Special 
Training 
Specialist 
Training. 
346 SILVER MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1895, 
The special training will consist in the particular application of the 
principles learnt in the general training, to the working of those guns 
to which each company is specially allotted, and generally speaking will 
include :— 
(1.) Service of the Gun. This will be modified according as the 
guns are B.L., M.L., quick-firing, or siege ordnance, and will include 
instruction in the special mountings belonging to them. 
(2.) Laying. The methods best adapted to the particular guns will 
form the subject of training. 
(3.) Fire Discipline. What modifications of the general system are 
necessary for most effectively fighting these guns must be taught. The 
number of guns in a group may be varied to suit local requirements. 
(4.) The method of ranging may be modified by, the means of range- 
finding, or observation of fire, that is most suitable. 
(5.) Communications, &c. The means employed depend upon the 
relative positions of the various units in the chain of command, and the 
appliances to hand, and must form the subject of training. 
By following this plan each Company will receive a general training 
on the same lines, and on such lines ag will enable it without much 
difficulty to pass on to, its special training, which will be solely accor- 
ding to its special requirements, thus a Company told off to fight a 
battery of heavy guns against ship attacks would be specially trained 
in the method of so doing, while another detailed for duty with the 
howitzers of the general defence must be specially trained in siege 
work, and neither need for the time being have any particular know- 
ledge of other branches of Coast defence; as scon however as they 
move on to other fortresses and have new duties assigned to them, 
their special training in these must recommence. Beyond this point, 
training ceases and instruction commences, and how far this should 
be carried on cannot here be decided. 
To the complete performance of the fighting duties of the Garrison 
Artillery a further training which we may call “Specialist” is necessary. 
By this term is meant instruction in the use of the many adjuncts that 
are now employed in both Coast and Siege Artillery practice, and which 
includes such items as depression range-finder, and position-finder 
specialists, observers for siege artillery fire, specialists for electrical 
communications, artificers for complicated mountings, &c. For these 
special duties which require special instruction, and which will not, 
according to the views I have put forward, in the preceding pages be 
of general use, specially selected, and trained men are required, and 
should alone be employed. This has been recognised by the appoint- 
ment of such men as specialists, but in addition to the District special- 
ists others have been allowed to companies both for range-finding and 
as gun layers. As regards the latter they should not be considered as 
specialists in this meaning of the term; laying must be considered as 
an important part of the general training, and though it is right, that 
men who show a particular aptitude for laying, should be selected as 
