experience in the Great War revealed. Artillery suffered many changes in the light of the South African campaign and of the Russo-Japanese war, but of far more importance have been the lessons learnt in Northern France and on the plains of Poland. To some extent these lessons have been learnt and profited by during the actual war, but there is no doubt that as men have time to think over them in the years of peace which are ahead many more developments will take place. Unless, that is, we are on the threshold of that happy time when guns and fighting material of all sorts will be looked upon as the relics of a bad and ruinous time now happily past.
In conclusion, a passing reference must be made to the trench mortars and similar contrivances which have arisen as the result of the prolonged spell of trench warfare which no one had ever contemplated. These are in effect very short range mortars or howitzers, specially intended for throwing bombs from trench to trench. Some are simply the larger mortars on a small scale, but one has decidedly original features.
This consists of a short light mortar into which the bombs are slipped through the muzzle, thus reverting to the old method of loading. The propellant is combined with the bomb and there is a percussion cap which fires it as soon as it strikes the bottom of the tube. Thus the operation is just about as simple as it can be: the man merely places the bomb in the upturned muzzle and lets it slide down. An instant later, up it comes again, to go
sailing through the air into the trench of the enemy a hundred yards away.
One must not conclude this chapter, however, without a reference to those useful weapons which are known among the soldiers as "Archibalds" and officially as anti-aircraft guns. These are perhaps the most familiar guns of all to the general public, since they were installed in many places in Britain for the purpose of dealing with the Zeppelins. No doubt not a few of my readers have had the experience of being awakened from their beauty sleep by the cracking of the anti-aircraft guns and have seen their shells bursting like squibs in the air.
They are fairly long guns, not unlike field guns, but they are mounted upon special supports which enable them to be pointed at any angle so that they can fire right up into the sky. The sights, also, are somewhat different, being fitted with prisms, or reflectors, so that the gunners can look along the sights and align the gun upon an object overhead without lying on their backs.
Much more could be said on this subject, but national interests forbid, so with this general review of modern artillery we must pass to another subject.