2 
of a line in elevation would have been very successful, but such nicety in laying 
in field artillery practice was unattainable. 
In confirmation of this, that brilliant results do not depend only on the slope 
of the trajectory, we may also quote our present heavy field gun, which though 
it possesses a less flat trajectory, yet, thanks to the greater number of its striking 
fragments on burst very often gives much better results than the light gnn under 
similar conditions, especially on hard ground. 
Secondly, the gun of General Wille, though of comparatively small calibre 
(2'75"), must undoubtedly be of considerable weight as it has a proposed length 
of 40 calibres and a large charge. Even if it does not surpass in weight the 
limits of existing field guns, it will at any rate require six horses to draw it, and 
consequently, the artillery will gain no advantage in mobility and in handiness for 
manoeuvre. But is such a gun necessary at the present time in face of the necessity 
for rapid movements in battle and swift massing of batteries at critical moments? 
Judging by the experiments of Herr Krupp with a gun of 1730 f.s. muzzle velo¬ 
city, General Wille’s gun will undoubtedly be heavier than present ones, and, 
therefore, will be rather a position gun than a field gun. As regards its proposed 
rapidity of fire and special fragment-producing projectiles, these advantages will 
be considerably lessened by its enormous initial velocity, which gives a trajectory 
and a cone of dispersion absolutely disadvantageous in practice. We infer then 
that General Wille’s gun cannot be considered an advantageous type of the Eield 
Gun of the Future. To speak of the advantages of a single pattern of field gun— 
this only represents a pia desideria of theorists, but the practice of war does not 
always harmonize with theoretical organization. Even now with all this talk of 
having only one calibre, special types of guns of two or three calibres, such as 
mortars and howitzers are being introduced for high-angle fire. It is very prob¬ 
able that, in connection with smokeless powder and magazine rifles, a new calibre 
of gun may be introduced to restore the disturbed balance of power in military 
operations, but in our opinion a gun built on the following principles, as a supple¬ 
ment to our present one, is before all things necessary to effect that object. 
(I.) The gun must be extremely light and mobile, suitable for very rapid ad¬ 
vances, having as few horses in draught as possible, and the minimum number in 
its detachment. Batteries of such guns should work in all phases of the fight, 
“ shoulder to shoulder” with the other arms. 
(2.) The gun, firing smokeless powder, should have only moderate muzzle 
velocity. Even the present muzzle velocity of about 1300 f.s. may be looked on 
as a luxury. This condition must not at any rate interfere with the requirements 
of (1) and 
(3.) The advantage of this gun, in addition to the above-mentioned mobility, 
should lie primarily in its rapidity of fire and the destructive effect of its pro¬ 
jectiles, with large bursting charges, especially at medium and short ranges, but 
not in distant fighting. This last can be sufficiently well carried on by existing 
guns, which probably could fire corresponding charges of smokeless powder in the 
long range artillery duel. 
July , 1892. 
