OKEHAMPTON EXPERIENCES, 1893 . 
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objection to" having* the hundreds of yards marked on each division, the present 
scales being so very short. 
With regard to the clinometer I did not mean to disparage the Watkin one, 
but it is made with a drum, and being made with a drum I believe it must either 
be marked in yards or degrees, that it cannot have the two markings on the 
drum. That was the chief reason of my objection to it; and also, I believe, 
that the Mark II. clinometer when it is carried in the limber for any time is 
jolted about, and when it is taken out if the battery uses it at once it is quite 
useless. It is a very good clinometer provided it is adjusted, taken out, and 
used, but if it is trotted about for some time the drum shakes a good deal. 
With regard to the question why we cannot carry fuzed shell, I am afraid I 
cannot answer it. I must refer Colonel Maurice to some one else. 
Colonel C. E. S. Scott. —The system of carrying fuzed shell is under trial 
at the present moment. 
Major A. J. Hughes. —With regard to the other question raised by Colonel 
Maurice as to distribution, I think I cannot do better than leave it in Major 
White’s hands. 1 certainly agree with everything that Major White says about 
it, and I think a great deal of good has been done by having the discussion, and 
also that the quotation given by Major White, or rather the finish of the quota¬ 
tion, namely, “ that the Herman guns had previously established their great 
superiority over the enemy’s artillery,” explains my belief in it, and shows that 
the advocates for “ distribution ” do not discard “ concentration ” against the 
tactical point at all. It is a great thing, of course, to get concentration when it 
can be obtained by superiority of numbers. 
There is one thing also that, perhaps, has not been mentioned, namely, the 
difficulties about turning the fire of a Brigade Division from one place to another. 
It is easy to say that one switches the fire first on one battery and then on another 
right along the line; but each switch takes nearly five or ten minutes during 
peace time, and whenever a switch takes place you lose so many rounds, because 
if you fire battery to battery you keep up your fire more regularly and you fire 
considerably quicker than when you have to go scattering or turning fire from 
one part of the target to the other, and as a consequence one gets many more 
rounds into the target battery. If you take the case of three batteries against 
three, one Brigade Division concentrates against one battery while the other fires 
battery to battery, or each battery on the centre section of the opposing one. 
The three batteries who fire on the centre sections will in a certain time fire 
considerably more ammunition than the .batteries who turn their fire first from- 
one to the other, and this extra ammunition that they fire should certainly quite 
make up for the concentration that will be obtained by the other three batteries 
turning their fire from one to the other 1 
Gentlemen, I have to thank you for the kind way in which you have listened 
to my lecture. 
The Chairman. —I am sure we have great pleasure in thanking Major Hughes 
for having come here, and for his able and interesting lecture. 
1 It was, I think, this consideration and the fact that officers and men are human, and human 
nature is to hit the person who hits one hack ; and, further, that a Commanding Officer’s hands 
should not be tied to concentrate on all occasions, so much depending on circumstances that led to 
the opinion (the deliberate opinion, speaking of war, of over 90 per cent, of field officers at Oke- 
hampton) quoted in the lecture, which opinion agrees fairly with “ Field Artillery Drill,” as in 
Chapter IV., talking of the artillery duel, the wording is, “ May be concentrated on individual 
batteries of the enemy in succession.” Thus giving the Commanding Officers a free hand, and 
again, “ Batteries must be detailed to keep down the fire of guns continuing or renewing their 
fire.” The latter also upholds Major White’s opinion of the ce peace nightmare.” 
