THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL - Air Defense Artillery

198 THE COAST ARTILLERy JOURNAL
defense of important utilities not likely to be moved by fluctuations of the
battle line should be allowed 4000 rounds at the guns.
e3) and can remain there
It has been charged that the antiaircraft gun is developing its offensive
power to the neglect of offensive action that may be taken against it and to the
detriment of the probable efficacy of the battery. Certainly there is some truth
in the accusation. How many batteries, in training, have prepared complete
positions? How many have been fired from any but an exposed position
without attempt at concealment or protection? The impetus given to antiaircraft
development by the Aberdeen tests has been tremfmduous and it is undoubtedly
true that the striking power of the weapons has forged far ahead
and that defense has been neglected. However, one thing at a time! The improved
weapons are a fact. It would be well, now, to devote time to insuring
that a good battery, once emplaced, can remain there, for certainly no striking
power can come from a destroyed gun and very little from a gun always on the
move. For various reasons the Aberdeen tests could not have been held with
equal success elsewhere. This is not so of defensive tests. The batteries in
service should be studying and practicing the art of protection in all its many
phases. It has been stated elsewhere in this article that a future conflict would
find air units decidedly "on the prod" where antiaircraft is concerned. Now
is the time, in conjunction with our own Air Corps, to discover the probable
nature of the air offensive action and the best answers tbereto. The two arms
should maneuver together to the end that our own planes would be in minimum
danger from hostile antiaircraft and hostile planes in maximum danger from
our own antiaircraft.
The most efficient antiaircraft battery, in respect to the attribute now under
consideration, and which may be called permanence, is one that remains in
position and can fire during the entire duration of the tactical siutation that
requires its presence in that site. It lacks permanence, within our meaning of
the term, when the guns are destroyed or damaged, whether through artillery
or air action, when the position is rendered untenable from the same causes,
and when the guns become too worn for effective firing.
The last-mentioned factor has been solved admirably, in the new antiaircraft
guns, by the inclusion of the removable liner in its design. High velocities
entail rapid wear. Rapid wear, without some solution like the removable liner,
means loss of firing strength while guns are being re-tubed at Ordnance repair
parks. The removable liner may be changed by the personnel in the field
without special tools and an old gun metomorphosed into being a new gun in
about half an hour.
Loss of permanence through artillery fire is a subject continually brought
to the attention of the artilleryman, antiaircraft or otherwise. The antiaircraft
battery is likely, in a future conflict, to occupy an unenviable position of
prominence. In the face of a projected enemy drive, it is very possible that the
enemy high command will pass down word to his artillery staff that the opposing
antiaircraft batteries must be put out of action for the greater ease .of