DIRECT AND INDIRECT EIRE. 
BY 
MAJOR J. L. KEIR, R.A. 
Before proceeding to a consideration of these two kinds of fire it will 
be as well to make clear the following :— 
(1.) That indirect fire is not advocated as a rival but as an 
auxiliary to direct fire, only to be employed when attendant circum¬ 
stances (such as ground, natural or artificial screens, the nature of the 
fight) render its use clearly advantageous. 
(2.) The circumstances under which indirect fire is advocated. 
(3.) The kind of indirect fire it is proposed to use and the method 
proposed for its employment. 
(1.) That in order to gain decisive results you must eventually 
come to close quarters goes without saying and, when this becomes 
necessary, all thoughts of personal safety cease. The decisive moment 
of the action has arrived. It is either win or lose. 
Before however close quarters are reached, both attacker and de¬ 
fender will make every possible use of the ground to turn it to their 
own advantage. The object of the former being to reach decisive 
ranges with as little loss as possible and with the morale of his troops 
unimpaired ; that of the latter to delay the attacker's advance and to 
conceal his own dispositions for defence. So long, therefore, as is 
compatible with good effect, cover will be utilized by all arms in the 
earlier stages of the fight and indirect fire will be of importance to the 
artillery. In the later stages, owing to the general confusion, guns 
will have many opportunities of advancing to close quarters unobserved 
and, rapidity and effect being of first importance, direct fire will be the 
rule. 
Such being the general outlines of the attacker's and defender's 
aims we shall endeavour to foresee how the action of the guns will 
support them. 
(2.) The circumstances under which indirect fire is advocated. 
It will seldom happen that the defender selects a position against 
which the entire artillery of the attack can be massed under cover 
within range of him and therefore, the mass from which the prepara¬ 
tion for the attack is made will, as a rule, have to be more or less in 
the open. In a long line,, however, certain features of ground will 
always occur which should be taken advantage of as a means of cover 
and indirect fire made use of. 
Indirect an 
auxiliary to 
direct lire 
When use of 
indirect 
advocated 
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