118 
NOTE ON TITE AMMUNITION EQUIPMENT OF ARTILLERY 
IN THE FIELD. 
BY 
Colonel W. J. WILLIAMS, It.A., C.B. 
The ammunition equipment is 4 rounds of case a gun for close 
quarters, 32 rounds of common shell for heavy and rough work, and 
112 rounds of shrapnel to fire upon the enemy in the open, or compara¬ 
tively in the open, and when time fuzes can be adapted to the range. 
Sending into the field batteries mainly equipped with shrapnel is an 
experiment. However much we may appear to be justified by the 
possession of a time fuze which is good enough in England, and by our 
observation of shrapnel fire on practice ranges, it would yet seem that 
we have entered upon our experiment without sufficiently considering 
the conditions of service in the field. 
The main point which has been overlooked, or not sufficiently con¬ 
sidered, is that a battery in battle will not use time fuzes like a battery 
on a practice range. When fire is passing through a battery, or over 
it, the simplest service of the guns is the best: the conditions are 
unfavourable to the adaptation of time fuzes. Moreover, an officer 
cannot always be going out to the position of a range party, to see if 
the practice is good; and, with time fuzes, the practice cannot be at all 
judged from anywhere near the guns. Other important points appa¬ 
rently overlooked, or not sufficiently considered, are the uselessness of 
shrapnel fire against any heavy cover, and the danger of firing with time 
fuzes over our own people, or across their front, when they are near the 
enemy; that is to say, when the support of artillery fire would avail 
them most. 
It is not denied that effective shrapnel fire is more powerful than the 
effective fire of common shell with percussion fuzes. It may, however, 
be affirmed that the more rough and ready ammunition is always re¬ 
liable in battle, and that the more delicate ammunition may too often 
be fired away like blank cartridge, so far as the people aimed at are 
concerned. Considering, then, the relative value in battle of the two 
kinds of shell, and, further/the necessity which may at any time arise 
for guns to defend their own immediate front, it would appear that 8 
rounds of case, 32 rounds of common shell, and 108 rounds of shrapnel, 
would be a better equipment than that which is now carried. Much 
would, undoubtedly, be gained by the adoption of the equipment sub¬ 
mitted ; but it would then remain a question whether it would not be 
better to increase the proportion of common shell. 
5th December! 1879. 
