SPEED IN FIRING WITH GARRISON GUNS. 
109 
it is impossible to satisfactorily lay down an absolute rule for all ; a very 
little of the most rapid possible firing best shows what is wanted, time 
being taken from the C.O.’s station issuing an order to engage ; with 
one or two attempts at stopping and switching fire. Such practice is 
often a revelation to those who believe in existing means of Fire Control. 
(6) It is almost impossible for Garrison Artillery to become highly 
effective shooters at fast vessels without much practice, yet it is unlikely 
that a larger supply of practice ammunition will be granted. But the 
little they get could be, and would be, turned to much greater advantage 
if they had fast targets to shoot at. The drill book may teach them the 
right lines on which to work, just as the Badminton Library tells a 
novice how to hold a gun, and where to aim, to hit a rocketing 
pheasant, but the pheasant is probably safe from a man whose only ex¬ 
perience of shooting is book lore. However few rounds are available 
Coast Artillery must have targets which can move at a pace approxi¬ 
mating that of war vessels. If Artillery are supplied with reasonably 
fast steam vessels, under their own control, very fast targets would soon 
be forthcoming at the cost of a very few rounds, while the value of 
what was left would be vastly increased. It is next to impossible to 
make officers and men realize the necessity of extreme speed of fire 
when a target remains for hours in range, when they know that the 
tug supplied cannot, even without a target, slip away in a hurry out of 
the gun arc ; and when it cannot move reasonably quick] y out of foul 
range into fair open water. Yery fast targets would almost by them¬ 
selves teach rapidity of fire and give the necessary amount of coolness 
and nerve. Every effort should be made to obtain them. Too often 
any sort of tug, obtained at a cheap rate because useless for any other 
work, is thought good enough for towing an Artillery target. 
Even at the present day many a round is fired at a motionless barrel, 
in waters free from shipping, three or four minutes or more elapsing 
between each round. This is almost wasting the value of the ammuni¬ 
tion. When Q F. guns are mounted the very fastest targets are needed 
to enable any useful training to be given and to eliminate false con¬ 
ceptions of fire control. 
(7) The training of officers and men closely follows the means given 
them for work. Our officers and men are excellent but get compara¬ 
tively little actual practice in shooting. Some of the slowness of their 
fire is due to over-control in details, a want of confidence in individual 
intelligence ; to anxiety to make the most of each of the few rounds 
given them ; and possibly to too constant criticism of practice. The 
life of a modern gun is but short; its ammunition is expensive and it 
is useless to hope for a grant of sufficient heavy ammunition to ensure 
brilliant rapid shooting from large guns, but very good shooting may 
be possible nevertheless. To train layers to lay quickly, Group Officers 
and B.C.’s to act decisively and to avoid uselessly long predictions, it 
may be necessary to take extensively to 1" tube shooting and to trust 
more than ever to drill rounds and existing annual allowance of 
ammunition for proficiency in loading, always working against time as 
soon as men pass from the elementary stage. Individual intelligence 
and self-reliance must be more cultivated and intelligent fire superinten¬ 
dence must supersede rigid fire control , at any rate among well-trained 
Garrison Artillery. Fire Commanders should so teach their subordinates 
