318 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1898. 
support them. It seems unnecessary to go into particulars as to how 
this can best be done. Local circumstances must decide whether 
batteries should advance or not. In any case the batteries will in a 
measure be relieved from the fire of the defenders' guns, which will at 
this stage be directed against the advancing Infantry. 
This will be the moment for vigorous action. Freed to a certain 
extent from the enemy's fire, the Artillery should utilize its utmost 
strength in supporting the advancing Infantry, which at this period 
will certainly suffer most. For this purpose quick firers may prove 
more serviceable than the guns with which our batteries are now 
armed. The need for great accuracy which obtained in the earlier 
phases of the fight is less at this time, when the defenders' Infantry 
will be engaged and when the target may be expected to have greater 
depth. Also the ranges being probably shorter accurate laying will 
be easier and more rapid. As the Infantry advances therefore the 
rapidity of the fire of the supporting Artillery should increase, and 
when the Infantry is about to deliver its final attack the most rapid 
fire possible consistent with fairly accurate shooting should be directed 
on the points of assault. It should be the aim of the assailants to 
overwhelm their adversary with the most powerful fire it is possible to 
produce. A veritable storm of bullets should be directed against him, 
and for this purpose the quick firer seems eminently well suited. Its 
judicious employment may just turn the scale, for it is just at this 
critical period, when the troops are well nigh overcome by hard fight¬ 
ing, that the timely support of an Artillery, daveloping perhaps for the 
first time the full power at its command, may give to the exhausted 
Infantry just sufficient support to enable them to push on and 
capture the position for which they had so hardly fought. 
But even if the assistance thus given should prove of no avail the quick 
firers could do good work in covering the retreat. Any counter attack 
on the part of the defenders would bring their troops under close 
range of the assailants' guns. The quick firer would then be in its 
element; great accuracy in laying would not be needed, indeed it 
would be quite out of place, for the object of the Artillery will be to 
cover the somewhat extended zone across which the defenders are 
advancing with as rapid and destructive a fire as it is possible to de- 
velope. In a very short time it must be decided whether the. counter 
attack can be pushed home or not, and during this brief period those 
guns which are still able to continue firing must do so to the utmost 
of their power. 
Supposing however, that no counter attack takes place, and that 
the position is captured. The Artillery will still have important work 
before it. It is one thing to take a position, another to keep it. 
The Artillery must help to keep it, and for this purpose it will 
advance as soon as possible right into the position itself and will open 
fire at decisive ranges, regardless of risks, which may be freely 
incurred.* Here again favourable opportunities may be found for the 
employment of rapid fire. No rule can be laid down, the action of the 
Artillery must depend upon local conditions, ib may, even after the 
* “ Field Artillery Drill,” 1896, page 32. 
