Excerpt from Infantry Fire Tactics, Vol. 29
The following work is the result of some years constant, though pleasant and interesting work, and my labours will be far more than repaid if, in any way, they are productive of good to the British Service.
The size of the book shows the development that the subject of Infantry Fire Tactics has reached, and in the following pages the reader will see that superiority of fire is to be obtained more by a rational and good tactical use of the rifle than by any actual superiority of armament, though this latter consideration must be given its full weight. Other things being equal, the better the rifle, and its ammunition, the greater will be the effects of the fire.
The following pages will show the kind of data and statistics that should be found out for any new rifle, by experiments, in order to work out rules for the Fire Tactics to be used with it. But though, in the following pages, rules of firing have been deduced, based on the total height of an average man, yet it would appear to be preferable to use only the height of an average man"s shoulder for this purpose.
I have endeavoured my best to place the arguments on both sides of any debateable matter as fairly as possible, and I must ask the reader to pay as much attention to the footnotes throughout the book, as to the matter to which they refer.
The only mathematics used in this book, are simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, except in one part only of the book, in dealing with "Indirect Fire." In this case, a slight knowledge of trigonometry is also required.
A study of the following pages will well illustrate the old adage, that "a more perfect tool requires a more skilful workman," and we must never forget that under the rude test of war, if we wish to obtain even a small result in the field, it is necessary to demand much in peace. It is the inherent impressionable character of the nature of man, that may, and often has, upset the most matured plans and resolutions. One of the great objects of military training, is to so strengthen a man"s natural moral qualities by the iron bands of discipline, and by the groove that custom and habit induce them to move in involuntarily, that they may become more of a fixed quantity under all circumstances, than a fluctuating one.
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