T£lE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
99 
To see how these guns fulfilled the expectations of the authorities it will 
be sufficient to refer to the testimony of the various officers who handled 
them in active service. 
Behaviour of the Armstrong B.L . guns on active service . 
The field guns were first used in China in 1860, and Col. T. Milward, 
Royal Artillery, who commanded the artillery of the first division there, 
gives a favourable account of their efficiency*. 
He states : ee The guns were sent from England covered with a composition 
of white lead and tallow, and packed in wooden cases, out of which they 
were taken when we arrived at Hong Kong, and completely cleaned, and 
then no more composition was put on them, or cases of any kind; they 
were generally kept mounted in the hold of the ship, and they were em¬ 
barked and disembarked in rough weather, and no damage ever received to 
them of any description. 
“ At Taken whan we landed several of them in our ship's boats on a 
temporary apparatus which we put up ourselves, and in rough weather, but 
nothing occurred to them. On one occasion my guns had very rough 
work indeed; we were sent out with a division of the army over a swamp, 
the very worst ground possible for artillery ; the guns were, in fact, almost 
swallowed up, but we got them through quite safely, and when we came 
into action we found no damage had been done; everything, including the 
sights, was covered with mud, but in a few minutes we cleaned that off, and 
the guns were just as good as ever. 
£C At 2000 yards, which was the greatest range we engaged at, our segment 
shells had great effect, whilst at 450 yards the effect was greater than from 
common smooth-bore case shot, but we felt much the want of a common 
shell with a large bursting charge. On one occasion 24 lb. howitzers set 
fire to junks which Armstrong guns tried to do, and failed. 
e< The shell acted well with concussion fuzes, but the time fuzes were bad, 
having been injured on the voyage out from damp. The effect of our shells 
against earthworks was trifling, owing to the small charge, but the segments 
did a great deal of damage inside the works. 
“ During the whole campaign we only fired an average of 200 rounds per 
gun. 
“ The vent pieces were faced once by the armourer serjeants, who effected 
all the necessary repairs. 
“ One old-pattern vent piece was blown away." 
Colonel John Desborough, Royal Artillery, who commanded a division of 
Artillery (one Armstrong battery, and one smooth-bore battery), gives his 
opinion before the same Committee (p. 50), that an Armstrong battery is 
not as effective at short ranges as a smooth-bore battery, but that the 
Armstrong guns were not sufficiently tried in China to judge of their 
merits." 
* Armstrong ancl Whitworth Committee, pp* 43, 47* 
