Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/349

 100 yds. wrong at any range.” Now at 1000 yds. an error in judging distance of 13 yds. above or below the true range will cause all the shots of a particular rifle to fall away from the target, and the better the marksman—i.e. the closer his group the more necessary is perfection in judging distance, a perfection which in reality seems unattainable. The British musketry regulations therefore lay it down that the individual marksman’s fire at service targets is unprofitable at ranges of more than 600 yds. Beyond that distance collective fire, controlled and directed by an officer or non-commissioned officer, is the rule. The question as to whether fire is to be opened in any given set of circumstances is decided by the fire director, who considers first whether the probable error in judging distance is greater than half of the effective zone for the estimated range. If it is so, he must order “combined sights,” i.e. half of the units under his command use one elevation, the rest another, which method artificially increases the dispersion of the bullets and thereby the probability of the target being included in the zone. This, however, makes the fire less effective, and in practice cannot profitably be used by any body of rifles of less than So or 100. The commander of only a single section, therefore, however tempting the target, must refrain from opening fire at all. At medium ranges, however, controlled and directed fire is effective, and at such ranges troops should still be sufficiently in hand to execute the fire-director’s orders. Within decisive ranges fire-direction has to give place to fire-control. All that the strongest commander can enforce is the opening and ceasing of fire when he gives the order, and success is sought through making the individual soldier skilful at rapid and snap shooting. Black bull’s-eyes on white targets are now used only to teach men to make uniformly good shooting, which is shown by the closeness of the shot-grouping. The rest of the musketry course s fired against grey-green “head and shoulders” targets or brown silhouettes, and consists of slow. rapid and snap shooting, from behind cover, at disappearing or running targets, &c. In 1909 special attention began to be paid to visual training, both as an aid to judging distance and as an actual ingredient of fire-discipline. A method of indicating targets which originated in the French army was adopted and improved upon, consisting essentially of giving two or three conspicuous “auxiliary marks,” in artillery language, and naming the target with reference to them. Judging distance is generally associated with fire-discipline practices, and men are frequently exercised in locating and ranging upon a hidden skirmisher, 300–800 yds. away. Perhaps the most important modification of musketry training, within recent years, has been the adoption of rapid fire in “bursts,” as the normal procedure for infantry, instead of slow continuous fire.