in the methods of the French and
German field artilleries. The _French field artillery_ is always used
in indirect fire and the positions are usually a long distance behind
the infantry--from fifteen to twenty-five hundred yards. The
emplacements are often in deep wooded valleys. Too close proximity to
the infantry is avoided.

In contrast to this, the _German field artillery_ is nearly always
very close to the infantry and is frequently in position for direct
fire. In the most typical German arrangement the infantry trenches are
on the front face of a hill along the "military crest" with the
artillery two or three hundred yards behind over the natural crest.
One often sees German field guns in such a position that it is
difficult to say whether they are in "direct" or "indirect" fire.

In battles where there are no rapid retreats and rapid advances it
seems to be the custom for batteries to be silent for one or two days
while the battery commander, by means of observers, aeroplanes, and
spies, endeavors to locate an objective. The point to be made is that
the main forces of artillery do not seem to fire very continuously.
Oftentimes in the middle of a very tense battle where heavy forces
are opposed to each other there will be periods of half an hour or
even longer when no firing whatsoever is to be heard. The importance
of observers has become tremendous. On some occasions it seems as
though the main object of an army were to get a single man into a
location from which he can accurately observe the enemy's position,
and as if until this is accomplished the whole battle is at a
standstill. Both sides try continuously in all sorts of original ways
to get information. The German tendency is toward the use of spies,
while the French more often employ daring volunteer observers who
sacrifice their lives in order successfully to direct fire for even
five or ten minutes. Aeroplanes are used for the same purpose by all
nations, but with less and less success as the war progresses, because
hostile infantry and artillery are better and better hidden. It has
now become almost impossible for an aeroplane to locate hostile
artillery except by the flashes. Battery positions are either placed
in forests, or artificial woods are built around them. It is almost
axiomatic that artillery shall give no signs of life while an enemy's
aeroplane is above, and as the result of this, one well-recognized
method of temporarily silencing an e