DIY History | Transcribe | World War I Diaries and Letters | Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, August-December, 1919 | 1919-08-20 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

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Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, August-December, 1919

1919-08-20 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

August 20, 1919
Fort Benning, Columbus, Ga.
Dear Miss Williams: - 
The inspiration is upon me. Uncertain as I am as to whether I've written or received the last letter I must write while the spirit moves me. Not that I have any great gobs of news but just that I want to converse with you.
Since I've seen you I've had a course in the "pound wonder". It's a miniature of the famous French "seventy fives" the secret of which was so carefully guarded and so eagerly sought before the late unpleasantness. This course makes me think that the artillery is "pretty" good arm after all. It's really fun to fire this piece and rather fascinating to figure from a map to find whether or not it is possible to fire over a hill and hit an enemy machine gun nest or pill box; although the gun is primarily for direct fire at a visible target, it being capable of hitting a handkerchief a mile away, it can operate just like its big brothers to put down a barrage at the rate of twenty shots a minute.
Nowadays we spend our time with machine guns. We've progressed to the point where we can go out at night and without lights locate our gun positions on the map get behind cover and compute date so that we can hit a target the map location of which we know. I would have considered that some stunt a few months ago. But the mathematics of it is as simple as an income tax blank. Nothing to it but addition, subtraction, multi-

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August 20, 1919 Fort Benning, Columbus, Ga. Dear Miss Williams: - The inspiration is upon me. Uncertain as I am as to whether I've written or received the last letter I must write while the spirit moves me. Not that I have any great gobs of news but just that I want to converse with you. Since I've seen you I've had a course in the "pound wonder". It's a miniature of the famous French "seventy fives" the secret of which was so carefully guarded and so eagerly sought before the late unpleasantness. This course makes me think that the artillery is "pretty" good arm after all. It's really fun to fire this piece and rather fascinating to figure from a map to find whether or not it is possible to fire over a hill and hit an enemy machine gun nest or pill box; although the gun is primarily for direct fire at a visible target, it being capable of hitting a handkerchief a mile away, it can operate just like its big brothers to put down a barrage at the rate of twenty shots a minute. Nowadays we spend our time with machine guns. We've progressed to the point where we can go out at night and without lights locate our gun positions on the map get behind cover and compute date so that we can hit a target the map location of which we know. I would have considered that some stunt a few months ago. But the mathematics of it is as simple as an income tax blank. Nothing to it but addition, subtraction, multi-