No. 3642 19 NOV 1914
FURTHER NOTES ON ARTILLERY IN THE PRESENT WAR.
Speaking generally, it may be said that Field Artillery Training in the light of experiences up to date requires remarkably little alteration. Both the general principles laid down and the detailed instructions given have been proved to be correct, with hardly any exceptions.
Some notes on various sections of the Training Manual follow:-
Chapter VII., Section 146. – Concealment assumes greater importance than ever. It is not merely desirable but essential, and in modern war concealment means cover from view from the enemy’s observers, whether on the ground or in the air. In addition to concealment when in position the approach to the position must also be hidden from air observers. If hostile aeroplanes are observed guns must remain perfectly still along the edge of woods, &c., where they may escape observation; during movement there must be look-out men on the watch for the approach of the enemy’s aircraft.
Owing to the great height at which these fly, i.e., about 6,000 to 7,000 feet they cannot usually be detected unless first heard approaching. The look-out man should therefore be placed where the approach of an aeroplane would be audible, e.g., away from roads. It is possible to distinguish between the enemy’s and friendly machines by means of the coloured designs painted on the under plane. The French have red, white and blue concentric rings, and the English a union jack in addition to the rings. The German machines show a black cross almost similar to a Maltese cross.
It is usual when possible to stop firing when the enemy’s aeroplane is overhead until it disappears owing to the importance of keeping gun positions secret. When they are located the enemy do not seem to find much difficulty in shelling them and inflicting casualties both on personnel and material.
Much may, however, be done to mislead the enemy’s air observers by the use of partially concealed emplacements and puffs to represent the flash and report of guns. These must, however, be sparingly used, and, as a rule, be under the direction of the Divisional Artillery Headquarters.
It is quite as important to conceal completely wagon and gun teams as the guns themselves, and they are best placed, if possible, out of range altogether. Where it is not possible to conceal them, their position must be changed directly it has been located by an observer, if casualties are to be avoided.
Even when positions are effectually hidden it must be remembered that if the locality can be described accurately by spies, just as effective fire can be brought to bear as if the position had been plainly visible. The chief considerations, then – given concealment – should be
- The selection of a position difficult to locate accurately on a map.
- The occupation of the position in such a way as to increase the difficulty of hitting any gun or emplacement, viz., by placing guns at wide and irregular intervals, and even at varying ranges.
Section 147. Economy of force. – The necessity for this has been well exemplified according to all reports and personal observation. The enemy’s guns and observing stations are so well concealed and so constantly changed that it is nearly always advisable to reserve guns to deal with later contingencies. That this is not sufficiently practiced is perhaps due to peace training, but it has assumed great importance in war, and great stress must be laid on it during training. The labour of taking up a position and entrenching is great, whereas, often, it may have been completed only just before a change is shown to be desirable.
The bigger the calibre of the gun the more important this factor of economy. If howitzers are required for a task, four may often be sufficient, or even two; while heavy guns should hardly ever be in larger units than sections.
The bigger the calibre the greater also the difficulty of the ammunition supply. It may therefore sometimes be advisable to attach an 18-pr. gun to heavier natures to assist in ranging and registering. It is true this introduces complications, but nevertheless it may sometimes be worthwhile.
In modern battle fronts the extent of ground is so great that the character of the country will vary in different parts of the position. At the battle of the Aisne the British Corps were extended over a front of some 15 miles or even more. In some portions only could howitzers be profitably utilized, while in others guns could do all that was required.
Section 148. Protection, sub-paragraph 5. – The carrying of rifles on wagons in the artillery appears to have been justified by their having been made use of on more than one section.
Section 149. Intercommunication. – Communications are perhaps the greatest difficulty that units have to contend with owing to the almost exclusive use of the telephone. Flag signalling is rare, but has been used both by field and heavy artillery on suitable occasions when there was no chance of observation by the enemy.
Buzzing on the telephone is very much resorted to and is invaluable.
It was perhaps not sufficiently recognized in the Royal Artillery in peace how much training is required to keep telephone communication uninterrupted. The difference in the working of the telephones by the Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery is most marked. The Royal Engineers succeed and the Royal Artillery to some extent fail.
The necessity for an efficient telephone service cannot be too strongly impressed on those now training. Men require much training in speaking, which is an acquired art, as well as in keeping the instruments and line in good working order. Casualties amongst these men, who do not hesitate to go out and repair lines under the hottest fire, are bound to occur, and there should therefore be plenty under training. Every telephonist must know the Morse code and be able to use the buzzer.
When laid out the wire should be dug in if time permit, as such frequent interruptions occur from the wire being cut. The digging in is best arranged by ploughing a furrow with an ordinary plough, if available, and there are many about in the fields.
The lamp is useful, but it also requires highly skilled signallers.
Megaphones are useful. Section commanders sometimes use them to make themselves heard above the noise of bursting shell.
Section 163A. Artillery in wood fighting. – Most guns in the recent battle have been inside or just on the edge of woods. If woods did not accommodate the guns, young trees were cut down and planted around the batteries so as to screen them. In the winter, except where firs are available, these methods will not, perhaps, be so effective. Wagon teams were always concealed in woods if possible.
Artillery will do well to keep clear of all villages, if within range of hostile guns. Villages aid the location of targets by description, and are apt to draw shell fire.
It may be well here to emphasise the necessity of much practice with maps, e.g., locating places in strange country, using the map for obtaining range, line and angle of sight.
Section 164. Night operations. – The chief work to be carried out at night is the occupation of positions and entrenching. Practice in peace training is all important. Ammunition is constantly replenished at night, and changes of gun positions or the position of the teams are nearly always effected at night. Suitable artificial light is a great help. The showing of lights would generally be unobjectionable if positions are well concealed from the target direction.
Firing by night in more indulged in by the enemy than ourselves, but it has been attempted on certain occasions against targets to which the range had been ascertained by day. The enemy make frequent endeavours to shell villages or buildings known to be occupied by our troops after dark, but the effect would not appear commensurate with the expenditure of ammunition; at least, we should not consider it so.
Chapter VIII., Section 181. Reconnaissance. – From the information available on this subject, it would seem that the battery commanders have had more tactical control of their units than is contemplated by Field Artillery Training. This is due mainly to the difficulty of communication in the field. Battery commanders have certainly very often done the whole of their reconnaissance, making their choice of position on the information and instructions received from brigade headquarters. Space appears for the most part not to be confined, but, since batteries are always concealed, observing stations are nearly always distant. No account is taken of the danger angle. The “position in observation” is much used, but the “position in readiness” finds no place in the modern battle.
Section 186. Allotting objectives is effected either by the map or by personally pointing out localities visible from observing stations.
A howitzer brigade is seldom used as such, and howitzer batteries are further much split up into sections, or even single guns on occasions.
Chapter IX., Section 192. Reconnaissance of a position. – Complete concealment in the reconnaissance and in the approach to and occupation of the observing station is absolutely essential. A background is necessary to the observing station, and there should be as few people present there as possible. All required must be dug in to complete cover, and a view of the battery is likely to be impossible. The use of observation wagons would seldom be desirable or possible, except sometimes in a flat country where it is necessary to raise the eye of the observer. But it should then be remembered that the shield of the observatory is no protection against high explosive shell. A battery commander would be as secure, on the whole, in a tree as raised up on a ladder provided with a shield, and at the same time better supported.
The first object of the reconnaissance is, contrary to paragraph 3 of this section, almost always a position for the guns that will defy discovery as long as possible. The position of the observation station is subservient, being selected as occasion demands, and is normally in front of the guns.
It is hardly ever necessary to mark the line of fire with aiming posts. The line is generally obtained roughly from the map and a trial shot fired from which to make a correction.
Section 193. Methods of occupying a position. – In the above circumstances the “special method” is more often followed than the ordinary.
Occupations of position by night require special treatment, the method being adapted to circumstances.
Whatever the method or whatever the position, digging should commence at the earliest possible moment.
Section 195. Advance for action. – This section requires slight modifications in accordance with the above. The wagon line should be as far away from the battery as possible, convenient with ammunition supply, which will probably be by ammunition carriers by hand, or else take place after dark.
Section 196. To come into action. – Batteries may require to have either both wagons in action at the same time or to have the wagon on one side of the gun and the limber on the other, if reliance is placed on the vehicles to afford cover. Normally, however, cover is obtained by digging.
Section 198. Laying out the line of fire. – Method of obtaining the line has been alluded to in the remarks on Section 192, the governing fact is, of course, that the battery is not likely to be visible from the observing station. The compass is most useful. Maps even more so.
The procedure adopted is somewhat as follows:-
Place the map on a plane table, or on some flat surface, in the battery. Set the map accurately either by means of two known points located on the map or by the compass, taking into account the magnetic variation.
The battery commander measures with a protractor the angle between the target and some object shown on the map, such as a church, and telephones the object selected to the battery leader, who is thus enabled to fix a line on the map by means of two pins, viz.: – the line battery – church.
Suppose the battery commander orders the line of fire 10 degrees right of the fixed line, the battery leader will lay his director set at 10 degrees right on the line joining the two pins in his map. The director is then swung round to zero, when it will be in the required line of fire. Individual angles may then be given to guns or an aiming point selected in the ordinary way.
When working in conjunction with aircraft the line should be obtained by clamping the director on the aeroplane when immediately over the target. A good method of signalling when the machine is over the target is that adopted by the enemy, whose observers fire a small smoke ball which shows very clearly, and could be laid easily on with a director.
Sections 203 – 205. Co-operation of aircraft. – Air observation is greatly used both by ourselves and the enemy.
Both the battery commander and observer are provided with a map, the larger scale the better, and the position of target on the map is given by the observer. The battery then lays out the line by the aid of the map and observations are signalled back after each round fired. Effective fire can be reached within some 10 minutes of the first round fired.
The first necessity of any system is speed, on account of the exposure of the airman to hostile fire throughout the operation.
This system is slow, and experiments have been undertaken with a view to devising other systems. (See Appendix I.)
Wireless telegraphy has been found the quickest and most satisfactory system of communication. The use of Very’s lights is resorted to on occasions when wireless telegraphy is not available, and some fair results are believed to have been obtained with them.
The German method of giving the line to the battery by firing a smoke ball over the target is most effective: it appears to be only a part of a somewhat elaborate system. The resulting fire is generally most accurate.
Section 207. Ranging. – Section ranging is the method that is employed as being the simplest, with percussion or long corrector, the former for choice, owing the there being less chance of error. False crests do not abound in the north-east of France. The general aspect of the country is not unlike Wiltshire, and often remarkably like Salisbury Plain. There is a bigger sprinkling of woods, and they are larger. The features are bolder and the valleys wider and deeper. Time shrapnel ranging, which is so suitable for overcoming the difficulties met with where there are many small dips and depressions, is not apparently required by the conditions prevailing.
Fuzes have sometimes burst at irregular heights. This is usually due to one of the following reasons –
- Sights getting slightly out of adjustment.
- Want of exact precision in the use of the gears when adjusting sights.
- Development of increased play in equipment.
- Bubble not being accurately centred before firing.
The importance of paying attention to these points must be impressed on all concerned with training.
The heights of burst given in the Manual must not be exceeded if fire is to be effective.
Section 215. Searching. – Searching is much resorted to, in spite of the expenditure of ammunition entailed. On the Aisne the lie of the land in the enemy’s position was soon fairly well known and constant reports sent in from aeroplanes increased the value and effect of searching.
Section 216. Sweeping. – Sweeping has been employed on at least one occasion, and the effect appeared to be satisfactory. The method adopted was an adaption of that laid down in this section, the object being to avoid regularity of fire against which the hostile detachments can easily protect themselves.
Section 219. To register a zone. – Cases of registering a zone by single batteries, so far as is known, have been rare. Either targets have been presented by bodies of troops moving in an area in such a way that they were capable of being dealt with by following them up as they moved, with shrapnel fire, or else the artillery have been employed in shelling certain held portions of a position which may or may not be visible from the observing station.
Registration would seem to have been more the task of the artillery of a division as a whole, that is to say, a division is made responsible for a certain zone and all the portions in that zone are ranged on, watched and shelled as required by the various batteries concerned, under divisional arrangements.
Sections 220 – 226. Objectives. – The artillery duel appears to have returned, and one of the principal tasks of our artillery has been the silencing of the enemy’s guns.
The destruction or effectual shelling of an observing station requires all the skill of an experienced battery commander; similarly, infantry shelter trenches require most accurate fire to be brought against them, but for each case such as those mentioned there will probably be many where it is required to bring fire to bear on an area behind a ridge, a wood, a village, a ravine, or to keep quiet guns posted in an invisible locality. In such cases accuracy in the service of the gun is as necessary as ever, but extreme accuracy of observation loses some of its importance.
A few batteries have made use of walls of fire, and at Caudry, in August, batteries built walls of fire which held up all movement for a considerable length of time. Indeed, the wall was impenetrable so long as it lasted.
In dealing with situations similar to those at the Aisne, where the opposing infantry trenches were within a few hundred yards of each other and the guns of either side concealed in rear, often as far back as 2,000 or 3,000 yards, or even more, the advanced observation posts mentioned in section 153, paragraph 11, can be used with very great effect. An artillery officer sent on to the infantry trenches may be able to see a target which is invisible from near battery, and, therefore, able to direct accurate fire. Telephonic communication is usually essential.
The enemy’s trenches are not usually sited on the tops or forward edges of slopes but are apt to be thrown back behind the crest, in order that they may be difficult to reach with shell fire. When so sited, if aircraft are not available, it is almost always necessary to employ a distant observing station and telephones necessitating long lengths of wire to control the fire.
Chapter XI., Section 238. – Entrenching and concealing guns. – A type of cover for guns which has been found useful is given in Appendix II. Gun pits and epaulments both have their uses, according to the ground, the weather, &c.
The chief considerations to be borne in mind are:-
- A good and sufficient platform for the gun.
- Cover from view from in front and from overhead.
- Protection for the detachments as far as possible when serving the guns.
- Complete cover when not actually serving the guns.
- Overhead protection against bad weather.
Chapter V., Laying. – A few notes on this subject may be useful.
Most of the time available should be devoted to learning thoroughly two methods –
- Indirect without variations.
- Direct.
Indirect is the most important and usual method employed. Direct will be only rarely required, and either the open sight or the telescope may be used.
The exact method in indirect laying will depend on the sighting gear available.
The necessities are –
- Simplicity.
- Quickness.
- Cover for the layer.
It is hardly ever feasible to place aiming posts to the front.
Discipline. – The following note on discipline, issued by the C.R.A. of one division, is worthy of attention:-
- It is of the greatest importance that a high standard of discipline be maintained. Strictness on the part of officers and non-commissioned officers is necessary on such points as cleanliness, falling out on the march and straggling. In each unit every man must be detailed to a definite duty with non-commissioned officers properly in charge. Roll call twice a day is essential.
- States and returns must ,be carefully rendered.
- Commanding officers must exercise the greatest care that equipment is not wasted. Harness and saddlery and other stores whether bulky or small, if not required, must be returned to the Ordnance.
APPENDIX I.
Experiments were carried out on Salisbury Plain on 3rd November. The following systems of obtaining line and range to the hidden targets were tried:-
- The aeroplane flew from over the battery straight over the target.
- When vertically above the target a signal was given.
- By the aeroplane making a sudden dip.
- By wireless.
- By smoke ball.
- By a coloured light or lights.
- The position of the aeroplane when making the signal was obtained
- By intersection with two theodolites from a measured base of 600 yards.
- By intersection with two directors from a measured base.
- By obtaining the line by means of a director and the range by means of a one man range-finder.
- By obtaining the line by means of a director and the range by measuring the vertical angle, provided the aeroplane was flying at a known and prearranged height.
Of the methods in (2.) above –
- was found by far the best, the dipping was very easy to see.
- was very successful provided the message got through all right, but was only of use in connection with a theodolite or director alongside the receiving station, joined by telephone to the other end of the base.
- and (d) were found unsatisfactory, the signal often being missed.
Of the methods in (3.) –
- was accurate but theodolites are delicate instruments for use on service.
- was accurate provided a good long base, 500 yards or more, was used.
- was accurate provided the range-taker was an expert.
- could not be satisfactorily tried because clouds prevented the aeroplane flying sufficiently high.
Generally, the results obtained were that the line could be ascertained with considerable accuracy, i.e., within one or even half a degree, while the error in the range varied from 50 to 300 yards. It is necessary to estimate the angle of sight unless the latter can b e obtained from the map. Given a good large scale map it would seem that intersections of the aeroplane when over the target by means of two directors from two points which can be located accurately on the map would fix the target as accurately as is possible. If the battery or batteries can also be located on the map, the true range can then be measured off.
To obtain accurate fire subsequent observation from aeroplanes would appear to be necessary. This was tried from an aeroplane fitted with wireless and worked well. Practice in observation from above is essential.
Appendix 2.
ROUGH SKETCH OF GUN EMPLAULMENT.
Illustration on full page.
The Bay Museum & Research Facility 