Coast artillery

“ The mobile army is intended for active offensive operations against the enemy and is so called on account of the fact that for its duties it requires the greatest degree of mobility possible, while the coast artillery is intended to man and fight the fixed and movable elements of land and coast fortifications including land mines, submarine mines and torpedo defenses pertaining to the fortifications. ”

“ Our coast guns were good, but a hostile navy triumphant at sea would never come in range of them. They would land at their leisure at any one of a hundred undefended harbors and take our forts from the rear. We could manufacture ammunition—but to no purpose, because we have few guns for field artillery and not enough trained artillerymen to man them if we had the guns. It takes years to train the masters of war machinery. A million men could be raised between the suns, but they would be mowed down by fields of hidden artillery beyond the range of our gunners before we could get in sight. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The term coast defence is perhaps, in a certain sense, a misnomer. The defence of the most important of our commercial harbours against an attack from the sea could not be effectually conducted by a force composed exclusively of men trained for the land service alone. The approach to all the great ports of the United 5Kingdom from the sea involves the navigation of extensive estuaries, where floating batteries, and armed rafts, and the use of torpedoes, are essential to a complete defence, and would in point of fact effectually prevent the nearer approach of a hostile fleet. ”

“ According to information which had reached the British admiralty, the German coast north of the Kiel Canal is protected at intervals by the most powerful antiaircraft artillery, including 4.1-inch guns, capable of firing thirty-five pound shells to a height of 26,000 feet at the rate of ten every minute. The risk which the British sea planes underwent was great, but there seems to have been no hesitation on the part of the aviators to fly to the attack. ”

“ There is a shortage of men and guns in the regular field artillery; we possess less than half the needed militia field batteries; and it would require three months of training to render what we have efficient.
"Practically all of our coast fortifications can be taken in reverse. Many of them to-day are manned only by a few companies, and it would be possible for the enemy, by a night landing and surprise attack, to capture the fortifications from the rear, thus rendering it possible for the enemy's fleet to enter our harbors and lay our seacoast cities under tribute. ”

“ The blessing arose from the fact that the coast defense could be diverted, within the first year of war, to the handling of the big guns for land armies, and thus strengthen the artillery arm sent to France for final training.
Artillery was every country's problem, even in peace-times. It was the service which required the greatest wealth and the most profound training. There was no such thing as a citizenry trained to artillery. Mathematics was its stronghold, and no smattering could be made to do. ”

“ Eventually Plymouth and Bristol counties made their valuable contribution to the regimental composition—the remnants of the 3d and 4th Regiments—as represented today by the 4th Company. The consolidation of 1878 welded all these elements into a single, compact, unified body, the Coast Artillery of today. While the old regiment have come under complete Federal control, and hold place in the first line of the U. S. Army, they have not in the least abated their life-long loyalty to the State which gave them birth.
“The National Guard is not only the reserve for the regular army ”

“ There will be another important necessity for very large forces of infantry and light artillery,—that is, large in the aggregate,— in the event of war with even a second- or third-class naval power: To protect our long lines of open coast and small unfortified harbors from destruction from the guns and landing-parties of the enemy's light-draft cruisers. ”

“ Our coast-line is very extensive, and needs watching at a considerable number of unprotected spots. Besides regular troops, Volunteer infantry, and cruising war-ships, it has long been felt that a naval artillery corps would be a useful addition for serving in gunboats and mortar rafts, and operating in the new art of torpedo-defensive warfare. ”

“ The heavy bombardment of the coast batteries by our own shore guns, which had been greatly strengthened for the purpose, the rapidity of the landing, the use of a dense smoke screen, the fact of the landing being a complete surprise, the use of tanks for dealing with hostile machine guns, the interruption to the enemy's shore communications by heavy artillery fire, and the bombardment by monitors of the coast well to the eastward of the landing place as a feint, were all new factors, and all promised to assist towards success. ”

“ While the number of casualties might not always indicate fighting ability, or even fighting experience, still in the long run the blood-marked trail of killed and wounded does surely lead to where the battle was most severe.
Amongst the three hundred fighting regiments stands the 1st Mass. Vol. Inf., three-year troops, another name for the Coast Artillery. Of our various companies who went out during the three wars in which we have participated, all losses by killed or died of wounds were confined to those in the Civil War. No such casualties occurred in 1814 or in 1898. The 3d Reg. ”

“ An order will follow on the regulation of the command relationship during the crossing. It is further the task of the navy to regulate, in a uniform manner, the building up of the coastal artillery, that is, all batteries which can be used for firing against sea targets of the Army as well as of the Navy, and to organize the fire control of the whole. As great an amount of very heavy artillery as possible is to be employed as quickly as possible to secure the crossing and to protect the flanks from enemy operations from the sea. ”

“ Naval guns, with an extreme length of range, are being used with great skill throughout the engagement. Kept in reserve, and silent, though posted close up to the firing line, they have had a disconcerting effect, in that their fire has reached far behind the Italian lines at intervals between the attacks, firing shots at random which did little actual damage, but gave the impression of continued advance. With the front of this battle line extending now to a length of twenty-two miles, the artillery of the enemy works out at nearly 100 pieces to the mile, or one gun every twenty yards. ”

“ I went down in time to see giant flames envelop 400 feet of warehouses, filled with forage and rations, while the explosions of ammunition, with the fact that a still larger arsenal laid adjacent, liable to blow up at any moment, caused great consternation among the citizens, women and children fleeing in dismay. But the military were cool and on the ground. Guards spread all over town taking in all within their reach to work on the fire engines. Assembly sounded in all the camp, and the reserve artillery, as indeed all others needed, marched down en masse. ”

“ Instead of shelling it for a morning with one or two guns, you concentrate on it every gun and howitzer that will bear, and carefully arrange the timing, so that all the shells arrive together. It is extravagant but effective​—​like loosing off a ship's broadside. The noise of the shells as they come all together through the air, whining and grumbling loudly and more loudly, is wonderfully exhilarating. We employed the "artillery crash" in the Loos salient with the 16th Division during the summer of '16, but we had not too many shells then. ”

“ Plummer's artillery wasted no ammunition in useless fire upon the iron-plated boats, and his guns were so shielded by their position in sunken batteries, back from the edge of the bank, that the [Pg 74] fire of the gunboats passed harmless overhead. The deliberate fire of sharpshooters from the rifle-pits, however, searching every opened porthole, pilot-house, and every exposed point, was so annoying that the fleet withdrew. Every day the gunboats opened upon the position, either in stationary attack or while passing up and down the river. ”

“ Behind headquarters was a long shed stable in which were to be found at all hours saddle horses and artillery horses, all saddled and bridled, ready for instant use. Twenty-six pieces of artillery, mostly sent in by captains of merchant vessels in the harbour, were here parked. Other cannon were mounted for the defence of Fort Gunnybags. Muskets, rifles, and sabres enough to arm 6,000 men had been accumulated—and there were 6,000 men to use them! ”

“ Two fine warships, the Triumph and Majestic, had been sunk in May while shelling and guarding the positions ashore, and the fleet had been compelled to seek shelter in the harbour of Mudros. Even though monitors, with 14-in. guns, were soon available to maintain the invaluable support that the battleships had previously given to the army, there was not the weight of artillery of a highly mobile nature, ready for any emergency, without the Admiralty were prepared to hazard a great loss. Transportation of troops and stores was dangerous and subject to irritating, and even dangerous, delays. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is just that I be established in a place where I can leave my wife and children. I hope, by the grace of God and that of your illustrious Lordship, that I may shortly be delivered from this captivity.
The artillery which I brought returned in the ships "Mora" and "San Martin;" and because the ship "Santa Ana" is of such importance, I ordered three excellent pieces of bronze artillery to be placed on board besides powder and ammunition. ”

“ When battles began to be fought under sail, with the gun as the chief weapon, a new method had to be evolved. The more the fire of broadside batteries was relied upon, the greater was the tendency to fight at short artillery range, without closing to hand-to-hand distance, and when the sailors and sea-fighters of the seventeenth century adopted line ahead as the normal formation for making the most of broadside fire, battles had a marked tendency to degenerate into inconclusive artillery duels. ”

“ Field and horse batteries have had to face what has been practically siege artillery. In Natal we have been outranged by the use, by the Boers, of guns of great calibre and no mobility. We have faced the difficulty—and successfully too—by bringing on to the field naval guns of equal calibre to the enemy's. And, although we have been surprised at the rapid way in which the Boers have shifted their heavy guns, I still dare to think that we can move our 4.7 guns with greater rapidity. ”

“ We are most deficient in artillery, but I believe some heavy guns are on their way. There was some firing yesterday from the island, but no effect except wounding a horse. It is said that the Governor has sent up orders not to attack the island by boats, but to dislodge the enemy by artillery and bombardment. At any rate I am glad to see that our leaders are going on cautiously and do not intend making an attack until they have sufficient force. ”

“ You may be interested to hear a little about the Navy, who have come to the front as usual and met an emergency. From the first it would seem that what was wanted were long-range guns which could shell the enemy at a distance outside the range of their Mauser rifles, and the captain of the Terrible, therefore, proposed a field-mounting for the Naval long 12-pounder of 12 cwt., which has a much longer range than any artillery gun out here. ”

“ To have taken on shore a large park of artillery would have been, under such circumstances, absolute folly, indeed, the pieces which were actually landed, proved in the end of very little service, and were drawn by seamen sent from the different ships for the purpose. The sailors, thus employed, may be rated at a hundred, and those occupied in carrying stores, ammunition, and other necessaries, at a hundred more; and thus, by adding these, together with fifty sappers and miners, to the above amount, the whole number of men landed at St. Benedict’s may be computed at four thousand five hundred. ”

“ 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. ”