34 
ACTION COMMAND OE A SIEGE DIVISION. 
Suppiy of 
ammunition. 
Staff re¬ 
quired. 
Amount of 
ammunition. 
Issue of 
ammunition 
Reliefs. 
1. The instructions for the issue and supply of siege stores given 
in S.A.D., pp. 15-19, are very general and do not go far beyond the 
transfer of such stores from the Ordnance Department to the It. A., but on 
p. 16 it is stated that different portions of the attack should have 
their own advanced depots and it is presumed from this that each 
unit (and for siege purposes the division must be considered the unit) 
will have its own depot and be responsible for its own stores. This 
depot must be directly under the Lieut.-Colonel, and for its proper 
supervision and management he will require a sufficient staff. That 
already allotted to him appears to be intended for camp work and 
discipline only and an addition must be made to it for the store 
departmental work. The minimum necessary would seem to be—■ 
One officer, two conductors or park sergeants and a certain 
number of district gunners. 
This staff would probably be sufficient where one depot supplied the 
whole Division, but, where the nature of the ground did not admit of 
a sufficiently large depot being formed, or the distance of batteries of 
the Division rendered supply from such a single depot laborious and 
slow, it might be necessary to divide and distribute the stores into 
sub-depots and then a larger staff would probably be required. But, 
in any case, the higher and more responsible posts in the depot should 
be filled by men accustomed to the keeping and issue of stores, am¬ 
munition, etc., and probably the post of officer in charge of the depot 
would best be filled by an officer of the District Establishment or a 
W.O., such as a Master-Gunner. The district gunners would probably 
have to be supplied by the companies. 
The amount of ammunition kept in the depot should be equal to, at 
least, one day's supply to all the batteries of the division and must 
always be kept up to this amount. All stores and ammunition should 
be so arranged as to be readily issued as required. 
A fixed time should be notified in orders at which ammunition can 
be drawn and it should only be issued on requisition by each B.C., 
countersigned by the Adjutant, who should check the requisitions to 
see that more than the authorised amount 1 is not demanded without 
sufficient reason. Arrangements should be made for the immediate 
replacement of the ammunition issued from the intermediate depots or 
field arsenal, as the case may be, and it would probably be convenient 
to fix a regular hour when this work should be daily carried out. 
Except under very unusual circumstances, one issue of ammunition 
daily should be sufficient. 
2. The S.A.D. provides for two reliefs for the force composing 
a S.T., each relief to be on duty for 12 hours, and it will, if this is 
not ordered by higher authority, devolve on the Lieut.-Colonel to 
arrange the hours at which reliefs should take place and the strength 
of each relief. At first sight it would appear that the simplest way to 
arrange them, when only two reliefs of 12 hours each are required in 
24 hours, would be to divide each company in half, giving one 12 
l 8ee p 43. 
