704 
AN INFANTRY OFFICER'S IDEAS ON OKEHAMPTON. 
The range having been taken, the remainder of the work, whether in 
battery or brigade practice, is entirely in the hands of the Major. This 
officer is the most exposed to the enemy's fire of anyone in the battery 
except perhaps the range-finders. Suppose he is shot with his impor¬ 
tant subordinates before the action has in reality commenced. Can the 
Captain fight the battery ? Does he ever get any practice in doing so ? 
I should have liked to have seen the group of soldiers headed by their 
C.O., who first ride out under fire, all put out of action once or twice, 
in order to see how the battery would carry on under those circum¬ 
stances. I am well aware that there are <f waiting " layers for each 
gun, but laying is surely much more easily taught than ranging. “ Are 
there waiting range-finders, and are the Captain and senior Subaltern 
really useful waiting commanding officers ?" 
The first shot fired is the most important one in the action. The 
correct observation of it seems to be most essential to success. If it is 
a minus, for instance, and falls into a small depression in the ground, 
so that the rising smoke from the projectile becomes thin by the time 
it has risen to the level of the target, it may be, and sometimes is, 
reckoned as a plus. The sights for the next shot are therefore lowered 
instead of being raised, with the result of another minus. An attempt 
to bracket on the observations made on these two rounds causes more 
minus results, and thus many shots are wasted in creeping up to the 
target, though, no douht, if the battery be long in action the correct 
range is found at last. 
On August 8th, a target at Okehampton was under the fire of a 
battery for 12 minutes 56 seconds, at a range of about 3000 yards, 
which did not receive a single hit, and two days later a line of dummies, 
at about 2000 yards distance, was hit twice in 7 minutes 15 seconds. 
Could not the major be assisted in the observation of his first round 
or two by a sort of committee, consisting say of a lynx-eyed subaltern 
and an experienced old N.-C.O. ? 
I conclude that when several batteries are brigaded, any one which 
fails at first to find the target, is allowed to get the range from a more 
successful neighbour. 
The difficulty of ranging on an enemy approaching is enormous. The 
system in vogue seems the best possible, but I imagine the calculations 
of the commanding officer might easily be upset by a crafty enemy. 
Indeed, I think and hope I have learned useful lessons from Okehamp¬ 
ton and Shoeburyness, in the art of leading my own arm of the service 
to the attack of guns. 
As regards defence from an enemy's fire, I am of opinion that cover 
for the guns and their detachments sinks into comparative insignifi¬ 
cance with the importance of preventing the foe from accurately 
ranging. Surely, if the epaulments and gun-pits, recommended by 
the text-books on field fortification were used, the newly-turned earth 
would be a most fatal mark for the enemy to get his range by. It is 
most difficult to judge at long distances how tar one object is in front 
of another, and even to notice whether two points are or are not in the 
same parallel line to your own position. It would seem then, as pointed 
out to me by my instructor at Okehampton, that if the shape of the 
ground permits of it, a more useful defence for a line of guns would be 
