208 
FIELD ARTILLERY FIRE. 
(a.) After the 5th round the C.O. having got the target within a 
bracket of 100 yards, can forsee the end of the series, and, 
by the time the fire has got round to number 5 gun again, he 
will want no more common shell. After round 5 therefore 
he gives the word “Prepare for Shrapnel.” This applies to 
the whole battery and means that when the common shell in 
the guns are fired the guns are to be relaid and the No. 8 of 
each is to stand with a shrapnel shell and time fuze in his 
hand ready to set the fuze. But the 0.0. does more than 
this for the Left Section, one gun of which, No. 5, is empty 
aud the other about to be fired, he completes the word of 
command by giving them a length of fuze so that the load¬ 
ing of that section can be completed. Thus there will be no 
pause in the fire when he comes round to them again. He 
gives “ Left Section Fuze 14;” that is, the fuze for the 
lower of the last two elevations that have bracketted the 
target, which cannot be very far off the length required and 
at all events is good enough for the first two trial fuzes. To 
get the approximate length of fuze it is quite sufficient to 
divide the number of hundreds of yards by two, thus for 
2800 yards fuze 14 will be very nearly right, the range table 
is thus dispensed with. Trial fuzes must always be set by 
sections as, being variable in their burning, it is better to 
take the mean of two bursts as a datum for corrections. 
(3.) See page 206. 
(c.) The mean of rounds 11 and 12 gave a burst of 36 feet, which 
is too high, the fuze for the next section is therefore length¬ 
ened by one-half. (At least one-half should be taken to 
avoid creeping', up.) After round 12 the word “ Bight Sec¬ 
tion Fuze 14| ” is given. The Left and Centre Sections relay 
their guns and stand ready to load with shrapnel as soon as 
they get a length of fuze given to them. 
[d.) The mean burst of rounds 13 and 14 being 12 feet up, and 
therefore too low, the fuze has to be shortened ; but, by this 
time, the C.O. can see that the length of fuze will probably 
be 14J, he therefore desires to fire a verifying series and 
orders, after round 14, “Centre and Left Sections Fuze 14J.b 
(e.) The mean of rounds 15 and 16 being 20 feet, or the distance 
required, in order to avoid having a pause in the fire after 
round 18, the C.O., after round 16, gives the word “ Right 
Section Fuze 14J.” 
(/.) The mean of rounds 15, 16, 17 and 18 being very nearly 20 
feet, alter round 18 the C.O. gives the word “ Keep to Fuze 
14J, Ordinary Fire.” The guns of the Bight Section being 
already loaded there is no pause. 
In cases where the target is at all indistinct or where, there being 
no telescopic sight available, there are difficulties in estimating the exact 
height of burst it is better to lengthen the fuze until a series of bursts 
