DISCUSSION ON ARTILLERY. 
ground, hard at work with your ammunition, pulling the lanyard and 
loading the gun, you have no men to take the part of these men who 
are keeping on working the gun; and if you want to fire faster you 
must have an extra man there to help the loader, the No. 3. 
Major-General J. F. Maurice, c.b. :—It is an extraordinary thing. 
Sir, but that is the very gun which they claim has no recoil and they 
call it a quick firing gun because it has no recoil. 
Major Young :—I think I may say, Sir, that the officer commanding 
the battery did not find that difficulty of recoiling. 
The Chairman :—I see that Captain Dawkins at the end of Colonel 
Elmslie’s lecture in describing these guns said “ They are armed with 
the little Maxim-Nordenfeldt gun, a gun which works in a jacket and 
has hydraulic buffers and springs to check the recoil and bring it 
back into position.” I notice that Messrs. Maxim-Nordenfeldt say : 
“ The Sirdar, Egypt, 25.11.97., states he considers the guns good and 
suitable for that country ” and he says : “ Buffers. It is a question 
whether these are necessary with so small a gun, and a longer trail in 
two parts would apparently answer the purpose, i.e ., prevent the gun 
turning over. These buffers are now supplied and they seem to give 
no trouble. The buffer rods, or pistons are not well designed to lock 
the gun, and are liable to twist; the Maxim-Nordenfeldt Company, 
are, however, improving on this, and the second battery is better 
arranged with locking catches.” Those of us who have seen mountain 
artillery at work know, of course, that the gun very often turns head 
over heels; our own 2*5 inch guns often turn head over heels, and 
this I suppose is an arrangement, judging from what the Sirdar says 
that is really not to check recoil so much as to prevent the gun turning 
over. But you, Captain Nicholson, who were beside these guns 
in action saw this great recoil. 
Captain Nicholson :—Yes Sir, what I mentioned just now is what 
took place immediately alongside of me. The left hand gun of that 
battery was not more than ten yards from the right hand gun of the 
32nd Field Battery, which I was then with. And that left hand gun, 
I will not say the other guns, but this one which was nearest to me I 
saw recoiling after every round and being run up by the gunners 
round it, which of course entails a great deal of fatigue. 
The Chairman :—Then again I see Captain Dawkins told us “ As 
regards the rate of fire of those guns, the ammunition, etc., they are 
not what we call quick-firing guns at all; that is to say there is no 
man who sits on the trail and works them from the shoulder, and 
there is no spade or other arrangement to stop the recoil, but the 
recoil is not very violent, and owing to these large detachments they 
can get through very quick, and an officer tells me their normal rate 
of battery fire is about five seconds per round. The ammunition is 
fixed ammunition, the cartridge and projectile all in one.” 
Colonel F. G. Slade, c.b. :— W as Major Lawrie’s Battery which fired 
513 rounds at Omdurman armed with that gun ? 
The Chairman :—Yes. “ The expenditure of ammunition in those 
batteries was very large, especially one battery, the 4th Egyptian 
