OUR FIELD GUNNERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 843, 15 June 1910, Page 6

OUR FIELD GUNNERS.

SHOOTING AND GENERAL i EFFICIENCY. \ i HONOURS FOR D BATTERY. 1 TIIE RHODES CUI* AND CHALLENGE SHIELD. Owing to tho fact that tho Auckland Battery of Field Artillery was unable to complete its service tests- till about ten days ago, the official results of 190910 field artillery competitions for the Rhodes Challenge Cup for shooting under service conditions, and for the Challenge Shield presented by the New - Zealand Government, for award to the field battery securing tho highest marks for general efficiency, were not available so early aftor the end of the training season (February) as in previous years. At a special parade of D Battery, held at the Artillery Hall last evening, the official results of tho competitions were handed to tho officer commanding; the battery (Major I'elherick), together with a memorandum from tho Cliief Instructor of Artillery (Captain G. S. Richardson), in which the work of tho Competing batteries during tho past year was critically reviewed. "Double Firsts." Tho Wellington Field Gunners are to he congratulated upon their well-earned distinction in winning both the Rhodes Cup and the Challenge. Shield for general efficiency in the face of the keenest competition. Tho marks awarded in tho Rhodes Cup gunnery competition were as follow :— "A"—Manoeuvre and fire discipline, including reconnaissance, concealment while reconnoitring, and time taken, driving, discipline on the march and in action, time taken from order to action, method of handling battery by the battery leader, service of guns, quickness in pointing out target, quick decision by battery commander, smartness and accuracy in passing orders, maintaining intervals, and rate of fire, 100. "B"—Shooting, including accuracy in ranging, percentage of effective time shell, percentage of target destroyed, distribution, time occupied, percentage of shell in rectangle, 100. Results:— ■ ' "A." "B." T"l. ,\1 'Battery (W©\\hu;W)... St &\ \<S \ B Battery,(Duncdin) 81 69 150 B Battery fC'hrisrchurch) 71 (il 133 A Battery Auckland) 70 51 124 *H Battery (Nelson) 51 40 91 *II Battery is n two-gun battery; the others are four-gun batteries. Certain deductions in the marks were made to compensato for differences in tile ranges fired over, but these did not affect tho order of merit. To qualify for first-class, 110 marks, or 70 per "cent, must be obtained. To simply qualify, 50 per cent, must bo obtained. This is tho third year of tho Rhodes Clip 'competition, and D Battery's first win. Auckland won it last year. In general efficiency D Battery gained 03.5 per cent, pf marks; B Battery, 90 per cent.; A Battery, 77.5 per cent.; H Battery, 7G.G per cent.; E Battery, 70 per cent. The honours list for the efficiency challenge shield is, therefore, in that order of merit. Tho shield is now in its fifth year of competition, and has been won four times by-the Wellington gunners. Last year Wellington tied with Dunedin for first place. An Unsatisfactory System. Reviewing the work of the field gunners during tho 1909-10 training season, the Chief Instructor of Artillery considers that the practice on the whole has uot been so good as last year. '-'This," he says, "is chielly due to less timo having been spent on tho practice ground than in former years. Real progress cannot bo obtained until arrangements are made whereby the whole of the batteries can, after a thorough preliminary training camp near their homes, proceed for several days to the practice ground. The system at present carried out is most unsatisfactory. Battery commanders are unable to arrange with employers to get their men away from work in order to attend the practico of their batteries for nioro than one day, with tho result that all tho shooting has to bo completed in n few hours. If a soldier wero compelled to fire the whole of his annual allowance of rifle ammunition on one day per year, ho would learn very little, and there would bo few gooil rifle shots in the service; yet with an arm that is ad-1 niitted to bo highly technical, and the most difficult to train, we are endeavouring to get efficiency, under similar impossible conditions. The garrison gunner goes into camp at the fort, he mans on mobilisation—no is close to his home, and the difficulties of carrying out practico are small compared with those experienced by field gunners, who must get special leave from employers to attend tho practice, which is necessarily carried out at some distance from tho cities whero they are stationed, and whero they carry out their home train-' ing. Signalling Requires Improvement, "Indirect laying has been used with nearly tho whole of the series fired. A portion of each battery's work was devoted to firing from concealed positions; although somo improvement was shown in the accuracy of fire from concealed positions, the • batteries wero too slow in opening fire. The total time for the whole practice series was also too slow, duo to poor signalling; in one battery tho rate of fire from concealed positions was* equal to that from open positions, showing that with good signallers there is no reason why other batteries should' not reach tho same standard. The issue of telephone equipment to field batteries may,facilitate firing from concealed positions, but signallers must bo well trained, to communicate quickly orders by flag signalling, in case of a breakdown. Gunnery Efficiency. "In open positions, time between 'Action' and 'First gun' (the order to go into action and the firing of tho first round) was far too slow, and is due to :— "(1) Slowness in' planting aiming posts; "(2) Neglect of preliminary instructions before batteries come into action in the open; and "(3) Always using aiming posts when 'laying direct for line and indirect for ' elevation' would be just as suitable and accurate, and far quickc/. The service of the guns in some cases could be far quicker. This is not always the fault of the detachments—section commanders are sometimes to blame. The night firing series, fired by two baitieiries, were most instructive, and should be carried' out'by all batteries in future. "The reconnaissance by battery commanders has in some cases been slow; battery leaders have failed to keep in touch with tho battery commander, and occasionally have halted their batteries in conspicuous positions. Tho driving has been fairly good. "Quick decision on tho part of battery commanders is most necessary, but in no portion of the training is there greater Toom for improvement; in somo cases, officers had waited nearly lialf a minute before giving out their orders for new ranging and fusing after observations of the previous round.- Intervals in rate of firo have been badly maintained in most cases, owing to the service of guns and laying being slow." Competitors Summed Up. Tho following is a resume of the comments upon t'ho work of individual batteries :— A Battery (Auckland).— "Ranee found in each series, but times too slow when iii concealed positions; effect poor, owing to irregularity of fuses." B Battery (Dunedin).—"Range found in each series; times slow, but concealed work, good; effect, good." D Battery (Wellington).—"Ail series, good; effect, very good." E Battery (Clwistchurc.il).—"Very slow when in concealed jxisitions; passing uf orders, poor; effect, fair." n Battery (Nelson).—"lrregular shooting of guns and numerous misfires; serious errors in laying iu one series; cll'cot, .D00r.."-

Conditions More Difficult. Commenting oil tiio general work of the batteries, Captain Richardson states "the average marks are loss than last year, but'this is due to the more difficult conditions of the various tests, and not to any decrease in efficiency. Range-finding includes the examination of range-takers 3 in reconnaissance, sketching, riding, etc. By far the l)est results were obtained by D Battery. Some of the batteries have very poor signallers, the result being i slow and unreliable communications of orders between the battery commander j ami the 'buttery when firing- from concealed positions. Lamp signalling was ; good in D Battery, fair in' 11, and poor in '. other batteries. . Gun-laying has been j generally good, but in some cases slow at service practice, and a few penalties have been made for serious errors made during shooting. Driving has been fairly good, considering the difficulties experienced by battery commanders in training drivers, owing to the limited facilities. In battery drill penalties were made for mistakes in drill, etc., during service; practice. The marks awarded for gunnery include the marks for the examination .of officers and non-commissioned officers, and the penalties for 'incomplete establishment ■ of officers, etc. The awards are somewhat low, due partly to the poor results obtained by some noncommissioned officers and men in semaphore signalling, and partly to the large number of recruits taken into camp by some batteries. A Smart Turn-out. ' "The times taken to turn out on tho i alarm signal were as follow : — i "D Battery (Wellington}, 3min. 27scc; H Battery (Kelson), -limn. lOsee.; B Battery (.Ounedin), 4min. lnscc; 1-1 Battery (Oliristchurch)', -limn. SOsec; A Battery (Auckland), smin. "Discipline, with one exception, has been excellent; marks have, however, been made for minor errors. The attendance was very good. Only three batteries were established to their full strength last season. An analysis of the results show that the greatest difference in the efficiency of batteries is in the training of signallers and specialists, a difficult problem in a territorial battery, but one that must be solved in order to ensure efficiency of the battery as v. whole."