176 
SHORT NOTES ON THE 13-PR. M.L. GUN. 
decisive points, or covering a retreat, and which has above all other 
arms the power, and therefore the obligation, of attacking and 
demoralising a retiring enemy at short ranges, such a projectile would 
be invaluable. 
carriages. Concerning the carriages little need be said. They are in principle 
nearly the same as those already in use, with the exception of the 
limber-boxes. Two points might, however, be touched upon. In the 
first place, they carry no rounds on the gun-carriage. Can this be 
right ? In the present day, when, coming into action, the liinbers must 
be retired as quickly as possible to shelter, it is almost impossible to get 
out ammunition till they halt, and thus much time is lost. This loss is 
not of course perceptible on field days, because a small cartridge, or if 
necessary two, can be served to a gun directly the trail is on the 
ground, quite irrespective of where the limber is or what it is doing; 
nor are limbers too often put in the positions which actual service 
would render imperative. On field days, therefore, guns are seldom 
or never left without ammunition at first coming into action. Again, 
in actual warfare limbers may necessarily be a long way off, and the 
service of ammunition then becomes a matter of great difficulty; nor 
does this occur in field days—a No. 6 can easily bring three rounds at 
a time. Sudden emergencies may frequently arise, and at a time, 
too, when the limbers may have had to retire temporarily; the guns 
are then either left without ammunition altogether, or moments are 
lost which, taken advantage of, might be the salvation of the battery; 
nor do these emergencies often occur in field day experience. The 
point seems thus to have escaped notice; I believe, however, that it is 
one of the first importance, and that no carriage can be called perfect 
—certainly not for horse artillery, where quickness is of importance— 
which does not carry at least two rounds of shrapnel and two of case 
in axletree-boxes. 
In the second place, the carriage affords no protection to the detach¬ 
ment. Absolute protection is, I believe, impossible; but with the 
addition of a very small weight to the carriage, a breech-loading 
detachment could find fair cover—would, in a word, suffer only about 
10 per cent, of the exposure which the men do at present from shrapnel 
or infantry fire, which are the only natures to be really feared. A very 
thin plating on the lids and fronts of the axletree-boxes (the former 
being raised in action), and the foot-rests being made of a plate 
instead of open as at present, would afford this seemingly incon¬ 
testable advantage at a small cost in other respects. 
Aldeeshot, 
February, 1880 . 
