8 
fire. These conditions would, of course, change if the batteries for plunging 
fire were to expose themselves to the direct fire of the defence, but they have no 
object in doing so. It makes no difference to them whether they are placed 
directly in front or obliquely, a little higher or a little lower. They will have free 
choice in selecting their positions and will be completely covered from direct fire. 
Here again we find the author’s usual method of discussion, a method which 
consists in granting everything to the attack and nothing to the defence. Besides, 
in writing thus, the General evidently loses sight of the field of battle, and 
thinks only of siege warfare. He is thinking of artillery, placed without over¬ 
head cover upon the ramparts of a fort, which is undoubtedly very much exposed 
to the plunging fire of siege batteries. Now that which gives the superiority to 
pieces using high-angle fire and renders them almost invulnerable, is that they 
are placed quite close to the covering mass, and that, therefore, very high angles 
of descent are necessary in order to strike them. But on the battle-field the 
attack will seldom be able to place their batteries under such favourable condi¬ 
tions, because they can only utilise such cover from ground as they can find. It 
will often happen that guns will be obliged to keep at a considerable distance 
from the covering crest, so that the protection which they receive from it will be 
seriously diminished. One example will be sufficient to prove this fact. At 
2500 metres the 9 C German field shrapnel has an angle of descent of about 9°, 
and the angle of the cone of dispersion being about 20°, the lower part of this 
cone will strike the ground at an angle of about 19°. Now, if we imagine a 
battery placed behind a covering mass of six feet in height, such as a railway 
embankment, and played upon by 9 C guns laid upon the crest of the covering 
mass, a very simple calculation shows that, in order that the battery should be 
struck, it is only necessary that it should be withdrawn 18 metres from the 
covering crest. All the ground beyond this 18 metres is swept by the bullets as 
if the covering mass did not exist. On the field of battle will not the artillery 
often be obliged, in consequence of the nature of the ground, to take up a 
position even less defiladed than the above ? Indeed, it is probable that the 
cases will be very rare when batteries for plunging fire will be able to approach 
sufficiently near to the covering mass to be in as favourable a position as guns 
mounted upon the terreplein of a siege battery. They will generally be less 
protected, and consequently less invulnerable, than General von Sauer would like 
to think. 
The Militdr Wochenblatt agrees with this opinion. “ We cannot admit,” it 
says, “ that howitzers possess any advantage over guns for the artillery duel; we 
even go further, and opine that the introduction of smokeless powder and the 
increase in the intensity of infantry fire, which will lead to the most complete 
utilisation of all natural cover, further increase the advantage of the guns. 
This may seem paradoxical, but it must not be forgotten that when we speak of 
utilising natural cover we mean not absolute defilade from fire, but defilade (more 
or less complete) from view, so as to render the regulation of the enemy’s fire 
very difficult. With a shrapnel like ours (the German), whose dangerous zone is 
very deep, it is not necessary to fix the range with great accuracy, as this pro¬ 
jectile gives results when it bursts 100, 150, or even 200 metres short of the 
target. It is therefore possible, when the regulation of fire is difficult, to include 
the target between two extreme limits, and then between these limits to rake the 
ground by successively raising or lowering the elevation. On the other hand, 
the dangerous zone of howitzers is so small that the range must be accurately 
determined in order that they may produce the same effect as guns. It' is im¬ 
possible to obtain this accuracy when observation is difficult, and the regulation 
of fire always takes time; whereas on a battle-field it is much more important to 
arrive rapidly at a moderate result than to attain brilliant effects after a delay 
more or less long.” 
