"reserve artillery") now consists only of the howitzer and heavy
brigades, with a brigade of horse artillery. The latter is held at the
disposal of the corps commander for the swift reinforcement of a
threatened point; the howitzers and the heavy guns have, of course,
functions widely different from those of the mass of guns. As the field
artillery is required to come into action at the earliest possible
moment, it has now been distributed amongst the infantry divisions, and
marches almost at the head of the various combatant columns, instead of
being relegated perhaps to the tail of the centre column. The
redistribution of the British army (1907) on a divisional basis is a
remarkable example of this; even the special natures of artillery
(except horse artillery) are distributed amongst the divisions. In
Germany two "regiments" (each of 2 _Abteilungen_ = 6 batteries) form a
brigade, under an artillery general in each division who thus disposes
of 72 field guns, and the howitzers, with such horse artillery batteries
as remain over after the cavalry has been supplied, still form a corps
or reserve artillery. In 1903 the French, after long hesitation,
assigned the whole of the field artillery to the various divisions, but
later (for reasons stated in the article TACTICS) arranged to
reconstitute the old-fashioned corps artillery in war. (See also ARMY, S
49).
TACTICAL WORK