“ORGAN DER MILITAR-WISSENTSCHAFTLICHEN YEREINE,” 
PART I., 1880. 
TBANSLATED BY 
LIEUT. J. M. GRIERSON, R.A. 
This number opens with a retrospect of the military events in 
Austria in 1879, the principal of which was the occupation of the 
Sandjak of Novi Bazar by the 1st Division of the Imperial army. As 
this was effected without fighting, it offers little of interest. 
A paper on the changes in the map of Europe since 1815 by 
Dr. Neumann gives a summary of the conditions of the various treaties 
in which our century, and particularly the latter part of it, has been so 
fecund. 
This is followed by a most interesting paper on the tactical uses of 
fire from under cover (at unseen objects). The author, Lieut. Mirkovic, 
of the 11th Artillery, first draws attention to the enormous losses in 
men and horses suffered by artillery in coming into action on ground 
swept by the enemy^s fire, and proposes that, instead of unlimbering 
just behind the crest of a ridge, the guns should be brought into 
action some way down the rear slope, and the observation and cor¬ 
rection of the firing conducted by mounted men, or by men standing 
on the limbers. An auxiliary object on the crest of the hill (as in 
mortar practice) could be used to assist in laying, which would have 
to be performed by means of a clinometer. He contends that this 
procedure would be of the greatest use when guns are moved to 
the “ second artillery position ** (which Hoffbauer lays down as at 
600 paces), to afford moral and material support to the infantry, and 
also on many occasions when a large number of guns are massed 
together; as in many places a good position cannot be found on or 
near the crest of a ridge in the general line of the mass. The loss of 
accuracy he contends to be more than compensated for by the diminu¬ 
tion of the losses in men and horses which so powerfully affect the 
mobility—that great desideratum of modern field artillery. The rest 
of the paper is devoted to the same species of firing from small-arms. 
Lieut. Kestranek, 19th Regt., contributes a paper on the disarming 
of insurgent villages, in which our own troops ought to have had 
considerable experience in Afghanistan. In the case of districts 
which have not yet been traversed by troops, he recommends the use 
of mixed columns of all arms (the cavalry being only used as orderlies). 
