Unlike Continental nations, England lias no permanently guns to organised army corps and divisions, and, consequently, no OUt combinations of artillery with the other arms. Her colonial possessions, and the vast extent of her Indian empire, raise almost insurmountable obstacles to any organisation which shall fulfil equally the conditions of peace and war, and have necessitated a distribution of the artillery on princi ples other than those which obtain in the more facile systems of Continental armies. The proportion of guns to men at present existing is 2 45 per 1000 men; the grand total of guns for field service, including field, mountain, and position batteries being 784, while the total strength of troops, British and native, is 320,000. This proportion is somewhat under that now generally accepted, viz., 3 guns per 1000 men. The proportion of guns to men has varied with the circumstances of the age and country. During the ISth century the proportion was usually 3 per 1000, though Frederick at one time raised it to over 5 per 1000. In the earlier wars of the French Republic the allies increased the proportion unduly ; and Napoleon, whose rapid tactics did not admit of his hampering his army with heavy trains, reduced it again. He advocated 2 guns per 1000 with old and tried troops, but 3 guns per 1000 with the usual composition of an army ; and in his later cam paigns, when his armies consisted almost entirely of recruits, lie even exceeded this proportion. In the Crimean war, and in 1859, the Russians and Austrians increased this ratio considerably, but the great increase to the strength of armies which took place between 18G6 and 1S71 led to a comparative decrease of artillery, and the Germans have now rather less than 3 per 1000. It must be remembered, however, that the actual proportion on service is always in excess of the nominal one, often considerably so, as the guns are not reduced by the wear and tear of the campaign as the personnel of an army is; a battalion is soon reduced from 1000 to 500 men, but a battery always retains its six guns. In the great American war of 1862-65, the proportion of guns at first was nearly 6 per 1000, but towards the end was reduced to little over 1 per 1000, showing how the proportion is affected by the nature of the country which is the scene of operations.
Important questions connected with the organisation of the British artillery are now giving rise to discussion, and will probably be solved shortly ; the two principal ones being the breaking up of the huge, overgrown " regiment " of artillery into smaller units, and the separation of the field from the garrison artillery. The appellation " regi ment," for a force of 35,000 men and officers, is manifestly a misnomer, and the continuance of the present system is upheld principally on what may be termed " sentimental " grounds, unwillingness to break old ties and uproot traditions, and fears that the esprit-de-corps of the service might suffer in the change. The separation of the field from the garrison artillery has often been advocated on the grounds of the essentially different nature of the two ser vices, and the fact that the men and matériel are already separate, the officers alone being transferred from one branch to the other. The full discussion of the proposed changes does not fall within the province of this article.
The organisation of the French artillery has been completely changed by recent regulations. Previous to the Franco-German war of 1870-71, it consisted of 1 horse artillery and 1 field artillery regiment of the guard, 4 horse artillery and 12 field artillery regiments of the line, with garrison artillery, making up 19 regiments. The horse artillery regiments consisted of 8 batteries of 6 guns each, and the field artillery regiments of 12 batteries. Only 8 out of the 12 were mobilised during war, 4 remaining as batteries de sortie for garrison service. The number of field guus available was 984. This number of guns could rot be put in the field at once, as 58,000 men and 39,000 horses were required, while in peace time only 34,000 men and 16,000 horses were kept up. The guns in the service were a 9-pounder (shell) mountain gun of 2 cwt., 9-pounder of 6} cwt. for field artillery (canon He 4), IG-pounder of 11 cwt. (canon de 8), 25-pounderof 12 cwt. for position artillery (canon de 12), and 50-pounder of 40 cwt. (canon de 24) for siege purposes. These were of bronze, and rifled on the La Hitte system. In naval service B.L.R. guns of cast-iron, strengthened by rings, have been em ployed, ranging from 70 to 300-pounders. The field guns fired studded projectiles, shell, shrapnel, and case ; and the heavy guns heavy elongated projectiles of similar kinds. In accordance with the recent regulations, each of the 18 French army corps has a brigade of artillery attached to it, consisting of 2 regiments, 1 of divisional, the other of corps artillery. The divisional regiment consists of 8 field batteries and 1 depot battery ; the corps regiment, of 3 horse artillery batteries (1 of which is attached to the cavalry in time of war), 9 field batteries (1 of which is utilised for service in Algeria), and 1 depot battery. Each brigade has besides 4 dismounted batteries for garrison service, and 4 companies of drivers for ammunition columns. An army corps has, therefore, 4 batteries attached to each of its divisions, and employs 10 batteries in addition as its corps or, as it was formerly called, reserve artillery. The war strength of each battery is 5 officers and 168 men. The field guns in use are the 15 and 10-pounder bronze B.L.R. Reffye guns (canons de 5 et de 7). (See Guns and Gunnery.)
The general organisation and distribution of the German artillery will be found under Army (p. 597). To each territorial army corps is attached a brigade of artillery, consisting of 2 regiments of field artillery and a regiment, or portion of a regiment, of garrison artillery. The first field regiment or corps artillery consists of 2 field divisions of 3 artillery, field batteries each, and one horse artillery division of 3 batteries. The second field regiment or divisional artillery consists of 2 divisions, each of 4 field batteries. The field guns are the 9-centimetre B.L.R. gun, firing a shell of 15i Ib weight, used by the field batteries, and the 8-centimetre B.L.R. gun, firing a projectile weighing 11 Ib, with which the horse artillery is armed. These guns are of cast steel, with polygrooved rifling and wedge breech action (système de Krupp). Each battery has 16 carriages, viz., 6 guus and carriages, 6 ammunition waggons, 3 provision and store waggons, and 1 forge waggon. The gun-carriages are double cheeked, and made of plate iron. The ammuni tion waggon carries one large box opening to the rear. The projectiles are a common shell of novel construction, case, and shrapnel the latter only lately introduced. The following ammunition is carried per gun:—
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Arnmuni ion. Gun Limber. Wappon Limber. Vapcon Body. Total per I.U1I. So Common Shell Shrapnel 24 12 24 12 32 16 80 40 _,j Case, 3 o 5 c o Total 39 33 48 125 a to Common Shell Shrapnel 20 10 20 10 30 15 70 35 -^ 3
5 J Ci Total 33 32 45 110
The artillery ammunition columns have 25 waggons each, and provide a first reserve of about 125 rounds per gun. The infantry columns have 24 small-arm ammunition waggons.
