61 
OKEHAMPTON EXPERIENCES, 1898. 
BY 
MAJOR A. J. HUGHES, R.A. 
(A Lecture delivered at the Royal Artillery Institution, 12th October , 1893.) 
COLONEL W. S. CITRZON, R.A., IN THE CHAIR. 
The Chairman —Gentlemen, I do not tliink I need introduce Major 
Hughes to you, because you all know him. I will ask him, therefore, 
to kindly give us his lecture. 
Gentlemen —I have much pleasure in responding to the kind invita¬ 
tion to deliver this year's lecture on Okehampton Experiences. I 
hope, though many of the details are rather dry, that at least some of 
them may be of interest and lead to discussion. 
The points brought to notice are chiefly taken from the daily criti¬ 
cisms, held by the Camp Commandant, and are those which at the time 
seemed to raise most interest and comment. 
I have given examples in order to show how the various points arose, 
and not with any intention of exposing faults. The practice was con¬ 
ducted on much the same lines as that of last year; targets and conditions 
of the Battery Service Practice being as nearly as possible alike. 
The orders given to Battery Commanders were better worded and 
more continuous, so as to try and avoid the delays between cease firing, 
limbering up, and action at the next position. Thus, when firing was 
going on at one position, the order “ prepare to advance" was handed to 
the Battery Commander, so that, as soon as “ cease firing" was given, 
the battery could limber up and move off at once to the next position. 
The average time, taken from a large number of series, between 
cease firing and moving off was 3 min. 30 sec. This appears rather 
long ; on occasions it took as much as 6 min., and on others only 
about 1; probably under ordinary practice conditions a battery should 
be able to move in about 2 min. after the order “ cease firing" has 
been given. The great causes of delay were fuzing shell and filling 
magazines. When Ho. 6 kept sufficient rounds fuzed to fill the 
magazines it did not take long to load and fill them. The supply 
worked best in those batteries whose No. 6's had orders to fuze a shell 
whenever their gun fired; they thus always had the right number 
fuzed. This method was rendered easy at Okehampton, as every 
shrapnel had a time and percussion fuze; the only difficulty arising 
when common were required, 
2, YOL. XXJ, 
