MOUNTAIN GUNS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume L, Issue 2645, 20 October 1919, Page 7

MOUNTAIN GUNS.

THEY’RE A TERROR FOR THEIR SIZE. Probably few people at home are aware even of the existence of British mountain artillery. This is hardly to be wondered at, for the real home of our mountain artillery is in India — away up in the fastnesses ,of the North-West Frontier. The first mountain gun in use was a ten-pounder. This, though used in action by a battery at Galipoli, may now be regarded as obsolete. To-day we have two kinds of mountain guns —3.7 howitzer, firing a twenty-pound shell up to 6,000 yards ; and a 2.75 field effective at 5,400 yards, and firing a shell of 12 pounds. The feature of mountain artillery is its mobility. Transport is effected by means of pack-mules, the gun being dismantled, and each part loaded separately. This operation, in the hands of skilled gunners, may be performed in a very short space of time. In each mountain battery there are four guns—one per sub-section—wbich in the howitzer battery, consists of some fifty mules, and in a 2.75 battery of about thirty-five mules. In each sub-section there are four distinct mule-teams —gun, relief gun, baggage, and ammunition, the names of which explain their different functions. Blight mules are necessary to carry the 3.7 gun, and six to carry the 2.75. Bach gun-pack saddle is designed to carry one part, while baggage and ammunition saddles conform to one standard.

Many weird tales can be told by mountain artillerymen of long days and weary nights spent in literally dragging worn-out mules over rockstrewn hills and tortuous “waddies” (or ravines) in search of the elusive Turk during that by now historical “stunt,” which, starting from before Gaza, made Jerusalem ours. It may be here explained that when some stiffly contested point was being assaulted, it was often necessary for the attendant mountain battery to travel from peak to peak in the vicinity, in an endeavour to shell the enemy from all vantage points, such spots, owing to the nature of the country, being inaccessible to the other branches of artillery. And if anyone happens to meet a member of the Anzac Cavalry, ask him who was first there in support when that last mad dash was made which resulted in the capture of Jericho.