MORE ABOUT GUNS
As has been remarked elsewhere, some of the guns used by the soldiers in
land warfare are very different from those used in the navy. The latter,
being carried on the ships to which they belong, can be of those
proportions which best suit their purpose. Consequently they are usually
very long compared with their diameter.
The field guns used by the Royal Field Artillery are shorter in
proportion to their calibre than are the big naval guns. Otherwise they
would be far too long to handle in the field. They are mounted on
carriages drawn by horses, and are so handy that they can go anywhere
where infantry can go and can travel just as fast. It takes a very short
time to get them ready for action, too, so that they can accompany
infantry quite freely, neither arm impeding the movements of the other.
The Horse Artillery, again, whose guns are even lighter still, can
accompany cavalry, travelling as fast and coming into action almost as
quickly as the troopers themselves.
The famous French "seventy-fives" (meaning 75 millimetres calibre) which
played such a great part in the war, are field guns intended to move
rapidly and to operate with infantry.
Both these types of gun were used by the British in South Africa, as
also were some field howitzers, a type of gun to which further reference
will be made later. But the Boers taught the world something new as to
the possibilities of moving heavy guns quickly. Perhaps the reason for
this was that they, being something of the nature of amateurs in the art
of warfare, were less under the influence of tradition. Anyway, they
surprised the British by the quick way in which they moved heavy guns,
sometimes into quite difficult positions, over rough ground and up steep
hills. These heavy guns of theirs were called by the British soldiers
"Long Toms."
But the British were quick to respond, particularly the ever-resourceful
navy. When the war broke out there were, in the neighbourhood of Durban,
a number of warships which had as part of their own armament some of
those guns which afterwards became famous as "4·7's," that being the
diameter of the bore in inches. They were of the long shape usual in
naval guns, and it is easy to see that they were much heavier than the
field guns of 3 inches or so in diameter.
Captain Scott (now Admiral Sir Percy Scott) saw that these would be
useful, so he quickly designed some carriages for them, got these made
in the railway workshops at Durban, and in a few hours was rushing them
up to Ladysmith. It was these guns very largely which enabled that town
to hold out for so long, until, in fact, it was triumphantly relieved.
Thus the effect of the Boer war was to show that much heavier weapons
could be manipulated in the field than had been considered possible
before. The Great War which followed but a few years later carried on
this same lesson, for one of the great surprises with which the Allies
were confronted in the early days of the conflict was the inexplicable
fall of fortresses which till then had been deemed almost impregnable.
Liége, Namur, Maubeuge and, finally, Antwerp, all fell to a wonderful
gun of enormous dimensions which the Austrians had produced from up
their sleeve, so to speak. Like conjurers they had kept them secret
until the last moment.
These weapons which made history so fast were of the kind called
howitzers, a name mentioned just now. It should be explained here that
gunners talk of guns and howitzers as if the latter were not guns; but
that is only a convenient habit which has grown up, for the latter are
unquestionably guns. The distinction is, however, so convenient that we
may well adopt it ourselves for the rest of this chapter.
Repeated references have been made already to the question of the length
of guns, and it has been pointed out that to get high velocity, great
range and vigorous hitting power a gun needs to be as long as possible.
On ships this is only limited by the strength of the steel of which the
gun is made, for beyond a certain length the gun bends of its own
weight. Ashore, however, the difficulties of transport impose a further
limitation in most cases, although the famous 4·7, like many other naval
guns, has a length of 50 calibres, and the guns of small calibre do
approximate somewhat to the proportions of the naval guns, since even
then their length comes within manageable limits.
Modern warfare, however, requires the use of larger shells containing
larger charges of explosives, and to fire these requires guns of greater
calibre. We hear of shells of as great a diameter as 16 inches being
thrown into the Belgian fortresses and of course nothing smaller than a
16-inch gun could do that. Now a 16-inch gun, if made to the naval
proportions of 50 calibres or even 45 calibres, would mean a length of
at least 60 to 70 feet. It would also mean a weight exceeding 100 tons,
for the 12-inch naval gun of 50 calibres weighs about 70 tons. And it is
easy to see that such a gun would be very difficult to move on the field
of battle. Indeed, it would be almost useless because of the time it
would take to get it into position and to construct the foundations
which it would need. If the Austrians had only had such as those the
Belgians would have had plenty of time to prepare for them at Antwerp,
whereas it was the quickness with which they brought up their heavy guns
that astonished everyone and took their opponents by surprise.
The secret of this astonishing performance lies in the fact that they
were not guns at all but howitzers, which instead of being long, slender
tubes are short, fat ones, and that involves a different idea in gunnery
altogether. The "gun" fires _at_ an object. The howitzer fires its shell
upwards with the purpose of dropping it _upon_ the object.
The difference between the two is well illustrated by the methods of
practising with them. In learning to work a gun the gunners fire at a
vertical target just as those of you who practise shooting at a
miniature range fire at a target of paper placed vertically against a
wall. The target for howitzer practice, on the other hand, is a square
marked out on the level ground, and the object of the gunners is to see
how great a proportion of a given number of shots they can drop inside
that square.
Of course, being so much shorter the howitzers cannot throw a shell so
far or at such a high velocity as the naval guns, but that can to a
certain extent be compensated for by using a higher explosive for the
propellant. That, however, involves greater stresses in the tube when
firing takes place and also calls for stronger foundations in order that
the aim may be steady.
A great part, too, of the velocity of a naval shell is required for the
penetration of the armour, whereas against forts or earthworks it is
sufficient if the shell "gets there."
Moreover, generally speaking, it is possible to get much nearer to a
fortress or entrenched position for the purpose of attacking it than it
is to an enemy ship on the sea. Except for the occasional help of a mist
there is no "cover" to be obtained at sea, while on land the ground must
be very flat indeed if there is no low hill or undulation behind which a
gun can be set up unnoticed.
The Austrians cherish a piece of steelwork from one of the forts of
Antwerp which they smashed with a shell from one of their big howitzers
at a range of seven miles. They evidently were able to get their big
howitzers within that comparatively short distance of the Antwerp
fortifications without being molested.
[Illustration: A GERMAN AUTOMATIC PISTOL.
The action is fully described on the illustration.]
In this connection one often hears the word mortar used, and just a
reference to that will be appropriate here. Many years ago short guns
which threw their balls very high were in use, and because of their
resemblance to the mortar which is used for pounding up things with the
aid of a pestle these were termed mortars. Later a man named Howitzer
introduced a type of gun which was something of a compromise between the
long thin gun and the short stubby mortar. As time has gone on, however,
the mortars have grown in length while the howitzers have shortened,
until to-day the two names are used almost indiscriminately to denote
the same thing. Hence the giant howitzers of the Austrians are often
spoken of as the "Skoda" mortars, Skoda being the name of the factory
where they were made.
At one time many people wondered why the Germans did not put some of
these huge mortars on their battleships: many thought that they would do
so, and that by that means they would demolish our navy as they had
already smashed the Belgian forts. The reason they did not is, no doubt,
the very simple one, that our naval guns would have probably sunk their
ships before the howitzers could have reached ours, because if they had
attempted to make up for the shortness of the weapons by using higher
explosives, these mortars would, there is little doubt, have knocked to
pieces the ships on which they were mounted.
The old-fashioned fortress, suddenly made "out-of-date" by the Skoda
mortars, was usually armed with guns of the naval type. Sea-coast forts
are always so armed. Nowadays, however, the inland fortress takes the
form of a labyrinth of trenches and underground passages, combined with
deeply excavated chambers known as dug-outs, and these do not fitly
accommodate large guns at all. The guns are placed well back behind the
trenches sheltered behind hills or woods, over which they hurl their
shells. The chief defenders of the actual trench are the machine gun,
which is little more than an automatic rifle on a stand, and the trench
mortar.
We are now in a position to sum up broadly the features of modern
artillery. There is first the naval gun, the ideal gun, long and of
great range, able to send forth its shells with great velocity. This gun
appears again in the sea-coast forts, where the conditions are very much
those which obtain on a ship and where the attacking party is of
necessity a ship.
In the field we have the field and horse artillery, which we may regard
as the naval gun modified somewhat in order to make it easy to move
about, so that it can accompany troops and support the operations of
both infantry and cavalry. These light guns are supported by the field
howitzers, which are also light and easily handled, and the guns of the
4·7 type, originally naval guns but now mounted on wheels and possessing
a certain amount of mobility, not equalling the field guns it is true,
but still very serviceable in a campaign.
Then we have the howitzers of various sizes which have rendered the
old-fashioned steel and concrete forts useless, and which are the chief
weapons used in the modern trench warfare. It is these which blow in the
walls of the trenches and dug-outs, shatter the barbed-wire
entanglements and render it possible for the infantry to attack an
entrenched position.
Finally, we have the machine guns, each of which is equivalent to a
considerable number of riflemen and which, with the trench mortars, form
the chief defences of the actual trench itself. Of course these are only
useful against attacks by infantry: they cannot in any way cope with the
heavy artillery. That has to be dealt with by the opposing artillery
posted away back behind the trenches.
And now let us take a rather more close look at some of these weapons.
Essentially each one is a steel tube. It may be a single tube or it may
be several one outside another. It may even have a layer of wire between
two tubes as many naval guns have. It is invariably (one small exception
will be mentioned later) loaded at the breech or rear end and not
through the muzzle as used to be the custom. For this purpose it needs a
breech-block or door, which can be opened to put in the shell and
explosive, and which can then be closed tightly so that it will not be
driven out or burst open when the explosion takes place and also shall
be gas tight so as not to let any of the force of the explosion escape.
Then the gun must be mounted upon a carriage so that it can be quickly
moved about. The lighter forms of artillery are fired when upon the same
carriage upon which they travel. In years gone by the whole thing,
carriage as well as gun, used to run back when the gun was fired, which
was a great nuisance since it had to be got back into position again
after each shot. To obviate this the gun is now mounted upon a slide,
and it is the slide which is fitted to the carriage. Thus the gun can
slide back without the carriage moving at all. The latter is made very
strong, and shoes are provided at the end of chains which go under the
wheels just like the "drag" which coaches and heavy carts have for use
going down hills. There is also a part like a spade which can be driven
down into the ground so that, what with the shoes and the spade, the
carriage is fixed very firmly.
The gun is kept at the front part of the slide by means of a powerful
spring, which is compressed when the gun is fired but which, as the
force of the recoil is spent, pushes the gun back to its original
position once more. The spring is often reinforced by a cylinder and a
piston with compressed air or water behind it, acting after the manner
of those door checks with which we are all familiar, its function being
to steady the motion of the gun and to let it go gently back to its
place without slamming, just as the door check prevents a door from
slamming.
By this means the gun is returned automatically after each shot to
practically the same position which it occupied before, so that it does
not need re-aiming each time, but only a slight readjustment if even
that. The result of this is that such a gun can be fired very rapidly.
In fact, it can be fired just as fast as the gunners can keep on
reloading it.
The big Skoda mortars owed their mobility to the clever way in which
they were constructed. The gun tube itself, the support for it or
mounting, and the steel foundation were each fitted to a special
motor-driven trolley. The steel foundation was dumped down on the
ground, which of course was prepared for it in advance, then the
mounting was run right on to it so that it simply needed bolting down
and finally the tube was hoisted by specially prepared appliances into
its place. It is said that the whole operation occupied less than an
hour.
For firing, these mortars of course are pointed at a very high angle,
almost like an astronomical telescope. No doubt the gunners have many
jokes about "shooting the moon" and so on, for that is just what they
seem to be attempting. For loading, however, they are lowered into a
horizontal position: the shell comes up on a small hand-truck, is raised
by a specially designed jack until it is level with the breech, and is
then pushed into its place. The breech is then closed, the tube
re-elevated, and all is ready for firing.
Between these two forms of gun, the field gun on its light carriage,
which not only bears it from place to place but forms its support while
in action, and the great mortar carried in parts on specially made
trolleys, there are now an enormous variety of guns and mortars adapted
for the various purposes which experience in the Great War revealed.
Artillery suffered many changes in the light of the South African
campaign and of the Russo-Japanese war, but of far more importance have
been the lessons learnt in Northern France and on the plains of Poland.
To some extent these lessons have been learnt and profited by during the
actual war, but there is no doubt that as men have time to think over
them in the years of peace which are ahead many more developments will
take place. Unless, that is, we are on the threshold of that happy time
when guns and fighting material of all sorts will be looked upon as the
relics of a bad and ruinous time now happily past.
In conclusion, a passing reference must be made to the trench mortars
and similar contrivances which have arisen as the result of the
prolonged spell of trench warfare which no one had ever contemplated.
These are in effect very short range mortars or howitzers, specially
intended for throwing bombs from trench to trench. Some are simply the
larger mortars on a small scale, but one has decidedly original
features.
This consists of a short light mortar into which the bombs are slipped
through the muzzle, thus reverting to the old method of loading. The
propellant is combined with the bomb and there is a percussion cap which
fires it as soon as it strikes the bottom of the tube. Thus the
operation is just about as simple as it can be: the man merely places
the bomb in the upturned muzzle and lets it slide down. An instant
later, up it comes again, to go sailing through the air into the trench
of the enemy a hundred yards away.
One must not conclude this chapter, however, without a reference to
those useful weapons which are known among the soldiers as "Archibalds"
and officially as anti-aircraft guns. These are perhaps the most
familiar guns of all to the general public, since they were installed in
many places in Britain for the purpose of dealing with the Zeppelins. No
doubt not a few of my readers have had the experience of being awakened
from their beauty sleep by the cracking of the anti-aircraft guns and
have seen their shells bursting like squibs in the air.
They are fairly long guns, not unlike field guns, but they are mounted
upon special supports which enable them to be pointed at any angle so
that they can fire right up into the sky. The sights, also, are somewhat
different, being fitted with prisms, or reflectors, so that the gunners
can look along the sights and align the gun upon an object overhead
without lying on their backs.
Much more could be said on this subject, but national interests forbid,
so with this general review of modern artillery we must pass to another
subject.