RUSSIAN ARTILLERY TACTICS. 385 
until reinforced by a battery of Cossack horse artillery. The latter 
opened fire from a position which took the Turks in flank, and com¬ 
pelled them to fall back.When General Kriidener saw 
this he ordered a general advance of the infantry, and the six batteries 
east of Vubla moved forward to a fresh position nearer to the Turkish 
line. - ” The Russians eventually obtained complete possession of the 
heights commanding the town and fortress of Nikopolis, which had no 
option but to surrender. Here we have an instance of sound artillery 
tactics on the Russian side. The position is first thoroughly prepared 
by the artillery; the enemy's artillery fire is subdued; there is then 
combined action between the artillery and infantry, whose united efforts 
compel the Turks to retire. 
The battle of Mkopolis stands alone; everywhere else we find a 
repetition of the tactics of Zewin. We find infantry attacking positions 
without waiting for the artillery preparation we find guns dispersed 
instead of concentrated; we find them firing for hours, even for days 
together, at distant ranges ;f we find them remaining stationary while 
the infantry are attacking ; we find them withdrawn for fear of loss 
just at the very time when their fire would be most useful we find, 
in short, throughout the early part of the war, all the first principles of 
modern artillery tactics openly, repeatedly, systematically disregarded. 
It was not till quite towards the end of the war that the Russian 
commanders, taught by bitter experience, learnt how to make a right 
use of artillery in action. At the battle of the Aladja-Dagh, General 
Heimann (the same who commanded at Zewin) did not venture to 
attack the Aulia-Tepeh—the centre and key of the Turkish position— 
until he had massed no fewer than 67 guns, which, advancing to within 
1800 yds. range, poured in for the space of three hours a storm of 
The battle 
of Niko- 
polis is a 
solitary 
instance of 
sound 
artillery 
tactics on 
the Russian 
side during 
the first 
part of the 
war. 
Battle of 
the Aladja- 
Dagh, 15th 
of October, 
1877. 
* Thus Mi*. Archibald Forbes, in criticising Prince Schahofskoy’s conduct during the second 
attack on Plevna, ascribes his frightful loss in men to this reason :—“ A long and anxious inspec¬ 
tion,” he writes, “seemed to satisfy Schahofskoy and the chief of his staff that the time had come 
when the infantry could strike with effect.In other words, we were about to launch 
ten or twelve thousand men against commanding entrenched positions held by an immensely 
superior force, and no whit crushed by our preliminary artillery fire.” 
f All who witnessed the artillery attack on Plevna, which preceded the infantry assault in 
September, 1877, allude to the incredible conduct of the Russian artillerymen in continuing to fire, 
day after day, at long ranges which rendered their fire harmless. “ Although yesterday evening 
the necessity of advancing the batteries nearer the Turkish positions was admitted on all hands, we 
found this morning, on looking at the position, that nothing of the kind had been done. The fire 
of the Turkish redoubt of Grivica does not seem to have slackened in the least.”— Daily News 
correspondence. 
Again, another eye-witness of the attack on the extreme left, near the Loftcha road, says■ 
“Imeretinsky’s artillery is where it was yesterday, fully 2§ miles from the redoubts which he was 
attacking, and which cannot be even visible to his artillerymen.”— Daily News correspondence. 
The same complaint is made from Asia. An eye-witness of the battle of the Yahni-Tepeh, 
fought on the 2nd of October, 1878, laconically remarks that “ on seeing from the Kaback-Tepeh 
some forty guns firing with a range of three miles at earthworks which were prudently left empty 
by the Turks, it seemed to me that the attack lacked the character which was likely to secure 
victory.” —Daily News correspondence. 
X “ The Russians seem to be very much afraid of losing their artillery. I have already spoken of 
the unaccountable conduct of their artillery in stopping fire upon the Turkish redoubts when the 
attack began, and when it ought to have been hottest.”— Daily News correspondence . 
50 
