DISCUSSION ON ARTILLERY. 
85 
occasions only; and the reason they were run up then was not 
that they had recoiled far, but that the trail was digging a hole in 
the ground. With regard to the battery which Major Crarapton 
mentioned, you heard that they had had to run up after every round, 
I saw that myself. Sir, with this gun in the Egyptian Army, it was a 
battery alongside of me. I do not think I am exaggerating when I 
say that after every round they had to run up five yards. That of 
course, as most people know, is on account of so short a gun and so 
large a shell. 
The Chairman :—You had not to run up ? 
Captain Nicholson :—No Sir. 
The Chairman :—You were on rocky ground you say. 
Captain Nicholson :—I cannot call it rocky ground, Sir; it was sand 
covered with broken boulders and small stones. 
The Chairman :—Did the wheels sink in much ? 
Captain Nicholson :—No Sir, not very much in the positions from 
which we fired. 
The Chairman :—Then you mean practically that the gun did not 
recoil. 
Captain Nicholson :—Hardly at all, Sir, not enough to have to run 
up,—that is what I wish to convey. 
Major A Hamilton-Gordon :—Was the ground rising in the rear, 
or was it comparatively level ? 
Captain Nicholson :—It was practically flat. 
Major Crampton: —Might I ask another question—whether the 
carriage on which the gun is mounted is the one known as Mark I., or 
Mark II., that is the one with the hydraulic buffer ? 
Captain Nicholson :—It has no hydraulic buffer, it has merely drag 
shoes. 
The Chairman :—Would anyone else like to ask any questions or 
make any remarks about this ? 
Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie :—I do not know, Sir, whether it will be of 
any interest, but I may, perhaps, say that the howitzer battery had to 
employ the infantry escort to run up the guns. We found it tire our 
own men a good deal, and the infantry escort assisted. 
The Chairman : —Were those Egyptian troops ? 
Lieut.-Colonel Elmslie :—No Sir, British infantry. 
The Chairman :—There is only one point in connection with this 
part of the subject that I would say anything about,—well there are 
two things. 
First of all I am a little surprised at hearing that there was so little 
recoil from the gun, because our experience with these guns is that 
they are rather apt to recoil, and in fact it is largely on that account, 
I think, that people are calling out so much and so rightly for Q.F. 
guns, and certainly we have found that recoil. It depends, of course, 
greatly on the ground; if the ground is soft it would check the recoil 
very much. 
The other point that I would mention and say a word about is the 
fuze. It has been said that a simpler setting fuze is required, and 
