61 
ARTILLERY POSITIONS AND 
SCREENING- GUNS. 
BY 
CAPTAIN C. D. GUINNESS, R . A . 
At last the British Artillery is re-armed with guns burning smokeless Smokeless 
powder! powder - 
Wherever dash is required and obstacles are to be surmounted, there British 
is nothing to compare with our Royal Horse Artillery and Field driving^ 
batteries. In this respect we are a model to all foreign armies with- une( i ualled » 
out exception. 
Recently, at the New Forest manoeuvres, the French military 
attache, himself an artillery officer, repeatedly broke out in loud 
praises of the way in which our guns were manoeuvred over rough 
country, at a pace and in a style which he declared to have been 
never attempted by his own artillery. 
When, some eight years ago, we were apparently, to all purposes, The^ appear, 
hopelessly left behind by foreign artilleries in the practical solution of discipline. 6 
such gunnery questions as ranging and the direction and distribution of 
fire in the field, we suddenly gave up thinking entirely about mounted 
drill formations and evolutions and set to work with a will to elaborate 
our. present system of fire discipline, which is admittedly as near 
perfection as possible. At first there was an outcry—the sporting 
subaltern who was all for the advance at the gallop and who, to use an 
old saw, “ Would gladly return the guns in store and turn out as light 
cavalry,” thought it a poor game having to attend day after day and 
hour after hour at battery gun-drill. He considered that his talents 
were being absolutely wasted when he had to become simply an 
automaton for passing down orders. Then again, think of the 
monotony of the perpetual examinations in laying of the unfortunate 
gunner. Hammer ! Hammer ! ! Hammer ! ! ! (e Two degrees 38 
minutes—9 minutes left.” “ Second dummy from the left—Lay.” Of 
course, if the layer felt a bit chippy, he invariably layed with the 
ScotUs sight on the second from the right —that is to say, the wrong The difficulty 
dummy. Oh ! if a fraction of the language and the imprecations m C f n g to in i»y 
which have been heaped on the devoted head of the inventor of correct^ 
this inverting telescope could only be written down ! If the gunner is W1 sights. " 
2. VOL: xxiv. 
