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Foreword
Then, some time in the 1870's, some French genius invented the French 75 mm gun,
which revolutionized artillery. In the first place, it had the first successful recoil mechanism,
meaning that after it was fired, the piece automatically came back into position, all ready to be
fired again. And in addition, it had a sight which enabled it to fire at a target which was invisible
to the cannoneers. This meant that the cannon could be fired from a safe, hidden position,
provided an observer was up somewhere where he could see the target, go through a complex
mathematical process, and send the resulting command to fire back to the guns, using semaphore
flags, homing pigeons, telephone, or whatever came to hand. The first rounds fired were hardly
ever right on target, so the observer had to watch and send more commands to adjust the fire to
where it belonged. If you could do it within six or eight adjustments, you were pretty good.
Pigeons proved to be too slow and irresponsible. Semaphore flags were still being issued in
1942, and once, during a field exercise at Camp Barkeley, we actually tried to use them, but the
experiment failed. After that we forgot them.
Note 3: The wire crews and their "Don Ameche wagons," 3/4 ton trucks with wire reels,
pike poles, and other equipment, were frantically busy; they were also in frequent danger when
repairing damage done to the wire by enemy artillery fire: enemy artillery tended to fire again at
the same place from time to time.
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