John Breed, Diary and Training diary, item 147

• April 3, 2017 03:10:30 Cheryl Ellsworth

  Firing over our own Troops

       In war, artillery will never

  hesitate to fire over their own infantry or over other guns

  It is not however desirable to open fire when the infantry

  are too close to the muzzles, when this can be avoided,

  since a shrapnel bursting in the bore would do considerable

  damage to an infantry line only 300 yards to the front.

  This does not apply to howitzers, since the bullets from

  a premature go up in the air and are not very dangerous

  when they come down again. As for High-Explosive shell

  there is no safety limit from these, as the splinters may

  fly a long way. Still this risk will have to be disregarded

  
  

  When our troops are attacking, our artillery will nearly

  always be firing over their heads, the distance from the

  enemy's line up to which it is safe to continue firing

  depends on the error of the gun and of the fuze, and is

  perhaps 200 or 300 yards, but this is immaterial, since

  if our guns cease fire when our infantry are still 300

  yards from the enemy, they will suffer a great deal

  more from his fire than from possible short bursts.

  Practically it may be laid down that our guns will continue

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