p 
PRECIS 
AND 
TRANSLATION. 
“INYALID RUSSE.” 
FIELD ARTILLERY OF THE FUTURE. 
BT 
MAJOR E. A. LAMB ART, R.A. 
A Russian writer in the Invalid Russe criticises the ideas of the German General 
Wille on the Field Gun of the Future as follows :— 
In the first place the proposed gun of General Wille is designed principally on 
the idea of increasing the initial velocity of projectiles as compared with existing 
guns. This, for the last 70 years the favourite idea of technical artillerymen, 
has led, as is well known, to the impotence of field guns against earthworks, 
resulting in the universal introduction of field mortars. But General Wille ap¬ 
parently is not content with the considerable increase of velocity already arrived 
at—he wants to double it to reach a velocity of 2600 f.s. But what follows from 
this ? In our opinion such a gun, as a field gun, will shoot very much worse 
than the present one. In firing at entrenchments this gun will not only not give 
increased, striking effect, but considerably diminished for the reason that the 
splinters even of melinite shells, with such immense muzzle velocity, will strike 
the ground in a mass ; and the calculation of accuracy, in firing at objects in the 
open, is very problematical, for the flatter the trajectory the more exact must be 
the laying, and the relation of the line of sight with the axis of the bore must be 
the same identically at each round, which is unattainable in practice. We might 
even say wfith perfect confidence that if the inventors of guns with immense 
muzzle velocities could obtain an ideal trajectory—a straight line—the guns would 
be the very worst of field guns; they would always strike over the heads of the 
objects aimed at, or far under, as mathematical accuracy in laying and fixing 
sights is not obtainable. 
As an example of the inconvenience of the necessity for great accuracy in lay¬ 
ing with flat trajectories, we may quote our own light gun of the pattern of 1877, 
a beautiful gun in all respects. It was often found in practice that at any par¬ 
ticular elevation all the rounds were short and, with an increase of half a “ line,” 
all the rounds were over. It would seem therefore that an alteration of a quarter 
S9a 
13. VOL. XIX. 
