THE BRITISH ARTILLERYMEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1294, 8 September 1914, Page 4

THE BRITISH ARTILLERYMEN.

HOW THE HEROES OF MONS WERE TRAINED.

“A great many statements have been made in the cables lately regarding the superiority of the French artilleryman. It is said that he is the best in the world. Now, I want to put in a word on behalf of the British artilleryman, who seems to have been forgotten altogether,” The speaker was Dexter, thg two-handed sketch artist, who is appearing at the Tivoli Theatre, Sydney. ‘T have had a lot of expeiieuce amongst the artillery at manoeuvres in England,” went on Dexter, '‘and have seen their training and watched the effects of it. The British artilleryman is the most perfect piece of human machinery it is possible to imagine. The driving is thrilling to watch, and the feats he performs,

are almost incredible, while the published results show that his gunnery is ahead of anything in the world to-day. “My mission at manoeuvres was always to draw pictures, and naturally I found the artillery the best subjects. I have seen some marvellous things done. Here is one instance. I was on an ammunition waggon, driving down the long hill at Aldershot. This bill is very steep and fearfully rough, all cut up as it is by watercourses. We were travelling at a canter. Behind us came the horse artillery at a hand gallop. Just at the worst part of the hill one of the leading horses in one gun stumbled and fell. In an instant there was a struggling mass of men and horses. All the men on the gun were shot forward down the hill, but none were seriously injured, and at once they sprang to their feet, rushed to the guns and horses, and proceeded to repair the damage as though they had done it all a hundred times before. The men on the horses disentangled themselves, got their horses up, repaired broken traces, put in links here and there and patched unbroken harness. No men ride on the limber in horse artillery, which was lucky, because the limber bad dashed into the gun and was badly damaged. The men, however, got to work on the broken limber, and in xo minutes the gun was off again at a hand gallop, as though nothing had happened, “The point of the whole thing was that every man knew exactly what to do and did it. There was no shouting and yelling. An officer pulled up alongside and said, ‘Anyone hurt ?' A sergeant replied, ‘No,’ and that was all. No instruction was given at all except the order to mount and move off again. “At the foot of the hill they build paling fences with a ditch in front, and one of the artillery exercises is to charge that fence at a gallop. The horses leap the ditch and the fence, and the guns crash through it. I have seen that manoeuvre carried out a dozen times without a man being unseated or a horse hurt. These British gunners of ours will show Europe something now they are at the front.”