n 
DISCUSSION ON ARTILLERY. 
yon could see the splash of the bullets without any difficulty on the 
desert sand. But I did not always carry that out because it 
took a little time, and there was a much more simple and much more 
effective method of ranging which we nearly always did carry out. 
It was used at Atbara, and I believe also at Omdurmau. It 
was a very simple method which we christened the * fire-hose’ 
system. It consisted of commencing rapid fire on any point close 
to the battery and then gradually elevating the gun without look¬ 
ing over the sight at all until the stream of bullets arrived at the 
object effectively and there you stayed (applause). It sounds rather 
comical but as a matter of fact it was a most effective method and at 
places where it would have been impossible to tell where your bullets 
were going otherwise, it acted most admirably. At the battle of Atbara 
we opened fire first of all on the line of the stockade on which 
the Camerons were advancing, and it would have been impos¬ 
sible to see where our bullets were going if we had opened fire 
straight on the target, because the infantry fire was going on the 
same point; but by the fire-hose system we ran up the bullets to the 
stockade and in that way we could tell at once that the bullets were 
going into the target. I grant that this method would only be possible 
where the ground was a clear sandy desert and you could see exactly 
where the bullets were going. As to the effect of the fire of the Maxims 
one could only of course estimate it; because as a rule there was a tremen¬ 
dous infantry fire on the same objective and it was impossible to pick 
out ones own bullets from the infantry bullets. At the Atbara during 
the first part of the attack when we were firing at the line of stockade 
where the infantry were firing too, we could only judge of the effects 
of our fire by the way the enemy’s fire slackened; but during the 
latter part of the fight at Atbara I changed the target on to the 
enemy’s extreme right, which was beyond the zone of our infantry’s 
fire, and we fired at that for some considerable time. When we got 
to the Zareba afterwards, we found the trenches in that particular 
corner absolutely chock full of dead bodies, so that we had very vivid 
proof of what our bullets did do. Later on at the same battle 
when the Zareba was taken and the Dervishes were bolting out 
of the stockade in rear and trying to double across the open 
ground to get into the scrub beyond (there was only about 100 yards of 
open ground between them and the scrub), they came under our fire 
there and I think there were very few of them that got across that 
ground. We had had many opportunities of course before of judging 
of the accuracy of their fire. I was very anxious to know what the 
Maxims would do at long ranges and was continually carrying out 
practice before we went up to the battle of Atbara, and certainly the 
results were wonderful. I have heard it suggested that Maxims are 
not much good except at short ranges. We fired continually at ranges 
of 1,500 to 2,000 yards and the results were surprising, and I am 
satisfied in my own mind that certainly up to 2000 yards they can be 
depended upon to fire with the greatest accuracy. 
There are two points that struck me particularly with regard to the 
