved in order to produce a battery capable of performing the work of cranking the engine, and yet be portable, light, and small enough to occupy only a very limited space on the automobile. As a result of these conditions governing the design, the starting and lighting battery of today is in reality "the giant that lives in a box." ”

“ Every battery has a range chart on which distinctive landmarks are noted, with the range for each. These landmarks are called targets, and are numbered. On our battery's chart, that road was called 'Target Seventeen, Range 6000, three degrees, thirty minutes left'. D 238 Battery consisted of four '4.5' howitzers, and fired a thirty-five pound H. E. shell. As you know, H. E. means 'high explosive'. I don't like bumming up my own battery, but we had a record in the Division for direct hits, and our boys were just pining away for a chance to exhibit their skill in the eyes of Fritz. ”

“ During a controlled flight, electrical power is supplied by the APS battery and the VHPS battery which are located in the guidance bay of Stage II. The APS battery is activated by the LCS during launch countdown and supplies 28 vdc power to missile equipment during launch and flight. The VHPS battery is also activated by the LCS during launch countdown and supplies 28 vdc power to Stage II hydraulic pump motor, relays, and motor- driven switches. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To hit a steamer running with speed across a line of fire is no easy matter (Arts. 331, 341) ; and when in the end-on position, she presents but a small target to hit at a long range.”
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PART IX.
BATTERIES, AND FORTIFICATION. BATTERIES. A battery, in respect to its profile, may be either elevated, half sunken, or sunken; and it is usually reveted with gabions, fascines, sand-bags, &c.
An elevated battery has its whole parapet raised above the natural surface of the ground, and, to procure the mass of earth required, a ditch is usually dug directly in front of the parapet. ”