542 
SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY,, 1892 . 
deal of the training in laying being carried out on the barrack-square, 
gun-layers are not sufficiently adept at laying on service objects or in 
picking them out when verbally indicated. They can lay on a chalk 
mark on a wall with the greatest nicety, but, told to lay on some 
natural feature of the ground 2000 to 3000 yards distant, they usually 
feel the want of a distinct point to lay upon. Tell a man to lay upon 
a house, he will usually select the top of a chimney or a gable end, as 
presenting the sharply defined point to which he has been accustomed, 
rather than a “ service ” portion of the wall behind which an enemy 
might be esconsed. All this must lead to uncertainty on service, 
whereas peace training ought to induce confidence. 
Layers, then, should be trained as much as possible in the open 
country, and made to lay on targets such as would present themselves 
on service. 
With regard to the training of non-commissioned officers. Section 
Officers should make it their special object to advance the education of 
these men, by constant supervision and conversation, by discussing 
with them, down to the minutest detail, every process embodied in the 
word Fire Discipline. 
When the purely automatic standing gun drill for a single gun has 
been learnt the best possible training for a battery and its commander 
is “ battery gun drill,” and this not upon a barrack-square, but in the 
open. 
On the Preparation and Use op Drill-Books. 
With every laudable desire for completeness, it is not possible to 
lay down procedure suitable for all cases, therefore it is best to cite 
only principles upon which such procedure should be founded, with an 
example adapted to most common circumstances. It should then be 
left to the skill of Battery Commanders, brought to a high pitch of 
perfection by careful training, to adapt those principles to local cir¬ 
cumstances. 
The great difficulty with which we have to contend is the idea, in 
which so many of us have been brought up, of a cast-iron method of 
procedure as laid down in a drill-book, which HAD to be followed. 
True, the procedure dealt more with manoeuvre, inculcated careful 
dressing, correct intervals, intricate brigade and battery movements, 
to the almost total exclusion of any consideration for fire effect; but, 
now that we have come to look upon fire effect as of equal importance 
with manoeuvring power, we find that it is impossible to lay down, 
within the limits of a “ hand ” book, procedure applicable to every 
imaginable case. 
Officers are thus, to a certain extent, left to their own resources, 
and if they are sufficiently imbued with the principles upon which 
artillery fire should be conducted, they should not be at a loss ; cer¬ 
tainly the support given by the old drill-book in respect of manoeuvre 
cannot now be given in respect of fire. Indeed, as our military educa¬ 
tion improves, the tendency becomes more marked to trust more to 
the common sense and ability of officers than to attempt to trammel 
them by the red-tape leading strings of a drill-book. This is instanced 
by the gradual diminution in bulk of these volumes. 
