444 
Q.F. GUNS FOR FIELD ARTILLERY. 
quick firing battery cannot be admitted. Captain Barlow’s remarks 
on this subject are to the point. 1 
The question of what rate of fire can be obtained from improved 
field guns and what superiority of fire would remain with quick firers 
by reason of the elimination of recoil is one as to which there will be 
muck difference of opinion. Certain it is that nothing approaching 
the rate of fire claimed for single Q.F. guns will be obtained when 
fighting in battery with due regard to fire discipline, and most critics 
will probably agree in the soundness of Captain Barlow’s conclusion 3 
that three rounds per gun per minute is the maximum rate obtainable 
by quick firers using “ battery fire.” 
There would appear to be no reason why two rounds per gun per 
minute should not be fired from ordinary field guns were they modi¬ 
fied as regards sighting and firing as suggested before. The differ¬ 
ence, one round per gun per minute, is probably a fairly accurate es¬ 
timate of the delay in the service of a gun due to recoil and the sub¬ 
sequent necessary running up. 
If these conclusions are correct and the rate of regular aimed fire 
attainable with a Q.F. equipment is to the field gun rate as three to 
two it is apparent that no great superiority can be claimed for the 
quick firer if calibre has to be sacrificed in order to lessen recoil, for 
smaller calibre means fewer bullets and a consequent loss of power as 
already defined. But if Major Elmslie’s estimate of a fourfold increase 
of fire resulting from the introduction of a Q.F. equipment is more 
accurate the question assumes a different aspect. This can only be 
settled by a thorough and prolonged trial of a quick firing field 
battery at Okehampton, which trial it is hoped will soon be carried 
out. 
The conclusion therefore arrived at is, that if a satisfactory quick 
firer can be produced without loss of mobility and throwing shell little 
if at all inferior in weight to those of our present field guns, this weapon 
will be welcomed by our field artillery ; such guns must be strong 
and simple and they must be thoroughly tried, not singly but in bat¬ 
tery, under service conditions, before reliable conclusions can be 
arrived at regarding their efficiency. 
Meanwhile, and in view of the re-arming of certain foreign armies, 
it behoves us to do our utmost to develop the full power of our present 
field guns. 
The three requisites for fire effect are— 
1. —Good observation by the battery commander. 
2. —Accurate laying. 
3. —Rapidity of fire. 
In all these we are capable of improvement. 
1. Observation is at all times very faulty. It is submitted that no 
captain of artillery should be promoted to major until he has passed a 
strict practical examination in the observation of fire, or that if 
through defective eyesight or temperament a man cannot be relied 
1 Pages 342 and 343, No. 7, Vol. XXV. “ R.A.I. Proceedings.” 
‘ 2 Page 343, No. 7, Vol. XXV. “ R.A.I. Proceedings/’ 
