70 A PLEA FOR HEAVY GUNS IN FORTRESS DEFENCE. 
H.—Well, supposing that your gun has the good luck not to be dis- 
abled, what can it do that a howitzer could not do as well ? 
T.—It will secure me the advantages to be got from high velocity, 
long range and a powerful shrapnel shell. 
The permanent nature of their mounting should enable the heavy 
guns to take part in the fight up to the extremity of their range, and 
to support the light artillery in the skirmishes before investment is 
completed, and also in any sorties or counter-attacks made by the 
defence. 
Central pivot mountings lend themselves readily to a system of land 
position-finding, since they have an all-round arc of fire, and the gun 
can be laid from under cover. 
A position-finding system, originally tried for coast batteries, making 
use of maps ruled in numbered squares, could be modified to suit land 
fronts. No cross bearings would be needed, as the features of the 
landscape would guide the observers, who might be pushed forward to 
advanced positions in the early stages of the attack, and stationed in 
balloons later on. 
The numbers of the squares, with the range and bearing of each, 
would be posted up near the gun and fire could be directed on any 
square specified by the observation parties. Specially important points, 
such as cross-roads, lines of approach, or probable positions for 
batteries, etc., would be more minutely sub-divided than others. 
Very useful observations were made at Lydd in 1887 from captive 
balloons, and photographs of the camp were automatically taken from 
a free balloon with no one in it. It appears likely that free balloons 
will become more manageable in the future, and there are reasons why 
it would be far more difficult to hit them than captive ones. 
One advantage in high velocity is in the arrival of the shell before 
warning has been given by the report of the piece. It was found at 
Plevna! that, for this reason, high velocity guns were more dangerous 
and demoralizing to working parties than pieces whose projectiles 
travelled slower than sound. 
With regard to howitzers and high explosives I have seen the results 
of firing with delay fuzes at casemates, and very destructive they are, 
but the shells that missed and buried themselves in the ground before 
bursting were quite wasted. I have also seen a 6-inch lyddite shell act 
wonderfully as a man-killing projectile—over a restricted area—when 
it burst absolutely on the surface, without penetrating the earth. But 
even if the burst were not smothered, the upward direction of most of 
the fragments militates against their usefulness, and it will be granted 
that time shrapnel from high velocity guns has a more wide spread 
man-killing effect than any percussion shell. 
I have endeavoured to show that heavy guns, properly mounted, can 
still play an important part in the defence, both in the earlier and later 
stages, and it should be remembered that the defence could always em- 
ploy more of these weapons than the attack, owing to difficulties of 
transport, and by suppressing them would relinquish a manifest 
advantage. 
1 Report on War Material of the Turkish Army, 1878,” by Colonel Maitland, R.A, 
