NAVAL AND MILITARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16431, 24 December 1913, Page 10

NAVAL AND MILITARY.

When these lines are in print (remarked " The Broad Arrow," of October 17), the peoples of Germany will be in the midst of the festivities and thanksgivings whereby it -is intended to commemorate the three days battle of tho nations, in which the Napoleonic power, undermined by the disasters of the Russian campaign, was finally crushed at Leipzig. It was the greatest of the battles of that era, though pos-, sibly not the greatest hi point of actual numbers of the century in which it .was fought, and was the culminating point of the regeneration of Prussia, of the recovery of Germany and the German States from the many humiliations to which they had for so long been subjected by the master of continental Europe There are few of, the nations of the West which will not be represented at the centenary celebrations, except perhaps, the . descen-dants'or-those who served under tho ' Eagles and were Frenchmen in nationality as well as by adoption or by the forces of conscription. We have not heard whether the British Army* is to take part in the festivities j the British Army was represented, it is true,: only by a small body of artillery, but Captain Rogue's rocket battery is admitted to have done yeoman service, and to have contributed in no small degree to the success attained in that part of the field where it was immediately employed. Captain Bogue did not survive the battle, but his subaltern, Strangways, lived to bring the battery out of action, only to fan,, more than forty years later, at Inkerman, commanding the artillery in the last of the longservice, professional armies which Britain sent into the field, and which perished loss by the hands of its enemies than by the hopeless incompetency of British Ministers.

The enclosed nature of the greater part of England makes the task of the artillery a particularly hard one. The trees of a single hedge need not be a serious obstruction to view, but when it is necessary to see beyond a series of hedgerows it is generally found that the gaps in one hedge are covered by the trees in another, so that for all practical purposes there is a dense wood! in front. In any fighting in enclosed oountry it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for artillery to carry out the role for which it is maintained (remarks "The Broad Arrow"). Occasionally positions will be found from which it will be possible to bring fire to bear from a limited number of guns on a large tract of country, but positions from which the full strength of guns can be utilised will be hard to come by. It .is said that during the Army exercise this was very noticeable, and the fact is rightly used as an argument for the reductions of the numbers of field batteries in the Territorial Force and for the devotion of a part of the money that would be saved thereby to making more efficient those which will then remain by giving more practice ammunition and making practice an annual instead of only a biennial part of their training. Apart from manoeuvres, artillery training is carried out under conditions quite unlike those which are likely to prevail were the Territorial Force called on to repel a raid. It is unlikely that a raiding force would be accompanied by a full complement of artillery, and it is therefore safe to conclude that they would seek to act in country where artillery would be of little account — namely, in enclosed country. Thetraining of our artillery is admirably suited to fit them for.the work they would be required to perform as part of the Expeditionary Force acting on the Continent, for in few. probable theatres of war is the country enclosed and wooded as it is in England. To deliver an attack over open ground infantry requires the assistance of artillery fire, firstly to help it to get to decisive ranges, and, secondly, to help it to obtain the mastery in the fire fight. In enclosed country the need of artillery support in the early stages is not so marked; in the later stages room might be' found for a few. batteries to give close support, but no room could be found for all the batteries, at,present in existence. ,-.■•.'■