MEMORIAL DE ARTILLER1A. 
663 
accurate shooting. Officers and Nos. 1 should be accustomed at once 
to select the best positions for their divisions and guns, with due regard 
to the situation of the object and the class of fire they have to employ. 
He quotes from General Gourko's remarks on the manoeuvres of the 
Eussian Artillery the year before (1878),—“ To form up in exact align¬ 
ment of batteries and of guns is quite unnecessary, each battery should 
try to occupy a good position, taking care not to interfere with the 
fire of others."” 
The author states that, in his opinion, all these petty details of exact 
dressing of carriages, drivers all raising their whips at the same moment 
when moving off, &c., are very <e pretty for field days, as a spectacle,” 
but are neither practical nor of use for battle field formations. 
Brigade drill also, he urges, especially in Mountain Artillery, might 
be greatly simplified; battery drill being so much more important; 
because on service batteries nearly always move independently. It 
should not be forgotten that in Germany, Field Artillery drill is entrusted 
entirely to the Officers Commanding Batteries, “whose mission it is to 
prepare the battery for war .” 
He says, “ Batteries should possess mobility, and be fit to take the 
field, not merely to appear well at a review; ” and he deplores the fact 
that the Spanish Artillery appears to be devoted to the latter rather 
than to the former. As a general rule, once driving drill and battery 
drill has been learnt, the 8 cm batteries (which in war time would bo 
Horse Artillery) should invariably manoeuvre at a trot and gallop; 
but this is of course impossible so long as Spain allows her light batteries 
to be drawn by mules. These animals, that Spain alone employs for 
Artillery draught, cannot move fast, and if they could, the drivers could 
not stand it. 
On the other hand, those armed with the 9 or 10 cm guns, as well as 
the Mountain Artillery, should be practised at a walk, but should be 
accustomed to every sort of rough ground that might possibly fall to 
their lot, and give up drilling on level ground, which teaches nothing. 
“We should not mind if a horse or mule fall, or if a carriage upset, 
or a pole break—so much the better, to give the men an opportunity of 
speedily rectifying the accident.” 
He mentions that all these different cases of disabled ordnance, &c,, 
though well explained in the 3rd Yol. of their Field Artillery Exercise, 
are not sufficiently taught and practised. 
Defensive and offensive positions should be taken up constantly under 
all conditions, and the dispositions timed and criticised. Practice re¬ 
placing men, horses, and ammunition, taking care that, in the latter 
case, the particular nature expended be replaced, and that boxes 
directly they are empty be replaced by full ones. 
He recommends the system adopted in the Belgian Artillery of 
keeping a certain number of batteries complete at war strength, and 
letting all officers and men become accustomed to these by giving them 
a periodical course with these batteries. 
Marches, short manoeuvres on new ground, billeting, encamping, 
embarking and dis-embarking batteries on railways should be practised 
within a certain radius of the district the batteries are stationed in. 
