The field guns used by the Royal Field Artillery are shorter in proportion to their calibre than are the big naval guns. Otherwise they would be far too long to handle in the field. They are mounted on carriages drawn by horses, and are so handy that they can go anywhere where infantry can go and can travel just as fast. It takes a very short time to get them ready for action, too, so that they can accompany infantry quite freely, neither arm impeding the movements of the other. The Horse Artillery, again, whose guns are even lighter still, can accompany cavalry, travelling as fast and coming into action almost as quickly as the troopers themselves. The famous French "seventy-fives" (meaning 75 millimetres calibre) which played such a great part in the war, are field guns intended to move rapidly and to operate with infantry. Both these types of gun were used by the British in South Africa, as also were some field howitzers, a type of gun to which further reference will be made later. But the Boers taught the world something new as to the possibilities of moving heavy guns quickly. Perhaps the reason for this was that they, being something of the nature of amateurs in the art of warfare, were less under the influence of tradition. Anyway, they surprised the British by the quick way in which they moved heavy guns, sometimes into quite difficult positions, over rough ground and up steep hills. These heavy guns of theirs were called by the British soldiers "Long Toms." But the British were quick to respond, particularly the ever-resourceful navy. When the war broke out there were, in the neighbourhood of Durban, a number of warships which had as part of their own armament some of those guns which afterwards became famous as "4·7's," that being the diameter of the bore in inches. They were of the long shape usual in naval guns, and it is easy to see that they were much heavier than the field guns of 3 inches or so in diameter. Captain Scott (now Admiral Sir Percy Scott) saw that these would be useful, so he quickly designed some carriages for them, got these made in the railway workshops at Durban, and in a few hours was rushing them up to Ladysmith. It was these guns very largely which enabled that town to hold out for so long, until, in fact, it was triumphantly relieved. Thus the effect of the Boer war was to show that much heavier weapons could be manipulated in the field than had been considered possible before. The Great War which followed but a few years later carried on this same lesson, for one of the great surprises with which the Allies were confronted in the early days of the conflict was the inexplicable fall of fortresses which till then had been deemed almost impregnable. Liége, Namur, Maubeuge and, finally, Antwerp, all fell to a wonderful gun of enormous dimensions which the Austrians had produced from up their sleeve, so to speak. Like conjurers they had kept them secret until the last moment.