“WASTE SHELLS.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144713, 23 June 1915, Page 4

“WASTE SHELLS.”

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF FRENCH GUNNERS.

PARIS, April 23.

“Don’t let us hesitate to waste ammunition in order to economise in men” was a remark of General Journee. Mr. Lloyd George has given figures as to the’ increase of our shell production. The French aro producing 60U per cent, more than had been thought necessary at the beginning of tho war, and hope shortly to increase their output by another 300 per cent. General French has insisted upon the all-importance of munitions, and*the series of actions along tho AVostern front during the, past month has brought homo the truth of his lesson.

Lieutenant-Colonel Boissonnet explains in the Temps some of the many reasons which make spendthrift artillery one of tho necessary factors of victory.

Tho French “75” is a weapon of marvellous precision, but, oven with a new gnu and tho shells in' perfect condition, after a great number of shots from a distance of 3000 metres, the shells will be found to have fallen within a radius of 96 metres, and. halt the shells will have fallen in a strip of about 24 metres. The gunner, therefore, has to regulate his firo so that tho object aimed at will bo in tho centre of this most thickly covered strip, a task which against trenches, even after aeroplane reconnaissance, requires a considerable expenditure. of ammunition; and when it is remembered that the trench itself is not muOh more than a yard or so wide, it will be realised that for every three or four shells which burst in tho trench there is a vast number which explode before it or behind it.

Tho need for heavy shell expenditure against trenches is already great, but it will become more urgent still after the siege period is over and real field fighting again becomes possible, when the artillery will have not tho fixed target of tho trench lino, but tho thin mobile ranks of tho skirmishers, as its objective.

Against moving infantry, unless it is advancing in close formation, regulated tire is a matter of some difficulty. Infantry which finds itself between tho first shell which lias blast behind them and the short shell which has burst in front of them do not a wait tho nvalancho which is to follow, but rush rapidly forward beyond tho first short shell, where they lling themselves to tho ground under what cover they can find. The artillery knows that they are somewhere in tho neighbourhood, and to begin again the tir de reglago would only bo a loss of time, so that tho only tiling for the artillery to do is to shorten its range by 100 yards or so and sweep the whole of the zone where they imagine tho enemy’s infantry to bo with shrapnel.

A battery of 75mm. guns fires no loss than 80 shells a minute, and it is only with rapid, intense fire that tho shrapnel fragments can sweep a whole countryside and break the enemy’s attack. Tho same thing applies when the’ artillery is taking part in an offensive. They have to cover tho whole zone of tho enemy’s front with a. shower of shells, forcing tho gunners to take shelter and pinning tho infantry to tho ground while their own troops are advancing to tho attack.