GARRISON ARTILLERY WARFARE, 181 
armour is at the sides and round the primary armament, and is capable 
of resisting the direct impact of projectiles, except those having great 
momentum. We must therefore make our warfare in a way to which 
these ships are unaccustomed, or we lose the great advantage which the 
choice of sites for our batteries confers on us. 
No ship afloat can resist a plunging fire on the unarmoured decks, 
while the armoured deck is liable to penetration by high angle fire and 
plunging fire from guns using heavy projectiles. We may take it as 
an axiom therefore that the greater the command, the more effective 
the results of the fire; 1.e., that a comparatively light gun on a high 
site firing on to a deck, will do much more damage to a ship than a 
moderately heavy gun on a low site firing at the side of the same ship. 
The maxim “the flatter the trajectory, the lower the site,’? seems to 
me to play our opponent’s game, except where a nearly point-blank 
range commands the approach, and the penetration at that range is 
greatly in favour of the projectile. For instance, a gun with a flat 
trajectory and great penetration is not wasted where it is intended to 
combine the functions of a shot gun and rifle, e.g., to protect a mine- 
field or repel a torpedo raid, and at the same time to try conclusions 
with an ironclad. Unquestionably, if it has only to act as a rifle, the 
sooner it is transferred to as high a site as possible the better. 
Similarly with Q.F. guns, if the channel which they command is so 
narrow that torpedo-boats must pass within point-blank range, the 
lower the site the better, as the guns thus get the full advantage of their 
flat trajectory, and they are powerful enough to penetrate if their shell 
strikes the sides, but if the channel admits of the passage of an iron- 
clad, their low site prevents their effective use against the super- 
structure on which alone they can make any impression ; consequently 
an ideally protected passage would be provided in addition to the Q.F.’s 
on the low site with a battery of Q.F. guns. with a high command. 
Just as in a battle between two armies, the fire of the artillery forces 
the opponents to deploy into fighting formation and commence the 
engagement at the furtherest possible range; so should. the high 
angle fire of the fortress force the opposing fleet to disclose their plan 
of operations at the earliest possible moment, and so give time to the 
defenders to make arrangements to meet it. The possibilities of hits 
at 10,000 yards are well within the powers of the directing P.F. , But 
should the fleet approach in cruising formation, it might perhaps be 
better policy to wait until the ships were closer in, so as to increase the 
probability of one or more being temporarily disabled while assuming 
their fighting formation and so causing a slight check, of which 
advantage would be taken by the defence to pour in a heavy fire. 
Let us now turn to the range-finding arrangements. Considering 
the P.F. first :—When a gun can be laid over the sights, the general 
rule is for the P.F. to be used as a range-finder only, the direction 
being given by the gun layer; but when this is not practicable from 
any cause, the gun is laid and fired by “ P.F. predicting.”, But owing 
to smoke from adjacent guns and other contingencies, it is obvious that 
a gun cannot always be laid over the sights, and this will inevitably be 
the case in the final stages of an attack pushed home, when every gun 
