2 
very advanced condition. The credit demanded by the War Minister in 1892, in 
order to form 17 groups of teams of horses intended for foot artillery, has just 
been partly granted, and it seems certain that the matériel of these heavy horsed 
batteries will be principally composed of 15° howitzers. 
Without going further into organization properly so-called, we have said enough 
to show that artillery of large calibre has acquired a definite position in foreign 
armies. It is therefore absolutely necessary to consider the 7éle which will pro- 
bably be assigned to this kind of artillery, and the rules which will guide its 
employment under the various conditions of warfare. In default of official in- 
structions dealing with the question, we can only follow attentively the military 
publications which have appeared abroad, in order to gleam from them, if possible, 
some ideas which will throw light upon the new problem now presented. 
If we examine the reasons which have eventually led the Germans to form 
heavy portable batteries attached to field troops, we shall find that the promoters 
of this transformation have drawn their strongest arguments from the probable 
character of the wars of the future in the particular theatre of operations, which is 
especially interesting to Germany. According to them, the German armies will 
act on the offensive, and will certainly have to encounter permanent works manned 
by armies strongly entrenched upon positions prepared in advance, and it-will be 
absolutely necessary to provide them with an artillery sufficiently strong to obviate 
the risk of their being shattered upon these obstacles. According to General Speck 
and others, the heavy artillery, attached to armies of operation, is intended exclu- 
sively to act against permanent and temporary works of fortification. 
General Speck, in particular, taking the supposition that four armies are 
operating upon the western frontier of the empire against fortified positions, would 
attach the heavy batteries to the two armies entrusted with the front attack, giving 
none to the two other armies intended to guard the flanks. This amounts to 
saying that this heavy artillery would not be attached to armies of manceuvre. 
Now that the desired object has been attained, and that the organization de- 
manded by the reformers is an accomplished fact, so much so that foot artillery 
with horsed carriages—the fourth arm as it may be called—has actually taken 
part in combined manceuvres with field troops, the military writers, who treat of 
this question, seem to have modified and enlarged their ideas. They are enquiring 
whether this kind of artillery—created with a view to a particular case—ought to 
be restricted to the special 7é/e which was originally assigned to it, or whether it 
ought not in future ta be looked upon as a necessary element in armies, indepen- 
dently of any peculiarities which may be prevented by the theatre of operations. 
The advantages claimed to be derived from the employment of this new arm 
are :— 
Ist. <A moral advantage, because their addition to armies of manwuvre would 
act as a new affirmation of the spirit of the offensive and of the will to conquer, at 
a time when the power of fire-arms furnishes arguments in favour of the defen- 
sive, and induces many people to exaggerate the difficulties of the offensive. 
2nd. Considerable material advantages in the battle itself, because this heavy 
artillery will be a powerful and hitherto unknown means of deciding the contest 
more rapidly than heretofore. 
The following words occur in an article recently published in the Militdr Wochen- 
blatt, “* When the battle is sufficiently advanced to enable the forces in presence 
of one another to be estimated, then the moment has arrived to bring the heavy 
batteries into play, with a firm resolve to decide the issue. Thanks to the enormous 
effects of their projectiles, they will produce, both morally and physically, an effect 
which it would be impossible to obtain by other means. The fact, that the effect 
produced by pieces of large calibre is incomparably greater than that produced by 
