John Breed, Diary and Training diary, item 150

• April 3, 2017 03:25:38 Cheryl Ellsworth

  Observation of Fire

       Observation is chiefly a matter of experience,

  good eyesight, and good glasses with a large field, however

  a few points may be noted which will be of assistance

  
  

  The process of ranging with percussion shell consists of

  firing shell at certain elevations so that the position of the

  bursts with reference to the target can be observed, now

  it by no means follows that the ranging shell should be

  fired at the target

  Suppose the target to be a company of infantry in a

  large irregular gorse-covert, where the burst of a shell

  is difficult to locate, with a slope of open pasture to

  the right of it. Then the proper course is to range on the

  open ground when every burst is visible, and when a

  100 yards bracket has been obtained, to shift the line on

  to the covert

  Similarly, when firing at a line of men in a ravine on a

  hillside, the battery Commander should range on the upper end

  of the ravine. For if the first shell falls into the deeper

  portion lower down, it may disappear altogether, and there

  will be nothing to show that it has not gone right over the hill

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