Ammunition column

An ammunition column consists of military vehicles carrying artillery and small arms ammunition for the combatant unit to which the column belongs. Thus the ammunition columns of a division, forming part of the brigades of field artillery, carry reserve ammunition for the guns, the machine guns of the infantry and the rifles of all arms. Generally speaking, the ammunition column of each of the artillery brigades furnishes ammunition for its own batteries and for one of the brigades of infantry.

The British Army in World War One

All ammunition columns are officered and manned by the Royal Artillery. They are not reserved exclusively to their brigades, and divisions, but may be called upon to furnish ammunition to any unit requiring it during an action. The officers and men of the R.A. employed with the ammunition column are, as a matter of course, immediately available to replace casualties in the batteries. Teams, wagons and materiel generally are also available for the same purpose.

The horse artillery, howitzer and heavy brigades of artillery have each their own 'Brigade Ammunition Column', organized in much the same way and performing similar duties. The Brigade Ammunition Column of the heavy brigade is divisible into three sections, so that the three batteries, if operating independently, have each a section at hand to replenish the ammunition expended. The horse artillery Brigade Ammunition Columns carry, besides S.A.A. for all corps troops, other than artillery, the reserve of pom-pom ammunition.

In action, the Brigade Ammunition Columns are on the battlefield itself. Some miles to the rear are the Divisional Ammunition Columns and corps troops columns, which on the one hand replenish the empty wagons of the columns in front, and on the other draw fresh supplies from the depots on the line of communication. The Divisional Ammunition Columns also are in artillery charge; a divisional column is detailed to each division (to replenish each set of Brigade Ammunition Columns), and the corps troops column supplies the columns attached to the heavy, howitzer and horse artillery brigades.

The Brigade Ammunition Columns and Divisional Ammunition Columns thus carried ordinarily seven or eight kinds at least. S.A.A., field, horse, howitzer and heavy gun shrapnel, howitzer and heavy gun lyddite shells, cartridges for the four different guns employed and pom-pom cartridges for the cavalry, — in all twelve distinct types of stores would be carried for a complete Army Corps. Consequently, the rounds of each kind in charge of each ammunition column must vary in accordance with the work expected of the combatant unit to which it belongs.

Thus, pom-pom ammunition is out of place in the Brigade Ammunition Columns of field artillery, and S.A.A. is relatively unnecessary in that attached to a heavy artillery brigade. Under these circumstances, a column may be unable to meet the particular wants of troops engaged in the vicinity; for instance, a cavalry regiment would send in vain to a heavy artillery ammunition COLUMN for pom-pom cartridges. The point to be observed in this is that the fewer the natures of weapons used, the more certain is the ammunition supply.^[1]

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Hadcock, Albert George (1911). "Ammunition". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.