6 
considers his system generally sound and his opinions deserving of the highest 
respect. 
(20.) The new Russian field mortar is a 6-inch B.L. mortar on an iron 
bed, It fires a 68 lb. shrapnel containing 6832 oz. bullets, or a 60 1b. common 
shell. The battery consists of 36 carriages, including 18 ammunition wagons 
and 6 ammunition carts, carrying 92 rounds per mortar. 
The battery fires about 3 rounds of shrapnel per minute. 
As the result of various experiments, the Russians consider their mortar 
superior to their own or any existing field gun, and Captain Schubert compares 
it to the English 12-pounder, much to the disadvantage of the latter. General 
Lewitzky proposes to equip the Russian Horse Artillery with it ! 
General Wille points out that the above comparative trials were carried out at 
dummies in entrenchments of strong profile at which the Russian field guns had 
no chance at all. A more powerful field gun firing high explosive shells would 
give a very different account of itself. For Field Artillery work proper and much 
more for Horse Artillery work, the mortar battery with its 36 carriages is 
altogether too clumsy. 
Fancy a Horse Artillery battery obliged to dismount its mortar beds in order 
to come into action, and with the shell brought up to the gun in a two-horse cart! 
Moreover, on tactical grounds a 68 Ib. field shell is inadmissible. 
In the trials above described the mortar battery took from 8 to 12 rounds to 
yange itself—and that at known ranges at conspicuous standing objects. A 
waste of a dozen 14 lb. shell would be bad enough, but a waste of a dozen 68 lb. 
shell at every fresh range before effective fire commenced would be more than any 
ammunition column could stand. As moreover the rate of fire is only 3 shrapnel 
per minute, the enemy would not improbably move off before the completion of 
the ranging series. The extreme range of the mortar is only 3300 yards, and 
a field battery at 3500 yards firing at a target like the mortar battery with its 
36 carriages would have a very enjoyable time. 
(21.) Captain Kuczera finds fault with General Wille for wasting argument 
on people who still believe in field howitzers. General Wille replies in effect that 
since there are such people—and clever people too—it is his duty to make them 
see the error of their ways. 
(22.) Comparative trial of Krupp’s new 64 1b. quick-firing gun against a 3°15” 
field gun. 
This is too long to transcribe. 
General Wille admits that the quick-firing equalled the field gun in hits per pound 
of shell, and beat it by 3 to 1 for time. He contends however that the field gun 
was an old and comparatively weak one, that the target (three rows of screens 9 
feet high and 20 yards behind one another) was not a service one, and that the 
trial took place at known ranges. Ata service target such as successive lines of 
attacking infantry the little quick-firing gun with its narrow zone of shrapnel effect 
would have no chance against a powerful field gun. As for time, the field gun 
fired 2 rounds per minute, and this rate, equal to 12 rounds per minute for a 
battery, General Wille considers quite sufficient for practical purposes. 
A further conclusive objection to the use of shell so small as 64 lbs. is their 
want of effect against entrenchments, and the impossibility of getting a sufficiently 
large high explosive burster into them. 
General Wille gives long extracts from articles on this trial by various eminent 
military writers to much the same effect. 
(23.) A summary of the opinions of eleven critics for and against metallic 
cartridges and fixed ammunition. A small majority vote for metallic cartridges 
separated from the shell. Metal is preferred because nitro powder keeps better 
