76 
ARTILLERY POSITIONS AND SCREENING GUNS. 
Useful when 
selecting 
ground for 
ranges. 
Exposure of 
horses in 
action. 
Horses at 
; "limber 
supply 5 ’ in 
great danger 
Proposal to 
leavetrays of 
ammunition 
at the guns. 
Horses 
should he 
placed out 
of the 
trajectory 
behind the 
ridge. 
makes the trajectory much less searching than it really is. In the 
lower section the drawing is correct, but everything appears flat. As a 
matter of fact, all reverse slopes on which a limber can stand are 
searched throughout by artillery fire at ranges over 2,000 yards. 
Trajectories are most useful things to study, as I recently was able to 
show that a shell fired on a proposed a-rtillery range would go clean 
into an old lady’s house. If the gun were to be fired on the level, she 
would probably be in safety; but the fact of pointing a high velocity 
gun up-hill increases the range. Many people imagine that a high 
mountain will stop a shell. This is quite a mistake when firing up hill. 
Witness the “ Hay ” ranges and others which have had to be aban¬ 
doned when 12-pr. and 13-pr. guns were used for practice. No. 1 
range at Okehampton is none too safe in this respect. 
Exposure op Horses. 
I have measured the square space taken up by :— 
(1.) A Battery of Horse or Field Artillery in action, “wagon 
supply ; ” Fig. 8. 
(2.) A Field battery “ limber supply ; ” Fig. 9. 
(3.) A Horse battery “ limber supply ; 33 Fig. 10. 
I have graphically depicted the exposure of each in different colours, 
but all on the same scale. 
Anyone can see at a glance that there is the greatest possible 
difference in the amount of exposure in each case. 
It must be remembered that I have rather underestimated than over¬ 
estimated the exposure of the horses, because I have taken a horse as 
being exactly facing the enemy. If the animal were “sideways on,” 
the space occupied would be doubled and we should get two square 
yards instead of one as the exposure of each horse. 
Who is to say that horses when shell are bursting among them 
during “ limber supply 33 are not going to kick or plunge and face in 
every direction but the right one ? Nay rather. I gg further and 
assert that no battery commander in real warfare will attempt to 
FIGHT HIS GUNS IN THE OPEN WITH HIS GUN TEAMS HOOKED INTO THE 
LIMBERS AND HIS DETACHMENT HORSES CLOSE BY, IN THE PRESENT POSITION 
LAID DOWN FOR f LIMBER SUPPLY.’ 
“Wagon supply” should always be adopted with the very rarest 
exceptions. It is the duty of the Captains to see that the wagons are 
up with the guns. If he cannot get his wagons up in time, the Bat¬ 
tery Commander will either have to unhook his horses; or, better 
still, we shall have a fresh pattern of limber with trays containing 
so many shell and cartridges each; these trays will be secured by a 
clip or a knob, on pressing which the trays will be drawn out and left 
on the ground in rear of the guns. 
The limbers could then be moved at a walk to the rear and placed 
behind a ridge, well out of the trajectory of the enemy’s guns and 
rifle fire aimed, at our batteries. 
By proceeding at a walk to the rear, the limbers would draw off 
some of the fire from their own guns; and at the same time would 
themselves be less vulnerable than when halted close up to them. 
