SURVEY IN THE GREAT WAR

Abstract

Hostile Battery Location.—Among the tactical ideas current in 1914 before the outbreak of war was the conception of an artillery duel as the opening phase of a great battle. This was pictured as a “hammer and tongs” sort of business in which the opposing artilleries were drawn up in full view of one another, and the winning assets were speed in coming into action, quicker rate of fire, and superior endurance. Good drill, in short, was thought to be worth much more than preliminary calculation. Actually, in the event, it was soon discovered that no battery could come into action in the open without being immediately destroyed. Far from there being any artillery duel, the opposing artilleries soon found themselves unable to attack one another at all. For a time, in the stress of greater happenings, this unforeseen development passed unnoticed, the reason being that the British artillery, having no shells to speak of, were compelled to keep the few they possessed for helping to repel the German infantry, while the German gunners, though they had plenty of ammunition, saw no reason to expend any of it in subduing an artillery which fired so seldom. Throughout 1915, until the shell shortage had been overcome, the recognized procedure for putting a stop to hostile shelling was to retaliate by a few rounds on some reputedly sensitive spot in the infantry trenches. History does not record the precise nature of the reactions in the hostile organism set up by this procedure nor whether it was invariably effective for the purpose in view. In any case no other procedure was possible because no one knew exactly where the hostile batteries were.