THE GERMAN ARTILLERY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1915, Page 2

THE GERMAN ARTILLERY.

MORE ECONOMICAL METHODS

PARIS, Dec. 9. The Temps publishes to-day an instruction that has been given ti> German artillery officers warning them to husband their ammunition, the authority being the German General Staff. The instruction points out that war experience differs from peace conditions, and that, German industry cannot yield an inexhaustible store of ammunition. For these reasons artillery officers are warned only to shoot at targets when the results justify the expenditure. Fire is to ibe concentrated during periods and in places when they can produce the greatest moral and physical effect. Slow purposeless firing is merely a waste of ammunition. The instruction emphasises the importance of direct observation. When this cannot be done officers are recommended to use aeroplanes, captive balloons, and flank observers.

The value of close co-operation with the infantry is emphasised, and artillery positions should be selected from this standpoint. If the enemy's batteries inflict) severe losses on the infantry their positions should be found by aeroplanes. When the infantry advance, they should be supported by artillery, and the fire should be most, intense! when the infantry attack is being made. Defended positions, defended villages, etc., are ready to b«r 'attacked' after one or twohpurs' bombardment. If the ./bomltt-dment is not followed immediately by an attack a waste of ammunition is involved. In the case of a defensive action t^e exact moment should be chosen, otherwise there is a waste of. ammunition.

Commenting on these instructions the Temps states: "It is evident that Germany is uneasy 'as to a shortage of ammunition. The practice of the enemy's artillery has completely changed during the last few weeks. . . . From the beginning of the campaign the German gunners. It they did not surprise us with thenskill, astonished us by the generosity with which they spent their ammunition. . . At the beginning of this month a battery fired for fire hours on two old ammunition waggons, with broken wheels^ that had' been deliberately abandoned by us a. few miles from Vitry. Since then this waste has beon stopped. The enemy are sparing their Shells. The German military authorities have realised that German industry, even by its giving its maximum yield, cannot furnish the Army indefinitely with ammunition.