DISCUSSION ON ARTILLERY. 
69 
that it took to do all these things. I am sorry that I have 
not the figures with me but they could be worked out again if necessary. 
We made out that when using pack mule supply we could easily keep up 
a good rate of battery fire up to a distance of at least two miles from 
the base where the ammunition was. Considering that all this was 
worked out at home by the authorities at the War Office, I think it 
was a most satisfactory thing to find when we got into the Field. Be¬ 
fore leaving the question of ammunition supply I should say that 
the cartridges ana fuzes had special boxes provided for them, each 
box carrying forty rounds complete,—that is to say forty cartridges 
and forty fuzes. A couple of those boxes would go one on each side 
of the pack-saddle, and were fitted with rings so that there was no 
difficulty in hooking the boxes on each side of the mule and he went 
up to the battery with eighty rounds. Unfortunately in one way, 
we did not actually use all these when we were at Omdurman because 
we were so close to our supply that we had left the mules on the other 
bank, and it was all done by hand, but the boxes were used and 
the little shell carriers that I mentioned, and everything was most 
satisfactory. 
The next point that Sir Henry Brackenbury mentioned was the 
method of laying. In a Howitzer battery you have to be very care¬ 
ful indeed with your laying; it is not a thing that you can afford to 
be “ sketchy ” about. The shells are very heavy and consequently very 
valuable; they cost a great deal of money to buy, they are a great 
expense to transport and they should not be thrown away. Another 
thing is that being of course a curved trajectory as compared with a 
gun, unless you range exactly, you waste your ammunition, because you 
do not get the same latitude as is allowed with the flat trajectory of a 
gun. I determined to use nothing but clinometer elevation which 
has nothing to do with any personal error or excitement of the layer; 
so long as the layer sets the instrument correctly, and gets the bubble 
in the centre of the glass the gun must be laid correctly for elevation. 
We used the clinometer during all the operations at Omdurman with 
the best results, and I was exceedingly pleased with it. 
The rate of fire is the next point. We have never found any 
difficulty in battery fire with six guns of keeping up a rate of twenty 
seconds. We went several times during the firing at Omdurman to 
battery fire, but unfortunately we were always obliged to return to 
sub-division fire on account of the enormous clouds of smoke and 
dust that were made by the shells in bursting; so that after a few 
rounds the target was entirely obscured and it was no good going on 
with battery fire, so we returned again to sub-division fire. But the 
rate of battery fire that a Howitzer battery can comfortably work at 
is not more than twenty seconds and I think it could be worked at less 
if required. 
The Chairman :—One moment if you please. I understand when 
you say that the rate of battery fire was twenty seconds you mean 
that you^ battery fired a round in twenty seconds. 
Lieut.-Colonel Elmslii :—-Yes Sir. 
