23:9. And Joiada the priest gave to the captains the spears, and the shields, and targets of king David, which he had dedicated in the house of the Lord.
So saying he led the way, whom follow'd close Godlike Meriones. As from the depth Of some lone wood that clothes the mountain's side The fellers at their toil are heard remote, So, from the face of Ilium's ample plain Reverberated, was the din of brass And of tough targets heard by falchions huge Hard-smitten, and by spears of double-edge. None then, no, not the quickest to discern, Had known divine Sarpedon, from his head To his foot-sole with mingled blood and dust Polluted, and o'erwhelm'd with weapons. They Around the body swarm'd. As hovel-flies In spring-time buzz around the brimming pails With milk bedew'd, so they around the dead. Nor Jove averted once his glorious eyes From that dread contest, but with watchful note Marked all, the future death in battle deep Pondering of Patroclus, whether him Hector should even now slay on divine Sarpedon, and despoil him of his arms, Or he should still that arduous strife prolong. This counsel gain'd as eligible most At length his preference: that the valiant friend Of Peleus' son should yet again compel The Trojan host with Hector brazen-mail'd To Ilium, slaughtering numerous by the way. First then, with fears unmanly he possess'd The heart of Hector; mounting to his seat He turn'd to flight himself, and bade his host Fly also; for he knew Jove's purpose changed. Thenceforth, no longer even Lycia's host Endured, but all fled scatter'd, seeing pierced Their sovereign through his heart, and heap'd with dead; For numerous, while Saturnian Jove the fight Held in suspense, had on his body fallen. At once the Grecians of his dazzling arms Despoil'd Sarpedon, which the Myrmidons By order of Menoetius' valiant son Bore thence into the fleet. Meantime his will The Thunderer to Apollo thus express'd.
10:17. And three hundred targets of fine gold: three hundred pounds of gold covered one target: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Libanus.
So he; at whose sharp reprimand abash'd The embattled host to closer conflict moved, Obedient to their counsellor and King. On the other side the Greeks within the wall Made firm the phalanx, seeing urgent need; Nor could the valiant Lycians through the breach Admittance to the Grecian fleet obtain, Nor since they first approach'd it, had the Greeks With all their efforts, thrust the Lycians back. But as two claimants of one common field, Each with his rod of measurement in hand, Dispute the boundaries, litigating warm Their right in some small portion of the soil, So they, divided by the barrier, struck With hostile rage the bull-hide bucklers round, And the light targets on each other's breast. Then many a wound the ruthless weapons made. Pierced through the unarm'd back, if any turn'd, He died, and numerous even through the shield. The battlements from end to end with blood Of Grecians and of Trojans on both sides Were sprinkled; yet no violence could move The stubborn Greeks, or turn their powers to flight. So hung the war in balance, as the scales Held by some woman scrupulously just, A spinner; wool and weight she poises nice, Hard-earning slender pittance for her babes, Such was the poise in which the battle hung Till Jove himself superior fame, at length, To Priamëian Hector gave, who sprang First through the wall. In lofty sounds that reach'd Their utmost ranks, he call'd on all his host.
He ended, nor the valiant son refused Of old Anchises, but with targets firm Of season'd hide brass-plated thrown athwart Their shoulders, both advanced direct, with whom Of godlike form Aretus also went And Chromius. Ardent hope they all conceived To slay those Chiefs, and from the field to drive Achilles' lofty steeds. Vain hope! for them No bloodless strife awaited with the force Of brave Automedon; he, prayer to Jove First offering, felt his angry soul with might Heroic fill'd, and thus his faithful friend Alcimedon, incontinent, address'd.
33. _Projectiles Employed._--"Time shrapnel," say the German Field Artillery regulations, "is the projectile _par excellence_ ... against all animate targets which are not under cover." It achieves its purpose, as has been said, by sending a shower of bullets over an area of ground in such quantity that this is swept from end to end. These bullets are propelled, in a cone, forward from the point of burst of the shell, and the effective depth of this cone at medium ranges with a fairly high velocity gun may be taken at 300 yds. Further, the corrector enables the artillery commander to burst his shells at any desired point; for example, a long fuze may be given, to burst them close up when firing upon a deep target (such as troops in several lines, one behind the other), and thereby to obtain the maximum searching effect, or to obtain direct hits on shielded guns, while a short corrector, bursting the shell well in front of the enemy, allows the maximum lateral spread of the bullets, and therefore sweeps the greatest front. The number of bullets in the shell is such that troops in the open under effective shrapnel fire must suffer very heavily, and may be almost annihilated. If the enemy is close behind good cover, the bullets, indeed, pass harmlessly overhead. This, however, leads to a very important fact, viz. that artillery can keep down the fire of hostile infantry, "blind" the enemy, in Langlois' phrase, by _pinning it down_ to cover. Under cover the men are safe, but if they raise their heads to take careful aim, they will almost certainly be hit. Their fire under such conditions is therefore unaimed and wild at the best, and may be wholly ineffective. _Common_ shell and _high-explosive_ shell (see AMMUNITION) belong to another class of projectile. The former is now not often used, but a certain proportion of H.E. shell is carried by the field artillery in many armies (see table in ORDNANCE: _Field Equipments_). This has a very violent local effect within a radius of 20 to 25 yds. of the point of burst (see AMMUNITION, fig. 10). It therefore covers far less ground than shrapnel, and is naturally used either (a) against troops under substantial cover or (b) to wreck cover and buildings. In the former case the shell is supposed to send a rain of splinters vertically downwards. This it will do, provided the fuze is minutely accurate, and a burst is thus obtained exactly over the heads of the enemy, but this is now generally held to be unlikely, and in so far as effect against _personnel_ is concerned the H.E. shell is not thought to be of much value. Indeed, in the British and several other services, no H.E. shells at all are carried by field batteries, reliance being placed upon percussion shrapnel in attacking localities, buildings, &c., and for ranging. Experiments have been made towards producing a "H.E. shrapnel," which combines the characteristics of both types (see, for a description, AMMUNITION). For the projectiles used in attacking shielded guns, see section on "field howitzers" below. _Case shot_ is now rarely employed. In the war of 1870-71 Prince Kraft von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, who commanded the Prussian Guard artillery, reported the expenditure of only one round of case, and even that was merely "broken in transport." The close-quarters projectile of to-day is more usually shrapnel with the fuze set at zero. Langlois, however, calls case shot "the true projectile for critical moments, which nothing can replace." Entry: 33
29. _Ranging_[4] (except on the French system alluded to below) is, first, finding the range (i.e. elevation required), and secondly, correcting the standard length of fuze for that range in accordance with the circumstances of each case. To find the elevation required, it is necessary to observe the bursts of shells "on graze" with reference to the target. The battery commander orders two elevations differing by 300 yds., e.g. "2500, 2800," and tells off a "ranging section" of two guns. These proceed to fire percussion shrapnel at the two different elevations, in order to obtain bursts "over" (+) and "short" (-). When it is certain that this "long bracket" is obtained, the "100 yds. bracket" is found, the elevations in the given case being, perhaps, 2600 and 2700 yds. "Verifying" rounds are then fired, to make certain of the 100 yds. bracket. The old "short bracket" (50 yds.) is not now required except at standing targets. Circumstances may, of course, shorten the process; for instance, a hit upon the target itself could be "verified" at once. The determination of the fuze (by time shrapnel) follows. The fuze has a standard length for the ascertained range, but the proper correction of this standard length to suit the atmospheric conditions has to be made. The commander has therefore already given out a series of corrector[5] lengths, his object being to secure bursts both in air and on graze. When he is finally satisfied he opens fire "for effect." Entry: 29
Enthusiastic inventors, of course, produced many models of machine-gun in the strict sense of the word--i.e. a gun firing many charges, in volleys or in rapid succession, by a mechanical arrangement of the lock. Wilhelm Calthoff, a German employed by Louis XIII., produced arquebuses and muskets that fired six to eight shots per round, but his invention was a secret, and it seems to have been more of a magazine small arm than a machine-gun (1640). In 1701 a Lorrainer, Beaufort de Mirecourt, proposed a machine-gun which had as its purpose the augmentation of infantry-fire power, so as to place an inferior army on an equality with a superior. At this time inventors were so numerous and so embarrassing that the French grand master of artillery, St Hilaire, in 1703 wrote that he would be glad to have done with "ces sortes de gens à secrets," some of whom demanded a grant of compensation even when their experiments had failed. The machine-gun of the 17th and 18th centuries in fact possessed no advantage over contemporary field artillery, and the battalion gun in particular, which possessed the long ranging and battering power that its rival lacked, and was moreover more efficacious against living targets with its case-shot or grape. As compared with infantry fire, too, it was less effective and slower than the muskets of a well-drilled company. Rapid fire was easily arranged, but the rapid _loading_ which would have compensated for other defects was unobtainable in the then existing state of gun-making. Entry: HISTORICAL
_The Pastime of Archery._--The use of the bow and arrow as a pastime naturally accompanied their use as weapons of war, but when the gun began to supersede the bow the pastime lost its popularity. Charles II., however, and his queen, Catherine of Braganza, interested themselves in English archery, the queen in 1676 presenting a silver badge or shield to the "Marshall of the Fraternity of Archers," which badge, once the property of the Finsbury Archers, was transferred to the keeping of the Royal Toxophilite Society, when in 1841 the two clubs combined. The Toxophilite Society was founded in 1781; for though in the north archery had long been practised, its resuscitation in the south really dates from the formation of this club by Sir Ashton Lever. This society received the title of "Royal" in 1847, though it had long been patronized by royalty. It is an error to suppose that the Finsbury Archers were connected with the Archers' division of the Hon. Artillery Company, but many members of the Toxophilite Society joined that division, and used its ground for shooting, securing, however, a London ground of their own in the district where Gower Street, W.C., now is. When this ground became unavailable, the shooting probably took place at Highbury, and later in 1820, on Lord's cricket ground, the present ground in the Inner Circle of Regent's Park, near the Botanical Gardens, not being acquired till 1833. The society may be regarded as the most important body connected with archery, most of the leading archers belonging to it, though the Grand National Archery Society controls the public meetings. Among its more important events is the shooting of 144 arrows at 100 yds. for the Crunder Cup and Bugle. In the early days of the club targets of different sizes were used at the different ranges, and the scores were recorded in money (e.g. "Mr Elwin, 86 hits, £5:5:6"). The Woodmen of Arden can claim an almost equal antiquity, having been founded--some say "revived"--in 1785. The number of members is limited to 80; at one time there were 81, Sir Robert Peel having been elected as a supernumerary by way of compliment. The headquarters of the Woodmen are at Meriden in Warwickshire; the club has a nominal authority over vert and venison, whence its officers bear appropriate names-warden, master-forester and verderers; and the annual meeting is called the Wardmote. The master-forester, or captain for the year, is the maker of the first "gold" at the annual target; he who makes the second is the senior verderer. The club devotes itself to the old-fashioned clout-shooting at long ranges, reckoned by "scores," nine score meaning 180 yds., and so on. (_Vide_ "Clout-shooting" _infra_.) The chief matches in which the Woodmen engage are those against the Royal Company of Scottish Archers. The Royal British Bowmen date back to the end of the 18th century. Like many others, during the Napoleonic war they suspended operations, revived when peace was made. The club was finally dissolved in 1880. The Royal Kentish Bowmen were founded in 1785, but did not survive the war. John O'Gaunt's Bowmen, who still meet at Lancaster, were revived, not created, at the same time, and still flourish. The Herefordshire Bowmen only shoot at 60 yds., while the West Berks Society is limited to twelve members, who meet at each other's houses, except for their Autumn Handicap, shot on the Toxophilite Grounds--216 arrows at 100 yds. The Royal Company of Archers is the chief Scottish society. Originally a semi-military body constituted in 1676, it practised archery as a pastime from the time of its foundation, several meetings being held in the first few years of its existence. It devoted itself to "rovers," or long-range shooting at the "clout," among its most interesting trophies being the "Musselburgh Arrow," first shot for in 1603, possibly even earlier, in that town; the competition was then open to all comers, for archery was long popular in Scotland, especially at Kilwinning, the headquarters of popinjay (q.v.) shooting. Other prizes are the "Peebles Silver Arrow," dating back to 1626, the "Edinburgh Silver Arrow" (1709), the "Selkirk Arrow," a very ancient prize, the "Dalhousie Sword," the "Hopetoun Royal Commemoration Prize," and others, shot for at ranges of 180 or 200 yds. The most curious is the "Goose Medal." Originally a goose was buried in a butt with only its head visible, and this was the archers' mark; now a small glass globe is substituted. The "Popingo (Popinjay) Medal," for which a stuffed parrot was once used as the mark, is now contested at the ordinary butts. The Kilwinning Society of Archers, founded in 1688, did not disband till 1870; the Irvine Toxophilites flourished from 1814 till about 1867. But of all societies the Grand National Archery Society, regulating the great meetings, though comparatively young, is the most important. Various open meetings were already in existence, but in 1844 a few leading archers projected a Grand National Meeting, which was held in York in that year and in 1845 and 1846, and subsequently in other places. But the society did not exist as such till 1861, after the meeting held at Liverpool, since when, notwithstanding some financial troubles, it has been the legislative and managing body of English archery. The chief meetings are the "Championship," the "Leamington and Midland Counties," the "Crystal Palace," the "Grand Western" and the "Grand Northern." For some years a "Scottish Grand National" was held, but fell into abeyance. The "Scorton Arrow" is no longer shot for in the Yorkshire village of that name, but the meeting, held regularly in the county, dates back to 1673 by record, and is probably far older. The silver arrow and the captaincy are awarded to the man who makes the first gold; the silver bugle and lieutenancy to the first red; the gold medal to most hits, and a horn spoon to the last white. Entry: ARCHERY
The portion told off to meet the infantry assault would be entrenched on the forward slope and would take no part in the artillery duel. Very exceptionally, this advanced artillery might fire upon favourable targets, but its paramount duty is to remain intact for the decisive moment. Here again the defender is confronted with grave difficulties. It is true that his advanced batteries may be of the greatest possible assistance at the crisis of the infantry assault, yet even so the covering fire of the hostile guns, as soon as the hostile infantry had found them their target, may be absolutely overwhelming; moreover, once the fight has begun, the guns cannot be withdrawn, nor can their positions easily be modified to meet unexpected developments. The proportion of the whole artillery force which should be committed to the forward position is disputed. Colonel Bethell (_Journal Royal Artillery_, vol. xxxiii. p. 67) holds that all the mountain guns, and two-thirds of the field guns, should be in the forward, all the howitzers and heavy guns and one-third of the field guns in the retired position. But in view of the facts that if once the advanced guns are submerged in the tide of the enemy's assault, they will be irrecoverable, and that a modern Q.F. gun, with plenty of ammunition at hand, may use "rapid fire" freely, artillery opinion, as a whole, is in favour of having fewer guns and an abnormal ammunition supply in the forward entrenchments, and the bulk of the artillery (with the ammunition columns at hand) in rear. But the purely passive defensive is usually but a preliminary to an active counter-stroke. This counter-attack would naturally be supported to the utmost by the offensive tactics of the artillery, which might thus at the end of a battle achieve far greater results than it could have done at the beginning of the day. In _pursuit_, it is universally agreed that the action of the artillery may be bold to the verge of rashness. The employment of field artillery in _advanced_ and _rear guard actions_ varies almost indefinitely according to circumstances; with _outposts_, guns would only be employed exceptionally. Entry: 35
_Targets, Scoring and Handicapping._--The targets, 4 ft. in diameter, are made of straw 3 to 4 in. thick, and are supported sloping slightly backwards by an iron stand. The faces are of floor-cloth painted with concentric rings, 4-4/5 in. each in breadth. The outer ring, white, counts one point; the next, black, three; the next, blue, five; the next, red, seven; and the next, gold--a complete circle of 4-4/5 in. radius--nine. The exact centre of the gold is called the "pin-hole." The targets are set up in pairs, facing each other, the distances for men being 100, 80 and 60 yds.; for ladies, 60 and 50; for convenience, 5 yds. are added to allow for a shooting-line that distance in front of each target. The centre of the gold should be 4 ft. from the ground. Each archer shoots three arrows--an "end"--at one target; they then cross over and mark the scores. If an arrow cuts two rings, the archer is credited with the value of the higher one. In matches a "York Round" or a "St George's Round" is usually shot by men, the former consisting of 144 arrows, 72 at 100 yds., 48 at 80 yds., and 24 at 60 yds., the latter of 36 arrows at each of these distances. One York Round only is shot on a day; a double York Round is shot, one on each day, at the more important meetings. Ladies usually shoot the "National Round" of 48 arrows at 60 yds. and 24 at 50 yds. At most meetings the prizes are awarded on the gross scores; at others, including the Championship meeting, on points, two points for the highest score on the round and two for most hits on the round, one point each for highest score and most hits at each of the three ranges, ten points in all. Ladies' scores are calculated similarly. To decide the Championship, the Grand National Archery Society passed a rule in 1894 that "The Champion prizes shall be awarded to the archer gaining the greatest number of points, provided that those for gross hits or gross score are included; any points won by other archers shall be redistributed among those gaining the points for gross hits or gross score." Handicapping may be done by "rings," the winner of a first prize not being allowed to count "whites" at subsequent meetings, and "blacks" and "blues" being lost for further successes. Better methods are (1) to deduct a percentage from the gross score of successful shooters, (2) to handicap by points, as in other pastimes, or (3) to rate a shooter according to the average of his last year's performances, re-rating him monthly, or at convenient intervals, the system being to add his average of the current year to his average of last year, and divide the sum by two to form his new rating. Entry: ARCHERY
Weapons of this sort were freely employed by the Hussites, who fought in laager formation (_Wagenburg_), but the fitting of two or more hand-guns or small culverins to a two-wheeled carriage garnished with spikes and scythe blades (like the ancient war-chariots) was somewhat older, for in 1382 the men of Ghent put into the field 200 "chars de canon" and in 1411 the Burgundian army is said to have had 2000 "ribaudequins" (meaning probably the weapons, not the carts, in this case). These were of course hardly more than carts with hand-gun men; in fact most armies in those days moved about in a hollow square or lozenge of wagons, and it was natural to fill the carts with the available gunners or archers. The method of breaking the enemy's "battles" with these carts was at first, in the ancient manner, to drive into and disorder the hostile ranks with the scythes. But they contained at least the germ of the modern machine-gun, for the tubes (_cannes, canons_) were connected by a train of powder and fired in volleys. As however field artillery improved (latter half of 15th century), and a cannon-ball could be fired from a mobile carriage, the ribaudequin ceased to exist, its name being transferred to heavy hand-guns used as rampart pieces. The idea of the machine-gun reappeared however in the 16th century. The weapons were now called "organs" (_orgues_), from the number of pipes or tubes that they contained. At first used (defensively) in the same way as the ribaudequins, i.e. as an effective addition to the military equipment of a war-cart, they were developed, in the early part of the 16th century, into a really formidable weapon for breaking the masses of the enemy, not by scythes and spikes but by fire. Fleurange's memoirs assign the credit of this to the famous gunner and engineer Pedro Navarro, who made two hundred weapons of a design of his own for Louis XII. These "were not more than two feet long, and fired fifty shots at a round," but nevertheless "organs" were relatively rare in the armies of the 16th century, for the field artillery, though it grew in size and lost in mobility, had discovered the efficacy of case shot (then called "perdreaux") against uncovered animate targets, and for work that was not sufficiently serious for the guns heavy arquebuses were employed. Infantry fire, too, was growing in power and importance. In 1551 a French army contained 21 guns and 150 arquebuses _à croc_ and one _pièce façon d'orgue_. By about 1570 it had been found that when an "organ" was needed all that was necessary was to mount some heavy arquebuses on a cart, and the organ, as a separate weapon, disappeared from the field, although under the name of "mantelet" (from the shield which protected the gunners), it was still used for the defence of breaches in siege warfare. Diego Ufano, who wrote in the early years of the 17th century, describes it as a weapon consisting of five or six barrels fired simultaneously by a common lock, and mentions as a celebrated example the "Triquetraque of Rome" which had five barrels. Another writer, Hanzelet, describes amongst other devices a mitrailleuse of four barrels which was fired from the back of an ass or pony. But such weapons as these were more curious than useful. For work in the open field the musket came more and more to the front, its bullet became at least as formidable as that of an "organ," and when it was necessary to obtain a concentrated fire on a narrow front arquebuses _à croc_ were mounted for the nonce in groups of four to six. The "organ" maintained a precarious existence, and is described by Montecucculi a century later, and one of twelve barrels figures in the list of military Stores at Hesdin in 1689. But its fatal defect was that it was neither powerful enough to engage nor mobile enough to evade the hostile artillery. Entry: HISTORICAL