SCIENCE APPLIED TO WAR

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22309, 25 January 1938, Page 10

SCIENCE APPLIED TO WAR

MODERN TRAINING OF SPECIALISTS MANY SUBJECTS STUDIED LONDON, December 29. The army is developing rapidly into a great self-contained organisation, and is composed almost wholly of specialists. For instance, replacing “spjder’s-webs” in telescopes and reconditioning Scammell tractors came within the range of repair work in the workshops of the Military College of Science. The first is a highly delicate art which comparatively few can master successfully. The work on the Scammell tractor forms the heavier part of the instruction in the college syllabus. This tractor is the latest highpower, six-wheeled and six-geared machine which is to replace the Dragon for the haulage of the -60pounder (medium) gun and the 6in howitzer. Wide Syllabus Applying science to war has caused a big expansion of the college branches. It has also raised the qualifications necessary for some of the more important posts in the technical arms of the service. The college gives officers and other ranks of the Regular Army technical and scientific instruction in the manufacture and service of artillery equipment, cf small arms and machine-guns, and of mechanised vehicles. Included in the syllabus are mathematics, physics, chemistry, electricity, mechanical engineering, ballistics and gunnery range-finding, and sound ranging and wireless telephony. Officers who qualify in the advanced class are entitled to the letters “p.a.c.” (passed advanced class), which is the Army equivalent to a university science degree. It corresponds to the “p.s.c.”, (graduate of Staff College. Camberley or Quetta). Non-commis-sioned officers take the gunnery staff course and the master-gunners course. Xhere are also courses for armament artificers of the Royal Artillery Officers’ Corps in wireless and fire control instruments. For the latter the college needs candidates. It is believed that if the prospects for those who qualify for this work were better known there would be no vacancies to fill. The gunnery staff course is important at this time. The students spend four months at the college studying the theory of artillery problems, and the principles underlying the design and construction of weapons and of instruments used in solving these problems. They go later to the School of Artillery, the Anti-Aircraft Defence School, and the Coast Artillery School to study the actual use of the weapons and instruments in the field. The college mechanical traction branch trains officers and men of the Royal Artillery to be instructors "and to supervise the instruction of unit personnel. It is to the credit of the College of Science that the standard of driving throughout the service has reached so high a standard.