GENERAL ORDERS, No. 36. HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, Washington, March 19, 1901. Pursuant to paragraph 352, Army Regulations, and in substitution of General Orders, No. 41, September 4, 1896, from this office, the following details of the methods of conducting the technical instruction of artillery troops and target practice with coast artillery are prescribed and published for the information and guidance of the Army: I-ANNUAL TARGET PRACTICE. Coast artillery target practice in each department will be held, at such posts and at such times as the department commander may designate, in accordance with the provisions of Part VI, Drill Regulations for Coast Artillery. 1. Practice will be with such breech-loading seacoast ordnance (guns and mortars and subcalibers) as may be available at the posts designated. Where the 8-inch converted rifle forms part of the armament additional practice will be had with this gun. 2. Areas within which targets may be placed will be determined carefully at each post for each separate group of guns. To this end a board will be appointed by the commanding officer of the post to examine and report upon the special features of the field of fire of each separate group, and particularly as to the hydrography of channels and as to those points in channels at which ships may be attacked with greatest advantage. Charts will be submitted with the report of the board, showing the limits of the field of fire for each separate group, the depth of water throughout all portions of the field, and the more minute details of all channels which traverse it. The charts will indicate, in a special way, those portions of channels at which ships may be attacked with greatest advantage. In so far as practicable, the areas within which targets are placed for target practice shall include the areas of greatest advantage," in order that all at the guns may become especially instructed in and familiar with the conditions which obtain in connection with artillery fire therein. 66 The reports of these boards will not become effective until they shall have received the approval of the department commander. When so approved, the proceedings will be spread upon the pages of the fort record book. In land-locked harbors the range must be such that the angle of fall will be sufficiently great to prevent ricochets. 3. Practice in any one season for any one company will be with one caliber of B. L. rifle of 8-inch caliber or upward, or with the 12-inch mortar, and with the R. F. guns; the kind of piece to be used by the company being determined annually by the post commander, with the approval of the department commander, and announced in orders, giving number of rounds and the kind of projectile for each caliber. 4. The allowance of ammunition for the annual target practice and for elementary practice will be announced in orders from the Headquarters of the Army. This allowance, until further orders, will be as follows: *All target practice (except with subcalibers) will be with projectiles of full service weight and service fatin. All target practice, in so far as practicable, will be with smokeless powder. Fifty per cent (exclusive of subcaliber practice) of the rounds fired from the 8, 10, and 12 inch B. L. rifles will be with service charges. The elementary practice prescribed in Part VI, Drill Regulations, will be confined to subcaliber practice. When there are R. F. guns of Class a and Class b at the post, each company will have drill and practice with but one of these calibers. When there are R. F. guns of Class c and Class d at the post, each company will have drill and practice with but one of these calibers. With the subcaliber tubes only fixed ammunition will be used. NOTE.-For the practice year 1901, the provisions of General Orders, No. 18, 1897, and No. 129, 1899, from this office, so far as relates to ammunition allowance and methods of target practice, will be adhered to, with an allowance of 20 rounds for 6-pounder and 15 rounds for 15-pounder rapid-fire guns for each company practicing with these guns. 5. All practice will be at moving targets. After the officer in charge of the practice informs the company commander that range and target are ready, fifteen minutes will be allowed in which to fire first shot with all guns and mortars (excluding subcaliber practice). An interval of five minutes will be allowed between first and second and second and third shots with 8-inch M. L. R., 8, 10, and 12 inch B. L. R., and company commanders will be given the plotting of these shots. For the remaining rounds the company commander will not be furnished with the plotting of shot, but will be given the location of the target every thirty seconds; an interval of four minutes will be allowed between shots fired from 12-inch B. L. R. and 8-inch M. L. R., and an interval of two minutes between shots fired from 8 and 10 inch B. L. R. An interval of five minutes will be allowed between shots fired with 12-inch B. L. M., and the company commander will be given plotting of first and second shots only, but will be furnished with location of target every thirty seconds. Commencing with the third shot of each series fired from the 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch guns, and with the first shot of each series fired from mortars, each hit on the standard hypothetical target shall have a numerical value depending on the time within which the shot is fired, as shown in the following table: If any shot be not fired within the interval of time specified in the sixth column of the table, the score of zero shall be recorded for that shot and the allowance of the company firing shall be reduced by one. The next interval of time will then immediately commence to run and the shot in the gun will be available for the next round. An interval of five minutes will be allowed between first and second shots with all R. F. guns, and company commanders will be given plotting of first shot only, but the location of target will be given him every thirty seconds. For the remaining rounds, commencing with second, the rate of fire will be one shot per minute for 6-inch gun, two per minute for 5, 4.7, and 4 inch guns, and three per minute with 15 and 6 pounder guns. No shot will be fired from any R. F. gun after the expiration of the total time allowed for firing as determined by the above rate, commencing with the second shot. The company will be given a score of zero for each shot not fired at expiration of time limit. The five-minute intervals allowed at the beginning of each series of shots with 8-inch M. L. R. and 8, 10, and 12 inch B. L. R. and R. F. guns may be extended in the same way as the intervals between the remaining shots of the series, 25 per cent being deducted from value of each hit made for each additional minute or fractional part thereof consumed. If not fired within eight minutes, company to have score of zero for that shot and allowance to be reduced by one. At the expiration of this time (eight minutes) the next interval will commence to run and the shot in gun will be available for next round. 6. When the exercises connected with the annual target practice commence, all other tactical instruction of the coast artillery troops will be suspended, and the target practice with any particular piece will be always preceded by the most careful instruction in its service. 7. Each company commander will observe the requirements of Drill Regulations in the practice of his company, and will submit the reports thereof, for the prompt rendition of which he will be held responsible; either he or his officers will verify the final plotting of the shots from the data furnished by the range party. The officer commanding the practice will be held strictly to the responsibility laid down in Part VI, Drill Regulations. 8. The practice will be exclusively by company; the record and plottings will be complete and separate for each company and for each class of pieces; the records of different companies will not be consolidated. The officer commanding the practice will place his remarks and criticisms on the practice in the column provided therefor in the record of artillery practice. 9. The range party will be taken, when practicable, from other companies, so that all the officers and men of the company firing may be present during the practice. |