Lessons. 
II.— 
Spicheren. 
Caesar’s 
Camp. 
88 ARTILLERY POSITIONS AND SCREENING GUNS. 
This is where the difference between peace manoeuvres and war 
conditions comes in. 
Moral .—■ 
(1.) Do not have your guns on the sky-line. 
(2.) Put them on the forward slope, if not too steep, with gun 
teams behind the crest. 
(3.) Conceal your guns in heather or in front of a wood. 
(4.) Do not be afraid of the enemy’s plunging fire when they 
cannot see you. 
Example II.— “ Battle of Spicheren ” :—- 
Colonel (now Major-General) Maurice, C.B., says : “ French on very 
precipitous spur—the Rotherberg—higher than the ‘Folster Heights’ 
occupied by the Germans. The only place for French guns to get any 
effective fire was the crest, right on the sky-line. Here there was only 
room for one battery which had, however, a wide command of the 
plain. 
The lower heights on the other side gave amplo opportunity for a 
very much more concentrated fire upon the French battery than could 
be returned.” 
From the description, one might imagine the French in a defensive 
position on the edge of a crest of Caesar’s Camp or Hungry Hill at 
Aldershot, firing north and west at Prussian batteries at Eelmoor 
Plain and Miles’ Hill. Only a few batteries could line the height, but 
a very large number of guns could fire in a circle and concentrate on 
the French placed up against the sky-line .—(See also tactical examples 
given on pp. 69, 70 and 71 of this paper). 
Anyone acquainted with Aldershot knows that the guns on Caesar’s 
Camp must be on the very edge of the precipice. Here they can 
deliver a plunging fire all round in a semicircle; but, according to 
General Maurice, “ Plunging fire makes every error of range tell 
severely against the efficiency of fire.” On the other hand, “a grazing 
fire is effective with a wider error of range.” 
Whilst firing down on the Long Valley, these guns on the heights 
must stand up against the sky-line and present a clearly defined series 
of targets to the guns below. As this is a defensive position and there 
is plenty of time, I would put up thick screens in.rear to deceive the 
layers as to the true position of the edge of the hill. These screens 
must act as a dark backgrounder hedge. A gun has a front of roughly 
two yards. Guns are now to be placed 20 yards apart. Two into 20 
goes 10 times. 
If I raise a screen four to five feet high, immediately in rear of the 
guns on the crest, I shall— 
1st.—Do away with the guns projecting on the sky-line and thus 
make it 10 times more difficult for the gun-layers and 
infantry and sharp-shooters below to pick them off. 
2nd.—Artificially raise the whole crest line four to five feet and 
render the guns invisible. 
