Show SMOKELESS POWDER IV WAR It Gives arany Advantages to the Side Making tIle Attack The introduction of smokeless powder has had considerable to do with a change of tactics on the field of battle In the absence of the nce smoke screen on both sides the company officers not Only find it easier to work together t but can control their men and judge I the effect cf their fire on the enemy to a far greater degree than was formerly i former-ly possible From their point of view I this increased power of control more I than compensaieb the attack for the in M erased facility of concealment smoke less powder confers on the defense It is true that the latter also profits by 4T the sine increased power of control but they argue that from the nature of things the defense striving only to prevent beljjgr beaten whereas the attack at-tack fights with the determination to i win the latter is in a position to make far better use of this new power pow-er than the former Put In another i form it comes to this The heavier and 1 more accurate the fire whistling over a trench the harder it is to make men 0 C W r i I v 1 I raise their heads over it to take aim I Smokeless powder makes it easier for the attack to deliver such a fire hence the difficulties of the defense will be Increased In-creased Further in the absence of smoke men statipnary ort the defense cannot escape the depressing influence of the dead and wounded lying around them but the attack leaves all these evidences I evi-dences pf the fight behind it So here again the advantage is on its side With reference to the question of these u the-se of smokeless powders by the artillery artil-lery I the general idea seems to be that rlt was all a gain to the side which I thought more of killing its enemy than of avoiding being killed itself It enormously enor-mously facilitates the maintainance of fire discipline within the battery permits per-mits of continuous fire even at the most rapid rate for no smokfe interferes inter-feres with the laying of the guns and above all things cheers the hearts of the men by enabling tftiem to see the results of their fire As a means of concealment it is of no use jut all for even at extreme j ranges of aQQO yards and upward the Hash of discharge is always distinctly visible and at fighting ranges the flash enables one to note exactly the position of the enemys guns This was not always possible with the old powders pow-ders for the smoke obscured the object ob-ject and prevented ones picking up an exact point to aim at The artillery will be far from regretting regret-ting the loss of the two clouds which hung the one in front of their own and the other in front of the enemys guns Smoke Is a cover added to that furnished fur-nished by the ground and no one has ver been anxious for his opponent to have covers which he himself could not turn advantage If both are de prlyed of this cover Victory will belong be-long to him who all else being equal can most skillfully supply the deficiency defic-iency Maneuvers will hereafter probably take place over larger areas before actual fighting begins and something of an Indians craft and natural keenness keen-ness will be needed on the part of staff officers Smoke has been so good a cover on many occasions that its absence ab-sence will impose new conditions and natural cover will have to be much more extensively utilized With the vanishing poetry of the smoke battle i the prose of a new era will begin in which combat will be more like a game of chess in view of the pieces as a whole and new dispositions of old qualities and virtues will be wanted I Iron Acre |