FIELD ARTILLERY FIRE. 
3-27 
There are a few points in connection with the above which demand 
some further consideration. 
No scheme is desirable which involves the unlimbering of the 
wagons, for this either leads to unnecessary labour in repacking 
ammunition or to the wagons going forward half full and thus delay¬ 
ing the despatch of the empty echelon to the Divisional Reserve. 
Removal of teams .—When teams are removed, the limber or wagon 
should most undoubtedly be left facing to the front, in order to afford 
as much protection as possible to the numbers issuing ammunition. 
When teams are not removed, it is a question whether vehicles should 
not be reversed, in order to provide as much protection as possible to 
the teams and thus endeavour to preserve the power of movement to 
the last. 
Since the above paragraphs were written a system of supply from 
the wagons has been formulated at Aldershot and promulgated in the 
Instructions for Practice for 1892, p. 24, Q.V. If it be compared with 
the above it will be seen that it is open to the following criticism. 
The three wagons being drawn up in rear o'f their guns the target is 
unnecessarily deep and the Nos. 4 have a long distance to run, es¬ 
pecially those of the guns not covered, who have also a 19 yard interval 
to cross. If there is no objection to Nos. 4 crossing a wide interval 
then, for reasons given above, a two-wagon is preferable to a three- 
wagon system. 
It has been objected that a two-wagon system destroys the sectional 
principle. The sectional principle has nothing to do with it. The 
attention of Sectional Officers is, or should be, entirely taken up to the 
front by their guns, it is the duty of the Captain to look to everything 
in rear of the line of guns, including the ammunition, supply, and, as he 
is not a Sectional Officer, it does not matter to him whether there are 
two or three wagons to be supervised. 
Renewal of the supply from the Ammunition Columns and Park.— When 
wagons arrive they must be repacked and sent off again to the front 
with the greatest rapidity; if pressed for time, one or more of the 
ammunition wagons with limbers from the Ammunition Column may" 
be sent straight off to the battery requiring it without waiting to 
transfer the ammunition to the battery wagons. 
Ammunition carried in the ammunition and store wagons should 
first be issued in order to keep the ammunition wagons with limbers 
full, in case they should be wanted in the fighting line in a hurry. 
The position of these reserves on the line of march is a matter of 
great moment, about which, at present, some doubt exists. 
In “ Field Artillery Drill,” Yol. II., pp. 227-228, it states :— 
“ As all ammunition reserves will march in rear of the com¬ 
batant troops it may probably happen that, in the case of an 
Army Corps marching by a single road, the Divisional Reserves 
will find themselves, on the eve of an action, a full day's march 
in rear of their guns.” 
From the above quotation it must be inferred that Divisional Ammu- 
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