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972, ARTILLERY FROM AN INFANTRY OFFICER’S POINT OF VIEW. 
DISCUSSION, ~ 
Mason BE. S. May.—Sir Redvers Buller and gentlemen, I wish someone better 
‘qualified than I am had been called upon to open the discussion which j is sure to 
follow so excellent a lecture as the one we have just heard; but since it has fallen 
to my lot I feel I cannot do better than commence my vemar ks by assuring Captain 
Pilcher of the great profit and pleasure with which I have listened to what he has 
had to say ; and I am sure I can speak for all of vou when I tell him how glad 
‘we are to hear an infantry officer lecture in this theatre, especially when he deals 
with @ subject which appeals particularly to us, and brings with him so much 
‘valuable information. ‘There are a great ‘oumral ba of officers, T have no doubt, who 
“wish to enlarge on different points Ahis evening, so I will only confine myself to 
one or two, speaking, I trust, in no critical or controversial spirit, but rather 
seeking for further details which may clear some doubtful matters up. The thing 
that puzzles me-a little and which I feel most interest in personally, is this high 
explosive shell which Captain Pilcher has alluded to. I think we all recognize the 
value of such a projectile in this country, and personally I have always” been an 
advocate of howitzers, but we have had a certain number of very serious difficulties 
to contend with hitherto in connection with it. It has been recognized first of all 
that this high explosive shell; unless fired with a very low velocity, may burst 
prematurely and that, if such a thing occurred, it would probably ‘shatter and 
destroy the gun altogether. I should like to. know whether, and, if so, how, the 
Germans have completely got over their difficulty in that respect and if they are 
not troubled by'our anxieties. Then there is a difficulty with regard to ranging 
with high explosive shells. The high explosive gives off hardly any smoke—the 
burst is shown simply by a flame—it must often be extremely difficult to see. tha 
flame, and unless there is some smoke-producing compound included in the shells 
J find it difficult to understand how they can pick up the range for us, especially when 
fired in the air with atime fuze. Moreover the presence of adjacent batteries or guns 
would not greatly facilitate the task. Because we must. remember that although 
we might lave a battery firing with ordinary field guns exactly alongside one using 
these high explosive shells, unless the same fuzes were used to ig nite them and the 
ordinary shrapnel, I do not see how its experiences would help us very much; we all 
know that, even if we fire with fuzes of exactly the same pattern, there is the error of 
the day to be accounted for in the case of the fuzes as much as in the case of the 
powder charge, and that the same pattern fuzes unless of the same date of manufac- 
ture do not “always burn at the same rate, and where the fuzes were not of the same 
pattern, as [ presume they would not be in the case referred to, it seems to me 
that the results obtained with one battery would help you very little with respect 
to another. And again, do the Germans use a high explosive in the shells of their 
ordinary field guns ? Because in this country, 1 think i am right in saying that 
the best authorities do not regard a high explosive from so small a gun/as a 12 or 
15-pr. of very much account. ven with the largest field howitzer hitherto intro- 
duced I do not think that the diameter of the circle which may be taken to re- 
present the area over which the high explosive operates is more than about 30, or at 
the outside 40 yards; it has indeed been put as low as 10 and 20 yards, although 
that is probably a false estimate. When you consider the depth that the shrapnel 
covers effectively I think it is easily understood that if you only made use of a 
small shell, such as an ordinary field-piece fires, you would get a very small 
destructive area and must lose a great chance of hitting men. ‘These are some 
points I wish to ask Captain Pilcher about particularly. 
Then there is another matter that needs clearing up and upon which the 
Lecturer with his foreign experience may be able to enlighten us. Do the Germans 
