THE GERMAN ARTILLERY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2373, 1 February 1915, Page 8

THE GERMAN ARTILLERY

MORE ECONOMICAL METHODS. , Paris, December 9. The "Temps" publishes to-day an in-, struction that has been given to German artillery officers warning. them .to hnsband their ammunition, the authority being the German General Staff. The instruction points out that war experience differs from peace conditions, and that German industry cannot yield an inexhaustible store of ammunition. For these reasons artillery officers are warned only to shoot at targets when the results' justify the expenditure. Tire is to bo concentrated during periods and in places when they can produce the greatest moral and physical effect. Slow purposeless firing is merely a waste of ammunition. The instruction emphasises the importance of direct observation. "When this cannot be done officers are recommended to use aeroplanes, captive balloons, and flank observers.

The value of close co-operation with the infantry is emphasised, and artillery positions should be selected irom this standpoint. If the enemy's batteries inflict severe losses On the infantry their positions should be found by aeroplane's. When the infantry advance, they should be supported by artillery, and the fire should be most intense ivhen tho infantry attack is boing made. Defended positions, defended villages, etc., are ready to be attacked after ono or two hours' bombardment. If the bombardment is not followed immediately by an attack a waste cf ammunition is involved. In the case of a defensive action the exact moment should be chosen, otherwise there, is a waste of ammunition.

Commenting on these instructions the ''Temps" states: "It is evident that Germany is uneasy as to a shortage of ammunition. The practice of the enemy's artillery has completely changed during the hurt few weeks. . . ..From the beginning of the campaign the German gunners, if they did not surprise »!» with their skill, astonished us by the generosity with which they spent their ammunition. . . . At the be-

ginning of this month a battery fired for five hours on two old ammnuition wagons, with broken wheels, that had been deliberately abandoned by us a few miles from Vitry. Since then this waste-lias.been stopped. Tho enemy are. sparing their shells. Tho Gorman military authorities have realised that German industry, even by its giving its maximum yield, cannot, furnish the ■ij-jnj; l&iefalidp with ammunition.. I ''