215 
THE 
ATTACK OF ENTRENCHMENTS BY FIELD ARTILLERY. 
BY 
MAJOR W. KEMMXS, R.A.* 
(The B.A. Institution Gold Medal Prize Essay, 1880.) 
“ Ex animo operemur et summa potestate utamur.” 
In the employment of field artillery the maximum effect may be ob¬ 
tained from the arm, or—due perhaps to clumsy handling or unscientific 
application—but a fractional part of its power may be utilised. In the 
latter case it may nevertheless fall out, from some extraneous causes, 
that the end in view may be obtained; but even so, can we consider 
the faulty action to be justified ? Clearly not, and the probability is that 
in the improper or imperfect use risk is run, while there is almost 
certain to be definite loss in personnel, materiel , time, or labour, and 
there most assuredly must be in experience towards training* for greater 
future efficiency. 
On every ground, therefore, it is an error, under any circumstances, 
to make other than the most proper application which the arm, as it 
exists at the time, admits of. 
Taking the field artillery of Great Britain, as it now stands, it will be 
our endeavour to show how it can best be made use of in the attack of 
field entrenchments, at the same time making such suggestions for 
improvement as may occur to us. 
In doing this it seems advisable to treat the subject first as a 
question of gunnery and secondly as a question of tactics—tactics of 
the unit in the first instance and then of the mass. 
I.—The Attack oe Field Entrenchments as a Question op Gunnery. 
The main object of the universal use of entrenchments on the field of 
battle is to obtain cover from the enemy's fire; the latter, under 
modern conditions, being so effective and therefore so deciding in the 
fight. To nullify this object is, and ever must be, the province of 
artillery. 
The arm may carry out this its role by one of three methods—namely, 
by destroying the shelter, by searching out effectually the cover afforded, 
or partly by destroying and partly by searching out. 
We have, then, to determine which plan it is best to pursue; and, in 
