362 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1894 . 
Objects to be 
kept in view 
in training 
the Brigade 
Division. 
Precise 
Drill. 
Simple Drill. 
Essay Competition in 1892. 1 The papers, each in their way, were so 
exhaustive of the subject that there is no necessity to return to its dis¬ 
cussion, unless it be to urge the importance of the preliminary 
instruction of the battery being systematic and complete. Until it is 
complete no attempt should be made to mass batteries for combined 
tactical instruction. The task of the Brigade Division Commander is 
not to teach his batteries, but to teach Commanding Officers how to 
lead their batteries for a common tactical purpose under his direction. 
“ Close mutual understanding between the Brigade Division Com¬ 
mander and battery leaders is the object to be striven for.” 2 
The main purpose of Brigade Division training should be to teach 
only what is useful for war service. A certain amount of what is known 
as “precise” drill is necessary at the beginning of each season as a 
basis for manoeuvre instruction. Battery Commanding Officers, as well 
as those under them, require to be trained in parade precision. There 
is no better discipline than that which comes from being drilled. 
Unless Battery Commanders are subjected to this test themselves they 
are apt to forget the difficulties of their subordinates, who are habitually 
drilled under their own direction. It must never be forgotten that 
drill comes before manoeuvre, and that the “ Grand Parade ” is the 
“ touchstone ” of discipline. 3 
While the Brigade Division Commander should begin his course of 
training with precise drill, he must equally bear in mind its object. 
Drill is not an end, but a means to an end. It is the foundation of the 
building, not the building itself. “ The object of drill,” to quote the 
words of the German Artillery Regulations, “is the training and 
preparation of leaders and men for their duties in war.” 4 The tempta¬ 
tion to practice unnecessary precision at the expense of manoeuvre 
tactics must be steadily resisted. “All petty refinements should be 
prohibited.” 5 When time is so short, not an hour should be occupied 
beyond the actual needs of the case. Only simple drill movements 
should be attempted, but these should be correctly performed—evenly, 
noiselessly, rapidly. 
“In war simplicity alone gives promise of success.” 6 This fact was 
thoroughly grasped by the compilers of our own drill-book published 
last year. There are now only 35 movements laid down for battery 
drill, and only 14 for the Brigade Division. All complicated evolutions 
have disappeared from the Regulations. The experience of the 
Franco-German War showed that when employed in large masses in 
combination with other troops artillery must be brought into action by 
1 “ Proceedings ” of the It.A. Institution, August, September, October, November, 1892. 
2 “Drill Regulations of the German Pield Artillery,” 1892. 
3 “ The Grand Parade is of very great importance for the artillery. An Arm in which one man 
finds it his duty in battle to sponge out a gun, another to fire it, and a third to bring up a shell, 
and in which in action no man ever stands in line with another, is thus too much inclined to con¬ 
sider the parade as a mere accessory and useless play. But the parade is the touchstone for the 
discipline and the obedience of the troops.” “Letters on Artillery,” by Prince Kraff zu Hohen- 
lohe Ingelfingen. 
4 “Drill Regulations of the German Pield Artillery,” 1892. 
5 Ibid. 
6 Ibid. 
