104 EXPERIENCES AT OKEHAMPTON IN 1891. 
the fire of time shrapnel when the target is some 600 to 800 yards 
from the guns, to load with case and await the entrance of the enemy 
into the deadly case zone. 
In Germany, this inconvenience is minimised in that the fuzes require 
no clamping, and, even if shell are taken straight from the limber, 
where they are carried fuzed, the fuzes are carried set so that the shell, 
without further adjustment than putting in the detonating thimble, 
will burst some 250 to 300 metres from the gun. Thus, at a most 
critical moment, the personnel of the battery is relieved from all but the 
most mechanical functions of the service of the piece, and the zone 
immediately beyond that of effective case shot fire is covered by an 
extremely rapid fire of time shrapnel. 
In order to bring the service of our batteries near to this level, 
it was ordained at Okehampton this year that, whenever a battery 
found itself in such a position where it might be taken in flank ( i.e ., 
unavoidably at practice, when the running targets were known to be 
ready) one portable magazine of shrapnel, with the fuzes set and 
clamped at 1^ to If, was to be placed by each gun. When used at 
ranges from 800 to 400 yards, the fire was very rapid, in one case 13 
rounds a minute, and the deep reaching cone of dispersion at short 
ranges amply compensated for the shortness of some of the bursts, 
which were from 200 to 300 yards from the guns, when the target was 
some 700 yards off. The cavalry officers who saw the practice were 
particularly pleased with the feii-cVenfer which their representatives 
braved, and in some cases successfully rode through. 
In referring you to the table of the results of battery service practice 
for the year, it is almost impossible to avoid making some comparison 
between the shooting of the batteries, but I would warn you not to do 
so without very carefully taking into consideration .all the varying 
conditions under which the different batteries practised. For instance, 
to take a single case, the average size of the targets practised at by 
the batteries at the beginning of the season was about 56 dummies, 
while towards the end of the season it dwindled down in some cases to 
26 ; therefore a battery destroying one dummy in the larger target 
would only destroy two per cent, of its target, while a battery destroy¬ 
ing one dummy in the smaller target would destroy four per cent, of 
its target; but the first battery has the chance of destroying more as 
its target is larger. This is only one of the minor difficulties of 
estimation, but, from the data before you, it is possible for everybody 
to make up his mind for himself as to the shooting of the various 
batteries. 
The above-mentioned difficulties do not apply in so great a degree 
when we consider the averages of the past three years, in which the 
target, range, etc., have been approximately the same, and I draw 
your attention to these. 
The percentage of target destroyed per minute has greatly increased 
and this is owing to the smarter and quicker performance of the bat¬ 
teries as exemplified by the increased rate of fire. 
It is, perhaps, natural that with this increased rapidity of fire we 
should lose at first some of the accuracy which was induced by the old 
