Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of"

steadily improved in manoeuvring power. But many years elapsed before perfection was attained. Meanwhile, the infantry, handled without regard to losses in every fight, had in consequence deteriorated. The final production of the field artillery battle, usually dated as from the battle of Friedland (June 14, 1807), therefore saved the situation for the French. Henceforward Napoleon's battles depend for their success on an "artillery preparation," the like of which had never been seen. Napoleon's own maxim illustrates the typical tactics of 1807-1815. "When once the _melee_ has begun," he says, "the man who is clever enough to bring up an unexpected force of artillery, without the enemy knowing it, is sure to carry the day." The guns no longer "prepared" the infantry advance by slowly disintegrating the hostile forces. Still less was it their business merely to cover a deployment. On the contrary, they now went in to the closest ranges and, by actually _annihilating_ a portion of the enemy's line with case-shot fire, "covered" the assault so effectively that columns of cavalry and infantry reached the gap thus created without striking a blow. It is unnecessary to give examples. Every one of Napoleon's later battles illustrates the principle. The most famous case is that of the great battery of 100 guns at Wagram (q.v.) which preceded the final attack of the centre. When Napoleon at Leipzig saw the allied guns forming up in long lines to prepare the assault, he exclaimed, "At last they have learned something." This "case-shot preparation," of course, involved a high degree of efficiency in manoeuvre, as the guns had to gallop forward far in front of the infantry. The want of this quality had retarded the development of field artillery for 300 years, during which it had only been important relatively to the occasional inferiority of other troops. After Napoleon's time the art of tactics became the art of _combining the three arms_. [Illustration: PLATE I. FIGS. 1 and 2.--15th Century Field Artillery (Napoleon III). FIG. 3.--Field Artillery. 1525 (Napoleon III). FIG. 4.--French Artillery 1735 (_Journal d'Armee_,1835). FIG. 5.--French Field Artillery,1835 (_Journal d'Armee_,1835). FIG. 6.--Artillery in Action, Roveredo, 1796 (C. Vernet).] [Illustration: PLATE II. BREACH LOADING FIELD BATTERY (15-PR. B.L.). _Photo, Gale & Polden._ QUICK-FIRING HORSE ARTILLERY (ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY, 13-PR. Q.F.). _Photo, Gale & Polden._ Q.F. FIELD ARTILLERY (18-PR. Q.F., R.F.A.). _Photo, Gale & Polden._ FRENCH (75-MM. Q.F.) FIELD ARTILLERY MANOEUVRING. _Photo, Topical Press._]