310 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1898. 
one of the main essentials aimed at* * * § in considering the action of 
Artillery in the future, yet mobility is a requisite of equal importance. 
It follows therefore that the ammunition required should be as light as 
possible, and yet a powerful, and consequently heavy shell is needed. 
Thus the abolition of the weighty case is very desirable. Certainly if 
it can be dispensed with a serious objection to the use of quick firers 
in the field is at once removed. 
Although therefore the Q.F. equipment is not free from certain dis¬ 
advantages, these are, in a measure, open to remedy and are likely to 
be still further lessened when recent improvements have been intro¬ 
duced and perhaps still further perfected. 
We have alluded to the necessity of having a plentiful supply of 
ammunition. The quick-firer will undoubtedly be at a disadvantage if 
any great increase has to be taken into the field but it is by no means 
certain that this will be necessary. The matter however must be 
considered. Later on it will be shown that when the full power of the 
Q.F. gun is exercised the effort will not be of long duration, and also 
that in many instances the rate of fire will not be rapid. Moreover our 
regulations for the supply of ammunition are exceedingly elastic. In 
cases of urgency they permit any battery in action to obtain ammunition 
from the wagons of another battery, or from any column that may be 
within reach whether that column belongs to the unit or not.* Thus 
deficiency in one quarter may be remedied by borrowing from another. 
Judging from the past, we find that the Germans in the war of 1870, 
were at times apprehensive that their ammunition might fail them, but 
it only did so in a few isolated cases, notably at the battles of 
Vionville and Gravelotte, and in these instances the failure was due to 
the ammunition columns not being at hand when they should have 
been. Also if the batteries had been permitted to borrow from the 
neighbouring ones they would have been able to continue their fire.t 
In considering what supply will in future be needed should Q.F. 
guns be adopted, it may be instructive to note that with the exception 
of the battles of Gravelotte and Sedan only three batteries during the 
whole of the Franco-German war fired more than 100 rounds per gun 
per diem, J and at the above-mentioned battles only 1 7 and 15 batteries 
respectively exceeded that number. Also at the battle of Sedan, where 
a vast amount of ammunition was expended, the 15 batteries of the 
Artillery of the Guard did not require any assistance at all from their 
ammunition columns. § As a matter of fact the Germans had more 
ammunition than they needed, for in no instance did their mean ex¬ 
penditure exceed 39 per cent, of || what would have been available if 
the ammunition columns had always been present as they should have 
been. On the other hand, at Okehampton in 1893 an experiment in 
rapid and long-continued fire took place, which resulted in a 6-gun 
battery firing 163 rounds per gun in one day.If But this trial was 
* “ Field Artillery Drill,” 1896, pages 17 and 21. 
f “Revue Militaire de l’Etranger,” 1892, pages 151, 152. 
X Prince Kraft, “Letters on Artillery,” page 209. 
§ “ Revue Militaire de l’Etranger,” 1892, page 151. 
|| “ Revue Militaire de l’Etranger,” 1892, page 150. 
«[[ “ School of Gunnery Report (Horse and Field),” 1893, page 51. 
