ARTILLERY
As these sketches of the changing phases of modern war are largely concerned with the work of the artillery, as, indeed, they are written from the standpoint of that branch of the Service, this would seem to be a favourable place to explain shortly the significance of the arm. My excuse, if any be needed, may be sought in the mind of the average man who, terrified as ever of the contemplation of anything technical, puzzled by the grandiloquence of the self-appointed "expert," regards the art of the artilleryman as written in a book sealed to him for ever by its own abstruseness.
Yet the general principles that guide the employment of the man with the gun, as distinguished from the man with the rifle, are very simple. In the first place, whereas the latter is only concerned with the incapacitating of personnel, the former has in addition the task of the destruction of matÉriel. The old and still popular idea of a battle, wherein each arm engages exclusively the similar arm of the enemy, has, since the middle of the last century, entirely disappeared. In a few words it may be said that the function of the artillery of the attack is to prepare the way for the infantry assault by the demolition of the enemy's defences, so far as that may be possible, and during this actual assault to prevent the enemy's troops from leaving their shelter and offering resistance. The artillery of the defence, on the other hand, must endeavour to check the fire of the hostile guns, either by overwhelming the batteries themselves by a fire so intense that the detachments cannot work the guns, or by the destruction of their observation posts. During the assault, their object must be to cover the space over which the hostile infantry must advance with so continuous a rain of shell that they are unable to reach their objective.
In order to perform these various duties with the greatest attainable efficiency artillery must possess two essentials. In the first place, it must be able to project the greatest possible weight of shell in a given time, and in the second it must be capable of rapid movement from one point to another so that it may be rapidly brought into use whenever the need for it is greatest. Now, obviously, the heavier the shell to be thrown, the greater must be the energy of the cartridge, and the greater the energy of the cartridge, the greater the strength (and consequently size and weight) of the gun necessary to withstand the pressures produced upon its discharge. On the other hand, if a gun is to be mobile, it must be as light as possible, both so that it can be moved at the required speed, and also that it can be taken over soft or difficult ground. Mobility and shell-power are therefore naturally antagonistic, the two cannot be combined in the same gun. The modern army, therefore, carries a range of guns, wherein maximum mobility controls one end of the scale and maximum shell-power the other. The former is represented by the mountain gun, firing a shell weighing some ten pounds and capable of being moved with great rapidity over practically any ground that a man can traverse laden, the latter by pieces of ordnance throwing a shell whose weight approximates to a ton, capable of very slow movement over good roads and requiring elaborately prepared positions from which to fire.
Suppose, however, that we were to take a six-inch gun, that is to say a gun firing a shell six inches in diameter and weighing a hundred pounds, with a range of say twenty thousand yards. This gun will require a cartridge consisting of about twenty pounds of propellant, to withstand the explosion of which the gun must be made of such massiveness that it will weigh some seven tons. Now instead of requiring so great a range, we determine to be satisfied with a range of six or seven thousand yards. We now find that a charge of only some two pounds of propellant will give us this range, and that the gun can now be built very much shorter and less massive, so that its weight is reduced to a ton and a half. We have retained the same weight of shell, but have sacrificed range to increased mobility, and the fruit of our labours is no longer a six-inch gun, but a six-inch howitzer. But in the process of conversion from a gun, the howitzer has acquired a new characteristic. Owing to its heavy charge of propellant, a gun projectile leaves the bore with great velocity, and consequently the gun requires relatively little elevation to hit a target at any given range. A howitzer, owing to its small charge, requires a far greater elevation. Now a projectile reaches its mark travelling at very much the same angle with the horizontal as when it started on its journey. At a range within the capacity of both, therefore, if fired say at a house, the shell from the gun will tend to hit the front wall, whereas the shell from the howitzer will tend to drop upon the roof. This tendency, combined with their difference in mobility, determines the choice of a gun or howitzer with which to attack a given target. It may be added that by still further reducing the range to be attained, say to a few hundred yards, a charge of only a few ounces need be employed, and a weapon produced, capable of being carried by a couple of men, yet still throwing a comparatively heavy shell. The German Minenwerfers and our own trench-mortars are the representatives of this class.
All these various types and sizes of ordnance (the word "gun" is a generic term that covers them all) employ two main types of projectile, shrapnel and high explosive. Shrapnel may be considered as a sort of shot gun fired from a rifled gun. It consists of a steel case filled with round bullets except for a chamber in the base containing a small quantity of powder. The head of the shell is fitted with a fuse which can be set to act at any given time after the gun is fired. This fuse ignites the powder in the base of the shell, which projects the bullets from the case in the form of a cone whose axis is the direction in which the shell is moving at the time. Shrapnel, therefore, depends for its effect upon the destructive power of the flying bullets. High-explosive projectiles consist of a very strong and heavy shell, entirely filled with a high-explosive compound, and fitted with a percussion fuse that acts when the shell strikes anything. The fuse ignites a primer which detonates the high-explosive charge, and the body of the shell splits up into pieces of various sizes which are hurled in all directions with considerable velocity. This type of shell has a double destructive power, that of the high explosive itself and of the flying fragments. The Germans employ a compromise in addition, known as "universal" shell, which may be described as a shrapnel with a high-explosive charge, which can be used with either a time or percussion fuse. They have also combined with the explosive charge of some of their projectiles a substance which on combustion produces an irritant gas with the property of attacking the eyes, and thereby making a position untenable, and have also added phosphorus to produce incendiary effects. It may be accepted as a general rule that howitzers employ only high explosive, guns both shrapnel and high explosive.
We are now in a position to consider how artillery can best engage the various types of target that offer themselves. The gunner's dream, a mass of infantry in the open, is now but seldom seen, and when it is no battery within range can restrain itself from hurling anything it possesses at such a heaven-sent objective. The most suitable method of procedure is to overwhelm it with a cloud of light shrapnel, burst well above and in front of it, so as to produce a hail of bullets beneath which nothing can live. In the case of the attack of a trench, the method usually employed is a preliminary bombardment by light and medium howitzers, with the object of destroying it and its occupants, or at all events rendering it untenable, by dropping high explosive into it; as soon as the infantry commence the assault, the field guns cover the face of the trench with shrapnel to prevent its defenders manning the parapet with their rifles. It has been found that wire entanglements can be most easily and efficiently destroyed by light shrapnel burst just above or if possible amongst them, followed if necessary by a few light high-explosive shells to uproot the standards without forming deep craters that would impede the assaulting infantry.
A hostile battery in position under cover is usually engaged with high explosive from guns or howitzers. It is impossible to count upon a direct hit destroying any of the guns composing it, although such lucky shots have occurred. But the detachments may be forced to remain under cover and the battery communications disorganized. Either result will put the battery out of action so long as the fire continues. The real difficulty of such a target is to discover its exact position.
Fortified positions such as redoubts and buildings may be destroyed by the high-explosive fire of heavy guns and howitzers; observation posts by guns, as they are usually small, and, speaking generally, it is easier to hit a small mark with a gun than with a howitzer, owing to the former possessing greater accuracy. A somewhat peculiar feature of modern warfare is retaliation, of which the general principle is that if the enemy incommodes one by the use of his artillery, one or more batteries are ordered to fire a given number of rounds into some place where his troops are known to collect, such as a town or large village behind his lines. Guns firing high explosive are most suitable for this, as the point selected for retaliation is usually beyond the range of howitzers. It is often desired, more usually at night, to prevent the enemy from sending reinforcements to his front line. To effect this end, a "barrage" is established, usually by means of howitzers, which draw a curtain of high explosive between the massing-place of the reinforcements and their goal.
The first concern of any battery, once it is in position, is to be capable of maintaining fire as long as it is called upon to do so, and whenever necessary. To be able to do this presupposes immunity from hostile fire, and, it having been found in practice impossible to secure adequate protection from determined shelling, this involves concealment, not alone from direct view from the enemy's positions, but also from his aeroplanes and observation balloons. It is comparatively easy to find some natural or artificial feature behind which to place a battery, but it is almost a life study so to disguise that battery that it will not be detected from above. Pits may have to be dug to hold the gun and its detachment, spanned by iron rails carrying a load of earth artistically planted with shrubs and flowers, the inside of a hay-stack may be torn out so that a heavy howitzer can just be manipulated in the space so formed, an innocent heap of beetroots may conceal the long graceful contour of a sixty-pounder. Yet, however careful the disguise, unless the detachments themselves hide under any cover available and remain absolutely still when a hostile aeroplane is overhead, or if by mischance the tell-tale flash of the gun betray it, suddenly and without warning the heart-gripping whirr of heavy shell will be heard, and before there is time for everybody to find the dug-outs, the battery will be an inferno of unendurable explosions and deadly flying splinters. Then, happy the battery commander whose casualties are but slight!
If the battery is so concealed from the enemy's positions that it cannot be seen from them, it follows that neither can they be seen from the battery. In order, therefore, to be able to bring fire to bear upon any given point, the officer controlling the battery must have recourse to one of three expedients. He must either go himself to some point from which he can see his target, and from which he can communicate with the battery, or he must plot the position of battery and target on a map, and work on that, or he must have an observer in an aeroplane who can see the target and can communicate with him. The first of these methods is known as direct observation, and may be described as one of the most important things that the war is teaching, and the most absorbing phase of the artilleryman's life. The principles underlying the second and third are self-evident, and the details of their application too lengthy for description.
Finally, let me try to convey an impression of the gunner's performances from various points of view. The infantryman is the gunner's keenest critic, and here let me say once and for all that the infantryman is at the same time the hero and the decisive factor of every war. Artillery but exists to smooth his path to victory, on him falls every brunt and every hardship, the gunner is a mere accessory to his accomplishments. No battle and no war can ever be won except by infantry, superiority in any other arm is useless if the enemy's infantry gain the upper hand by greater numbers or efficiency. He therefore has a right to weigh us in the balance, and it is the Allies' brightest star that their infantry, after endless weary months of suffering under vastly superior gun-fire, know at last that behind them are men and weapons that daily exhibit their newly-won preponderance.
It is the prerogative of all good soldiers to grumble when they are satisfied and contented, presumably as a reaction from the cheerful and unmurmuring endurance of hardship. The infantryman of to-day, although reposing every confidence in the artillery behind him, still believes the gunner to be a man of bad habits and occasional lapses. It is no use explaining to him that the round that fell so short as to burst in his trench instead of the enemy's was merely an evidence of senile decay on the part of the gun, and it would be mere waste of time to attempt to convey to the clay-plastered working-party who are busy shovelling up the parapet that it knocked down that accidents will happen even in the best regulated batteries. I have heard higher praise bestowed on our efforts than that of a group of senior officers, who whilst walking down a communication trench at night, contrived so firmly to entangle themselves in the telephone wire to my observing station that it took a whole platoon armed with wire-cutters to unbind them—they irresistibly reminded me of the Laocoon when I arrived upon the scene. Further, it is easy to understand that men who wade along a muddy ditch to the prospect of five long days and nights in a morass are apt to speak slightingly of others sleeping the sleep of the just in warm dry dug-outs a mile or so back.
The gunner, on his part, admires the infantry with an admiration no less deep because it is hidden. Of course, he lacks soul, thinks the gunner, he has no imagination to see that yesterday's bombardment of the enemy's trench, although it did send a few splinters whizzing into his own, must have a subtle and profound bearing upon the issue of the war entirely outweighing any temporary inconvenience it may have caused him. Besides, he is an incurable marauder, nothing that can be made to burn in a bucket fire is safe for an unguarded moment. Lastly, he will clamour for vengeance upon an offending Minenwerfer just as the light is getting too bad for observation and one's servant appears with tea. But—one can turn in and dream of home in the knowledge that he is between oneself and the enemy.
It is interesting to follow the variations of German military opinion on the subject of the Allied artillery. Bernhardi, writing a year or two before the war, gives it as his opinion that the Krupp gun is slightly superior to all other weapons, as, at that time, before the perfection of the French "soixante-quinze," it probably was. He advocates the abandonment of shrapnel for "universal" shell, and throws doubts upon the ability of a German commander to use efficiently all the batteries at his disposal. The outbreak of war found the Allies, as regards "field" artillery, that is to say mobile ordnance throwing a shell of from fifteen to twenty pounds, in the possession of superior weapons in slightly inferior numbers. As regards "heavy" artillery, grouping under that heading all natures of ordnance heavier than a field gun, to every twenty pieces brought into action by the enemy we possibly had one. It will probably be the verdict of history that the rapidity of the hostile advance up to the Marne, and the ability of the enemy to establish himself, practically unmolested, upon a strong defensive line, were due entirely to this fact. Documents captured lately, however, have revealed that the higher German artillery advisers consider that, weapon for weapon, our guns have a slight superiority, and in numbers available upon the Western front a distinct preponderance. They also impress upon battery commanders the need of study of our method of concealment and observation, as being in many ways preferable to their own.
Of the gunner himself a few words will suffice. He is of a traditional type, big, burly and equipped with a vocabulary that has been known to fuse the delicate windings of an over-sensitive telephone. His gun, for which his terms of endearment are expressed in profanity, is his only care, in his spare time he will sit in its emplacement as in his natural home. The "limber-gunner," an old soldier selected for each gun to keep it groomed and immaculate, is jealous of his charge as he has been for all time, since the day when Alfonso d'Este of Ferrara hurled the brazen statue of Pope Julius II into the melting-pot wherewith to cast more cannon. Hear him discoursing to a group of youngsters on the regimental motto. "Ubique," he says, "ubique, that means, my sons, that whenever there's a scrap on you an' me an' the bloomin' old pop-gun's got to up an' trek an' earn our blessed rum ration doin' ten days' work in one." And I think he speaks the truth.
