Saturday March 16^th, 1918

Very cold, snowing hard.  What changeable weather here. Fired  afternoon for Battalion firing competition. We beat B Coy 2nd, D Coy 1st, A Coy 1st and [C] Coy 2nd.  Thus we go to Brigade Sports for Battalion

Musketry

Once again Frank’s and the Battalion’s diaries are perfectly aligned.  Frank reports the success of his team (presumably B Company’s 1st team) in the Battalion firing competition. (Thanks Charlie for the correct interpretation of Frank’s diary – see Comments.) This victory is underlined in the BWD which states that B and C Companies will represent the Battalion at the Brigade Sports.  I don’t know whether or not Frank knows that the Brigade Sports will be at Rates.  I wonder how he will feel about repeating the very hard marched the Battalion undertook on March 2nd, of which he said he would ‘never forget’.

Musketry Competitions in WWI

During WWI a series of booklets, entitled the ‘Imperial Army Series’ was published to help those in the ‘new Army’.  One of these, ‘Musketry (.303 and .22 cartridges)¹’, drew heavily upon official manuals including ‘Musketry Regulations‘ Parts I and II of 1909 and 1910.  It provided illustrated instructions on all aspects of rifle firing (see image) and had some interesting observations on Musketry Competitions:

‘1. Object of Competitions – …. is to encourage proficiency in service shooting under practical conditions. This object must not be confined to a few champion shots, but must include every man in each fire-unit….

2. General Rules – ……

ii) Programmes should as far as possible embrace all elements of musketry training. Rules for the conduct of competitions should be the same as those for the conduct of range and field practices.

iii) Individual firing competitions beyond 600 yards have little military value.

iv) Targets – bull’s eye targets should as a rule be used in elementary competitions only for young soldiers in the first year of service. Service targets should be used of neutral colours and of visibility approximating to that of the targets seen on service.

v) Scope of Competitions – specializing in any one kind of shooting should be discouraged. Competitions for trained solders should include not less than three different forms of shooting, such as snapshooting², rapid firing, observation, appreciation of fire limits etc., with as much variation of targets and conditions as can be conveniently arranged, according to the facilities available.

vi) Rate of Firing – conditions for soldiers with more than one year of service should never permit of a slower rate than three rounds a minute for a series of shots, exclusive of the time taken for signalling.’¹

It would be interesting to know whether or not the firing competition in which Frank participated abided by these instructions.

13^th  (Service) Battalion War Diary – 16^th March 1918 – No 1 Sector, Olasli

Training as per programme. No 6 Platoon beat No 15 Platoon by 2 goals to 0 in the Final of the Inter-Platoon Knockout Football Competition. B Coys No 1 team and C Coys No 1 team will represent the Battalion in the Musketry Competition at Brigade Sports.

References & Further Reading

¹  ‘Musketry (.303 & .22 cartridges)‘ of the ‘Imperial Army Series’, 1915, pages 201-202

* as above, page 75

² snapshooting – firing an effective shot in the shortest possible time.