312 headlam: developments in artillery 



good results from our latest mixture, the composition of which 

 has, needless to say, been communicated to your ordnance 

 authorities. 



Repair of guns. But all the above are merely palliatives. We 

 have to face the fact that our guns have all a very limited life 

 under modern conditions. One battle may be enough for some, 

 and so the question of repair has become one of great and grow- 

 ing importance. Facility for relining must ever be in the mind 

 of the designer, the provision of sufficient plant for repair must 

 be included in the outfit for war, and a regular system of with- 

 drawal in rotation instituted. Just as in a fleet some ships must 

 always be in dock if the docks are not to be congested by a sud- 

 den rush, so must a regular system of sending guns for relining 

 be maintained. 



With the ocean between your guns and your arsenals, the 

 problem is a very difficult one for you. 



Wear of carriages. And the same thing applies to the car- 

 riages. The delicate mechanism which is an essential feature of 

 a modern carriage, even in field artillery, requires skilled and 

 careful handling, especially when called upon for such a strain 

 as is imposed by long continued rapid fire, with its consequent 

 heating of all the parts, expansion of oil in the buffers, and so 

 forth. It has always been the boast of artillery officers to know 

 and care for their equipments, but the entry into action of large 

 bodies of newly-raised artillery in 1916, synchronizing as it did 

 with the enormous development in ammunition supply, un- 

 doubtedly led to a considerable amount of preventable damage. 

 Where this struck us particularly was in the springs of our field 

 carriages, and in the air recuperators of some of our heavier 

 mountings. One divisional artillery commander told me in 

 August that his guns had fired 7,500 rounds in six weeks, and 

 that since the beginning of the action he had had on an average 

 25 per cent of his guns always out of action from this cause. 

 All the spring-makers in England were called into conclave — 

 representatives of the design departments of all the great gun 

 making firms were taken over to France, to see on the spot where 

 the failures were. But no doubt the chief damage was due to 



