115 
THE GERMAN METHOD OF BRINGING 
GUNS INTO ACTION. 
BY 
COLONEL A. E. TURNER, C.B., A.-A.-G., R.A. 
At the present time considerable divergence of opinion exists as to the 
best and safest method of bringing np guns into a fire position. With 
us it is the rule to do so by means of the horses, and to unlimber 
in the position itself without any regard to cover or exposure to the 
fire of the enemy. With the Germans, on the contrary, it is the 
custom, with certain permissible exceptions, to unlimber in rear of a 
fire position and to run the guns up to it by hand. I think, there¬ 
fore, that perhaps my experiences of the latter artillery may not be 
altogether devoid of interest. In the non-official portion of the Militar- 
Wochenblatt , No. 88, 1896, appeared an article condemning the 
German system of “ creeping” into position, as the writer sarcastically 
terms it. Among other objections, he urges that by seeking cover and 
running up the guns deliberately by hand, the infantry, when exposed 
to the fire of the enemy’s artillery, would be left in the lurch, shattered 
and rendered incapable, owing to their heavy losses, of taking advantage 
of the victory of our guns over his and of completing any success 
gained by our artillery ; or, as he puts it, “what good will it be to us 
if, when our artillery has subdued that of the enemy, our infantry has 
already been so shattered by the fire of his guns that it is incapable of 
completing the victory.” 
Surely this is a case of putting the cart before the horse. One of 
the most generally known and fundamental principles of latter day 
tactics is, that the fire of the hostile artillery must be subdued before 
the infantry advances to the attack, and that until it is subdued such 
attack is impossible. Again, as will be seen from the following extract 
of a letter from an eminent German artillerist, to whom I wrote for 
information on the subject, such a case, if it did happen, would be one 
of those exceptional ones, for which it is enjoined that guns are to be 
brought up to the firing position by the horses and there unlimbered 
and brought into action as speedily as possible. 
The letter runs as follows :— 
“With regard to your other question with reference to the method 
of coming into action, our rule is, that the guns are to be brought up 
to the firing position by means of the horses, only so far as the latter 
are under cover from the fire of the enemy, and that when that can 
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