FRANCE'S FINE SONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 112, 5 October 1914, Page 7

FRANCE'S FINE SONS

I "SQUALLS OF FIRE." The day of the greatest duel between France and Germany is at hand. Then the artillery, which plays an all important role in modern war, will show to the world the results of the terrible progress made recently in artillery art. France, as it is known, possesses the best artillery of any nation in the world; every engagement during hei campaign in -Morocco proved that. In regard to field equipment, the French Army is unquestionably superior to the Germans. The 75mm. (3in.) gun, a shielded quick-firer, of the French artillery, is a forerunner of all modern models of field gun, and is handled on tactical principles specially adapted for it, which gives field artillery a unique position among military nations. Ths is a powerful gun of the unusual length of 30 calibres. The. carriage is anchored by a trail spade and two brake blocks, which are arranged so as to go under the wheels, forming dragshoes on firing.

The gun has a goniomelric sight, with independent line of sight. The body of the ammunition waggon is kept alongside the gun, and with its armored bottom and steel doors, forms a good protection for the gunners passing ammunition.

A WONDERFUL RUN. How many times ihave Oorman spies tried to {jet drawings of tliis gnu, how much money have they spent to get it, but in vain! Germany is very much behind her enemies, France, England and Russia, in regard to the equipment of her field artillery. Her quick-firo gun of 190G is oniy a model of 18% remounted on a quick-firing carriage. . It is mounted on a cradle with buffers and springs under the gun. , Tho guu has an arc sight with prismatic telescope, and a eliromcter-moimt-cd on it, and a circular laying plane for laying on an auxiliary mark. It must be noted that it has not the independent line of sight.

I The carriage stands perfectly steady lon discharge. The shield is "in three [pieces, the top Hap folding down for travelling. The German gun has the same ballistics as those of the British 15-pr. B.L. of 1893, and I cannot really understand how Germany dares to fight French artillery with it. The Russian field gun of 1003 Is intended as an improvement on the French gun, 'being even of greater power, and though the gun has not the independent line of sight, it lias a panorama sight. Tho French battery consists of four guns and twelve waggons; the high velocity and the flat trajectory give a maximum depth to the cone of shrapnel bullet. In the hope of attaining a rapid and overwhelming fire, the French artillery ranges only for a long distance, and once"this range is found, the ground within its limits is swept from end to end in a burst of rapid fire. This is termed a "rafale," .(squall or gust), and technically signifies "a series of eight rounds per gun, each two rounds being laid with MO feet more elevation than tho last pair, the whole fired off as rapidly as possible."

DEADLY EXECUTION. Tic cone of time shrapnel being assumed as 300 yds, it is clear that four pairs of rounds, bursting, say, at 1000, 1100, 1200, and 1300 yards (adding for the last 300 yards for its forward effect) sweep the whole ground from 1000 yards to 1600 yards from the guns. The maximum depth would, of course, he obtained with four elevations differing by the depth of cone; iu such a case the space from 1000 to 2220 yards Tfould he covered. The rafale, in one minute, covers 300 yards, all the guns being laid at the samo elevation throughout. Here the maximum number of bullets is obtained for every square inch attacked. Bej tween these extremes a skillful artillery officer can vary the rafale to the ■ceds of each several case almost indefinitely. "Sweeping" is a series of three rounds per gun—one in a selected line, one to the right, and one to the left of it. This is significantly called "mowing" (tir fauchant). A further refinement in both services is tho combined "search and sweep." Forty-eight rounds constitutes in the French Army a series of this kind, and can be fired in one minute (ifteen seconds to cover an area of 1800 by GOO feet. The result of such a series worked out mathematically is that 19 per cent, of all men and 75 per cent, of all horses in the area and not under cover, should lie hit by a separate bullet of shrapnel. A French battery firing at the maximum rate would cover every available square yard in thirteen minutes.

The German artillery cannot do the same and get a similar intensity of fire.

I have attended many times the firing exercises of the French artillery, and I know with what smartness the French artillerymen do their work, as well as on the level as in the mountainous country, for which purpose they possess an excellent alpine artillery. German artillery cannot be compared ■with French in any case, and that will be proved soon. —Lieut.-Col. Roustam Bck, in the London Evening News.