o save the
campaign outside for its relief, and with it Natal. And my opinion
now, when the war is nearly over, is only strengthened and confirmed
by what I have heard the Boers say of the guns, viz., that they are
the only things when using shrapnel that have shaken them much during
the fighting, and, considering the country, naturally so. That it was
to the Navy and not to the garrison gunners that the original credit
has gone, was simply because we were here and they were at home at the
start. One is, as regards their gunnery powers, as good as the other,
and the garrison gunners earned their laurels later on. Still, I have
a great hankering after a gun's crew of "handy men" to beat any crew
in this world for all-round service and quick shooting, and I am ready
to back my opinion heavily.

Returning from this digression to the subject of recoil, we found that
sandbags placed at a certain distance in rear of each wheel not only
effectually checked the carriage, but also (a great consideration) ran
it out again. This system was used both by the 4.7's and ourselves at
the end of the war; and seeing that the guns had only half crews, it
was a _most_ important saving to men who had perhaps marched ten
miles, loaded and off-loaded ammunition, and then had perhaps to
fight the guns under a hot sun for hours. To fill and carry the bags,
however, is a nuisance, and some better system on the same principle
is needed, such as the inclined wedges that I saw by photos the Boers
were using in rear of wheels; and I should very much like to see some
such system substituted for our present one. I have not seen the
hydraulic spade used, perhaps that is the _best_.

To put it briefly, the hastily improvised gun-carriage of the
12-pounders had, on account of this very haste, the following
defects:--

(1.) Too weak generally in all parts, particularly wheels and
axles, for any long campaign.

(2.) Wheels and axles being a scratch lot, none in any of the
batteries were interchangeable, which caused many times later in
the campaign when wheels began to give out, much anxiety. Several
times we only had guns ready for action or trekking by the "skin
of one's teeth," and it must be borne in mind that any new wheels
wired-for sometimes took two months to arrive on the very
overcrowded railway--a single line.

(3.) The system of checking the recoil of the field carriage was
a bad one