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[Page 38]
you should have seen us on the rapid fire at the disappearing target, our method of musketry firing was like this each man in a platoon was given 30 rounds, & each platoon in their turn had to advance under a supposed enemy fire in extended order, when they reached the top of the ridge which marked where we had stop, the officer in charge blew his whistle & down every one went like one man, & loaded his rifle as quick as he could, in a few sec's the enemy appeared first at 200 yards, he was represented here by small steel plates about 12 in. square & each section of the platoon had to direct their fire, on to their portion of the target, we would have about 10 sec. allowed on these plates, & I can tell you there would not be
many left standing in that time, while we were tearing into these plates another target would appear some where else perhaps 600, or 400 yards away we would have to alter our sights, as quick as we could & tear into this new one, you would just get nicely going when it would disappear, & another one would spring up perhaps 900 yards off & the fire would have to be directed on to that & so on until your allotted time was up when the scores would be signalled back to you, this was what they called fire control, our highest % was 39 that meant that out of every hundred rounds issued to the platoon 39 of them represented hits, our officer was proud of his platoon, & so we were of him for he was a fine fellow, & was badly hit in 3 places on the first day