304 headlam: developments in artillery 



the Japanese brought their 11-inch howitzers to join the field 

 army in Manchuria, and the mountings of some of your coast de- 

 fense guns on their way to join the field army in France are mod- 

 eled on those which our sailors improvised to carry their ship 

 guns across the South African veldt. 



Proportion of howitzers. In field artillery- we have seen that 

 controversy raged around the inclusion or not of howitzers at all. 

 In heavy artillery all are agreed that both are necessary, but 

 opinion is at variance as to the proportion of each. Here again 

 we find ourselves on the side of the Germans while the French 

 are, or were, all for the gun. But in this matter as in so many 

 others, friendly discussion, and the exchange of experience, has 

 brought us very much to the same point of view. The whole 

 thing really turns on whether howitzers should be used for counter 

 battery work or confined to bombardment. We hold that the 

 howitzer is more accurate against such a target as an enemy's 

 battery; that it is more mobile for the same weight of shell; 

 that its fire can be more easily observed, especially from an 

 aeroplane; that it has a longer life; and that it is easier to place, 

 not only because it can be tucked away into hollows of the 

 ground where it would be impossible to use a gun; but also (and 

 this is a curious development of this war of masses), because it 

 can be used in crowded areas. I have often seen our big howit- 

 zers in action in the midst of a mass of. congested traffic around 

 some depot of supplies, with troops moving in every direction, 

 wagons loading up with stores, and so forth, under their very 

 muzzles, where the blast of a gun would have swept everything 

 away in front of it. But while controversialists are marshalling 

 such arguments it looks as if the ground would be cut away from 

 under their feet by the disappearance of the distinction between 

 gun and howitzer! The length of the- howitzers has gradually 

 grown from 13 calibers to 17, and now in some of the latest to 

 over 20, while the use of varying charges either to reduce the 

 wear, or to allow of the employment of curved fire, is gaining 

 ground for guns. 



Trench mortars. At the other end of the scale we have trench 

 mortars, again only a revival of a weapon well known a century 



