74 
ARTILLERY POSITIONS AND SCREENING GUNS. 
The Position op the Forward Slope. 
The great point to my mind about the choice of the forward position 
in the attack is :— 
The element The element of dash. 
of DASH. 
I have already tried to show that what strikes terror into the 
enemy and what encourages our own side is dash. 
vancf over ^ ac k oar typical artillery duel; if our artillery commander, 
crest instead of hanging back, makes a bold advance of his whole line of 
advocated, batteries into a favourable position from which he can clearly see the 
enemy and open an effective fire from each battery at the same 
moment, he will have established himself so much nearer to the 
ultimate goal, i.e., the enemy's position, 
tohitrapidfy ^ ou sa 7 once j “ Oh! but you will be decimated in your rapid 
^moving^ advance down the gently sloping ridge into the zone of the enemy's 
horses. fire. 
Apparently not. The cavalry drill-book says that bodies of cavalry 
are very vulnerable when halted or at a walk. The inference is that 
when trotting or galloping the extent of ground covered (250 and 350 
yards a minute respectively) is so great that neither infantry nor gun 
fire has much effect even on large masses of mounted troops. 
No doubt to quote an old saying, “ A stray shot may kill the d--1," 
but then we must chance that. 
Consequently I arrive at my principal contention, namely, that 
galloping teams of Horse and Field Artillery advancing in line into 
action at 20 yards interval, from distant (3500 yards) to medium (2500 
yards) artillery ranges, are very difficult if not impossible to hit. 
When the time comes for “ Halt, action front," then is the real 
danger; but even then the teams are on the move, and with a smart 
battery it does not take so very long to clear away all horses from the 
line of guns and to open fire. All the batteries at Okehampton in 
1893 and 1895 took on the average just one miunte to open fire; but 
we must remember that the limbers would be clear away long before 
the first gun. The ground is bad enough there in all conscience ! 
befo^ad- 9 The f°Tl° w i n g precautions however must be taken before advancing 
vancingonto boldly into action on the forward slope. 
The first is that the ground in front must be thoroughly 
searched by our own cavalry. If infantry fire from con¬ 
cealed positions is to be feared, it is essential that a swarm 
of skirmishers (probably taken from the mounted infantry 
who could be rapidly pushed forward) should precede the 
advance of the guns, otherwise our gunners are liable to 
be picked off within the first few minutes of their coming 
into action. 
Secondly, the artillery commander must himself personally 
ride forward and with the help of several staff officers 
thoroughly examine the enemy's dispositions. 
He should fix the position for his line of guns; and 
then he must ride still more to the front and consider what 
1. (a.) 
C.O. should 
ride forward 
and look 
back to 
Btudy back¬ 
ground. 
2 . ( 6 .) 
