ARTILLERY POSITIONS AND SCREENING GUNS. 
73 
there are too many things to think of in connection with it. A man’s 
whole mind must be intently fixed on the one definite aim or object. 
If he has to think of inverted images, deflection, etc, he would be 
bound to go wrong. 
The target is well known in the Competitive and he knows what to 
look for through the telescope, but it would be otherwise on service. 
Again, the usual position of guns on the crest might be consider¬ 
ably modified when opposed to rifle fire and real bullets. 
Also the position of the horses at “ limber supply” might be re¬ 
considered if the battery is ever intended to move again. 
My ideal position for defence would be a railway cutting in front of 
and below a hog’s back. The guns could be first run up over the 
lower bank of the cutting. They would not be on the sky-line, as the 
ridge or hog’s back would be behind them. They might be screened. 
The limbers would be concealed from view, although not altogether 
from fire. 
When the enemy’s infantry arrive within effective rifle fire the guns 
could be run back, the limbers brought up and the battery withdrawn 
unseen by the enemy and round an underfeature or traverse. 
If the detachments knew that there was a means of retreat open to 
them at the last extremity, they would fight all the better in the 
critical stages of the enemy’s attack. 
On the other hand, it is scarcely, if ever, possible to get such a position 
for guns. Every case has to be decided at once by the artillery com¬ 
mander according to his lights. 
Supposed Disadvantages op the Forward Slope Position. 
(X.) Guns exposed to view of enemy in the advance into action, 
and (Y) wagons exposed when replenishing ammunition; (Z) limbers 
and teams very exposed when “ supplying from limbers.” 
If we discuss X, Y and Z we find that when the guns advance from 
the 1 st artillery position, there will always be an advancing infantry in 
front of them. 
Surely if the infantry are advancing under fire, there is every reason 
for artillery to draw off some of the enemy’s attention; and nothing 
presents so tempting a target to a gunner as a battery on the move. 
All the hand-books lay down that artillery should try and take some 
of the intensity of the enemy’s fire to itself during the successive 
advances of the infantry. 
If this is the rule for the movement of the artillery when the 
infantry ranges are “ long ” (1500 to 800 yards, [“infantry” long-range 
rifle]), why should not the guns come into action at “distant” artillery 
ranges (1,500 to 3,000 yards) on the forward slopes when their move¬ 
ments will not be so apparent to the enemy ? 
See Lord Wolseley’s remarks (in the annual report on Service 
Practice of 1895) re study of background (previously quoted); also 
Colonel Maurice’s lecture in Dublin, Artillery in 1870 and 1871 , dated 
15th Nov., 1892 ; also old hand-book of Field Artillery drill of 1893, 
p. 157, about screening guns. 
Objection to 
the crest. 
Objection to 
“limber 
supply.” 
An ideal 
position. 
Hard to get 
Supposed 
disadvan¬ 
tages of for¬ 
ward slope 
discussed. 
10 
