GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1880 . 
225 
While the battery is coming into position for action, the range to 
certain points of the entrenchment should be accurately taken by the 
range-finder, theN.C. officers appointed to use it having accompanied 
the officer commanding in his reconnaissance and having received 
definite instructions from him. If, however, a range-finder is not 
available, the range must be ascertained by the system of trial-shot 
firing,* and even if accurately measured by the range-finder, it requires 
to be checked by this system; because, due to variation in the quality 
of the ammunition, &c., the range of the projectile, however accurately 
the piece may be laid, may not correspond to that to which the sights 
are set. 
The range may be considered to be obtained, or, in other words, the 
mean trajectory assumed to pass through the point aimed at, when half, 
or at short range less than half, the projectiles are “under.” 
Satisfied that he has obtained the range, the officer commanding has 
then to regulate the distribution, or otherwise, of fire, adhering to the 
conditions regarding projectile, &c., laid down in Part I. 
Concentration of fire is, we know, necessary to decisive effect; 
supposing, therefore, that gun-pits form the target, the whole fire of 
the battery should be directed successively upon each pit until the gun 
in it has been silenced and the pit ruined. This mode of proceeding is 
further necessary as, due to the relative lie of the entrenchment and the 
battery, the range may not be the same to each pit, and it would be 
very inconvenient at the least, to take up several ranges at the same 
moment. If a line of infantry in shelter trenches, &c., is the object, 
not being so formidable for reduction as the preceding, the same 
amount of concentration is not required; therefore, instead of the fire 
being confined, as it were, to points, it may be extended to lengths in 
succession. The particular length taken by a battery should, we think, 
about equal its front, f or in round numbers about 100 yds.; this must, 
however, be partly dependent upon the total length of the entrench¬ 
ment, as it should be equally covered by the-guns, without—if we may 
so describe it—leaving a fractional part for the fire of all the guns to 
be finally overcrowded upon, or for some guns only to deal with. 
The fire of the battery should be carried on regularly and deliberately 
from flank to flank; hurried fire, with hasty and imperfect observation, 
can never be effective and independent firing is, in our opinion, to be 
deprecated, unless very special circumstances call for it, as-it removes 
the power of proper supervision and ordering from the commanding 
officer and tends to permit undue haste. 
When the fire of a battery is changed, while in the same position, 
from percussion common shell to time shrapnel, the correct distance of 
* See “Manual of Siege and Garrison 'Artillery,” 1879, p. 32. In this trial firing each gun 
should be laid on the same point—such as the crest of the parapet at one flank, or a flank embrasure, 
to which the range has been taken, as named by C.O.; each No. 1, checked by'his divisional 
officer, giving the particular deflection required by his own gun. 
t -^ os * 1> trained to this length, on the command “ Distribute the fire,” would readily take 
up that point of the object distant the proper space for his gun from the point to which the range 
was taken, and on which probably the flank gun would continue its fire. 
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