SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1898. 
311 
favourable to the expenditure of the largest possible amount of ammu¬ 
nition, inasmuch as the battery was in action nearly the whole day and 
was not impeded by being itself fired at. Thus it would hardly be 
correct to take this performance as a criterion of what the expenditure 
in battle is likely to be, although as an approximate guide the results 
noted are of value. If these results are compared with those already 
quoted which give the greatest daily expenditure recorded in the 
Franco-German war, it will be apparent that the improvements intro¬ 
duced in modern armaments have not been followed by an expenditure 
of such a very much larger quantity of ammunition; and if the present 
amount allowed is also compared with the results of the Okehampton 
experiment, it will be seen that our batteries are well supplied. Each 
Horse Artillery Battery (12-pr, 6 cwt.) carries with it 130 rounds of 
shrapnel shell and six case shot per gun,* while in the ammunition 
column it is we believe under consideration to have nearly 100 rounds 
more per piece. This gives a total of nearly 230 rounds per gun, 
exclusive of those carried in the ammunition park, which will probably 
amount to 72 rounds per gun in addition; but these latter cannot of 
course be depended upon for immediate use, For the 15-pr. B.L. 
Batteries the supply will no doubt be on the same lines and nearly as 
great. Making therefore all due allowance for increased expenditure 
consequent upon the improvements effected in our drill and materiel 
since 1870, there would still appear, from the Okehampton experiments, 
to be ample margin left in the scale quoted above for present require¬ 
ments. Whether that margin is sufficiently great to provide all the 
ammunition needed should Q.F. guns be adopted, it is difficult to say. 
Some further increase may be necessary, but we incline to think that 
in future battles the secret of not running short will lie more in so 
ordering the ammunition columns that they will, when required, never 
be far from the units they serve, than in adding wagons to the columns 
already quite long enough. 
One result of introducing Q.F. guns will be that every Battery 
Commander will have to, more than ever, keep the direction of fire 
well within his control. The more hurried fire is the more apt is it to 
become unsteady, that is to say the more likely it is that ammunition 
will be wasted. Battery Commanders and all under them should 
realize this, and carefully guard against any useless expenditure. 
II. —Tactical Employment of Q.F. Guns. 
I. So great is the power of Artillery that superiority in the battle¬ 
field cannot be obtained without superiority of Artillery fire. This is 
now an accepted maxim, but the question arises how is this superiority 
to be best attained ? The most obvious method is that hitherto 
adopted of bringing as many guns as possible into action from the 
very earliest phases of the fight. But looking back at the great 
battles of the Franco-German war, at Gravelotte, Worth, and others 
besides, we find that batteries were kept out of the fight ie simply be- 
* “ Equipment Regulations, Part II., 1896 (Horse Artillery Details),” 12-pr. 6 cwt. 
Equipment, page 36. 
