SOME EXPERIENCES IN EGYPT . 
85 
“ continuous, and, (here of course, T am alluding to tlie 32nd Field Battery) 
“ another most important matter was that we were able to obtain the range direct 
“ from the guns. 
“ This not only ‘gets on’ the Infantry fire at once, but gives confidence, be- 
“ cause the men know they are right when they see the shells go home and feel 
“ that from those very shells they get their own sighting. 
“ Of course this is not always possible, but at Omdurman the guns and infant- 
“ ry were so close that it was easy to obtain an obviously successful range—the 
“ long range fire of the Infantry seemed to me wonderful, and we had all ranges 
“ from 1,200 yards in, taken ready the night before. Here again it is difficult to 
“say how much damage was done by Maxims. I suspect their fire to be more 
“ efficient at shorter ranges. It is to the mutual support afforded by the (necess- 
“ arily) close action of guns, maxims, and rifles that I attribute the great accuracy 
“ of fire, and the fire was even more accurate than at first appears, because (I be- 
“ lieve I may say) very many of the wounded had many more than one bullet in 
“ them. I know of one Dervish described by my medical officer as having nine 
“ separate bullet wounds and another with four. If then you take 30,000 as put 
“ out of action by fire wounds, and take 20,000 as the infantry’s share, you see 
“ what a large number of bullets found billets. 
“ In the counting you may put quite three bullets down a man. 
“ My own Battalion fired with six companies in the firing line, 32 rounds per 
“ man for the first phase of the fight. 
“ In several places we again got our range from the guns. It should not be con- 
“ sidered that at long range infantry fire, one bullet is likely to kill or wound more 
“ than one man, because of the fire angle. 
“ I hope this won’t bore you, but the fire effect was so great as to modify mg 
“ idea of tactics. More than ever will ‘ground’ and a ‘general’s eye’ come in. 
“ Yours, &c., 
Y. Hatton.” 
The Chairman : Major Elmslie, would you like to make any remarks now on 
anything which has been said by any of the. other speakers ? 
Major Elmslie : No Sir, there is nothing that occurs to me particularly. 
I do not think there is anything more to say, if anyone likes to ask any questions 
I shall be happy to answer them. 
The Chairman : Now ladies and gentlemen, there are but a very few minutes 
left to us. I think it is Byron who says that 
“ Happiness for man, poor sinner, 
Since Eve ate apples much depends on dinner” 
We have arrived at the stage when our happiness begins to depend on dinner, 
so that I will only say a very few words. I cannot help thinking it is rather 
a pity that this lecture, which really has treated of a very interesting subject in 
two distinct ways, has not had two days allowed for it. There is the popular side, 
the extraordinarily interesting and delightful picture which Major Elmslie has 
given us of the Campaign, (applause) and there is also the technical Artillery side 
of the question which it seems to me we really ought not to discuss in a mixed 
audience like this consisting of both sexes, because it is infinitely dull and tedious 
to one of the sexes, and I think it would be a pity if we have no opportunity of 
discussing separately that subject which is to us gunners so intensely interesting. 
I would therefore suggest now to the Secretary that there should be a day 
set apart to raise the subject of the actual Artillery work that was done in Egypt 
and to discuss it separately, when we could hear all about it in greater detail 
without the presence of the ladies (applause). All that I would say to you now 
is this : I ask you to join with me in giving a most hearty vote thanks to 
