DIRECT AND INDIRECT FIRE. 
235 
In the attack, the defensive position of the enemy having been 
reconnoitred and his advanced troops driven back on it, the preparation 
for the infantry attack is proceeded with and few changes of target are 
necessary, until the advance of the infantry attack masks the guns, 
which must then advance to a closer range to support it. At this 
stage, the defender’s attention being fully occupied, opportunities for 
the guns to advance may be expected to be frequent and rapidity of 
movement and prompt support to the weaker portions of the line of 
attack will be all important; and here it is hardly necessary to observe 
the direct method only, except in very exceptional circumstances, will 
be possible, or indeed advisable. 
In the defence, the guns will be so posted as to command the avenues 
of approach and one great object of the defender being to conceal the 
position of his batteries, cover whenever practicable will be made use 
of. As the attacker advances changes of target will certainly be 
necessary; but not frequent. In this respect manoeuvres are most 
misleading, as the time necessary for the guns to accomplish their 
object is seldom allowed for and the advance of the attack is rapid and 
uninterrupted. The duration of battles prove that this is not the case 
in practice. 
The question of cavalry attacks upon guns has not been taken into 
account, as it is contended that the opportunities for this arm will, as 
a rule, occur in the later stages of the fight when direct fire is employed. 
When two aiming posts are used the arrangements for making a 
change of target may be considered elaborate; not so however, we 
venture to think, when only one is made use of. All that is required 
in the latter case being for the No. 1 to mount on the carriage and re¬ 
direct the gun while the layer re-adjusts the back post. By this 
method the same latitude of field of fire is open to a battery using 
aiming posts and forming one of a number in a line of guns, as to a 
battery using the direct method; for neither can make a change of 
front without impeding the fire of the batteries on either or both sides 
of it. 
Concentration is a comparative term. A battery, for instance, might Objections 
concentrate on a particular gun or section of another battery ; a tion 
brigade division on a particular battery; the artillery of an army corps 
on a particular locality (village, wood, etc). In none of these cases is 
the difficulty much greater when using the method of indirect fire 
advocated than when firing direct; especially when we consider that 
smoke, rain, haze or snow may compel a change from the tangent or 
Scott sight to the clinometer and aiming posts. But will concentration 
on particular guns or batteries be very easy ? 
Judging from the latest reports from the continent, the Germans, at 
any rate, do not intend to expose their guns, unless obliged to do so. 
In support of which view I quote from a letter sent to me by an officer 
who attended their manoeuvres last autumn, in which he says :— 
“ The artillery always obtained cover from view when coming into 
action; if possible behind bushes and fir trees, but otherwise on the 
reverse slopes of the hills. I constantly saw the guns run up 120 yards 
