The shields made it almost impossible to put the gun out of action unless some vital part of the mechanism was destroyed. The first of the modern carriages which were produced in the early nineties should be classified as semi-rapid carriages, as the recoil brakes were so abrupt that the carriage was not stable and jumped considerably, gaining for the type the sobriquet of “grass-hopper guns.” In 1897 the immortal French “75” was born, the pioneer of all modern quick-firing field guns, which still maintains its superiority in many respects over later designs. In 1902 our own 3-inch field gun was produced and still finds favor among many of our field artillery officers, even over the French “75.” The Deport carriage brought to this country from Italy, in 1912, introduced to us the split trail, high angle of fire, wide traversing type of field gun carriage. This carriage was extensively tested by the Ordnance Department; by the Field Artillery Board at Fort Riley, Kansas; and by the School of Fire for Field Artillery, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The Field Artillery Board unqualifiedly approved of the Deport carriage and recommended that it be adopted. The School of Fire for Field Artillery also approved of this type. In 1916 the United States produced a 75-mm field gun which featured a split trail with an elevation of 57 degrees which permits its use as an anti-aircraft weapon and a variable length of recoil which prevents the breech from hitting the ground at the extreme elevations. It has a traverse of 800 mils in comparison to the 106 of the French 75 and the 142 and 140 of the British 75 and American three-inch field gun. The outbreak of the late war saw all modern armies largely equipped with guns resembling the French “75” in a long-run recoil mechanism, weight of projectile and weight of carriage, etc. The fact that the largest number of horses which could best be handled to maneuver the light guns—about 6—could not pull over a long period a gun or caisson with its limber if the weight was more than about 4500 pounds, resulted in the practical standardization of light guns in all armies. So in 1914 we see that time and development had given light gun perfection and mastery of artillery technique to the French while the Germans, probably, possessed the most efficient artillery program. The German types of weapons were more varied and perhaps better suited to the varying artillery needs in rendering that assistance to the infantry for which the artillery exists. In our service during the World War, French 75s and the 155-mm Howitzer were used as divisional artillery. Two regiments of the light guns and one regiment of 155-Howitzers were assigned to each infantry division. As the war progressed guns and howitzers ranging from the 4.7” rifle, up to, and including 14 and even 16-inch naval guns on railroad mounts, were used as Corps and Army artillery.