84 OKEHAMPTON EXPERIENCES, 1893 . 
enemy remaining absolutely passive and allowing you to walk round him, like a 
cooper round a cask. 
I do not quite see how we are to do much towards that. If you take the map 
of any great battle-field in 1870-71 campaign and look at it, you will find that 
from one side to the other there is, practically, a long line of guns ; where there 
are no guns is generally due to the fact that the ground is not suitable; so much 
so that, in certain actions, you will find batteries standing out of action because 
there was no room for them to deploy. Where, then, is the room to manoeuvre 
from flank to flank and avoid fire P There is also a very respectable authority, 
Prince Kraft, who says that the right place is as close in as possible. If you do 
not go in as close as possible you are in the wrong place, and if you go in too 
close you are again in the wrong place, because you would be wiped out. I am 
speaking now of large bodies of artillery, but in questions of small bodies of 
artillery, if you go manoeuvring about to avoid fire or to concentrate your own 
fire without incurring that of the enemy you either go further forward and get 
into trouble, or else you hang back and retard the advance of the infantry, or if 
you go off to a flank you draw them off in a wrong direction to protect you. 
I am sure that if a Divisional Commander came up and found artillery manoeu¬ 
vring in that way and was told they were manoeuvring to avoid fire, the language 
that the Brigade Division Commander would have to stand from his Divisional 
General would be worse than the fire he would have to stand if he went into 
action and took his chance. 
The Chairman. —I should like to say that so far from this subject of concen¬ 
tration and distribution having been thrashed out in the feeling of the Pegiment, 
within the last few days we have received a paper on the subject from an officer 
who has thought much on the subject, and which I am sure you would like to 
hear. 1 * * * I shall not mention his name because by the rules of the Institution we 
are not allowed to publish papers until they have been submitted to the Com¬ 
mittee. I merely bring forward the fact as a proof that I do not think the 
Regiment is quite at one on this question of the concentration of fire. 
If no other gentleman wishes to discuss the question I will call upon Major 
Hughes to reply. 
Major A. J. Hughes. —With respect to the various remarks that have been 
made I do not think there is very much to say now. 
As to the carriage of portable magazines, which was mentioned by Colonel 
Scott, I think Major Flint, who has them on the limbers, told me that very often, 
what I have said in my lecture, about the limbers going away with the portable 
magazine occurred, and although no doubt having cases on the carriage where 
you can carry two rounds does away with the necessity, perhaps, for having the 
magazine up at once, still as long as they are on the limbers the gunner may 
have to run, perhaps, a quarter-of-a-mile with them, and that would be a fatigu¬ 
ing thing to do. 
With regard to the markings for tangent scales, what I specially meant was to 
have graduations ; I did not quite mean that they should be actually marked by 
the figures in yards, but I meant that the hundreds of yards should be marked 
in figures and that you should have a half mark, say, for the 50 yards, and a dot 
for the 25 yards—that would certainly make the setting of the sight much 
easier for the men, but, of course, to do that the sight radius must be lengthened 
and the foresight would have to be put upon the muzzle—it is no use trying to 
crowd figures into a small space, and this is probably the reason of the Indian 
i Since this lecture was delivered the new edition of ‘ c Field Artillery Drill 5 ’ has appeared ; the 
Committee R.A.I. think that it deals so clearly with the question of concentration of fire that no 
further discussion is at present necessary. They have, therefore, determined not to publish the 
excellent paper referred to by the Chairman.— A.J.A ,, 
