531 
FIRE DISCIPLINE; ITS NECESSITY IN A BATTERY OF 
HORSE OR FIELD ARTILLERY, AND THE BEST MEANS OF 
SECURING IT. 
BY 
The question of “ Fire Discipline” is one that has greatly exercised 
the minds of many gunners during past years, and yet, if the works 
of writers on artillery subjects be consulted, it is very difficult to 
satisfy oneself precisely as to what is generally understood by the 
term. By some it is confused with “ Fire Tactics,” by others with 
“ Discipline under Fire.” 
The only writer who has attempted a definition is Lippman [Revue 
cVArtillerie, Vol. X., p. 344), as follows :— 
the simultaneous and regular action of all the constituent 
parts of the battery ; the unshaken performance of their duties by sectional 
and gun commanders and by gun-layers ; the complete absence of any hesita¬ 
tion in picking up and ranging on the indicated target and in carrying out 
any alteration in elevation , fyc. } that may be ordered; in short , such skill 
and rapidity of administration that the fire of the battery can be kept up 
quickly and continuously without any hitch.” 
This definition, no doubt, lacks crispness, but it is sufficiently clear 
to demonstrate the meaning accepted among Continental gunners; it 
points entirely to the technical administration of fire by the Battery 
Commander, and is quite outside the question of Fire Tactics.” 
These latter are in the hands of the Commander of the Brigade Divi¬ 
sion and the higher commanders, who order the application of the fire 
of their commands to the various objectives in succession, in accordance 
witb the tactical requirements of the situation and, themselves, take 
but little part, beyond a general control, in the actual working of the 
batteries, unless the failure of Battery Commanders demands direct 
interference. Their attention is, or should be, almost entirely taken 
up with tactical considerations. 
Hamley has defined “ Discipline ” as “ the cohesion of the units the 
suppleness of the mass,” and such definition may be applied to “ Fire 
Discipline;” the cohesion or working together of all the units of the 
battery in order to bring about the flexibility of its fire, or the power 
of applying it in any desired direction. 
11. VOL. XIX. 
71 
