710 
A NOTE ON THE GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1892. 
opinion. If possible, the time should be extended rather than cur¬ 
tailed. The sub-division and section instruction, as sketched out in 
the Essay, is not a “preliminary but an integral part of the battery 
course, which is based on a definite and progressive programme drawn 
up by the Battery Commander, and which recognises the principle 
that each sub-unit—the sub-division, then the section—must be first 
perfectly trained under its own immediate head before the whole unit 
can be collectively trained under the battery leader. Unless this is 
done the Commanding Officer will begin his own work with an imper¬ 
fectly constructed machine. The instruction cannot be given before 
the drill season begins, for it is essential that it should be uniformly 
and simultaneously carried on by each sub-unit commander under the 
direct personal supervision of the battery leader acting in his capacity 
as chief instructor. This can only be the case when the whole of the 
officers, N.-C. officers and men—each with his “understudy,” as Major 
Davidson has so expressively put it—are in the appointed places which 
they will occupy at the subsequent practice and manoeuvres, and if 
need be on active service. 
Not less direct must the reply be to the proposal to cut off one of the 
weeks allotted to the Brigade-Division Commander. Those who have 
had the advantage of being present at Sir Evelyn Wood’s artillery tac¬ 
tical days at Aldershot know the difficulties of manoeuring three 
batteries under service conditions. To manoeuvre three battalions of 
infantry or three regiments of cavalry is generally admitted to be an 
easier task. Artillery tactics are subject to constant modification. The 
drill-book is only a guide for the current year. At the beginning of 
each season new “ instructions ” are issued based on the experience 
gained during the previous year. What is required is something more 
than mere “ freshening up.” So soon as the batteries are thoroughly 
trained under their own commanders it becomes the function of the 
Brigade-Division Commander to practice his batteries in manoeuvre 
tactics, so that each may be trained to work “ simultaneously but in¬ 
dependently ” under his own instructions. Until this is done the 
training of the Battery Commanders in Fire Discipline cannot be said 
to be complete, nor are the batteries ready for the practice ground, or 
for combined manoeuvres. Is a fortnight 1 2 3 too much for this work ? 
I do not think any Lieut.-Colonel now in command of a brigade- 
division at Aldershot would say that it was. 
Keeping, then, strictly to the lines of the Essay, which was written 
after two years’ practical experience of the command of a battery at 
Aldershot, and accepting Colonel Brough’s condition that the batteries 
must be ready to march by the 1st of May, the proposal in this case is 
to strike all three batteries simultaneously off regimental and gar- 
1 “ Preliminary ” instruction can be given in the wintpr to young officers, N.-C. officers, and 
recruits, so that they may he ready to take their appointed places when the annual course begins. 
When, however, the course is started the adjective “ preliminary ” ceases to apply. 
2 Colonel Brough speaks of five days manoeuvring in the <£ working week but is not this 
working at higher pressure than batteries are capable of so early in the year P Three days 
manoeuvring in the week is normally as much as can be expected having regard to the neces¬ 
sities of turn-out and the condition of the horses. At combined manoeuvres later on in the year 
it is possible to work at higher pressure. 
