362 
COMMENDED ESSAY, 1898, 
Disadvantages: 
additional 
difficulty in 
ammunition 
supply. 
the present number of guns with an army corps, but divided up into 
4-gun instead of 6-gun batteries ; giving 50% more batteries, each of 
equal (if not greater) power than the former ones, and thus increasing 
the total strength of the Artillery by 50%. 
Against the change it may be argued that losses in action in a 4-gun 
battery ar q proportionately heavier than in a 6-gun battery, as may be 
seen by considering the proportionate effect of putting one gun out of 
action in each : and as many men and horses will be hit in the one as 
in the other unless the 4-gun battery comes into action at 30 yards 
interval instead of 20, when the advantages of comparative ease of 
command, and of economy of space in action disappear : while the idea 
of increasing the number of batteries, by breaking up the present guns 
with an army corps into 4-gun batteries, would cause a prohibitive 
increase of expense. 
A sort of compromise has been proposed with a view of avoiding the 
above difficulties : by making the number of 4-gun batteries about one- 
fifth greater than that of the original 6-gun batteries, the relatively 
greater vulnerability of the former would appear to become approxi¬ 
mately balanced by the greater power to be expected of this increased 
number of batteries, each equal in fire effect to one of the latter : and 
this, it is pointed out, could be done without any increase in expense 
beyond that incurred for the officers and staff of the new batteries. 
With a 4-gun battery I think a very good system of ammunition 
supply might be worked out by giving each eight wagons, to form two 
lines of wagons, and keeping the same number of officers as in a 
6-gun battery ; a large number of rounds would then be available 
per gun, and each line of wagons would be under an officer. Also the 
change from peace establishment, as now laid down, to war strength 
would be simplified : all that would be necessary would be to horse six 
wagons, and the baggage wagons, store wagon and forge. 
These considerations appear to make the balance somewhat in favour 
of 4-gun batteries. I think, however, that it must be urged in favour of 
keeping batteries of Q.F. guns with six pieces, as now, that 6-gun 
batteries can be efficiently commanded ; that the larger number of guns 
in a battery would allow of a more deliberate rate of fire per gun , 
for ordinary purposes, and would thus leave the gunners fitter for the 
strain of rapid fire ; and that, if a 4-gun battery of the new weapons is 
to be as powerful as a 6-gun battery of the old, a 6-gun battery of Q.F. 
guns would be proportionately more effective at decisive moments. 
Let us now turn to the disadvantages of these guns for use in 
the field. The first that naturally occurs to the mind is the certainty 
that their use will cause additional difficulty in ammunition supply. 
Increased rapidity of fire of course means that more ammunition must 
be brought up in a given time to replace the increased expenditure, 
otherwise the guns will run short of ammunition, and become defenceless 
and useless, perhaps at the very moment when they are most hardly 
pressed, or when their services are most urgently required in support of 
the other arms. The greater power of Q.F. guns would then become 
non-existent, nay, had been better not given them. As Prince Kraft, in 
his “ Ninth Letter on Artillery,” says, “ It is of the very greatest 
importance that the expended ammunition should be replaced at the 
proper moment, for what effect on an action can a line of Artillery 
produce when it has no more ammunition ? ” 
The question of replacement of ammunition in the course of a 
