'380 
FIELD ARTILLERY POSITIONS, 
position and indirect laying altogether, and the last article I read com¬ 
pares these rival systems only. 
I am quoting from a German article when I say that this “ pulling 
and pushing ” policy is found to be most distasteful to the soldiers, 
and I do not think that what we have heard of it in England has given 
us a complete idea of what it means. The Germans are no stronger 
than are we, and they find that one gun detachment alone is not able to 
deal with the gun. Therefore twenty men are harnessed to one gun, 
and half the guns are sometimes brought on by all the gunners, while 
the other half wait their turn. It reminds one of La Rothiere and the 
guns on the ridge of Trannes during the bad weather of 1814. The 
men pull on a sort of "prolong” (Langtau) and I will translate 1 a 
criticism of this means of progression just as I came across it the other 
day:— 
“ The f prolong J used for the purpose has several disadvantages : 
in consequence of its great length, the foremost men who pull on it 
must show themselves on the crest line in order to get the gun into 
the proper position. Besides, it is well known that a.force of draught 
acts with diminishing power the further it is applied from the weight 
to be drawn, and that twenty men pulling on one rope do not produce 
double the power of ten.” 
The writer goes on to advocate two ropes in place of one, but the 
point I wish to accentuate is sufficiently illustrated without my following 
him further, since it must be clear to all that in this “ creeping ” 
system, if the horses are less exposed, it is so at the expense of the 
men, while the delay and labour involved can scarcely fail to often seriously 
interfere with the service of the piece and the timely tactical application of 
the arm. In this country on the other hand we endeavour to bring as few 
men as possible under fire and, except for the minute and a quarter that 
the drivers and horses are exposed, only have six men at the most with 
the guns of our Field Artillery. 
Let us put the two systems side by side for a moment and analyse 
their claims to our favour. I will first refer you to page 10 of the 
iC Annual Report of our School of Gunnery.” You will see that the 
two methods were tried at Okehampton last summer. The gunners 
who pushed the guns into position on "a gentle slope and hard 
ground, free from boulders and heather” (under very favourable 
conditions therefore), were exposed to view for one minute and 
fourteen seconds, while the horses and drivers which performed the 
same task were at a similar disadvantage for one minute and twenty 
seconds. The Germans, as I have shown, have found that on ground 
such as we would probably fight over, twenty men are needed to 
pull each gun into its place. The-reserve of strength in horses is 
enough to enable them to always do the work on any reasonable 
ground in the same time. Therefore, if we accept the German 
method as correct, twenty men would often be put on three guns 
and then have to go back to fetch up the other three, and you would 
1 “ Milital^AYochenblatt,’ , No. 4, 1897, 
