ATTACK AND DEFENCE OF A POSITION. 
125 
cease firing wlien masked, and refit and get re-supplied with ammu¬ 
nition ready to open again, to protect the troops falling hack in case 
of a reverse, or to make a forward movement if the capture of some 
part of the enemy’s position renders it possible to bring up more guns 
to prepare the way for a fresh advance. 
The second forward position of the batteries which immediately 
support the infantry attack should be so chosen that the guns may 
be able to fire on the point of attack until the infantry reaches its 
last halting place previous to the final rush. Hoffbauer gives as an 
average distance from the enemy’s position from 700 to 800 yards. 
He says that the tables in the Prussian musketry regulations give 
650 metres as the extreme range at which good musketry shots can 
with certainty hit a broad target the height of a man. Beyond that 
distance he says artillery can work. We are not likely to meet 
troops who shoot better than the Prussians, so what their artillery 
can do ours will also be able to do. And Hoffbauer considers the 
close support of artillery to an infantry attack as so important that 
he says, “ The question to be asked is not, f Can the artillery not give 
the support from a position further back, which it is possible for it to 
give from a position further forwards ?’ The question must much 
rather go, f Cannot the artillery afford that support from a position 
further forwards, which it is now affording from a favourable position 
further back?’” * 
From the first position of the artillery the fire should be cool and 
deliberate, directed first on the defenders’ artillery, next upon the 
point of attack. 
From the second position the point of attack should be the princi¬ 
pal object of fire. The enemy’s batteries should be neglected if they 
fire only on the attacking artillery, but they must be kept in check 
if they direct effective fire on the attacking infantry. When the 
infantry have advanced so far that the point of attack can no longer 
be fired at, then fire must be directed on any reserves that may be 
visible, and the batteries must be prepared to resist counter attacks. 
When a flank attack is intended it is not desirable that batteries 
should at once be sent round with the outer wing of the turning 
force. In the first place, sending artillery early round indicates the 
approaching attack to the enemy; and, secondly, by keeping the 
artillery on the pivot flank it has the opportunity of enfilading a 
retired flank of the enemy’s line, and the principle is adhered to of 
keeping the artillery massed for the decisive preparatory action. 
Later on, when the flank attack is developed, batteries may be sent 
round to the outer wing with advantage, because of the opportunity 
thus afforded of getting a cross fire on the enemy’s position, and of 
the moral effect of artillery approaching the line of retreat of the 
defending force. 
* Hoffbauer, Tactik der Feld Artillerie, p. 57. The evidence of Todleben may be 
also cited as to the importance of continuous and close support of infantry by 
artillery. See the passage from his “ Siege of Sebastopol,” quoted in Home’s Precis 
of Modem Tactics, p. 128. 
