Gen2ral_Con- 
siderations. 
Value of 
heiwvy guns. 
System of 
‘ralning, 
342 SILVER MEDAL PRIZE Essay, 1895. 
be required against landing parties, and which must play an important 
part in the defence of fortress abroad. 
(3.) The most important heavy B.L. guns, and long range guns, 
&c., as far in each case as the available strength of the companies will 
permit. 
The Auxiliary Artillery to— 
The general fixed armament which will for the most part be composed 
of heavy R.M.L. guns, commencing where the R.A. have left off (at 
the most important), and working down to the less important as far as 
the available strength permits. 
CHarten IV. THe System or Trarnina taat witt Best Fir tHe 
DerenpDers to Carry Out Tarse Durtizs. 
If the views put forward in the preceding pages with regard to the 
probable forms of attack on our Coast Fortresses, and the nature of 
the defence required to meet them be accepted, it must be admitted 
that the duties of the Artillery Garrisons will not be confined to the 
fighting of the heavy guns mounted in fixed emplacements, but must 
include the service, and ranging of many descriptions of light and 
medium ordnance, and that this class of ordnance will if anything be 
in more constant use, aud of greater relative value, to the defence than 
the heavy guns. It will not therefore be sufficient to train our gunners 
only in the system of fire discipline, and organisation explained in the 
drill-book, as applicable to the working of heavy guns, they must also 
be taught the best method of working and fighting, the guns they will 
be required to man under the varying conditions of actual warfare. It 
cannot be said with truth that the drill-book contains no information 
regarding the method of employment of the lighter guns, but I think 
it must be admitted that the chapters on Cons. Defence deal so, almost 
exclusively with the system of fighting heavy guns against ships, that 
it has come to bea matter of general acceptance that this kind of action 
will constitute if not the whole, at least the most important part of the 
Garrison gunner’s duties in war-time. The system of training accord- 
ingly, has been largely based on this implied assumption, and drill and 
training with the lighter guns, that make up the movable armament 
of a fortress, has been considered of only secondary importance. 
It has been my endeavour in the preceding pages to show that the 
occasions on which the garrison gunner will be called upon to man his 
heavy guns will be few, compared to those when the movable guns 
will be wanted, and that when these latter are wanted they will always 
be required to repel an important attack, while the former may fre- 
quently only be employed, when they are required, in what will be little 
more than interesting practice. 
If this view is correct, it is clear that a system of training to be 
complete, and satisfactory must be based upon the requirements of the 
movable natures of guns, though it should admit of adaptation without 
difficulty to the special requirements of the heavy guns, our present 
system has been evolved on exactly the opposite principle and in some 
points is not well adapted to the working of lighter guns on travelling 
