Two guns were put out of service by the fire of the enemy;
One gun exploded;
Seven guns had to be sent to the parks for repairs to their mechanism or their carriages, which had been put out of service.
When the mechanism, the wheels, or a part of the carriage only have been damaged, repair is rapidly made, but when the guns have exploded or have been smashed by the enemy’s fire, they have to be recast.
In short, a battery of four guns, used ten guns in seven days; but it should be noted that out of these ten guns only three were entirely put out of service (two of the carriages could be used again) and two of the guns merely needed a change of tubes.
Nevertheless, these figures emphasize the need for the parks to keep on hand a large stock of reserve guns and to maintain workshops for the immediate repair of slightly damaged pieces.
The retubing of the guns is a work that can only be done in the factories of the army. The interior rifled tube, while white-heated, is removed and replaced by a new tube which is re-rifled. The gun is then as good as new, but, if the outside tube, which is the resisting part of the cannon, has been broken by projectiles, the gun is beyond repairing and has to be sent to the rear to be recast.
Under the most severe bombardment the replacement of the guns, thus put out of service, did not take more than two hours.
The study of the above details will show the necessity, in case intense and constant firing is needed, of accumulating the largest possible reserve of field batteries at the points requiring a great effort. When, as will often happen, several batteries are temporarily out of action, the surrounding batteries will have to intensify their fire. Barrage fires, almost exclusively the work of the field artillery, must be rapid, continuous, accurate, and concentrated.
6. Different issues of ammunition. In order to avoid delay in the aiming and firing, it is indispensable to see that the ammunition brought to the batteries, of all sizes, belongs, as much as possible, to the same issue, from the same loading factories. This rule is strictly adhered to, except in case of material impossibility.