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Massed artillery fire was old in World War I (Napoleon used it first), but standards set at Sill are incredible to oldtime two-percenters.* Twenty-five seconds after the target is pointed out, shells from a dozen 105s are on their way—an hour would be comparable 25 years ago. In routine exercises more than 100 guns obliterate targets 800 yards square less than five minutes after they are assigned—incredible by the standards at Soissons or Saint-Mihiel. Some of this speed-up comes from having changed the firing unit from the battery of four guns to the battalion of twelve. Some comes from lightweight radio and improved field telephone. But most comes from the G.F.T.
Among the first to preach artillery's new possibilities was quiet, pipe-smoking Brigadier General Jesmond Dene Balmer, now Field Artillery School Commandant. Seven months in wartime Washington had taught him that orders are not only to be obeyed but anticipated. Long before the War Department fully realized what time fire could do, Jess Balmer was calling for its use on a huge scale. North Africa proved his point—and led ground forces to multiply orders for time shells. Long before the War Department had recognized the G.F.T., Sill was turning out homemade ones, paper strips mounted on beaverboard. Young officers took them to Guadalcanal and Tunisia, Attu and Sicily. Last month Balmer's command won official commendation from Lieut. General Lesley J. McNair, head of Army Ground Forces: "Battle results . . . have demonstrated conclusively that the current artillery doctrines are sound and probably the most advanced in the world. . . . [This] is due . . . almost wholly to a single factor: the Field Artillery School."
* In France, artillery fire went down 200 yards ahead of troops, who crept within 100 yards waiting for it to lift before attacking. Occasional shorts were inevitable, and infantry learned to expect 2% casualties from its own supporting artillery. Foot soldiers' traditional greeting to artillerymen was two raised fingers, like Winston Churchill's "V" signal.