THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
63 
Colonel Pomville said he did not hear any complaints made, except on such 
matters as might be easily rectified on future occasions. He considered the supply 
department worked most zealously, and was handled wonderfully well, especially 
considering they had only so recently been re-organised. 
Lieut.-Colonel Young, R. A., while thanking Captain Brackenbury for his able 
and interesting lecture, said there was one thing which he must find fault with, and 
that was that the lecturer adopted the prevailing fashion of the day by thinking 
everything Prussian must be right. Because the Prussians had succeeded in the 
wars of 1866 and 1870 seemed to him no reason why we should adopt everything 
Prussian. He did not think their company column was altogether the right for¬ 
mation ; as far as he knew, they had never seen it under a heavy reverse. He 
believed the unit to be too small, and that there would be want of cohesion between 
the columns, which on a sudden retreat would be fatal. Their system of skirmish¬ 
ing seemed to him also defective; being a weak line, and liable to annihilation by 
good shrapnel fire. Not having had the experience of Captain Brackenbury in 
the seeing the Prussian system in the field, he made these remarks with diffidence. 
(Cheers.) 
Colonel Field, K.A., said Colonel Milward’s remarks were of great moment. 
He would ask Captain Brackenbury whether he advocated concentration of guns or 
concentration of fire. 
Captain Brackenbury said :—Alluding to the artillery reserve of field batteries 
mentioned by Colonel Domville, he believed it was not named in orders. 
Colonel Domyille. —Not in general orders, of course, but in the orders of the 
division or corps d’armee to which he was attached during the actual operations. 
Captain Brackenbury continued:—He had read in the “ Times,” before he 
went to Aldershot, that all the artillery was named as reserve except the horse 
artillery attached to cavalry brigades. He was greatly astonished at what he sup¬ 
posed to be the blunder of a correspondent, and, upon making enquiries, found that 
all the artillery had been in orders placed in reserve, except the horse artillery. 
Colonel Milward’s remarks were quite true—mobility was required for artillery; 
but how was that mobility to be attained? He should certainly like to have 
more horse artillery; but they had more now than they ever had, and he doubted 
whether the Government seemed disposed to grant anything so expensive as an 
increase of the horse artillery. The new gun—the 16-pr.—lately introduced for 
field- batteries, was a weapon of great power, suitable for reserve. The 12-pr. 
batteries must be made as movable as possible. With reference to the remarks 
of Colonel Gordon, he must say he had endeavoured to guard himself against 
being misunderstood to make any attack on the supply departments. He had 
nothing to say against the officers of the supply departments; their energy was 
untiring and their zeal great. They did well, considering that they had no expe¬ 
rience in such work, and it is not the fault of a young department that it has not 
sufficient experience. Everything that had been stated only went to show the 
necessity of both Staff and Control learning to act together in matters of supply 
—(cheers)—and the existing want of practice in the supply of an army in the 
field. With Colonel Young, he was far from thinking everything Prussian right, 
and did not wish to adopt all their ideas, only such as were good and suitable* 
(Hear, hear.) There is no reason why we should not devise a better system than 
that of company columns, but we must devise something. What the British line 
used to be to the continental heavy column, the present “ swarm ” formation with 
strong reserves seems to be to the British line. The steady, firm character of the 
British soldier is admirably adapted to the swarm formation. He wished it to be 
understood that he advocated the very opposite of heavy columns—something 
lighter, even, and requiring more courage than the line. The Prussians, however, 
