The British System Is The Six Brave Guns Coming Into Action
In Line Of Full Interval, And Spreading Out Into Accurate Dressing
Visible To All Men.
'Always remember,' says one of our artillery
maxims, 'that one gun is no gun.' Which is prettier on a field-day,
is obvious, but which is business - let the many duels between six
Boer guns and sixty British declare.
With black powder it was
useless to hide the gun, as its smoke must betray it. With
smokeless powder the guns are so invisible that it was only by the
detection with powerful glasses of the dust from the trail on the
recoil that the officers were ever able to localise the guns
against which they were fighting. But if the Boers had had six guns
in line, instead of one behind that kopje, and another between
those distant rocks, it would not have been so difficult to say
where they were. Again, British traditions are all in favour of
planting guns close together. At this very action of Vaalkranz the
two largest guns were so placed that a single shell bursting
between them would have disabled them both. The officer who placed
them there, and so disregarded in a vital matter the most obvious
dictates of common-sense, would probably have been shocked by any
want of technical smartness, or irregularity in the routine drill.
An over-elaboration of trifles, and a want of grip of common-sense,
and of adaptation to new ideas, is the most serious and damaging
criticism which can be levelled against our army.
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