Naval 12-pounder emplaced.
Boer Gun positions at Colenso.
APPENDIX 1
HINTS ON EQUIPMENT AND CLOTHING FOR ACTIVE SERVICE.
As a few hints in regard to an officer's kit for active service may not be unacceptable to some, I offer a few observations on the subject so far as I am able to speak from my own experiences.
Good telescopes are most important articles to have in any land company of soldiers or sailors; they were especially useful in South Africa. The Naval Service long-telescope with its big field is very good and powerful in any light where there is no haze (at or before sunrise or when the sun is low for instance), but when the sun is well up it becomes of little use; and then comes the turn of the smaller telescope as used by all Naval officers on board ship. This is a particularly useful glass, and I myself felt quite lost, late in the campaign, when I unfortunately dropped the top of mine when riding. As to binoculars, we found the Zeiss or Ross's very excellent, and all military officers seemed to use them; but, in my humble opinion, they are not to be compared with a good small telescope.
At the start of the campaign the want of good telescopes among the military was most marked, and ours were generally in great request. Many military officers with whom I have talked on the subject agree with me in thinking that a certain proportion of small telescopes should be supplied, say two for every company in a regiment, for the use of those on outpost and look-out duties. It is astonishing to see the added interest which any man placed on these duties shows when he can really make out for himself advancing objects and enemy's positions without being entirely dependent on their officers to tell them. A good glass will render reports from these men reliable and valuable, instead of, as they often are, mere guesswork. At Grass Kop, where we had one Volunteer Company all armed with binoculars which were presented to them on leaving England (with the South Lancashires), the hill was always lined with look-out men on their own account; so interested were they in the matter.
Our water supply, as at first run, with one water-cart to the whole Naval Brigade, was inadequate; but later on each unit with guns got, as they should have, their own water-cart, or else made them with a cask fixed upon axle wheels, which we were obliged to do for a long time. Transport for these was either mule or ox; the former, quickest and best. A field filter for each unit should be supplied if possible.[8]