ARTILLERY POSITIONS AND SCREENING GUNS. 
75 
the effect will be from the enemy’s point of view. Will 
his guns be hidden or exposed ? By moving them a little 
further forward or back perhaps the background might 
deceive the enemy as to their exact position. There may 
be a slight rise or hillock which would make all the 
difference in the world. This can only be seen from the 
front. 
It may be said that the commander runs the risk of 
being captured. Well! if he should be, it is better so 
than to lose the batteries. Besides this is hardly likely 
to occur when he is preceded by his cavalry or mounted 
infantry escorts. 
Again, it will be of great advantage to him to know 
exactly what is in front of him and the lay of the ground 
in view of a further advance later on in the day. 
This further reconnaissance by the artillery commander 
may deceive the enemy as to the exact position he intends 
to take up. 
I have read somewhere that German artillery officers are invariably 
placed on the flanks and in front of the batteries in action to give 
timely notice of the enemy’s approach. 
Unfortunately we have none to spare in our service—not even for 
adjutant’s work or for orderly officers to the Lieut.-Cols, commanding 
our brigade divisions—without robbing the batteries. 
Trajectories. 
I have gone to some trouble to work out and put on paper the 
trajectories of the 12-pr. British and the German theoretical “ gun of 
the future” of Major-General Rohne (on plate, Figs. 1, 2 and 3.) 
I have just obtained that of the 15-pr. since writing this paper. The 
weight of the shell is now finally settled at 14 lb. 1 oz. I have added 
it in blue to Fig. 3. The Lee-Metford trajectory is also given. 
My object in drawing these on a scale of 6 in. to 1 mile, is to enable 
any officer, who really wishes to do so, to prove for himself whether 
the best artillery position against infantry or guns was taken up at a 
field-day. He has only to gum this drawing of a trajectory {vide Fig. 
3) on to a piece of card-board or wood and then he can cut it out and 
hang it up in his quarters or office against the wall. I would recom¬ 
mend the German trajectory (Fig. 2) to be also retained, as it gives 
the angle of opening for their proposed gun at each range. This is 
different and the bullets are more searching than in our service. By 
drawing a section of the ground from the 6-inch map on his return to 
barracks, he can easily see whether his fire would have passed over 
the force opposed to him; and he can also measure the effect which 
live shell would have produced if fired from or at objects behind a 
ridge. 
It should be observed in Fig. 4, showing a typical piece of ground 
in the New Forest, that in the upper section heights are to distances 
as 5 to 1, so as to show the features of the ground. This apparently 
Trajectories. 
Drawn on 
scale of 6 in, 
to 1 mile 
Useful after 
field-day. 
Example 
from the 
New Forest 
manoeuvres. 
