Gunnery was now developing into science. The sightless " muzzle-loader had been followed by the s-pounder with sights and elevating gear, then' surpassed. by the 15- be Pounders more accurate. elevating lare—the germ of the dialaight that and. traversing gears and a. gan
meant more than can be calculated fo. the Artillery in the Great With the advent of 1 the Battery ponies, most of which were gifts originally and with them spirit developed in the unit for it was at last a. self-contained Battery, could train its teams and knew every pony by name.
The Inter-Company "Challenge [Shield for rifle shooting had, up to the arrival of the 15-pounder, been almost an Artillery possession. The fault had scored some 25 oF 30" wins this date, numbering on thei Fall some of the best shots the Setilement. With the addi tional work entailed by the 15. Pounder, rifle Shooting. deteriorated! Somewhat and the Battery transferred its interest to Col. Barnes's Piiciency Shield, which it won for so. many years in succession that unit rivalry waned.
Stewart and Major fe. Canning' commanded the Battery fron 1908-1910 and. 1910-1013, res pectively, after which Major RW. Davin took command and held it for a long period, during which the Battery ae has and was worked up to a high state of ficiency. ish Recruiting The beginning of the Great War} ave the Artillery with no less than thirteen nationalities on its roll and Jone gun manned by an almost all-German crew. " Cleavage. naturely took place and there was a marked tendency on the part. of men to gravitate to national units. This nsbited recruiting and the Battery} completed its. establishment "with men of British nationality and has since more than maintained it "The uniform worn. by' the Arti ery'in the 9-pounder days was that jot the British: Hussare—blue, with Yellow facings, pillbox caps, and white helmets: In. 187k. change Wwas made to the Field Artillery Tiniform of blue, with red facings land the mounted men bad riding' foots. "Khaki was introduced about 1900" for the whole Corps, with [Coloniat felt hats, the latter eventually being replaced by the Present: flay field service helmet.
'Another phase in" the Battery's history was entered upon in. 1921, when, after 16 years' service, the Te-pounders were relegated to' obs-
This gun has a range of four mil weighs 42 cwt. packed; and fires a round weighing 35-Ib. The 9- pounder and 15-pounder, guns both had flat trajectories and, therefore, needed a very open field of fire. The howitzer's trajectory, on the other liliand, can be adjusted to clear intervening obstacles, the range remaining the same, by a variation the charge of cordite. Sighting is rarely ever on the target, the dial sight being an instrament of }precision comparable only to a theodolite, enabling the gunner use any fixed point to lay on and to correct his elevation and deflect tion by a few yards only.
The four guns loaned to the S.V.C. by LIME Government were builtin 1918 and saw service, as ig testified by their perforated and clipped shields, in France that That they are accurate and reliable has been proved in actual practice Jat a floating target on the Yangtsze jand also recently when, for the first time, the Battery went into Jcamp at Hongkong by special arrangement and were put through a course of drill and fung training, {from which, despite the little practice of so realistic a nature they had been able to get. previously, they emerged with the greatest credit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.