152 COAST ARTILLERY IN ACTION. 
governed by the character of the water areas to be defended, and by 
the number of forts and batteries which it may be possible for one 
officer to direct in action: under certain circumstances, it may be desir- 
able to place a Section C.R.A. in command of several Fire Commands ; 
but as a general rule, this officer will not be required, and the Section 
Commander will then communicate directly with the Fire Commanders. 
In this, as in all other questions connected with command, the utmost 
latitude must be allowed to stations. The next link in the chain of 
command will be the Battery Commander. His unit of command will 
be decided by local conditions, being governed by the positions of the 
guns and by the water areas to be defended; but it should in no case 
exceed the number of guns, which can, under local conditions, be 
efficiently supervised by one officer. Under the Battery Commander 
will be a certain number of officers, or selected N.-C.O.’s, who will have 
charge of the gun groups. ‘They are styled Gun Group Commanders. 
The gun groups having been settled, with due regard to their efficient 
supervision by their commanders, they should be collected into battery 
commands, which should be arranged with respect to the sea areas to be 
defended, and also to the siting of the gun groups, all of which should 
either be visible from, or in direct communication with, the Battery Com- 
manders ‘Command Post;’ the latter being a place selected in the 
vicinity of the most important group, whither all orders from the Fire 
Commander will be sent. When a gun has to be fought singly, the 
Gun Captain will perform the duties of Gun Group Commander. When 
a gun group is so far detached from other gun groups that it cannot 
be conveniently included in any battery command, the Gun Group 
Commander must be prepared to execute the duties of the Battery 
Commander, in addition to his own, and no Battery Commander will 
be appointed.” ‘The Fire Command will include such battery com- 
mands and detached gun groups as can be worked in combination for a 
definite tactical object; when a Battery Command is, owing to special 
circumstances, of such a character that it cannot be allotted to any Fire 
Command, the Battery Commander must be prepared to discharge the 
duties of Fire Commander as well as his own, the communications 
running direct from him to the Section Commander.” 
PW LEXIBILITY. 
In the above, the first point I would ask you to notice is the extreme 
flexibility—the extreme latitude that is allowed to local authorities, who 
should be in a position to judge how best to carry out the orders laid 
down. We must have flexibility of procedure in the Garrison Artillery ; 
we are of all arms in the service the most tied down; we fight, as it 
were, in a strait-waistcoat; we work our guns where they happen to 
be, not always where we should like to put them. This, of course, 
cannot be helped ; the best intellect of the time is given to choosing 
sites and designing fortifications ; but, unfortunately, permanent works 
cannot always be altered so as to accommodate themselves to every 
change in arms or ideas, so we must accept matters as they are and 
make the best of them. Thus it is, that great flexibility must be per- 
missible. We must observe principles, for if we do not, confusion will 
result, but the utmost latitude in carrying out details is not only 
