"Gun batteries: actual time to displace" Topic

Looking at the actual footprint of artillery batteries in 1 to 1 scale, eg as depicted by the Waterloo Remodelled project, I'm starting to wonder how long it really took to move a battery from one place to another. Most rules I've seen make this relatively straightforward, i.e. a certain number of turns to limber and unlimber. Looking at how much space they really take up I am wondering about this a bit more. Eight foot guns would be a substantial road convoy and in games when they move they do so cross-country as a rule. Has any writer left details of the time it took to limber and redeploy a whole battery? I'm interested more in foot than horse because we know horse could and did do this.

You can find videos of the Kings Troop RHA limbering and un-limbering a battery of 6. This is parade ground drill but the time is in seconds not minutes

Prussian artillery in peace time manouevers before 1828 (relatively ideal conditions), average time from the command "battery halt" until the first shot fired, in seconds, time for horse artillery in brackets:

6 pounder roundshot with precise aiming: 34 (30)
6 pounder roundshot ricocheting fire: 38 (33)
6 pounder canister: 26 (26)
12 pounder roundshot with precise aiming: 41
12 pounder roundshot ricocheting fire: 40
12 pounder canister: 33

Time between two shots:

6 pounder roundshot with precise aiming: 23 (21)
6 pounder roundshot ricocheting fire: 45 (45)
6 pounder canister: 17 (16)
12 pounder roundshot with precise aiming: 421
12 pounder roundshot ricocheting fire: no data
12 pounder canister: 21

From: link

I've seen a 4 gun battery load and move through a reenactment. I did not time it. The cost is the artillery crews on foot having to run behind to catch up. You could probably speed it up by putting 3 of the crew on the limber. They could unlimber and load at a reduced rate. The battery moves fast, (even for relatively untrained rernactors). You have to find a way through moving and non moving troops and a space wide enough to wheel and unlimber the battery. But I was in awe of seeing it for the first time.

Chasing a mounted gun, over hills is no fun, especially in high heat. Riding a limber on hills is also not fun and is somewhat scary. Especially if you are the center man of 3. No shocks and the bounce like a sob.

Doing on a parade ground would be different than in battle situations, under fire, with debris littering the field and troops. Horses potentially being hit,(which is never taken into perspective in any rule set I have seen). Not to mention crew members. Maybe the rule should include movement penalties for moving while area of field is under fire. Tricky.

What about the time to move and reposition the caissons?

To initially fire, they would not be necessary, unless the battery was near depleting the limber rounds. So they could catch up at a slower pace, once the battery is repositioned. Just my thoughts. I base this only on what I have seen and read in CW.

Also, guns only carried so many rounds of ammunition types on their limber. So would they need canister and be out? But that is probably overthinking a 10 to 15 turn game.

As noted above, I think you are looking at two different numbers for time. One is how fast can the battery put fire on a target, and the other is the length of time it takes to deploy limbers, battery wagons, etc. I think the time you really want to know is how long it takes to limber a battery and then unlimber it and fire. With that time, and the length of turn time, you would get a better idea what a battery can do in a particular set of rules re. limbering, moving, unlimbering, and firing.

Time-vs-distance situations in wargame rules is very subjective. How long is one turn? 30 minutes? Well, then a battery could limber up, move a half mile, and go into battery again in one turn, no problem. Just like Longstreet's Assault on July 3rd could have covered the whole distance from Seminary Ridge to the Angle in one turn. Game rules have to be abstractions to account for decision-making time, delays, and things like that. It really comes down to: how easy do you WANT it to be for artillery to reposition in your game?

Just came across Mercer's recollections of Waterloo: he estimates having fired 700 rounds per gun on June 18th.
That would mean for over ten hours one round every minute.
Can this really be true?

Was it not 700 rounds in total? I do not think that his battery could have 4200 rounds available.

As to time for coming into action, this might be of interest.

YouTube link

The speed of the detachment seems realistic for coming into action but on the march it would be much slower given the state of the roads and the weight of the equipment. For horse artillery watch the King's Troop RHA at any salute.

Mercer does say:
"Although supplies of ammunition had been sent to us during the action, yet little remained. The expenditure had been enormous. A return had been called for yesterday evening just as we were lying down to rest, but, fatigued as we all were, it was impossible to give this correctly. As near as I could ascertain, we must have fired nearly 700 rounds per gun."
Considering he became active between 3pm and 4pm this would be a massive expenditure of ammunition.

At Waterloo, the Prussian 6pounder battery no. 14 fired 689 rounds, the Prussian 6pounder battery no. 14 fired 819 rounds.

The Prussian horse battery no. 14 fired 1125 rounds at Ligny.

These are the highest numbers of rounds fired by Prussian batteries I came accross. Prussian batteries had 8 guns. In the limbers for each cannon of a 6pounder battery, 45 roundshot and 25 canister were carried. Including the reserves in the ammunition caissons, a Prussian 6pouder battery, when fully supplied, carried 556 roundshot and 240 canister for the 6 cannons, and 120 grenades and 40 canister for the 2 howitzers.

Maybe in Mercer's journal a "0" or the words "per gun" were added by error.

@ grenadier corporal: no, it can't be true, I don't think. He wasn't in action for 10 hours. He came into the line about 3 or 4pm. He did fire a lot of double-shotted rounds i.e. canister on top of ball but even so.

@ Scott: I'm coming at this from the other end. Moving a foot battery did not entail just moving six or eight guns, but the ready and main ammo supply, horses, limbers, farriers' wagons etc, and repositioning all of these and re-establishing operations in a space a battalion frontage wide by the same in depth. I.e. you needed substantial real estate to do it.

It's the practicalities that make me wonder how often this was done once already deployed. Did they assemble a column of route – even off-road – with the guns followed by the caissons etc, then disperse again to fire? Or did they just move off laterally as they were already deployed, so as to be in the correct positions on arrival? I'm not sure the King's Troop is a good guide because they're always seen on flat ground with great big four-wheeled ammunition fourgons nowhere to be seen and they don't then open a sustained and rapid fire.

For some details on contemporary drills of artillery. This may be of interest

Christophe Clément (1808) Essai sur l'Artillerie à cheval
link

Written for the Italian Army, but by a French officer.

The essence seems that the guns and wagons are moving in a manner that the guns are up front and can deploy quickly. The wagons, caissons etc can come up behind. So, they have little impact on the time to commence firing.

I think it's worth considering that a battery does not need to maintain close formation like infantry/cavalry so each limber/ caisson could take its own shortest route; therefore maneuvering could be quite rapid by comparison. In addition well wadded there is no reason not to move a loaded gun so time to first round can be reduced.

There is a video of British foot artillery on the move pre WW1. I will look it up tomorrow.
I understand that British practice (Napoleonic) was to form column by section, that is by pair of guns.

WW1 artillery movement. Reasonably rapid.
youtu.be/R0X7CfNBsq4

Note this is only the guns and accompanying limbers. Second and third echelon would have been to the rear.

Mike is correct, batteries moved in two columns parallel to each other ( so an 8 gun battery would be 2 files, 4 ranks. This was probably not true when using roads though.

Time to displace was a matter of training.

The essence seems that the guns and wagons are moving in a manner that the guns are up front and can deploy quickly. The wagons, caissons etc can come up behind. So, they have little impact on the time to commence firing.

They have indeed impact, there without any ammunition you cannot shot, the French failed to introduce a highly mobile limber system (well Gribeauval was 18th century style and for that it worked) as other armies did – like the British, or even the Prussians, and they had to rely on the heavy 4 wheeled clumsy ammunition waggons and had to wait till they were up, the French had only a small case made of wood to store some few shots along with their guns.

The ready ammunition box (coffret) was where the ammunition used to feed the piece was kept. That ammunition was replenished from the caisson assigned to the piece.

The French limber was quite 'adequate' for both horse and foot artillery.

And, as already explained earlier, the Prussians, Austrians, and Russians all had a four-wheeled ammunition caisson, and the Russians had a two-wheeled ammunition caisson as well.

When the French artillery went into action, the wait (if any) for the company's caissons was minimal.

Each caisson would travel with the piece they supported.

How did horse artillery batteries deal with caisson? When they rapidly deployed were caisson expected to follow, or did they retire to replenish?

@ Marc

If you intend to rush forward fire a couple of rounds and then back off again you can leave your caisson behind, otherwise the caisson needs to come up, maybe not immediately but before you expend your ready rounds. Things haven't changed today, if you do 'shoot and skoot' you leave the replen in hides and go to them between shoots, otherwise they have to come to the guns.

That would depend on the tactical situation and the decision of the horse artillery company commander.

The assigned caissons would not go to the rear to replenish until necessary and after being replaced by a full caisson from the parcs.