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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The training of an infantry company,

-by Edward Kirkpatrick

-

-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and

-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions

-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms

-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at

-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you

-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before

-using this eBook.

-

-Title: The training of an infantry company

-

-Author: Edward Kirkpatrick

-

-Release Date: February 3, 2023 [eBook #69943]

-

-Language: English

-

-Produced by: Brian Coe, Bob Taylor and the Online Distributed

-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was

-             produced from images generously made available by The

-             Internet Archive)

-

-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINING OF AN INFANTRY

-COMPANY ***

-

-

-

-

-

-  Transcriber’s Note

-  Italic text displayed as: _italic_

-  Bold text displayed as: =bold=

-

-

-

-

-                            THE TRAINING

-

-                                OF AN

-

-                          INFANTRY COMPANY.

-

-

-

-

-                     =CATECHISM ON FIELD TRAINING=

-

-                             (=INFANTRY=).

-

-

-A series of Questions and Answers on all subjects of field training,

-extracted from the latest official TRAINING MANUALS, together

-with miscellaneous information, practical exercises and examples

-progressively arranged.

-

-                 _Revised and brought up to date by_

-

-                     =COL. H. O’DONNELL, p.s.c.=

-                     (WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT).

-                          _SIXTH EDITION._

-

-

-                              CONTENTS.

-

-Elementary—General Principles of Attack and Defence—Miscellaneous

-Tactical Operations—Warfare in uncivilised Countries—Protection

-on the Line of March—Protection when at Rest—Methods of obtaining

-Information—Quarters, Camps, and Bivouacs—Field Engineering—Diary of

-Training.

-

-      _Fully illustrated with 30 pages of Plates and Diagrams._

-

-

-                 =One of the numerous Press Opinions.=

-

-  “The book is most comprehensive, for every branch of the soldier’s

-  life is touched upon, and every situation or emergency seems to be

-  anticipated. Colonel O’Donnell’s publication is quite a military

-  encyclopædia.”—_Empress_, Calcutta.

-

-

-                           =PRICE 3/- NET.=

-

-                _From the Printers and Publishers_,

-                        GALE & POLDEN LTD.,

-                    WELLINGTON WORKS, ALDERSHOT,

-                    And at London and Portsmouth.

-

-

-

-

-                          = _The_ TRAINING=

-

-                                OF AN

-

-                          =INFANTRY COMPANY=

-

-

-                                _By_

-

-                     Major E. KIRKPATRICK, I.A.

-

-                            —————:O:—————

-

-

-                            2ND EDITION.

-

-

-                   _London_: GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,

-

-                2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

-

-                     Nelson House, PORTSMOUTH &

-                    Wellington Works, ALDERSHOT.

-                  Obtainable from all Booksellers.

-

-                 _TWO SHILLINGS & SIXPENCE_ (_Net_)

-

-                  (_Copyright under Act of 1911._)

-

-

-

-

-                             ALDERSHOT:

-

-                   PRINTED BY GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,

-                          WELLINGTON WORKS.

-

-                                1914

-

-

-

-

-                               PREFACE

-

-

-This booklet has not been written for the use and benefit of officers

-and non-commissioned officers of long experience and proved skill

-in the profession of training men for battle. To such as these it

-may only provide an object of criticism, for in the course of years

-spent in turning recruits into trained soldiers they will have

-formulated to themselves, and adopted, some system of training which

-they found productive of the best results under their own guidance.

-But there are many at present, and at a future time, should certain

-circumstances arise in the life of the nation, there may be very many

-more who may not have such stores of experience to draw on, and yet

-may be faced with the problem of rapidly converting an untrained or

-only partially trained body of men into a force capable of acting

-successfully in real war, both in attack and defence against trained

-and disciplined troops. Again, it is written, not for officers

-commanding battalions, nor for officers of cavalry and artillery,

-but only for officers commanding companies or other similar units

-of infantry, though it may, perhaps, be of use in training mounted

-troops for dismounted action.

-

-Meantime, while the pipes of peace are still smoking, it is hoped it

-may be of some use to officers and non-commissioned officers when the

-time comes to prepare schemes of company training and put them into

-execution.

-

-                                                                E. K.

-

-  _September, 1913._

-

-

-                     PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

-

-Since the above was written, the issue of new or amended Manuals

-of Training has necessitated a revision of the book, which is now

-presented in a form agreeable to the four-company organisation.

-

-The Empire is now confronted by those circumstances to which allusion

-was made in the Preface.

-

-                                                                E. K.

-

-  _September, 1914._

-

-

-

-

-                              CONTENTS

-

-

-                                                                 PAGE

-

-  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS                                            ix

-

-  INTRODUCTORY REMARKS—

-

-       I.—The Intention of the Book                                 1

-

-      II.—Making the Best of their Companies

-            to Train the Modern

-            Man for the Modern Battle                               4

-

-     III.—The Standard of Training

-            assumed to have already

-            been acquired and its application

-            to further Exercises                                    9

-

-      IV.—Ground for Training—Its Use

-            and Influence—Palliation of

-            the Lack of a Training

-            Ground                                                 11

-

-       V.—Company Organisation—Moral

-            and the Personality

-            of the Commander                                       16

-

-      VI.—Discipline—Moral and Means

-            of Supervision                                         22

-

-     VII.—Organisation by Files and its

-            Effect on Moral—Cohesion                               27

-

-    VIII.—Method of Training                                       31

-

-      IX.—As to Scouts and Working

-            Dress                                                  37

-

-

-                              EXERCISES

-

-       I.—Individual Advance in Extended

-            Order                                                  38

-

-      II.—Retirement by Pairs                                      48

-

-     III.—Individual Training in Use of

-            Fire and Fire Discipline                               52

-

-      IV.—The Assault                                              60

-

-       V.—The Section and Platoon in

-            Attack                                                 64

-

-      VI.—The Section and Platoon in

-            Retirement                                             74

-

-     VII.—The Section and Platoon in

-            Independent Attack                                     78

-

-    VIII.—The Platoon as Advanced and

-            Flank Guard                                            84

-

-      IX.—Preliminary for the Attack by

-            the Company in Battalion                               89

-

-       X.—The Company in Attack with

-            the Battalion under Artillery

-            Fire                                                   93

-

-      XI.—The Company in Attack with

-            the Battalion under Rifle

-            Fire                                                   97

-

-     XII.—The Company in Attack Acting

-            Alone                                                 105

-

-    XIII.—The Company in Retirement                               107

-

-     XIV.—Outposts                                                112

-

-      XV.—Defence                                                 142

-

-     XVI.—Hasty Expedients                                        163

-

-    XVII.—Night Operations                                        171

-

-                                ————

-

-  A SCHEME OF COMPANY TRAINING                                    181

-

-

-  REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS.

-

-  I.T., 128 (3)    =    Infantry Training, 1914,

-                          Section 128, para. 3.

-

-  F.S.R.           =    Field Service Regulations,

-                          Part I. Operations, 1909

-                          (Reprint 1912).

-

-  T. & M.R.        =    Training and Manœuvre

-                          Regulations, 1913.

-

-  M.F.E.           =    Manual of Field Engineering,

-                          1911.

-

-

-

-

-                        A FEW PRESS OPINIONS.

-

-

-                     “UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.”

-

-Major E. Kirkpatrick is the author of a small book on “The Training

-of an Infantry Company.” There have been so many books and pamphlets

-of this kind—short cuts to knowledge—that one is apt to regard

-each fresh one with suspicion and even with aversion, but Major

-Kirkpatrick has much that is helpful to say, he says it well, and

-he shows how much good work may be done even in the training of the

-emasculated companies such as our military system so often leaves us.

-His instructions cover a wide field, and there must be few company

-officers who will not be grateful to the author for many valuable

-hints.

-

-

-               “UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION OF INDIA.”

-

-There are few junior officers of infantry who will not benefit by a

-study of this book. The thorough system of training elaborated in the

-seventeen exercises, which form the major portion of the book, is

-worthy of the attention of Regular as well as Territorial Officers.

-

-These elementary exercises deal with the essentials in the war

-training of the Infantry soldier, from the work of the individual

-in advance and retirement, and of the section in action and on

-protection duties, to the training of the company in attack and

-defence, and outpost.

-

-As an example of a system of training illustrating the necessity of

-attention to detail in the early instruction of the soldier, this

-series of exercises is valuable, and their value is increased by the

-constant reference to training manuals. The author wisely recommends

-the study of all the official books referred to as he recognises

-that his exercises and comments are only of value in so far as they

-illustrate and explain the principles laid down in training manuals.

-

-

-

-

-                            THE TRAINING

-

-                                OF AN

-

-                          INFANTRY COMPANY.

-

-

-

-

-                        INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

-

-

-The authorised handbooks of training rightly confine themselves to

-broad principles, and do not attempt to give detailed examples of

-their application, the idea being that officers should study these

-regulations and apply the principles by the light of local conditions

-and their own experience. Infantry Training and the Field Service

-Regulations are, however, very pregnant little books, containing,

-as they do, a summary of the whole of Modern Tactics, as far as

-they concern infantry and the combined action of all arms. Time

-and thought are necessary, if the principles contained in them are

-to be translated into such intelligent action that the men trained

-on the lines laid down may be capable of doing their duty in real

-warfare, without first undergoing a bitter and costly schooling of

-useless casualties or, perhaps, even of defeat. But if an officer

-is called on to achieve this result, being himself without much

-previous experience in training, he will find himself faced with a

-task of great difficulty, and, with the best intentions, he may waste

-precious time, as well as his own and his men’s patience and energy,

-in doing parades and exercises, which are either not indispensable,

-or of minor importance for the main object. As an extreme example,

-it would be better, in a hastily raised corps, to combine the

-disciplinary training of obedience to the word of command, with

-instruction in the use of their arms, by practice in smart work in

-aiming and firing, than merely to study precision in “sloping” and

-“presenting arms,” which look well, but do not immediately affect

-fighting efficiency.

-

-For these reasons, it has occurred to me that I might do some of my

-brother officers _in esse_ or _in posse_ a service by setting out

-certain elementary exercises in training infantry soldiers, which

-I have found of value in bringing them up to a standard of battle

-training sufficiently high to need only battalion training and a

-baptism of fire to turn them into steady and reliable troops. It is

-not contended that these few examples are anything but concrete

-instances of the application of the principles of the Training

-Manuals. They are intended, as has been stated, merely for those

-who are short of time and experience, and, therefore, references to

-the manuals are given when the exercise illustrates some particular

-section of those works, and it is recommended that officers who

-intend to use these examples should look up and read the sections

-referred to before going on to the parade.

-

-Though this book is not meant for officers commanding battalions,

-I have one word to say to them, and it is this, that if they wish

-to have an efficient battalion they must let the company officers

-have proper opportunities of training their companies, apart from

-the time of company training, when the whole company is struck off

-duty. If there are six parades a week, let three or four of them be

-company parades, ordered and carried out by the company commanders;

-the balance will be quite enough to secure combination between the

-companies in battalion. On company parades, the battalion commander

-should supervise, but never interfere, unless things are being

-manifestly mismanaged. (See T. & M.R., 2 (2 and 3)). The days of

-the one man battalion are gone for ever. The company is the thing

-that matters; a good battalion can only be composed of well-trained

-companies. It is the work of the battalion commander to propound

-the general lines of training and to use the companies to the best

-advantage in combination, but the training of the individual soldier

-must be in the hands of the man who is to lead him in war.

-

-

-                                 II.

-

-On ordinary parades, the captain of an infantry company is seldom

-able to get together more than a fraction of his men. The calls on

-the company for men for duties and odd jobs, leave and furlough,

-and, in the Territorial Force, the private occupations of the men,

-allow of only a few being assembled on any one parade. This being

-so, there is a temptation—sometimes yielded to by officers who have

-not much experience, to say to themselves: “This is rot; what can

-I do without any men?” Such a question is the result of confusing

-the individual instruction of the men with the tactical practice of

-the leader in handling his company as a whole. The answer too often

-takes the form of an hour’s close order drill or something similar,

-which may do some good, but not nearly as much as if the officer

-stoutly made up his mind to make the best of a bad job and took out

-those few men and did some practical training in field operations.

-The fewer men there are on parade, the more individual attention

-will the company commander be able to give them. He will be able

-to look at each man’s work more carefully, talk to the men and get

-to know their characters as soldiers, spot who are likely to make

-good non-commissioned officers, and coach them far more than if the

-whole company were on hand at once. So do not turn up your nose at a

-company only twenty strong, but make up a scheme of exercises to be

-gone through, and, since the men who are not on parade to-day will be

-so to-morrow, arrange to do the same exercise on two, or, if needed,

-three, consecutive days, so as to catch all, or, at least, most of

-the men, and your non-commissioned officers, who are not usually so

-drawn on for off-parade duties, will become well acquainted with each

-exercise, learn what to do and how to run things, and so become both

-a help to you as instructors, and themselves gain authority and power

-of command from the knowledge of their own competency.

-

-It is quite likely that these exercises and the explanations given,

-may seem to some readers to be absurdly simple and needlessly

-long-winded, while there is also a good deal of repetition. To this

-I will make early reply that they are written for officers who are

-not too proud to accept other people’s advice in training a company

-of young soldiers of the stamp which would be forthcoming if some

-cause[1] or other tempted or constrained into military service that

-great proportion of our male population who are at present quite

-ignorant of a soldier’s work, and who, from apathy, or a hundred

-other causes, do not join the Territorial Force. Such men probably

-have never in their lives given a thought to soldiering. The majority

-of them are town born and bred, and have passed most of their lives

-among bricks and mortar. If they have ever looked carefully at the

-large or small features of a bit of country, it has been from an

-industrial, sporting, or, perhaps, sentimental, but never from a

-tactical, point of view. They have everything to learn in making use

-of ground for fighting. Their ideas of using modern arms are equally

-crude; the primitive fighting instinct will be uppermost in their

-minds, and would express itself in an incontinent desire to get to

-close quarters with their enemy, when bayonet, butt or hand grips

-would seem the proper way to settle the matter. A very laudable

-desire it is—this of wanting to close in—and one to be encouraged by

-every means, but however brave troops may be, they cannot in general

-indulge their desire to attain close quarters and the resulting

-facilities of fighting by the light of their natural instincts unless

-they have first been successful in the fire fight—the strife of the

-arms of artifice—which is waged by bullet and shell at distances

-which Nature never contemplated.

-

-It is the artificiality of the fire fight which makes the task of

-turning town-bred men into skilful soldiers such a difficult and

-lengthy process. They must be led to look at ground in relation to

-its capabilities of increasing the effectiveness of their own fire

-and also of diminishing the result of that of the enemy, i.e., they

-must learn to select good fire positions and good cover. The problem

-of finding the latter for himself against a civilized foe begins, for

-the individual soldier, as soon as the enemy’s rifle fire becomes

-effective and compels the use by his side of extended order; this

-is held to be on open ground about fourteen hundred yards from the

-enemy’s infantry (I.T., 118 (4)). Prior to this the responsibility

-for cover rests with his leaders, as he will then be in some close

-formation. Fire positions he must choose for himself as soon as

-his section commander ceases to be able to indicate his wishes, or

-to secure combined action by the whole unit. This will probably

-happen at about six hundred yards from the enemy, when individual

-fire is expected to replace controlled fire by sections. These two

-aspects of fighting—the use of ground, and the use of the rifle as a

-far-reaching weapon of almost absolute precision, if truly sighted

-and aimed—are foreign to our instincts, and the average man has to

-be trained till he is able to override his instinct and fight an

-artificial war, so as to work his way to charging distance. Some men

-need less training than others; a stalker in a deer forest is an

-adept in the use of cover, and in general, country-bred men should

-be easier to train than town-bred, but the majority of our men

-being the latter, we must lay ourselves out to teach them from the

-beginning this business of the fire fight, since success in this is

-usually necessary before the assault can succeed (I.T., 121 (7)).

-This can only be done by training them in extended order and putting

-them through various exercises chosen for the purpose. Any exercise

-which does not in some way tend to fit men for battle is mere waste

-of time; aimless perambulations of an extended line fall under this

-category, but are quite often to be seen on parade grounds. No amount

-of smartness in close order drill will compensate for a deficiency of

-field training.

-

-

-                                III.

-

-The exercises which I have drawn up, simple though they are, are of

-the nature of “Instructional Operations,” as defined by T. & M.R.,

-40 (12), and it is presupposed that the men have received, or are

-in course of receiving, sufficient instruction in the use of the

-rifle (musketry in all its branches), and of the bayonet (bayonet

-fighting), in drill in close order, and the drill grounding of

-extended order work, including signals (I.T., 90-96). We are then to

-consider ourselves to be at the stage in which the soldier is to be

-taught to work over broken country as directed in the latter part

-of para. 90, above quoted. But do not think the lessons learned at

-musketry instruction are to be forgotten and left behind by the men

-when they begin to work in extended order across country. Demand

-from your men that the rifle shall be deadly, and, by unceasing

-supervision, breed a habit among them of aiming and firing in

-extended order, whether with or without blank cartridge, with the

-same exactitude as when firing their course of musketry on the range.

-Take the high standard—a hundred men’s lives in one man’s bandolier,

-instead of a hundred bandoliers for one man’s life. The higher

-standard of the two is at least possible, though not common, but why

-not try and work towards it, so that when bullets are flying within

-decisive range of the enemy, it will be your men’s fire, that is the

-deadly close-hitting kind, that makes afraid, and not the haphazard

-jet of bullets whose inefficacy lets unhurt familiarity breed

-tolerant contempt?

-

-In the same way, when men are in close order at any time during a

-field parade, keep up the same smartness, and quick obedience to

-orders which are exacted in close order drills, in order that the

-men may become truly disciplined, and not merely so in appearance,

-so when they come under fire without being extended, as may happen

-in the early and distant stages of a fight, they will, as a matter

-of course, submit themselves to their commander’s wishes, and ignore

-their own inclinations, which, just at the first experience, even

-with very brave men, might be for an immediate and independent rush

-in some direction—perhaps forward, perhaps in another direction—they

-will be “in hand,” and free of the liability of raw troops to suffer

-from sudden panic or to become a mob, full of fight, perhaps, but

-still a mob, and as such, a force which cannot be controlled or used

-in furtherance of any general plan.

-

-

-                                 IV.

-

-The want of a suitable and accessible bit of ground on which to train

-our men is one of the chief difficulties we have to meet in the

-United Kingdom, and, of course, it is greatest in the case of town

-corps, varying with the size of towns, while in large cities ground

-is not to be had at all, save at a distance of several miles from the

-men’s dwelling places. Unfortunately, there is little doubt that the

-possession or lack of suitable training grounds has a great effect

-on the readiness, or otherwise, of troops to give a good account of

-themselves when they come under fire for the first time in their

-lives. The lack of it takes away reality from the work of the men

-in the ranks and cramps the initiative of their officers, who are

-given no opportunity to exercise their wits in figuring out practical

-situations which might occur on service.

-

-I can give no recipe for obtaining the use of ground, but from what

-I have just said I hope it is clear that the officer commanding a

-battalion or company should use every blandishment or art of which he

-is capable to get the use of a stretch of ground, and also, if it is

-at a distance, and the attendance of the men at parades voluntary,

-he should try to provide facilities for getting them to and from the

-ground. The worst bit of country is better than the barrack square.

-

-The ideal ground is that which gives conditions suited to each phase

-of the training, the principal requirements being fire positions

-and cover, and these should occur so as to provide illustrations

-of the use to be made of them in individual training, and in the

-collective training of sections, platoons, and the larger units.

-Thus, for training individual men, good ground would be that with

-an irregular surface, giving many places twenty to fifty yards

-apart, which each man could use in firing and taking cover. The

-usual seaside golf course of hummocks, furze bushes, and occasional

-watercourses, is good to teach individual men over—I say teach,

-for we must not imagine that an enemy will be so kind as to leave

-easy ground like that in his front, if he can help it. For section

-or platoon training, the surface should be similar, so that the

-individuals should still be called on to look out for their own

-halting places, but, in addition, there should be a certain number

-of small features, hillocks, banks, and so on, one to four hundred

-yards apart, which will serve as fire positions and cover for the

-whole unit, and provide the commanders with successive objectives,

-to which it will be their duty to bring their men in good order,

-and without needless exposure to the enemy’s fire. When the company

-is training together, the ground should be similar, but of greater

-extent, both broader and larger, so that sections and platoons may be

-practised in supporting each other, some being halted in these fire

-positions, and covering by their fire the movements of the others who

-are in process of gaining fresh vantage points. And so on for larger

-units and the combined action of all arms; good ground for early

-instruction is that whose features, from their nature and distance

-from each other, lend themselves to illustrate conditions under which

-the power of each unit and arm may be most profitably employed in

-conjunction with others. Troops trained over ground that gives the

-above advantages will acquire an eye for country. A knowledge of the

-uses to be made of ground will be common to all ranks, so that when

-they find themselves fighting on bad ground, which does not give much

-cover or good fire positions, they will be the more apt to search for

-such cover and fire positions as are obtainable, while troops trained

-on flat and open ground would be much slower in making the best of

-a bad job. We are not concerned with anything more than a company;

-therefore, get for your own use, if you can manage it—failing help

-from higher powers—a bit of ground of some sort, golf course, common,

-city park, or what not. It need not be very extensive. Even if it

-gives only three or four positions suitable for occupation by a

-section working in conjunction with another, say, six hundred by

-three hundred yards, it will give room for useful instruction; but,

-of course, a larger extent is preferable, as giving room for more

-extended and varied exercises. If your training ground is of limited

-extent, it should, nevertheless, if possible, have a wide field of

-view on all sides beyond its own confines, and leave you the right

-to send a few men to take positions on the adjoining country, even

-if not allowed to manœuvre about it, so that when carrying out your

-exercises you may be able to use men with blank cartridge to act as

-a skeleton enemy, when such is needed. But if you are not allowed

-to send men on to the neighbouring ground, the wide field of view

-will still enable you to indicate certain distant positions as

-_supposed_ to be held by the enemy. By this means you will be able

-to use the whole area of your permissible ground to represent a bit

-of the battlefield, and escape having to place the supposed enemy

-absurdly close to your manœuvring troops, e.g., at the edge of the

-training ground, or in some other position which makes heavy calls

-on the imagination. Britishers are not imaginative. Lastly, if all

-else fails, and you have nowhere to go except the flat parade ground,

-or even the drill hall, which in large towns is often very spacious,

-do not, I beg you, become discouraged and throw up all effort to get

-your men ready for field work. Do the exercises on the flat, limiting

-the extent of movements, if there is little room, and use flags or

-anything else to represent fire positions for sections and platoons,

-and let the men kneel or lie down between advances, if there is no

-cover. A great deal may be done in this way to lay a good foundation

-for extended order work. Your men will know the mechanism of it, and

-you will save much time when you do manage to have them out on a

-proper training ground. I.T., 107 (2), requires company commanders,

-in preparing their schemes of training, to have regard to the ground

-at their disposal; do so, therefore, even if the ground aforesaid

-is only a parade ground, and make the most of it; it is better than

-sitting still and either doing nothing, or only a weary round of

-company drill in close order. Of course, you must let the men know

-what you are driving at, or they will get bored and lose interest.

-

-

-                                 V.

-

-Having got a company of men and ground to train them on, the first

-step is to organise that company for its battle training. A company

-is organised into four platoons, each under a subaltern, with a

-sergeant as his second-in-command (platoon sergeant). Each platoon

-has four sections, and the sixteen sections of the company are

-numbered one to sixteen. The men of each of the above units remain

-permanently in that unit. _If possible_, maintain this organisation

-on duties and fatigues, though this is often a counsel of perfection,

-but quarter the men together, and insist on the maintenance of the

-organisation, _without deviation_, on parades. Have lists made up of

-the men of each platoon and section, and let men who so wish, belong

-to the same unit. Once these lists are made up, see to it by means of

-the section commanders that these men fall in on parade together in

-the place in the company where their section is standing, no matter

-how few there are; if there are but two men of one section on parade,

-they should fall in as front and rear rank men of one file. Avoid

-disseminating the men of a platoon or section among other units in

-order to raise the latter to a sizeable strength. Instead of this:

-supposing you have three weak platoons and one strong one on parade;

-of the four sections of one of the weak platoons, send two to each of

-the other two weak platoons. This will give you three platoons of,

-perhaps, unequal strength, but sufficient for work—and this without

-taking the responsibility of section commanders off their shoulders,

-and the cohesion of each unit is preserved. Some further suggestions

-on the subject of organisation will be put forward when speaking of

-_moral_.

-

-The officer who aspires to develop whatever capabilities his men

-possess of becoming individually and collectively formidable

-in battle, must pay attention to much more than mere physical

-considerations. Napoleon’s dictum, that the moral is to the physical

-as three to one is early dinned into the ears of the officer of

-Regulars, but may stand repetition in pages meant for the perusal

-of others. No officer can expect to get the most out of his men

-unless he directs his attention to the study of the psychical side

-of the training. There are two fields in which the study must be

-pursued. One is the officer’s own personality, the other that of

-his non-commissioned officers and men. T. & M.R., 8, deals with the

-former, and should be read and pondered over.

-

-In battle good men have sometimes achieved victory in spite of the

-shortcomings of their officers, but good officers, as well as men,

-are necessary for consistent success in the series of battles which

-make a campaign. Now, good officers, given time for training, will

-infallibly produce good men, provided the latter are of the average

-physique and courage. Therefore, study thyself, and try to see

-what you lack, in order to become a good officer. Cultivate your

-skill in handling your men by reading any books you can get; there

-are, unfortunately, not very many that deal with the work of such

-small units as companies or even single battalions. Go out into the

-country, or, if you have not time, recall to yourself some bit of

-country you know, and import an enemy into the landscape. Perhaps a

-few riflemen are holding ground on the flank of a road along which

-your battalion wants to march, but cannot, without undue loss, until

-these riflemen are driven off; and your commanding officer tells

-you to do the driving. In imagination, or on the ground, decide

-what position you would hold, if you were the enemy, in order to

-make yourself as nasty as possible—though having no hope of being

-reinforced—to the battalion trying to come along the road. Then

-settle in your mind what you, as commanding your company, would do to

-get rid of the annoyance. Be quite clear, what would you do? Go at

-them bald-headed? There are times and enemies when this is the best

-way; you would have to be fairly close, and the enemy not shooting

-very straight, and rather careful of his skin; or will you march a

-long way round till the enemy sees you are getting behind him, and so

-manœuvre him out? Then your battalion will be a long time waiting.

-Or will you look at the ground and find, let us suppose, a spot to

-which you will send a section or platoon to open a fire on the enemy,

-while another works its way to a point you have noted from which

-fire can be brought to sweep crossways a little knoll, or some such

-supposititious feature which seems to form the enemy’s left flank,

-and to be occupied by ten or twelve men, and which gives command

-over the rest of his position? Then, while the second lot is on its

-way, you plan to lead the remainder a little way round, under cover,

-in order to get to fairly close range of the knoll, so that when the

-second party opens fire on it, and its defenders are hampered both

-by this fire and by that of those you first posted, you may surprise

-them by an outburst of fire from your reserve, and either drive

-them off their perch by cross-fire from three directions, or, if

-they do not shift, run in at them with the bayonet, trusting to get

-across the intervening space at the cost of a few casualties, when

-your superior numbers at that point should ensure your success even

-if they actually await the bayonet. Learn to consider quickly how

-many ways there are of doing such a job as the above, and to decide

-quickly and rationally which is the best.

-

-These schemes, involving only a company or two, will not be presented

-for your solution by your battalion commander; you must set them

-yourself, and their solution, and the thinking necessary thereto

-are the best methods an officer can get of training himself without

-having his men on the ground. In your mind’s eye, put your company

-into every situation you can think of, and get it out again, and you

-will have acquired an enormous reserve of capacity for acting quickly

-and rightly when your men and your enemy are both on the ground. But

-beware of dealing in too short distances, or you may produce unreal

-pictures of war. Do not imagine manœuvres at four hundred yards from

-the enemy when every man exposed would be hit in a few minutes. The

-clearness and decision of thought you acquire will be reflected in

-the orders you give. Your men will give you their confidence when

-they see, as they are quick to do, that you know your job. There

-is nothing more disheartening for a subordinate, be he private or

-colonel, than to feel he is under control of a duffer, whose mistakes

-he will have to correct. This feeling saps discipline, and quickly

-destroys the fighting value of a body of men. In peace training, the

-men become sulky at being “bothered about,” lose interest in their

-work, and wish themselves done with parade. In war, their personal

-characters usurp the control of their actions, and they become a mob

-in uniform.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-But in addition to possessing the confidence of the men in your

-tactical ability, you should seek all other means to increase your

-influence over them. Gain their respect in other ways, by honesty

-of purpose, by example, tact, devotion to duty, and so on. Gain

-their goodwill by watching over their individual and collective

-interests, though in this you must play to the gallery sufficiently

-to let them identify you as the source of benefits received. Keep

-an even temper, and do not show anger without good cause. Personal

-attachment to their officer shows itself most when men’s powers are

-taxed by hardship, fatigue, and danger; it is then a great auxiliary

-in maintaining discipline among the mass.

-

-

-                                 VI.

-

-As regards the _moral_ of the men, I.T., 1 (4 to 10) must be referred

-to. You _must_ introduce discipline—the habit of subordinating

-personal inclination to the orders of the superior promptly and

-without cavil. If your men are raw, you have to go slow just at first

-till they all know what is expected of them. Let them understand that

-orders are not given haphazard, but are invariably based on some good

-reason, which, being so, there is no need for reasons to be always

-stated, nor for recipients of orders to feel unhappy for want of

-them. If you can induce a feeling among the men that slackness on

-parade, slowness in obeying orders, and so on, are bad form, and

-tend to disgrace the company, you will do well, and this good spirit

-will enable you to enforce discipline without having recourse to

-punishment, if you are vested with the power of inflicting it.

-

-I have already said that when in close order during tactical

-exercises, you should maintain discipline in the ranks. I now go

-further and say that you should maintain it when the men are extended

-or detached from the company singly or in small groups. Evidently

-the discipline here needed is something more than mere mechanical

-obedience. What it is, is to be found in T. & M.R., 39 (4), and

-F.S.R. 12 (13), and I.T., 116 and 117. Make the men understand that

-when they are extended they must obey their unit commander’s orders

-and signals as to fire and movement at once, and without hesitation,

-and must be always on the look-out for them. Allow no talking, except

-what relates to the business in hand, such as passing of orders or

-information, results of fire, and so on. Hold the men responsible

-that if they are out of reach of the control of their leader, it is

-their duty to carry out the spirit of the orders under which they

-set out. To bring their responsibility home to them, you must make a

-point of calling men occasionally to give an account of what they

-did when detached, and why they did it, so that they may pause for a

-moment if they are of the sort that take advantage of opportunity to

-sit behind a hedge and smoke a cigarette when they ought to be up and

-doing.

-

-Here you will naturally say that this is all very well, but how is

-one to look after men scattered here and there over several hundred

-yards of rough country? Here come in the non-commissioned officers,

-of whom, so far, no mention has been made, and also your subaltern

-officers. Since success in battle will depend largely on the

-efficiency of fire unit commanders, and the normal fire unit is the

-section (I.T., 6 (4)), it is evident that the section commander is a

-very responsible person, and much must be expected from him.

-

-Your subalterns and platoon sergeants you must use as your delegates

-in supervising and leading the platoons to which they belong, except

-when they are needed to act specifically as platoon commanders,

-keeping themselves constantly on the move among the men, looking

-at the details of the work, sighting of rifles, aiming, use of

-cover, choice of lines of movement, not lying down themselves nor

-participating in the operation as combatants. When you wish to give

-them practice in setting exercises themselves, turn the whole company

-over to one of them and act yourself as critic, or act as subaltern

-under his orders. This is one means of supervision.

-

-The next is your non-commissioned officers. They are in direct

-command, and you must hold them responsible for their sections,

-but when their units are acting in conjunction with others, it is

-evident they cannot act both as commanders and instructors unless

-certain concessions are made, for if the non-commissioned officers

-as well as the men of a section were to act as they would have to do

-under real fire, each non-commissioned officer might be able only to

-supervise a man or two on his right and left, the rest being too far

-off. Therefore, at the beginning of an exercise, you should tell the

-non-commissioned officers whether, in addition to giving executive

-commands, they are to be at liberty to move about freely and act as

-instructors also. Needless to say, in instructional exercises, and

-until the men are quite seasoned, you should let them do this, but,

-on the other hand, in exercises meant to illustrate actual conflict

-and the limitations imposed by the presence of an enemy, they should

-pay attention to those limitations so that they, as well as the

-men, may be prepared to endure the disabilities imposed by Service

-conditions.

-

-Next comes yourself. Once you have given your subordinates your

-orders for any exercise, leave them to carry it through, and make

-yourself as ubiquitous as may be in supervision. Keep criticism for

-the end, and interference only for the prevention of absurdities. To

-make yourself ubiquitous, the best way is to use your horse, and make

-the noble animal do the running about with you on his back. You can

-then get through about six times what you can on your own feet, by

-cantering from one section to another, and you get a better view of

-the whole performance, but you must remember when correcting anything

-the men are doing that you are mounted, while they are probably

-kneeling or lying, and much that you see is invisible to them. Equip

-yourself with a pair of field glasses, and also with a megaphone,

-which latter should be about fourteen inches long, and carried by a

-strap over the shoulder, the strap punched so as to be capable of

-being made long or buckled up close under the arm, according as you

-need to use the megaphone, or wish to get it out of your way. Use

-your glasses to look at what sections and individual men in them are

-doing. They will reveal to you small mistakes that escape notice at

-some distance with the unaided eye. The megaphone saves you a lot of

-small excursions to get to earshot of men, and also a lot of shouting

-at a distance, which is fatiguing, and is apt to lead to exacerbation

-of tempers, both of the shouter and the listener. Moreover, it

-enables you to hear as well as speak from a distance. This is done

-simply by holding it aimed at the other man with your ear instead of

-your mouth at the mouthpiece. Use your whistle to call attention to

-orders or signals, carry it in your hand, not in your pocket, and

-put a loop in the cord and pass the loop over your middle finger,

-or you will be always dropping it. Instead of a cane, carry a small

-semaphore flag, and give your signals with it. This saves a good deal

-of arm-waving, and tends to smarten up movement, as it is more easily

-seen than the arm. By bringing all these aids into your service,

-you will find that you can make your influence felt, although the

-sections are separated by the greatest distances which they are ever

-likely to be called on to take up in battle.

-

-

-                                VII.

-

-Besides discipline, there are certain other moral influences which

-give strength to an Army. These are indicated in I.T., 1 (4 and 5).

-The two mighty forces of religion and patriotism are not treated

-of here, as they have their roots not in any system of training,

-but in the upbringing of the youth of the nation, but there is one

-force which you, as a humble commander, can call into play, and that

-is shame—the dread of losing the respect of oneself and of one’s

-comrades. During peace training you may make men dread the public

-shame of misbehaviour by the aid of those means of supervision which

-I have suggested, but in war the power to supervise is greatly

-curtailed, and it is very desirable to find something to replace it,

-and, at the same time, to supplement a too absolute reliance on the

-stoutness of men’s hearts, for this may prove a broken reed when the

-troops are largely composed of unseasoned soldiers.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-To a certain extent, the organisation of the company into permanent

-sections provides us with the substitute we desire, as the men of

-sections are likely to be cognisant of how their comrades behave

-when out of view of the rest of the company as long as the whole

-of the men of the section are in view of each other; but this will

-not always be the case: for example, in wood fighting or in house

-fighting, both of which would assuredly occur if our men have to

-fight in Europe. In such fighting everything comes down to the

-pushfulness of the individual soldiers, for even sections will lose

-their leaders. Therefore let us carry the principle of the company

-organisation logically one step further, and make the men of a file

-as they fall in on parade in the section act in conjunction for the

-remainder of that parade. This arrangement is recognised in the last

-edition of the Musketry Regulations, and has, at various times, been

-adopted in former drill books of our Army, and has given excellent

-results, while, if the present book does not prescribe it, at least

-it countenances it (I.T., 123 (12)), and I strongly recommend your

-introducing it into your company. It is likely to produce emulation

-in the fire fight among men whose hearts are in the right place, and

-in the assault it must produce the advantages of combination, for two

-men coming on with the bayonet in conjunction are far more likely to

-do someone an injury than if they each came on independently, since

-in the latter case a cool and skilful antagonist might dispose of one

-and then the other, even as the Japanese are said to have stepped

-aside when charged by the Russians, who, running forward blindly and

-head down, fell an easy prey to their alert little enemies, and were

-bayoneted in succession as they arrived. The proof of this pudding is

-the eating thereof, and if your company ever happens to be alongside

-a company told off daily into haphazard sections, as is sometimes

-done, in spite of rules, you will then see the difference, even if it

-is only at manœuvres. In close order they may still look alike, but

-let them be extended in rough country, and you will see that yours

-is the blade of steel; the particles of its metal are coherent; it

-will bend, but not break. The other is of wrought iron, polished on

-the surface but of brittle material, and sure to fly to pieces in any

-rough usage. By this file organisation you will produce in the men

-in the ranks the highest degree of cohesion—the habit of regulating

-their own actions in accordance with the actions and needs of others

-in furtherance of one general aim.

-

-Having secured this cohesion among the men, you have still to

-produce it within the company as between platoons and sections.

-For cohesion is the coping stone of the edifice of efficiency,

-and rests on a basis of discipline, moral and training. It makes

-possible the application of the principle of mutual support

-which is indispensable in the attack (F.S.R., 105 (4)), and it

-enables retirements and defensive action to be carried out without

-disorganisation, and with the minimum of loss. Whenever sections act

-together, see to it that the non-commissioned officers keep an eye

-on the movements of the others, and question them as to the extent

-their orders to their sections should be influenced by the needs and

-movements of the others. By this means they will be induced to check

-the inclination to play only for their own hands, and to remember

-always that their unit is part of a combination which can best attain

-success by acting accordingly.

-

-

-                                VIII.

-

-Training is the preparation of officers and men for the duties which

-they will carry out in war. These duties consist in the application

-of the principles contained in the training manuals, and it is your

-business to provide concrete examples. But in these days of long

-range arms combats take a very long time, and you cannot expect in

-a parade of perhaps one or at most two hours, and with a limited

-extent of ground, to carry out all the varied phases of an operation

-which, in warfare, would take anything from six to eighteen hours to

-complete, and would extend over perhaps five or six miles of country,

-even if we limit ourselves to the extreme ranges of heavy artillery,

-and take no account of movements not within the range of possible

-fire. Therefore, in your training, you must be analytical, choosing

-for one parade such phase or phases as you have time and ground for,

-and doing the others later on. When your company knows all it can be

-taught thus piecemeal, it will be early enough to try to get time and

-ground to perform continuous operations.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-For instance, infantry in the attack will usually have to go through

-three phases: first, the advance to fire positions; second, the fire

-fight (I.T., 121 (6)); and, third, the assault, which latter must be

-divided into the charge and the steps which follow it according as it

-is successful or not. You will have to train for these three phases.

-The first, against an enemy armed with guns and rifles, would consist

-in opening out from column of route into little columns—sections or

-platoons—and moving forward in this formation, the main object being

-to escape being smashed to pieces by his artillery fire before being

-able to do him any damage (I.T., 118 (3)). Later, you would come

-under his rifle fire, and your little columns must scatter out into

-lines of men in extended order (I.T., 118 (5)). These movements seem,

-and are, very easy, but still they must be practised in peace if they

-are to be done coolly and without confusion in time of war when the

-first intimation of the necessity for opening out may be the shriek

-and crash of what will be to most of the men the first shrapnel they

-have ever seen, and withal aimed at themselves. This phase requires

-the presence of all four platoons of the company, and so may be kept

-over till the men have been trained in the phase which it precedes,

-namely, that of the fire fight.

-

-       *       *       *       *       *

-

-The fire fight begins when the attacking infantry have got as far

-forward as they can without having to reply to the enemy’s fire, and

-it is quite distinct from the preceding phase of passive endurance.

-Success in the fire fight is an absolute necessity for a successful

-assault. Possibly your enemy has prepared your success before war

-broke out by abstaining from training his men in musketry, but even

-if his shooting is inferior, the fire fight will call into play

-all the qualities and skill of which your men are possessed, both

-individually and collectively. Accordingly you should practise them

-in the fire fight from the opening of their fire up to the assault,

-first individually and then collectively.

-

-The assault can be dissected into the fixing of bayonets with

-as little cessation of fire as possible, the charge itself,

-followed, according as it is held to have been successful or not,

-by the rallying of the troops, pursuit of the enemy by fire and

-strengthening of the captured position, or the withdrawal or such

-mitigation of the results of failure as may fairly be attempted.

-Thus, by considering the attack as made up of phases as above, it

-is, I think, possible and instructive to practise each one of them

-separately, on a short parade, and on limited ground, by placing

-the men in the order in which they would be at beginning of any one

-phase, and carrying on from there.

-

-Before beginning any exercise, call your non-commissioned officers

-out to the front, and explain to them and to the men, in very full

-detail, what the exercise is intended to be, what points particularly

-require attention, how you want it done, and the sequence of events,

-if it involves combined action between the different units; whether

-the company is supposed to be acting by itself or as part of the

-battalion, and, if the latter, whether your side are having the

-support of artillery fire or not, where the enemy is, and what he

-is, i.e., is he infantry only, or has he also cavalry and guns, what

-he is supposed to be doing, attacking, defending, retiring, marching,

-or what. Deal with all such points before you start, otherwise you

-will find your non-commissioned officers and men filling in the

-blanks each according to his own bent of imagination, and everyone

-in consequence playing at a different game. To be thus able to

-define the scope and arrangements of the exercise, you must have it

-clearly planned out in all detail in your head. This you should do if

-possible the day before the parade, so that you will have the thing

-well thought out, and events marshalled in logical sequence.

-

-At all exercises, if possible, have the enemy represented by a

-skeleton force, as directed by T. & M.R., 48, a few actual men with

-blank cartridge, and a red range flag or two to roughly define the

-enemy’s position. Use for this purpose old soldiers, if you have

-them, or, at least, men who have already performed the exercise

-you mean to do, and it is better to take one or two men from each

-platoon than to send off a whole section, and so break up the company

-organisation. Six or eight men are quite enough to form any skeleton

-enemy that is needed for a company to manœuvre against. You must give

-the skeleton enemy definite orders as to what they are to represent,

-where they are to go, and what to do and not to do. If they are given

-at all a free hand, especially if under the enterprising British

-subaltern, they are very apt to indulge in far-reaching manœuvres,

-and subject you to sudden raids and onslaughts which upset your

-scheme for the parade, and leave you no enemy at the very point you

-wished to have him. If you cannot arrange for a skeleton enemy, at

-least never fail to indicate some position as supposed to be held

-by an enemy. If your exercise ground is limited in extent, fix the

-enemy’s position outside it, regardless of whether you have, or

-have not, licence to traverse the intervening space, so as to avoid

-carrying out your exercise within impossibly close range of the

-enemy. In default of a skeleton enemy to provide you with a target,

-tell your men to aim at any members of the public who are about the

-enemy’s position. This is better than snapping at inanimate objects,

-as it gives more interest and so keeps up careful aiming. As regards

-the general method of training, follow commonsense and the manuals,

-and work from individual up to collective, bearing in mind always

-that collective work is built up of the work of the individuals who

-throughout have to be kept up to the collar by the various arts which

-I have touched on. The less of the iron hand that is shown the

-better.

-

-

-                                 IX.

-

-I make no mention of scouts, as they are specialists. They must be

-selected after you have got to know all the men of your company and

-their capabilities. Their training as scouts cannot be carried out by

-you personally at the same time that you are training the company.

-To be really of use, it will be a whole-time job for one officer,

-and you will either have to turn them over to one of the subalterns,

-or go with them yourself, preferably the former, if the subaltern

-is capable. When they are trained and fall in on parade as scouts

-in their sections, it is a good plan to have places permanently

-reserved for them as third files from the left of sections (the blank

-file’s place) so that they can leave the ranks without disturbing the

-formation for forming fours.

-

-As regards dress one thing is quite certain, and that is that with

-only one suit of uniform men cannot appear clean and smart off duty

-in it, and yet use it for field work with all the lying down and

-knockabout wear involved. In time of national danger, appearances

-will go to the wall, and men will do their work at the expense of the

-fit of their one and only suit of uniform.

-

-

-FOOTNOTES:

-

-[1] A cause now exists, and the men have come out.

-

-

-

-

-                             EXERCISE I.

-

-                INDIVIDUAL ADVANCE IN EXTENDED ORDER.

-

-

-The exercise portrays what men will have to do when the rifle fire

-of the enemy becomes effective, and necessitates extension of the

-small columns which are used to dodge his shell fire (I.T., 118 (3)).

-This will be somewhere over one thousand yards from the enemy, and

-perhaps fourteen hundred may be taken as a maximum. From the point

-at which extension from the small columns is made up till the time

-of the assault, a line of men in extended order is the suitable

-formation, unless there is some covered way leading forward which

-can be traversed in file or other formation. Once the advance has

-begun it should be carried through as quickly as possible without

-exhausting the men too much, and fire should not be opened until it

-is absolutely necessary to neutralise that of the enemy, firstly,

-because it lessens the speed of the advance and so increases the time

-during which the attackers are exposed to the enemy’s fire; secondly,

-because once men start firing it is more difficult to lead them

-forward; and, thirdly, because it uses up cartridges whose value and

-difficulty of replacement increases at every yard nearer the enemy’s

-position.

-

-The exercise is then to train men to gain ground to the front with

-the minimum of exposure to the enemy’s fire, and as quickly as may

-be, firstly, without firing, and, secondly, while firing themselves,

-but in the latter case speed must be subordinated to the development

-of a fire of sufficient accuracy and volume to largely neutralise

-that of the enemy, for at this stage of the battle advances under

-fire will only be possible if it is inaccurate; and the only certain

-means of causing it to be inaccurate is by disturbing the enemy’s

-nerves and aim by bringing to bear on him the fire both of supporting

-troops and of the firing line itself (I.T., 118 (6)).

-

-The regulations do not encourage the opening of fire by units less

-than two platoons at ranges over one thousand yards as the results

-do not compensate for the delay. Under one thousand and up to six

-hundred it is desired that fire should be controlled and directed,

-i.e., the amount, and the target should be specified by commanders

-(I.T., 116). Under six hundred yards it is recognised that

-individual fire gives good results, and, moreover, control becomes

-almost impossible.

-

-Divide your exercise accordingly. First, teach merely the advance

-without firing, letting the men know that they are not to fire, as

-a rule, without orders under six hundred yards, and then let them

-advance firing at each halt behind cover, choosing their own target

-and times of firing as they would do in the stage of “close fire,”

-i.e., six or perhaps eight hundred yards up to assaulting distance,

-which latter is about two hundred yards from the enemy’s line of

-defences.

-

-This parade is one that can be done with very few men present, but it

-is necessary to form them up into sections with a large proportion

-of non-commissioned officers. Keep the men in their proper sections,

-but, if necessary, join two or three together, so as to form sections

-with three or four non-commissioned officers to each. Thus, if you

-form four sections, they should each be in reality a boiling down of

-the platoons. In future exercises I will also suppose that you thus

-concentrate your men, keeping the members of each section together,

-and form them into sections of size suitable to the work of the day,

-and no further allusion will be made to this.

-

-Before taking the men on to the exercise ground, you should choose

-a point on it from which you intend to start your advance. Some

-fourteen hundred or less yards from this choose a position for your

-skeleton enemy, who will consist of three or four old soldiers with

-forty rounds of blank each. If men are not available, put up a few

-red range flags. Whichever are used, put them into some position that

-an enemy might reasonably occupy; do not simply dump them down on to

-the ground. The skeleton enemy must be told to show up occasionally,

-and to open a slow but regular fire as soon as they see your men

-advancing, but only to keep it up as long as your men show themselves

-in making their advance. A complete cessation of fire will denote

-that your men are making such good use of cover as to be invisible

-to the enemy. Let your men also know that these instructions have

-been given, and that such an advance is the ideal to be sought for,

-provided always that it is not absurdly slow. If neither men nor

-flags are available you must make believe and point out a supposed

-position at a supposed distance. I have already pointed out the

-advantages of having a skeleton enemy to work against.

-

-In front of your starting point, and about four hundred yards from

-it, decide on some point at which you will let the men halt after

-they have made their way across the intervening space. Here I will

-refer you to the diagram. The line AA´ is your starting point, CC´

-the enemy’s position. Your exercise consists in showing individual

-men how to gain ground from AA´ as far as BB´, distant about four

-hundred yards from AA´, with the minimum of exposure to the enemy’s

-aimed fire. Draw up the sections, supposing there are two, on the

-line AA´, fifty to one hundred yards apart, and let the men sit down

-facing away from CC´ and, if possible, under cover, so that they may

-not see how their comrades negotiate the course. Space the available

-non-commissioned officers of each section along the course from A to

-B and A´ to B´, with orders to supervise and criticise the advance

-of each man within the limits of their beats. Allow a belt of twenty

-to thirty yards broad from A to B and from A´ up to B´, within which

-men must seek their cover. This belt is made broad here to afford

-instruction, but when the men work together in their sections, it

-will be much narrower, as they will then be extended at intervals of

-five or six paces only. Start off one man at a time from each section

-to cross from AA´ to BB´, to move as if under fire from the enemy in

-rushes from one cover to another. As soon as a man reaches BB´ he

-may fall out and watch the movements of the remainder. Do not send

-off a fresh man until the preceding one has nearly reached BB´, so

-that your non-commissioned officers may have good opportunity to look

-at each man as he goes. As for yourself, be active in supervising

-both sections, using your horse if you have one.

-

-          DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. & II. [Illustration:

-

-  CC´ = Enemy’s position about 1400^X from AA´. Enemy being

-  represented by men with blank cartridge or flags.

-

-  AA´ = Starting points 1400 yards from enemy’s position.

-

-  Men start from AA´ to cross to BB´ without exposing themselves to

-  the enemy at CC.´

-

-  Crosses indicate cover, and the chain dotted lines routes by which

-  men may advance.

-

-AA´ to BB´ is about 400^X]

-

-The following are points to be attended to:—Before leaving their

-cover, men must decide where their next halting place is to be, and

-make for it quickly, and with decision. There must be no emerging

-into the open, and then looking about for a bit of cover to go

-for. The length of each rush should not be enough to let the enemy

-have time for deliberate aim—fifty yards or so is quite the limit

-for this. If there is no cover the men must lie down flat between

-each rush. Occasionally it is advisable to make a long rush from

-one good position to another at sprinting pace without stopping at

-all (I.T., 121 (12)), so this should be practised sometimes, the

-non-commissioned officers at that part of the beat being ordered

-to tell the men what is needed. Once a man has decided on his next

-halting place, and is in wind, he should leave his cover with a jump.

-The slow uprising of a figure is sure to draw the enemy’s attention,

-and make his fire more accurate than it would be if no intimation

-were given him. Similarly, on reaching cover, men should fall down

-quickly, and not lower themselves slowly to earth.

-

-Insist on a careful choice of cover, a very small depression or

-elevation, even six inches, is enough to give cover from view, and

-therefore helps in escaping aimed fire, but in peace time men will

-not take trouble over apparently trifling things like this unless it

-is rubbed into them by close supervision. Noticeable objects should

-be avoided as the enemy may have taken their range, and they help

-him to define a point on which to concentrate fire. If a man makes

-mistakes and shows indecision at any part of the course, call him

-back to the last cover he left, and let him start again from there

-after pointing out what he has done wrong.

-

-

-          _II. The advance combined with individual fire._

-

-The second part of the exercise is done in the same way as the first,

-the men advancing and taking cover as before, but now using their

-rifles. They have to be taught to use the cover to advantage, both

-as a protection and as an aid to their shooting, and to take pains

-in searching for a good target, and in their sighting, aiming and

-firing. For purposes of instruction, six hundred yards is rather a

-short range to open fire at, and I recommend your making a start at

-eight hundred or so, i.e., two hundred yards beyond BB´ towards the

-enemy, working up to four hundred. This necessitates judging distance

-at beyond the practically point-blank ranges of the Lee-Enfield

-rifle, and makes the men use their eyes keenly to spot the enemy,

-while it avoids a certain amount of unreality which is apt to attach

-to instructional movements carried on in front of a skeleton enemy at

-the deadly short ranges under three hundred yards.

-

-Points which should be considered are:—

-

-To fire from the right and lower edge of any cover, not over the top.

-

-Make the men keep a count of the number of times they snap over the

-course (i.e., cartridges used), and report to the non-commissioned

-officer at the finish of their course.

-

-Let the men do their own judging distance, and let non-commissioned

-officers drop at once on any man who either fails to do so, or

-forgets, as they often do, to adjust the backsight.

-

-Cultivate a habit among the men of looking about for different

-targets, not firing only straight in front of themselves, but on

-their right and left, so that when they come to fire collectively

-they may feel nothing new in being told to open the enfilade fire

-recommended by I.T., 116 (11), and also get the custom of watching

-for the enemy all along his front.

-

-These two exercises of advancing with and without firing are

-the groundwork of the fighting efficiency of the soldier in the

-attack, and will be found to call for every natural and acquired

-qualification the individual possesses. Good shooting, quick

-judgment, activity, wind, and everything else are needed if the

-work is done with full observance of the conditions which would

-exist under fire. Put the men through exercises of this sort several

-times, and, if possible, on different ground, till they acquire

-quickness in choosing cover and the arts that make an expert fighter.

-Confidence in themselves will come with the skill they acquire,

-and with confidence comes decision of mind, which is really more

-important than bodily efficiency. If you have time, a useful rider to

-this exercise is to work the men by pairs, as is recommended in the

-Musketry Regulations for the observation of fire, and so introduce

-them early to the use of the file organisation which I have advised

-you to adopt.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE II.

-

-                        RETIREMENT BY PAIRS.

-

-

-A sound provision against panic among young troops is to accustom

-them to regard a retirement as all in the day’s work, and not as

-an exceptional undertaking which their anxiety may invest with

-possibilities of disaster. The essence of successful retirement in

-face of an enemy lies in the continuous opposition, or appearance

-of it, offered to the enemy by one portion of the troops, while

-others draw off to take post to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost

-portion. I.T., 137, gives the idea in few words. It does not mention

-individual training in this, but it is useful to put men through the

-movements, both to cultivate cohesion in the ranks, and as a tactical

-exercise. It may happen in war that an extended line has to give

-ground when engaged with the enemy, and this under so heavy a fire as

-to make movement except over short distances impossible without great

-loss. Such a withdrawal would mean that the troops are in a very

-tight corner, and would test them very highly, but that is another

-matter. It may happen, and should be prepared for. A withdrawal

-under these conditions might perhaps be carried out by the alternate

-movement of men in files covered by the fire of the others, until

-such a distance from the enemy had been obtained as to allow sections

-or companies to take up the alteration. Up to that distance it will

-be simply a reversal of what was done in Exercise I., but worked by

-files—a front rank man and his rear rank man, one going back a short

-distance, and the other firing to cover the movement. Again, men on

-patrol or otherwise detached may have to retire to avoid capture, or

-for many other reasons, when they might not be under close and heavy

-fire, but still would be under the necessity of preventing the enemy

-closing in on them or surrounding them. In this case, the length

-of each withdrawal would be much longer than in the former case;

-one man would fire while the other made off perhaps two or three

-hundred yards at his best speed. Train for both contingencies; it

-can be done in one and the same parade. Skeleton enemy as usual. For

-the withdrawal under heavy fire, let the sections sit down and fall

-out at BB´ (Diagram I.), and put out the non-commissioned officers

-between BA and B´ A´ as before. Call out the men by files, tell them

-to work back to A and A´, one firing, the other retiring. As a rule

-they should retire past each other before halting. The same points

-must be observed as in Exercise No. I, and the quicker they are in

-movement the better, but they must be taught to go in quick time also

-when so ordered (I.T., 137 (4)).

-

-For the retirement of a file as on patrol, do exactly the same, but

-you should work over six hundred yards of ground or so to correct any

-tendency to import the short rush into this exercise, which would

-be out of place, and also to let men have more practice in looking

-for suitable fire positions from which they can both fire on the

-enemy, _and from which they can get away when their turn comes_, a

-point they often neglect at first. The different nature of the two

-exercises must be made quite clear.

-

-At this exercise you should bring before your men the need of using

-all sorts of _ruses_ in a retirement, the use of rapid fire just

-before withdrawing, the sham withdrawal acted by ceasing fire, and

-retiring a few yards, but only to halt and re-open fire after a few

-seconds if the enemy has been tempted to expose himself, thinking the

-coast clear, the real withdrawal effected so carefully that the enemy

-is not sure whether you are there still or not, and so on; and make

-them put their own ideas of these plans into action and tell them if

-they are doing what is feasible on service or not. Bar all “manœuvre

-slimness,” i.e., anything that could not be done on service.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE III.

-

-       INDIVIDUAL TRAINING IN USE OF FIRE AND FIRE DISCIPLINE.

-

-

-Early lessons in fire discipline can be given in single rank on the

-parade ground, but the open country and extended order are wanted for

-training men to the fullest extent under service conditions. Only

-in the open country can be got the variety of targets, ranges and

-the visual training which are necessary for a complete education.

-Men must be taught, and taught again, that the taking up of extended

-order, and movement over all sorts of ground, in no way mean that

-they are to pass at once beyond the control of their unit leaders, or

-that it is optional to continue to take any sort of pains with their

-shooting just because their non-commissioned officers cannot stand

-over them, but have to shout orders from a distance.

-

-This exercise consists in advancing and retiring in extended order

-with fire and the use of cover when halted; but to allow for more

-prolonged shooting practice and closer supervision than are possible

-when carrying out an attack or retirement as on service, the halts

-are longer and movements should at first be made in quick time.

-

-Put out your skeleton enemy on a good broad front, so as to allow

-room for change of targets, and do not have them all in one straight

-line, so that each target shall call for a change of sighting. Let

-the sections work independently of each other under their section

-commanders, who, with the other non-commissioned officers, will have

-to act both as commanders and instructors. Bring the sections up to

-about twelve hundred yards from the enemy; get them into a line with

-intervals between them, i.e., spaces measuring from the flank of one

-to the flank of the other, sufficient to admit of each section being

-extended to two or three paces between men without its flank men

-coming too close to those of other sections, e.g., with two sections

-of eight file, i.e., sixteen men each; you must leave room for half

-of each to extend to two paces towards the other, and keep a fair

-interval; that is, from the centre of each of the above sections of

-eight men in each rank you want 8 ÷ 2 (half the number in the front

-rank) × 2 (two ranks) × 2 (two paces extension) = 16 paces for the

-line extended and an interval of, say, 30 yards, which gives 46

-yards between each section centre to centre. Now, let the section

-commanders order the men to extend, lie down, take cover and open

-fire. The unit commander, the non-commissioned officer in charge of

-the section, is to name the target and distance and also the rate of

-fire, rapid or slow, at all distances over six hundred yards from

-the enemy (I.T., 116 (5)), unless it is desired on occasion to train

-men to do this for themselves. After fire has been delivered, direct

-section commanders to proceed with the exercise, giving orders for

-advancing, halting and firing, the advance to be made from cover to

-cover as in Exercise No. I, but in quick time. Yourself supervise in

-chief, and tell section commanders when you want to give orders as

-to the firing or movement, and let them give the executive commands,

-after which you and they should pass along the lines and scrutinise

-each man’s actions in carrying out the orders, questioning them, and

-repealing hints you may have given when telling them the object and

-methods of the practice, if they appear not to be giving them effect.

-The value of the practice depends on the orders you give as to the

-firing and the following are suggested:—

-

-(_a_) Switching the fire of all the rifles on to different parts

-of the enemy’s position, sometimes straight in front, _but quite

-as often_ at his extreme flanks. This is to introduce the use of

-enfilade fire (I.T., 116 (11)) and the habit of giving support by

-fire to other units (F.S.R., 105 (4)), by concentrating the fire on

-to particular targets.

-

-(_b_) Distributing the fire laterally along the whole or a part

-of the enemy’s front (I.T., 116 (10)). This may be done by giving

-the section a particular extent of the enemy’s front, e.g., “from

-the dry tree to the gate in the hedge.” The section commander

-then allots those of the enemy, who can be viewed within his bit

-of front to individual men, or preferably files of men, who are

-to treat them as their especial charge and keep on firing at them

-till otherwise ordered, or till the enemy shifts. Of course, if

-there is not enough of the skeleton enemy to give each file in the

-section a live antagonist (and there won’t be on your parades), the

-commander must indicate bits of cover which individual men of the

-enemy might be expected to use and tell his men to fire at these

-spots. This is a most important practice, and needs a good deal of

-attention and application before the men get really quick at it. It

-means, of course, that on service you will make it your business

-to allow as few of the enemy’s riflemen as possible to be free of

-the distraction of having some bullets landing about them, to upset

-their nerves and aim. Unless some plan is adopted to do this all

-along his line, it is all too probable your men will be exposed to

-some accurate fire from rifles held in steady hands, and even one

-rifle so held has, to my knowledge, caused a loss of eleven men in

-as many minutes. This lateral distribution is rather difficult, but

-it is easy, compared with the concomitant task of spotting where the

-men of the enemy are hidden, if they really try to hide, at anything

-but the shortest fighting ranges. The only remedy for this is for

-each private to carry field glasses of sorts; you will not get them

-from Government, but if any of your men are keen enough to go in

-for spotting a hidden enemy for themselves with glasses and would

-bring their own to parade, forbid them not, but encourage it. I have

-been told that in some of the yeomanry corps in the South African

-war nearly every trooper raised somehow and somewhere a pair of

-glasses—some were mother o’ pearl and silver-mounted, but did the

-spotting all right in spite of that.

-

-(_c_) Passing orders and changing targets. Under heavy fire

-non-commissioned officers will not be able to move along the line,

-and orders must be passed either by word of mouth or by written

-messages passed from hand to hand; the former is apt to be slow,

-and the orders garbled en route unless practised beforehand; the

-latter is not very practical as men in action are too busy to read

-bits of paper or trouble themselves to see that they are passed on

-(I.T., 119 (4)). To practise the verbal method while the men are

-engaged in firing at any particular target, give orders to one man

-in a low tone (you would have to speak loud if ball cartridge were

-being used) to fire at some other target, and to pass the word.

-The man then tells his neighbours on each side, and yourself and a

-non-commissioned officer then follow the order each way, and when a

-man varies it admonish him to repeat just what he got from the last

-speaker, no more and no less. In a little time the men will become

-exact in taking and passing messages. This method should be confined

-to directions about firing; orders for movement should invariably

-be given by commanders by word themselves or signal, and men should

-not be allowed to repeat these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on

-service, as a signal may be seen and acted on by someone for whom it

-was not intended.

-

-(_d_) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy or bits of cover, let

-fire be directed at civilians who are moving about in the field of

-view. Call on some individual man by name to choose some such target,

-and tell him he has to pass the word to the rest of his squad what

-target he has chosen and to fire at it. This gives practice in target

-definition, i.e., describing its position so that other men can know

-just where to look for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid of

-noticeable objects to do this quickly, but it is important, as the

-difficulty of locating a well-concealed enemy with smokeless powder

-requires that every pair of eyes in the ranks should be engaged in

-the search till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen are seen,

-and the information given to everyone in the firing line. Until this

-is done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise aimed by unaimed

-fire, a pretty hopeless task. Hence train your men to use their eyes

-for seeing and their tongues for description.

-

-(_e_) Accustoming the men to judge distance, and use their backsights

-without orders. Judging distance for the men as a formal practice is

-confined to ranges under 800 yards, but it does no harm to let them

-judge greater ranges. Let the unit commanders define targets to be

-fired at, omitting to state the range, and let the men judge it for

-themselves and fire. Walk up the line and see that no man forgets to

-adjust his backsight for the distance he estimates. If possible, have

-the correct ranges taken previously with a range finder, and let the

-men know what they are after they have aimed. Each change of target

-gives the men a useful lesson in judging distance.

-

-(_f_) Having put the men through all sorts of paces in the way of

-firing while advancing and retiring, in quick time do the same thing

-again, but with the movements in double time, and, in addition,

-carry out the increases and decreases of the extension, inclines and

-changes of direction given in I.T., 93, throughout insisting on the

-same steadiness in firing as when in quick time. All this will at

-first probably get the men “rattled,” and the benefit of it is that

-after some of it they will get over being “rattled,” and will not let

-hurried orders or speed of movement interfere with deliberation and

-steadiness in shooting.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE IV.

-

-                            THE ASSAULT.

-

-

-Exercise III. can suitably be wound up by a practice in delivering

-an assault, as this does not take long, and the moral may be pointed

-that all fire training is only a preparation for a successful

-assault. The fixing of bayonets before assault commonly leads to

-a complete cessation of fire in the firing line. This is quite

-wrong, as such complete cessation of fire by the firing line must

-largely surrender for the time being that superiority of fire which

-facilitates the delivery of the assault (I.T., 121 (7)), for it gives

-the enemy a chance to take aim again. Supporting fire by artillery

-or infantry not in the firing line cannot be relied on when the

-firing line has reached assaulting distance. Therefore, do not have a

-simultaneous fixing of bayonets, but let one-half fix while the other

-fires, and the best arrangement is evidently one that ensures a fire

-being kept up along the whole front and not in patches. The system I

-have found most satisfactory is to fix bayonets by ranks, the front

-rank fixing while the rear rank continues firing, and then the rear

-rank fixing while the front rank fires. It may be done by odd and

-even files, or other ways, but, the company being organised in files,

-the same men are usually in the front and rear rank, and there is no

-difficulty in their remembering which they are. The important thing

-is to adhere to one system once it is adopted, and have it well

-understood by all. It does not matter much if a few men fix bayonets

-out of turn, so long as the fire is merely diminished and not stopped

-during the time bayonets are being fixed. In the charge, the men

-should work by their files, i.e., the two men of each file should act

-together and run at the same objective. The meaning of this is that

-in actual conflict two men would go together for the same individual

-enemy, and between the two of them they would be pretty sure to bring

-him to an untimely end, if the enemy really waited for the steel, and

-with less chance of his doing damage than if the combat took place

-man-to-man; thereafter they could turn their attentions to some other

-person.

-

-For the practice choose and indicate any position for assault; work

-sections up to about two hundred yards from it, and then order rapid

-fire and bayonets to be fixed. As soon as all are ready, order the

-charge to be sounded. (I.T., 124). When the men hear the bugle they

-must at once jump from their cover and go straight and hard at the

-position; there must be no waiting by individuals to fire a last shot

-or two. The rush should be made suddenly and swiftly, so that the

-enemy has no time to see what is happening before the men are well on

-their way at him. When the position is reached, pass right through

-it and well beyond it, to escape hostile gunfire (I.T., 124 (5)),

-and then order the “Halt,” when the men may lie down under cover and

-open a pursuing fire. Walk along the line and see, with the help of

-non-commissioned officers, whether men of each file are together; if

-so, it will be proof that they have obeyed the directions to keep

-together during the charge. Allow a minute or two of the pursuing

-fire, then let section or platoon commanders sound their whistles,

-close and reform their sections under cover. On the whistle-sound

-(a succession of short blasts), men rise and double to where the

-commander is, resume their places, and lie down. This re-organisation

-is very important for you as company commander, for by it you get

-your men formed up quickly into platoons and ready to be closed

-into company or to take fresh orders in the minimum of time. The

-usual thing seen is that after the assault the ground is covered

-with a mixture of men of all companies staring about, and apparently

-thinking the show at an end, whereas on service this is the very time

-you may expect either a counter-attack by infantry or a burst of

-artillery fire directed on the lost position.

-

-To repeat the orders of the assault: “Rapid Fire; Fix Bayonets;

-Charge; Halt and Take Cover; Commence Fire; Rally and Close Under

-Cover,” and be ready for further happenings.

-

-

-

-

-                             EXERCISE V.

-

-               THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN THE ATTACK.

-

-

-Having trained the individual men in the work needed of them, the

-next step is to make use of that individual skill to the best effect

-in combination under orders of a commander. The section is the

-lowest unit recognised for _training_ (I.T., 107), and it also is

-the normal unit used in firing (I.T., 6 (4)). When the company is

-advancing in the attack, or retiring, its sections and platoons will

-often be widely separated from each other, and the company commander

-cannot look after each one in detail, so that the platoon commanders,

-and under them the section commanders, must be fully competent to

-lead their men without supervision, in accordance with the general

-intention given them before the company opened out. So the training

-of men in combination must be accompanied by the training of your

-section and platoon commanders.

-

-The duties of fire unit commanders are laid down in I.T., 116 (5),

-and those of section commanders in I.T., 116 and 123 (10). Before

-you proceed with this exercise have up these non-commissioned

-officers and devote ten minutes to an exposition of what is contained

-in the above paragraphs. Dilate on them, and show how neglect of

-those duties hampers the company commanders. At the same time,

-desire them to maintain among the men during sectional exercises the

-standard of individual training which was obtained in the preliminary

-exercises. Unless they do so the men will soon cease to apply what

-they then learnt, and so forget it in battle until the occurrence of

-casualties impresses its value afresh in their minds. Also give them

-the gist of what follows as to the advance and description of fire

-phases.

-

-The exercise gives commanders the opportunity of doing what they

-will have to do when the company is attacking or retiring, but

-without their having to keep an eye on the movements of the other

-platoons. The men should now be extended at full intervals as on

-service, five or six yards apart, this being held to be the most

-that is needed. Put out the skeleton enemy in groups, one group as

-objective of attack for each section or platoon on parade, and the

-groups sufficiently apart to prevent them interfering with each other

-when extended as above, for they are to act independently. Take up

-the advance as if at fourteen hundred from the enemy, when his rifle

-fire on open ground would compel you to change from small columns

-of sections or platoons into the line of extended men (I.T., 118

-(5)). The advance up to assaulting distance, from fourteen hundred

-yards, consists (I.T., 121 (7)), in the first place, of an advance

-to fire positions. Now Musketry Regulations lay down that fire by

-less than two platoons is of little effect over one thousand yards,

-so do not encourage commanders to open fire till one thousand yards

-at least, and use the space fourteen hundred to one thousand yards

-for instruction in getting their sections or platoons forward as

-quickly, and with as little exposure, as possible. Secondly, the

-advance consists of a fire fight combined with further advances up

-to the assaulting position. In this fire fight controlled collective

-fire is better than individual fire (I.T., 116 (7) (iii)), so up to

-six hundred yards let firing take place, only on the specific orders

-of commanders, who accordingly are to name the targets and ranges. In

-this phase therefore make them choose forward fire positions and work

-their units forward, using controlled collective fire at the same

-time.

-

-Under six hundred yards it is apparently held best to accept the

-inevitable and allow individual fire, the unit commanders being still

-responsible for getting their men forward up to the position of

-assault—about two hundred yards from the enemy. Still at this close

-range unit commanders should do what they can to direct the fire, and

-especially they should see that men fire slowly and carefully. In

-general the rate of firing or snapping is far too fast, and pouches

-would be empty long before the assaulting position would be reached.

-

-Owing to the great importance of training the sections, it is

-advisable to let them do this exercise, through both the phases

-below, separately from each other, and not in platoon. When they know

-all about it, let them work in platoon.

-

-Having drawn up your sections in line at fourteen hundred yards,

-order the section commanders to extend and move on, and signal the

-skeleton enemy to open fire.

-

-

-_First Phase: Fourteen to One Thousand Yards, Gaining Ground Without

-                              Firing._

-

-Practise the section commanders in all ways of getting their sections

-forward without undue exposure or delay, by rushes of the whole

-section, man-by-man from one and both flanks and by files, together,

-and any other way that suggests itself. Stand over the section

-commanders in turn and tell them to advance the section by one method

-and then by another, and ask them which seems most suitable for

-various conditions of fire and ground (I.T., 118 (4)). The advance

-should be steady and determined. Before starting the advance from one

-position to another, section commanders are to decide and _must tell

-the men_ to what point they mean the next advance to be made (I.T.,

-108 (2)), in the same way as individual men were taught to mark their

-next halting places.

-

-Attention must be paid to the way in which advances are inaugurated.

-Rushes must be sudden and simultaneous (I.T., 92 (5)). The men have

-been trained to leave their cover quickly. The unit commander must

-give his directions for the next move without getting up (if himself

-lying) and tell the men to be prepared; when all are ready, he and

-the men must jump up together and rush at once on the word or signal.

-The object of this, of course, is to avoid a concentrated fire being

-directed on the unit commander, and, perhaps, the two or three men

-nearest him, if they get up before the others, which would make it

-likely that some of them would be hit immediately, while the rest

-of the unit looked for a new leader, and so no advance take place;

-whereas if everyone gets on the move together a casualty or two will

-not bring the whole to a standstill. Of course, commanders should

-lead the way, but they must get in front by sprinting the first few

-yards.

-

-

- _Second Phase: One thousand to Six Hundred Yards (Collective Fire)

-      and Six Hundred to Two Hundred Yards (Individual Fire)._

-

-As soon as a section begins to fire, it becomes possible for it to

-practise the lessons in the use of fire which were learnt in Exercise

-III., such as concentration and distribution of fire. From one

-position the commander must choose his next fire position, and work

-his section up to it in whatever way is most suitable. On flat and

-open ground this position may simply be the halting place of the next

-rush, thirty or forty paces to the front, but it is more instructive

-and practical to have positions far enough from each other, say one

-hundred and fifty or two hundred yards, to necessitate the advancing

-section making several successive rushes and using various devices

-to gain ground without attracting the enemy’s attention. Practise

-sections in all ways of advancing from one position to another,

-as was done before firing began, and encourage the use of covered

-ways. This exercise, if properly done, represents what the section

-would have to do in battle. For the purpose of instruction, the unit

-commanders should be allowed to move about as instructors, but when

-all ranks have been through the exercise and know what is needed, you

-should practise it under service conditions, and tell unit commanders

-to behave as if under fire; this is important, as it lets all see

-how much will be asked of the individual man under fire, and how

-difficult it is to exercise any wide control.

-

-For the same reason you must in this exercise begin the practice of

-ordering casualties of leaders, and carry it on through the whole of

-the rest of the training. Order section commanders to be casualties,

-and let the next senior man carry on, then order that man to become

-a casualty, and let the next one take command. Collect these

-casualties with you and let them go round with you, and have for a

-time the onlooker’s view of the game. Do not stint in ordering them,

-but let every man be ready to take up command. This readiness to

-assume command and to carry on the advance in spite of the absence

-of leaders is most valuable in battle and on parade for training,

-keeps men’s attention fixed on the business, and helps to counteract

-disorder when companies and sections get mixed up in reinforcement in

-battalion attack.

-

-Under six hundred yards let the men use individual fire, choosing

-their own targets; at this time try to get them into the way of

-looking for the targets which most require to be shot at at the

-moment—they must be always looking along the enemy’s line, and must

-not acquire the paralysing habit of only seeing straight in front of

-themselves.

-

-Call on unit commanders to keep in view the question of expenditure

-of ammunition. It is no good ordering men to snap-fire 200 times in

-the course of an advance when they would only have 100 rounds in

-their pouches on service, and no means of getting more; when blank

-is being used they should see that the ammunition of casualties is

-collected and redistributed.

-

-At some time in the course of this exercise the section must be

-practised in improving cover as if under fire, i.e., working lying

-down. The nature of the work depends on what tools you have, but it

-should be attempted if possible. Order the section to do it when

-halted together in some fire position. At first they will shape

-badly and expose themselves a lot, but if you have time for practice

-they get into the way of digging in very quickly. If there are stones

-pile up “schanzes.” Attention should be paid to concealment of the

-cover, so as not to make it a target for the whole countryside, and

-it must give cover from fire or view, or both; one often sees men

-making molehills which show up their position without being capable

-of stopping a bullet. Better not make them at all than that way.

-

-Wind up the advance occasionally by an assault, as it is a mistake

-to let the idea take hold that the fire fight is the end of all

-things. This, I think, is the reason that the word “skirmishing” has

-disappeared from the book of training, as it connoted an indecisive

-action, whereas the whole spirit of the present training is that it

-shall be directed to the delivery of an assault and the ousting of

-the enemy from his position. Scouts are the only people who may have

-to skirmish in the former accepted meaning of the word, and they

-only do so until the firing line joins them, or they withdraw after

-reconnoitring.

-

-

-                            _In Platoon._

-

-Next work the sections together in their platoons on similar lines.

-Practise again all ways of gaining ground; by rushes of the whole

-platoon, or if one or more sections, man by man, and so on, as taught

-to the section. Fire should be directed by the platoon commander, and

-controlled by the section commander. Teach the lateral distribution

-of fire along a given front among the four sections of the platoon.

-Teach also the principle of covering fire, one section being sent

-to make its way with every use of cover to a forward fire position,

-while the remainder continue firing. The first section, on arrival

-at the new fire position, opens fire, and the others follow in

-due course, one section only being dumb while the movement is in

-progress. If there is a choice of good lines of advance it is better

-that sections should not follow each other on one line, as the enemy

-may have noticed the move and be waiting for them.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE VI.

-

-               THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN RETIREMENT.

-

-

-For the general principles of retirements see I.T., 137. The platoon,

-when working with the company, will take its turn at being the

-rearmost portion of the troops, and will have the difficult task of

-getting away while in touch with the enemy, but its retirement will

-be covered by the fire of other portions of the company. On the other

-hand, if a platoon or section finds itself beyond support from other

-troops, as might happen often enough, it will have to act itself as a

-rearguard and retire by alternate parts.

-

-In both cases great advantage is gained if the position held can be

-vacated so stealthily that the enemy shall not be aware of its having

-been vacated till the defenders are well on their way to the rear.

-For this reason it will be worth while to accustom the men to employ,

-when practicable, a procedure used in mountain warfare, withdrawing

-the bulk of men first and leaving only a few quick-footed men to keep

-up appearances and fire as long as possible and then retiring them

-at speed. Also all men must be taught to grovel backwards on their

-stomachs from the crest of their fire position till sufficiently

-under cover, if there is cover, to stand up without being seen, after

-which they rise and make off.

-

-Send out the skeleton enemy with instructions to follow up the

-retirement slowly, and not to close in on the sections, as it is easy

-and tempting to do this when there are no bullets in the rifles.

-

-      (_a_) _As a Section or Platoon Acting with the Company._

-

-Do the practice first by sections and then in platoon. Draw up the

-unit on a fire position about eight hundred yards from the enemy, the

-men in extended order, lying down, and open fire on the enemy. Tell

-the commander to choose his next halting place and retire his unit

-on it, which he should do on the lines before indicated. The halting

-places should be chosen as far apart as two to four hundred yards;

-short retirements merely prolong the time exposure to fire and should

-not be used unless the enemy are very close or the fire very heavy.

-Once the men are clear of the position, they should move as fast as

-they can, trusting to escape casualties, by speed, the alteration

-of range, and the fire of the few men left on the position. As a

-rule, carry out all retirements at the double, so that the men shall

-not be confused by the hasty movement. As soon as the first party

-has reached the new position, the fringe of men left on the old one

-should creep back and go as hard as they can to rejoin their section

-or platoon, and they should be taught to judge the time of going for

-themselves, so as not to “let in” the section or themselves, by going

-too early or staying too late. Repeat the movement to one or two

-further positions. It is a strenuous practice and makes demands on

-the men’s limbs, wind, and willingness, but the rearguard is the post

-of honour and danger. Order casualties of leaders from time to time,

-and let the men be called to move in quick time sometimes, which they

-would have to do if there were signs of unsteadiness.

-

-            (_b_) _As a Section or Platoon Acting Alone._

-

-Act on the same lines as before, but let the commander run the

-show, which he should be able to do, after having done it under

-supervision. One party (a file or two in the case of a section,

-or one or two sections in that of a platoon) gets back to a fire

-position and opens fire to cover the retirement of the other. In

-general, it is better that both parties should not fall back on one

-and the same fire position; on the contrary, if they act on a wide

-front in ordinary country—say, three hundred yards apart—their fire

-is equally effective, but the enemy is broken up, and the danger of

-their being outflanked or surrounded is less. For the same reason it

-is good practice, if the platoon is strong, to send out groups of

-four or five men still further on the flanks, and a group to precede

-the whole on the line of retirement by six hundred yards or so, in

-order to occupy positions and deny them to the enemy, and after one

-or two turns of this exercise tell the skeleton enemy to follow on

-harder and try to work round the flanks. In this part also continue

-to order casualties of leaders.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE VII.

-

-           THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN INDEPENDENT ATTACK.

-

-

-It is very important to secure the intelligent co-operation of

-section and platoon commanders in the operations in which their

-company or battalion is taking part. I have read that in the

-Russo-Japanese War the result of one of the battles—I think at

-Penlin, 31st July—turned on the action of an infantry section who

-gained a footing on the extreme flank of the Russian line, and

-drove off the defenders in the immediate vicinity, opened a way for

-the advance of the greater numbers, and led to the outflanking and

-retreat of the whole Russian force. If you give your unit commanders

-some chances of carrying out attacks, acting as if unsupported by

-other troops, they will find themselves faced with the same problems

-which confront commanders of larger bodies in the attack, and they

-will be more likely, when acting in combination, to look beyond just

-the limits of their own commands; they will be led to comprehend

-the object of operations and the difficulties in the way, and

-will become quick to seize any opportunity to further the general

-plan without waiting for orders. It is true that so small a body

-as a section would seldom be formally told to attack an objective

-single-handed, but there are often occasions on service when a

-platoon might have to carry out an attack on a small scale, as when a

-few of the enemy’s riflemen are making themselves unpleasant, while

-not in sufficient force to do more than “snipe,” or to require the

-diversion against them of a whole company. Though a section as now

-constituted is a very small unit to work with, I think no excuse is

-needed for performing the attack with the smallest unit, having in

-view the excellent training it forms for non-commissioned officers

-and men. However, for this practice, it is advisable to form sections

-somewhat above the usual strength, by joining two together, so as

-to give at least eighteen rifles in the whole. After having put the

-sections through the exercise, you will, of course, let the platoon

-commanders carry out the attack with their platoons.

-

-Put out a skeleton enemy of three or four men for each platoon or

-section, or one only for all to attack in turn, and post this enemy

-in some commanding place, with a good field of view and fire so

-that if possible the unit shall have twelve to eight hundred yards

-to manœuvre over before coming to close quarters. As an example,

-give out the supposition that this enemy are a cavalry patrol of the

-enemy, who have dismounted and are using their rifles on the company

-as it is on the move from somewhere to somewhere else. The section or

-platoon is ordered to drive them off, neutralise their fire, or hold

-them in check, in case they should be the forerunners of a greater

-number. The enemy should begin to fire on a signal from you (with

-your flag), which you should give as you tell off the commander for

-the duty. If the other units are to attack the same enemy in turn,

-you should halt them under cover or turn them to the rear, so as not

-to see too much of the method the first lot choose to carry out their

-job.

-

-The method of the attack will depend on the nature of the ground—what

-suits one case may not suit another, and there may be two or three

-courses open in attacking any one position. The commander should

-accordingly look well at the ground before deciding how he will carry

-out the attack, but there are certain principles common to attacks,

-great or small, which he should put into practice. He should secure

-himself from interruption on his flanks and rear, and he should

-provide a supporting fire to distract the enemy and cover the advance

-of his main force. He cannot make large detachments or indulge in

-wide patrolling, nor would such small bodies as platoons be sent

-off to attack if such were advisable; but, at least he can post a

-file or two on some high ground, or, failing that, on one flank out

-of decisive range of the enemy, i.e., about eight hundred yards

-from him, with orders to keep up a steady fire until his advance

-masks their fire. This will prevent, or at least give warning of,

-an attempt to cut in on the rear. He may also send a file perhaps

-two or three hundred yards to either flank, to move parallel with

-his advance and prevent his being enfiladed at short range, if the

-enemy should be tactless enough to avail himself of a chance of

-meeting the advance by a counter-attack. Until he sees pretty well

-what he has in front of him, he should divide his party into two,

-sending one to engage the enemy and keeping the other as a reserve to

-support the first by fire if they get into difficulties, and to be

-available to carry on the attack after the other has got the enemy

-well busy, either by reinforcing it directly, or, better still, by

-continuing the advance along a fresh line leading to some position

-from which the enemy can be finally turned out, either by fire or

-by a charge, the first half joining in and advancing as soon as the

-enemy has turned his attention to the new attack. Both parties should

-keep scouts or a patrol of some sort out in front of them until the

-foreground is proved not to contain any hidden body of the enemy,

-or until the opening of fire by their own side makes it necessary

-for the scouts to merge into the firing line. I have seen on service

-a half-company go off to take post as a piquet on a long ridge; it

-neglected the above precautions, beyond having some scouts in front.

-There were four or five of the enemy on the ridge, and they waited

-till the scouts were close, shot some down and drove the others to

-cover, and then turned their fire on to the half-company, who were

-also driven to ground, and, as there was little cover, they were

-tied up till set free by some more infantry, who had to be specially

-sent off to move along the ridge. Had the half-company moved in two

-portions, the first would have contained this weak enemy, and the

-rear party could easily have circled round and got on to the ridge

-farther along, which would at once have caused the enemy to clear

-out. See F.S.R., I., I, as to the results of the violation of the

-principles of leading troops, and as therein directed, impress the

-principles taught on the minds of your non-commissioned officers, who

-are commanders, albeit only of platoons and sections.

-

-

-

-

-                           EXERCISE VIII.

-

-       THE PLATOON AS AN ADVANCED GUARD AND AS A FLANK GUARD.

-

-

-(_a_) When the company is on the march, it should always be preceded

-by an advanced guard—either a party of scouts, or, more usually, by

-one of the platoons. After the advanced guard comes in contact with

-the enemy its further action becomes either an attack to drive off

-the enemy, or a defence to delay his advancing, according to his

-strength and tactics; so I propose here merely to indicate suitable

-formations of march in ordinary, i.e., non-mountainous country, so

-that the platoons may be practised in taking them up without delay on

-being told off for the duty. The exercise takes little time, and can

-be done on the same parade as the flank guard exercise.

-

-An advanced guard may come under Are at any moment, and to provide

-against surprise (F.S.R., 64), its leading portions may move in

-extended order. The duties are given in F.S.R., 68, and apply quite

-completely to so small a body as a platoon. The platoon should be

-divided into a vanguard and a main guard. For the vanguard, a common

-plan is simply to extend a section on either side of the road, but I

-prefer to divide the section into three patrols, or more if strength

-permits, who work along in a general line—one to search the road

-and its immediate vicinity, and one on each side. The nature of the

-country regulates the breadth of ground the centre patrol can search

-from the road, and the distance to which the others are sent out on

-each side. The other sections follow as main guard, not so close as

-to be at once mixed up with the vanguard if fire is opened on the

-latter, nor so far as to be unable to support it quickly with fire.

-The advanced guard is responsible for keeping touch with the main

-body (the company) (F.S.R., 64 (4)), but the company commander should

-satisfy himself that this is being done. If view is restricted, the

-main guard must drop a connecting file to keep connection. This file

-must march with their beards on their shoulders, to see what the

-company is doing, and let the commander know, and also to signal

-to the company, if the platoon has had to halt. If the country is

-open, the commander should still tell off a file for this duty, who

-will march with the platoon, but be continually on the look-out to

-the rear. The platoon commander ought, of course, to keep a watch

-himself, but may have other things to attend to, and it is well to

-take precautions against the platoon either getting too far in front

-or letting the company get too close to it, by marching on while the

-platoon is investigating some suspicious locality.

-

-

-                (_b_) _The Platoon as a Flank Guard._

-

-A platoon may sometimes be used as a flank guard, as when a small

-convoy is on the march with only a company or two as escort. Flank

-guards are dismissed in a few words in F.S.R., 70. It is worth while

-to practise them once or twice to avoid delay in taking up the

-formation when the march is being started, or in improvising a method

-of fighting off the enemy if he attacks.

-

-Represent the convoy or whatever it is by a man with a red flag to

-move along the road; the platoon is then to move along parallel to

-the road, and far enough off to afford protection from effective

-rifle fire, i.e., at least eight hundred yards in open country. The

-skeleton enemy should be instructed to keep about the same distance

-again on the flank beyond the platoon, and to move along parallel

-with it without closing in, opening fire on an agreed signal.

-

-The march formation should be on the same principles as those for the

-advanced guard. The platoon should move in two bodies, and patrols

-or scouts should precede it, both in the direction of the march and

-towards the flank which is being guarded. It is important to keep

-touch with the main body by connecting files at all times, otherwise

-if the road changes direction out of view of the flank guard it may

-separate them too far or bring them too close to the company.

-

-The method of fighting merely to hold off the enemy resembles that

-used by a rear guard for the same purpose, i.e., fire and movement

-by alternate portions. When the enemy opens fire on your signal, the

-patrol on the flank either falls back, or the platoon reinforces it.

-The patrol in the line of advance should still continue to precede

-the movements of the platoon in that direction, and should be told to

-conform to its movement. The platoon replies to the enemy’s fire as

-soon as possible and begins the lateral fight—one half is sent, if

-possible under cover, to take up a fire position farther along the

-direction of the line of march, preceded by the patrol, which, to

-some extent, secures it from surprise from that direction. As soon

-as the leading party has found a fire position and opens its fire,

-the other follows it, and either halts alongside it, so allowing it

-to go off to a new position, or continues its movement beyond it

-and takes up a third position to cover the further movements. The

-latter method is the quicker, as it saves the time of replacing men

-of the first party in their fire position by those of the second. The

-exercise need not be prolonged, as a few of these lateral movements

-are quite sufficient illustration to enable the men in future to take

-up their duty quickly.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE IX.

-

-       PRELIMINARY FOR THE ATTACK BY THE COMPANY IN BATTALION.

-

-

-A company attacking as part of the battalion is sure to find the

-men of different platoons mixed up in the course of the attack with

-those of other platoons, both of that company and of others. Before

-practising the attack, accompanied with this mixture of platoons,

-it is advisable to train them and their non-commissioned officers

-for their duties without allowing any mixing up. This may be done by

-bringing all the platoons of the company up into one line, and then

-extending each on its own ground. The result is that each platoon

-may be taken to represent the leading platoon of four companies told

-off to furnish the firing line and supports (I.T., 122). The four

-platoons form thus the firing line, the other three supposititious

-platoons of each company being in support. This formation would be

-taken up when the enemy’s rifle fire began to be effective, i.e.,

-at or under fourteen hundred yards. Within this distance the firing

-line has to press on through the zones in which it uses collective

-and individual fire up to assaulting distance, being reinforced as

-needed, firstly by the supports, and finally at the time of the

-assault by all or part of the local reserve, which, in this case,

-would be composed of the four companies of the battalion not detailed

-to furnish the firing line and supports.

-

-Put out a skeleton enemy with orders to remain in one position, and

-fire slowly, but continuously. Draw up the four platoons, or as many

-as are present of the company at fourteen hundred yards or so from

-the enemy, in one line and at sufficient intervals to allow of their

-extending to five paces, _plus_ some space between flanks of sections

-after extension, to allow plenty of choice of lines of advance.

-Indicate to each platoon a part of the enemy’s position which it is

-to regard as its final objective of assault (I.T., 121 (3)). Have the

-men extended to five paces, and carry out the attack right through on

-the lines of Exercise V., and finish with an assault and rally after

-it. Each company would have an officer with its platoon in the firing

-line to direct the fire. If fire is opened between fourteen hundred

-and one thousand yards, it will not be effective against ordinary

-targets unless the whole four platoons direct their fire on the same

-target. Under one thousand yards fire should be controlled by section

-commanders and directed by platoon commanders.

-

-Practise concentration of the fire of the four platoons on one part

-of the enemy’s line and lateral distribution of fire _within the

-limits of that part_. Give each platoon a fraction of this fraction

-of the enemy’s frontage to deal with, and let the platoon commander

-again tell off his sections to fire at various marks inside _his_

-limits. Again switch the fire of all four platoons on to some other

-particular bit of the enemy’s position, as done in previous exercises.

-

-To do this you must introduce and work with thoroughness a system of

-inter-communication (I.T., 119), but it should be one approved and

-adopted by your battalion commander, otherwise each company of the

-battalion may be found using a different one. It is to be understood

-that orders as to the direction of fire in no way interfere with the

-gaining of ground to the front, a platoon firing at one object ceases

-fire in order to advance, but resumes its fire on the same object

-when it again halts.

-

-As soon as section fire is opened, encourage mutual support, some

-part of the line firing while others advance, and make section

-commanders continue to observe this principle.

-

-At some one parade for this exercise halt the whole line during the

-attack and practise entrenching under fire, the men working lying

-down (I.T., 121 (13)). Thereafter resume the advance.

-

-Move about yourself and let your section commanders do so also, and

-check any slovenly work on the part of the men in using, quitting,

-or getting into cover, and in the use of their rifles and judging

-distance if, as should often be done, it is left to them to estimate

-how far they are from the target of the moment.

-

-

-

-

-                             EXERCISE X.

-

-   THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION UNDER ARTILLERY FIRE.

-

-

-When the battalion is moving forward to attack, and before the

-enemy’s rifle fire is more than a distant and future danger, that of

-his artillery becomes an imminent and formidable menace as soon as

-the limits of its range are crossed, because of the suddenness with

-which it is capable of dealing destruction. Whether his artillery

-actually opens on the battalion is another matter. If the battalion

-shows up as a tempting target in column of route or mass, he most

-certainly will fire on it, but if it is skilfully led it may possibly

-escape his notice altogether; at the same time, it is hardly likely

-that it can move from five thousand to fourteen hundred yards from

-the enemy’s infantry without giving some indications of its movement,

-and the probability is, that at some part of the advance it will

-find itself the recipient of the enemy’s attention. To escape the

-effect of this fire, the battalion and the company will have to

-break up into small shallow columns such as platoons or sections at

-least 50 yards from each other laterally (I.T., 118) and two hundred

-yards from front to rear; in fact, a lot of little groups of men

-sufficiently apart to prevent the burst of one shell covering more

-than one group. The advance in this order constitutes the first phase

-of the infantry attack. The company must be practised in getting into

-this formation, and moving in it so as to avoid confusion in action,

-and also to let non-commissioned officers and men understand that

-this formation does not free them from the control of their commander.

-

-At manœuvres and exercises the adoption of this formation is

-sometimes burked on various pretexts, of which the most heinous is to

-say that the results of artillery fire are overrated, and the risk

-run in keeping in closed formation is more than compensated for by

-the comfort of the men, maintenance of control and saving of time.

-This theory I fancy had its origin in the South African War, where

-the Boer artillery was skilful but exiguous, if judged by European

-standards. I have not been under shell fire myself, but I have seen

-the results of it on a column of about two hundred men who came along

-a watercourse two thousand yards or so from the guns, in something

-resembling a march formation. The guns had the range, and the enemy

-left about fifty dead in that watercourse in a few minutes, so

-personally I am going to open out my company and trust to my peace

-training of it to keep it in hand and get it along fast enough to be

-on the spot when wanted.

-

-I need hardly give details how to practise this. The point is, to get

-the company opened out quickly and without confusion, and this is to

-be done by telling your platoon commanders what you want and where

-they are to go, and not by any drill. Platoons may further split up

-into columns of sections. Leave it to your platoon commanders to have

-the sections moved apart to intervals of fifty yards. If the enemy’s

-artillery is straight in front, a diamond formation seems suitable—a

-platoon at each angle—the length of the diagonal front to rear being

-over two hundred yards and side to side over one hundred; or the

-platoons may simply follow each other at two hundred yards distance,

-though this is not a very handy arrangement. But, subject to keeping

-the distances large enough, it is not the formation that matters, but

-the way it is taken up, and I will leave it at that.

-

-At the end of this phase of endurance of the enemy’s artillery fire

-the company comes under rifle fire and has to take to extended

-order, and on service it would perhaps have to do this and plunge

-into the attack without the platoons closing in from the scattered

-formation in which they have so far moved. But for the first few

-times you should close up at fourteen hundred yards and start from

-there, so as to tell the men what is next to be done when they come

-under rifle fire, and in any case the size of your exercise ground

-would probably necessitate your doing the two phases over more or

-less the same bit of ground.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE XI.

-

-     THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION, UNDER RIFLE FIRE.

-

-

-The immediate objects of the fire fight within effective rifle range

-are to produce a fire sufficiently heavy to overcome the fire of

-the defence, and to reach a position from which the assault can be

-delivered (I.T., 121 (5 and 6)). In theory, then, the desideratum

-is to get so many men up to about two hundred yards from the enemy

-that they form a line practically shoulder to shoulder, in order

-that their fire may be at least as heavy as that of the enemy,

-if the latter are also in one continuous line, and in default of

-circumstances admitting of effective covering fire being maintained

-from positions in rear or on a flank. On this supposition it is

-frequently argued that a battalion and its companies, when advancing

-to the attack, should do so on a front not greater than that which

-the battalion would occupy if it were in single rank, but this does

-not really follow. The nature of the ground may be such that to

-attempt to build up a shoulder-to-shoulder firing line all along

-the enemy’s position within charging distance, may be merely to send

-men to useless destruction by exposing them on fire-swept spaces,

-where they are sure to be knocked over before they can do any good.

-On the other hand, there may be other points where men may be massed

-so as to give not only a firing line of maximum density, but also

-a supporting force both to replace casualties and to carry out the

-assault. These are the points which it is of importance to gain and

-hold in strength sufficient to carry out the object of the attack—the

-assault. It is the duty of the battalion commander to give each of

-his firing line companies some such point as their objective, and to

-define the frontage and direction of their attack. It is similarly

-the duty of the commander of a firing line company to give each of

-his sections an objective within the limits assigned to his company

-(I.T., 122 (4) and 123 (3-)). The problem for solution is, how to

-get to those points, and so it does not appear to matter much what

-frontage the battalion and its companies occupy when they start off

-for the attack at the fourteen hundred yards limit of effective

-rifle fire, provided of course, they do not encroach on the frontage

-of other units. Indeed, an attack which starts on a wide base and

-concentrates only in its later stages seems much more likely than one

-which starts from base equal to a single rank frontage to keep the

-enemy uncertain of its objective, and to be able to bring oblique

-or enfilade fire to bear on portions of his line. Therefore, when

-practising the company in attack, do not be bound by cast iron rules

-as to the breadth of the zone of ground within which you are to

-bring your company from fourteen hundred yards up to the charging

-position. Four platoons following one straight behind the other, at

-two hundred yards distance, make a very unwieldy procession, and,

-in general, I would advise you to use something in the nature of a

-diamond formation at first, the three platoons in rear making their

-own way forward till they reinforce the leading portion which finally

-consists of the whole company.

-

-Put out the skeleton enemy on a front of, roughly, what your company

-will occupy in single rank, and let the position, if possible, have

-within it two, or at most, three points, which you can assign as

-objectives to the platoon commanders. You must consider this position

-as having been assigned to you as objective by your battalion

-commander, the ground on the right and left of it being the prey

-of other companies, and not the object of your assault, though it

-should, nevertheless, frequently be the object of your _fire_ during

-the advance.

-

-Draw up the company at about fourteen hundred yards from the enemy.

-Tell the platoon commanders the relative positions the platoons are

-to take up when the advance begins, roughly the distances between

-them (I.T., 123 (7)), the direction of the attack, if the enemy’s

-position is not quite clearly to be seen, the frontage on which the

-company is free to manœuvre, and the points which the sections are to

-regard as their objectives; the details contained in I.T., 123 and

-124, may also be enumerated if the commanders are not experienced.

-As regards these details, I recommend that scouts be formed not in a

-line of men extended at wide intervals, but as a line of patrols of

-four or six men each, and you or a subaltern should halt them early

-in the attack and tell them to send back word that they are held up

-by fire, or that they have defined the enemy’s position; on this the

-nearest platoon reinforces them, and the process of building up the

-firing line begins from that point. As regards inter-communication,

-use connecting files and semaphore signalling to join up the various

-parts and make real use of them, but avoid sham messages.

-

-As soon as the object and manner of the attack have been detailed to

-all, tell the platoon commanders to move off their platoons to their

-positions and extend them ready to advance, and the scouts to get off

-in front. Five paces is the least extension to ensure that a bullet

-aimed at one man may miss him with a fair chance of not hitting his

-neighbour. Do not let the scouts go too far away, because at this

-time of getting to grips with the enemy, their usefulness, when

-acting with their companies is mainly limited to guarding against

-ambush at close range, and as ground scouts to prevent the company

-coming against some unseen obstacle, barbed wire, donga, canal, or

-what not.

-

-As soon as all are in position, the company may be considered as

-being in the formation in which it would have arrived at the point

-where, in addition to the enemy’s artillery fire, it comes under

-heavy and fairly accurate rifle fire. Give the signal to advance,

-and let the platoon commanders begin to work their platoons forward,

-using what covered ways they can find. After a little of this, have

-the scouts halted and reinforce them by one platoon, order fire to be

-opened, bearing in mind that one platoon’s fire is probably useless

-at over one thousand yards from the enemy, but if your company is in

-the diamond formation the platoons on each flank will probably be

-able to fire, and with favourable ground, e.g., a knoll, or bluff

-somewhere on the line of advance, the rear platoon also will be able

-to fire over the heads of the firing line. There is no danger in this

-if the men hold their rifles straight, and it would assuredly be done

-in war. I have myself seen it, and the chances of an accident are

-minimised by practice in peace. During this early opening of fire

-use every effort to keep the fire from being merely a make-believe,

-i.e., send word round by your connecting files or semaphore to fire

-at certain targets, and see that section commanders direct their

-fire accordingly. In battle the information as to which part of the

-enemy’s position seemed most to demand attention would, of course,

-reach you from those of your side who were suffering fire coming from

-that part of the position, and the result of your passing the word

-to fire at it as above would be that a shower of bullets would come

-dropping all round it, to the upsetting of the aim of the hostile

-marksmen. Under cover of this fire your firing line may be allowed to

-gain a little ground, platoons moving alternately so as to avoid a

-cessation of fire. Thereafter continue to gain ground, and gradually

-reinforce the firing line till all your supports are absorbed and

-the whole company is in the firing line. When this has taken place

-the line will consist of a mixture of men of different sections

-and platoons. Avoid unreal movements in attempting to keep the men

-of each unit together in reinforcing and recognise that admixture

-is unavoidable. (I.T., 93 (11) and 123 (9)). The organising of the

-resultant disorder is one of the essential objects of training for

-the attack. Make your section commanders call on the men to right and

-left of them, if they are nearer them than any other unit commander,

-to act under their orders. Thus: “Private A to Private J under my

-orders.” Have this done constantly till it becomes a matter of

-course. The men of files can always hang together, but prove that

-this is being done by asking men where their file mates are. Get this

-system started as soon as reinforcement is begun, and keep it in full

-swing throughout. Once it is started, these extemporized fire units

-must apply the principles learnt by the intact sections and squads

-in Exercise IX., i.e., supporting fire by part to cover movement of

-the others, control and distribution of fire, etc., and so work on

-up to assaulting distance and deliver an assault. After this, let

-section and platoon commanders reform their men and units as quickly

-as possible, and then reform the company under your own orders. At

-subsequent parades introduce casualties among the section and platoon

-commanders, and let the senior privates in each of the mixed up fire

-units step into their places and carry on the attack without halt or

-confusion.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE XII.

-

-                 THE COMPANY IN ATTACK ACTING ALONE.

-

-

-On service a company may often have to attack some post of the

-enemy without having the support of either artillery or infantry,

-and exercises framed to illustrate these conditions are very useful

-in developing the initiative of all ranks. In paragraph V. of the

-preamble I gave an example, and I think, if you will peruse it again,

-you will see what sort of thing you should arrange for the exercise.

-At inspections one sometimes sees a company sent off by itself to

-carry out such an attack, and the method often adopted is to tell

-off the company into the firing line and supports, and, perhaps, a

-reserve. The whole then go straight for the object and perform a

-sort of travesty of what the company does when acting as part of a

-battalion. By this time I trust you will be quick to perceive that

-this is just what it ought not to do. As an isolated force it has

-to do much more than simply to form a firing line and bring off an

-assault. It must secure its flanks, have a real reserve, employ a

-flank as well as a frontal attack, provide for its own withdrawal

-if worsted, be prepared to deal with a counter-attack, and observe

-all the principles laid down in I.T., 121. _Mutatis mutandis_, your

-reserve may consist of only a platoon, your flank guards a file or

-two of men, your flank attacks a section or platoon with a subaltern

-accompanying it, and so on, but the precautions must be taken and

-the principles put into practice, or your attack would run risk

-of failure. You would do it all on service; therefore, do it all

-in peace. Carry out such exercises, carefully planned, and with

-observance of service conditions, and I am quite sure you will see

-what a great deal there is to be done in this direction before you

-feel yourself and your company quite competent to undertake a similar

-task in the field. That first exercise against a skeleton enemy will

-be the forerunner of many others. Your criticism of the action of

-your non-commissioned officers must be carefully considered, as there

-are usually several justifiable ways of doing a thing, and it should

-always be constructive and not merely destructive (T. & M.R., 2 (2)).

-

-

-

-

-                           EXERCISE XIII.

-

-                     THE COMPANY IN RETIREMENT.

-

-

-The men have been practised in retirement in pairs in Exercise

-II., and the sections and platoons have also learned their part in

-Exercise VI. It remains to train the company for this duty, which

-it might have to do either as acting as rearguard to the battalion,

-whether the latter was, or was not, in conjunction with other troops,

-or as if effecting its withdrawal when isolated. In both cases the

-procedure and distribution are pretty much alike. In the former case,

-the company, if it gets into difficulties, _may_ be able to get help

-from the rest of the force, but in the latter it will not be able

-to do so, and the commander should be especially careful to have

-in hand some portion of his company which he can use to extricate

-any detachment which gets “tied up.” On the other hand, it is very

-desirable that the main body should not be called on to reinforce

-the rearguard when the company is not acting alone. So that in both

-cases you should be prepared to meet eventualities from your own

-resources. Again, a rearguard is bound to have the majority of

-its force in action in order to hold back the enemy and present an

-appearance of force, so that it is not always possible to set apart

-a portion of so small a body as a company to act solely as reserve,

-and to remain continuously outside the actual combat. The solution

-of the difficulty seems to lie in an intelligent application of the

-principles of rearguard fighting given in F.S.R., 71 to 73, and the

-early but timeous withdrawal from the fighting line of a portion

-of the company who move back to a position in rear from which they

-can cover the withdrawal of the remainder, but are still available

-to be thrown into the fight, if it is necessary to inaugurate some

-sort of a counter attack to give portions heavily engaged a chance

-to break away from close grips. It is important in this exercise

-to teach non-commissioned officers and men to be ready to adopt

-quickly any method of withdrawal that may be ordered, because the

-nature of the ground must determine the way in which a withdrawal can

-best be effected, and the nature of the ground may vary every few

-hundred yards. Therefore I merely suggest some ways of practising

-retirements, and during the course of the exercise you should change

-from one to another, and also encourage commanders to act on their

-own initiative, when, as will probably happen, your system of

-inter-communication fails to act with sufficient speed and accuracy.

-I.T., 137, gives general rules as to the action of platoons and

-sections, and the standard set up in Exercises II. and VI. should be

-adhered to. Send out the skeleton enemy with orders to follow up the

-retirement, but not to close in under six hundred yards.

-

-(_a_) Get the whole company deployed into one line of platoons,

-with intervals between them, occupying a wide front, four to eight

-hundred yards, the men at five or more paces extension. This may

-seem too wide a front, but, after all, the intervals between the

-platoons are only two hundred and forty yards, and an enemy trying

-to break straight through the line would be under fire at one

-hundred and twenty yards or less, while a wide front is the best

-precaution against having your flanks turned and your retreat

-intercepted.

-

-Send back a platoon from one of the flanks to take up quickly a

-position in rear clear away from the firing line; three hundred to

-six hundred yards is not too much; let it open fire, and let the

-remainder of the firing line work back by retirement of alternate

-sections, each running back thirty or forty yards, beginning this

-movement from the flank from which the first platoon went, the

-platoon on the other flank holding on and only giving ground when the

-two centre platoons have got well on their way to the line on which

-the first platoon is halted. This is a slow retirement, but gives a

-maximum of continuous fire and the flanks are strong.

-

-(_b_) With the whole company extended in one line, and no intervals

-between platoons. Retire by short rushes of alternate sections;

-the rushes must be quite short, twenty yards at most, so that the

-sections that have retired can fire through the intervals of the

-rear portion of the line the instant that it begins to retire. This

-is meant for use after an unsuccessful assault, and only on flat

-ground.

-

-(_c_) With the company extended in one line, but with intervals

-between the platoons. Order the flank platoons to retire and take

-post to cover the withdrawal of the two centre platoons, who remain

-in position till the flank platoons are ready to open fire. Watch

-how the platoon commanders handle their platoons; they should do so

-artfully, as taught in Exercise VI.

-

-(_d_) Retire by half-companies, two platoons together, using your

-subalterns as half-company commanders, and putting the onus of

-finding suitable covering positions on them, merely telling them

-to cover each other’s retirement.

-

-(_e_) With the company all holding one position, leave the scouts

-or picked men to cover the retirement by rapid fire, and withdraw

-the remainder at full speed, then cover the retirement of the

-scouts by the fire of the whole from a position in rear. Watch

-that the scouts creep back from their cover without letting the

-enemy know they are going; and of this screen of scouts the flank

-men ought usually to be the last to go in order to make the enemy

-believe that the position is still occupied.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE XIV.

-

-                              OUTPOSTS.

-

-

-                                 I.

-

-The general rules for outposts and the part played by an outpost

-company are to be found in I.T., 147 to 157, and it is necessary

-accordingly to train for those duties in peace. Let us begin from

-the beginning, and see what infantry outposts are and what they have

-to do. A line of infantry outposts will very often have to be taken

-up after a day’s fighting, or in close proximity to the enemy before

-a battle. The commander of an outpost battalion will be told by the

-staff to take up with his battalion a certain length of the front,

-say, from Farm A to Hill B, inclusive—perhaps a mile or even two in

-extent. He cannot possibly have time to ride all along the front and

-fix places for piquets and sentries. Instead of this, he looks at

-the ground and comes to the conclusion that it will require, say,

-all his four companies in the outpost line. He divides up his front

-into four parts, and gives each of his companies one part. It is

-his duty to see that the eight companies form along the line that

-combines the best facilities for defence and reconnaissance to the

-front. Accordingly, he tells the captain of A Company to take from

-Farm A to, say, the wood X, inclusive, the captain of B Company

-from the wood X, exclusive, to, say, the stream ML, inclusive, and

-so along. The captains of companies then have to go off and take up

-their frontages. As beforesaid, infantry outposts must expect to take

-up their line close to the enemy, and often when dusk is falling.

-This gives you your clue as to how it should be done. You must march

-your company in fighting formation, so as not to be ambushed—a screen

-of scouts or other covering troops in front and on the flanks, a

-party, section, or platoon ready to succour the covering party, and

-hold up the enemy, and a reserve ready to act under your orders,

-either for attack or defence. Your movement and the taking up of

-your line should be unseen by the enemy; therefore, move carefully

-under cover both from distant and close positions, from which you

-may be seen. The line must be taken up quickly. The main thing is

-to get it occupied; therefore, it is a mistake to halt the company

-while you plod round the whole of the front and plan just where each

-piquet and sentry will be. Instead, take a good look at the line as

-you march and decide what are the essential points to be held for

-defence and as observation points. As soon as your scouts have made

-good the ground a little in front of those points, send off what you

-think are necessary, sections or platoons, to seize these points,

-and act as piquets till you go round and adjust details. Thus your

-company will occupy the line in rough-and-ready fashion as quickly

-as they can advance. When the company breaks up to go to the piquet

-posts, go with any one of the piquets which is to be on one flank and

-settle the exact position of the piquet with reference to the line

-you intend to hold as your line of resistance, and any other details

-which you think the piquet commander should attend to, such as what

-localities should be patrolled, and estimate the number of men

-required. Any surplus sections should accompany you from this piquet,

-and you and they then go along the line to the other piquets which

-you arrange similarly, using the surplus to reinforce those piquets

-that need them, and if at the end you have still a surplus of men you

-may either form them as a support in rear or dismiss them to remain

-with their own platoons. For purposes of messing on service the

-latter is convenient, but, tactically, a support is often needed, in

-which case the men’s comfort must take second place.

-

-You must make a clear distinction between day and night outposts,

-though you practise the latter by daylight. Infantry outposts by day

-and until the enemy advances, are firstly patrols and look-out men,

-whose business is to look for any movement on the part of the enemy,

-and to prevent his seeing their own side’s doings, and to report

-what they see of the enemy’s, and, secondly, a line of piquets who

-occupy the line decided on as the line of resistance, and who may

-fall out and rest while things are quiet, with supports and sometimes

-a reserve behind them. The patrols are active agents in getting

-information in front of the outpost line, and they will mostly

-consist of mounted troops except in close country or thick weather.

-The look-out sentries are passive obstacles to the enemy’s patrols

-or scouts penetrating the line; the piquets are the reserve of force

-ready to be called into action when needed. But a line suitable for

-observation and resistance by day is seldom suitable by night also.

-Fighting by day is done by shooting, and rough ground affording cover

-is likely to be chosen for the advance of the attackers. By night,

-however, the attack will be made with the bayonet, and the attacker

-will avoid broken country, which will confuse and delay his advance.

-Choose your outpost line accordingly. By day seek for a good field

-of fire, mutually supporting positions, and good facilities for

-observation, and strengthen the position you mean to fight on. By

-night close the likely ways by which an enemy may advance by putting

-piquets on them in strengthened positions with obstacles prepared

-in front, and patrols lying out on intervening ground to intercept

-scouts. Thus, in an undulating hedge-covered country with many roads,

-by day your piquets would be behind the crests of the undulations,

-sentries only on the look-out, and patrols scouting in front. By

-night your piquets would be on the roads, which they would block with

-barbed wire or abattis of cut hedge stuff, and your patrols in the

-fields between and lying out along the road in front at some place

-where they could watch anything passing, and get back to the piquet

-line without running risks of being shot by their own side. We will

-see below what training is required for non-commissioned officers

-and men in their duties on piquet, patrol and sentry. When you have

-trained them in these duties, take up an outpost line as a tactical

-exercise with your company, acting as an outpost company by day,

-and then as by night, and if you have scouts send them out to act

-as an enemy’s patrol in front to see how much of the operation of

-taking up the line is visible to them; then, after a certain hour,

-let them try to make their way through the line unseen. They must

-not work round the flanks as _ex hypothesi_; these are held by other

-outpost companies; finally, let them start sniping the outposts as

-if ushering in an attack, and let your piquets take up the line of

-resistance, your patrols falling back on the firing beginning.

-

-

-                                 II.

-

-        _The Training of Men and Platoons in Outpost Duties._

-

-An outpost company will more often consist of two or more small

-piquets of one or more platoons with a support, than simply of one

-large piquet with its support, so that when you come to train the

-whole company, as above, in taking up a part of an outpost line, the

-performance of the work will depend largely on the ability of your

-platoon and section commanders to direct the men in their duties.

-Unless they are capable of doing this, time will be wasted as you

-will be occupied with one portion of the line while the rest are

-doing nothing and awaiting your arrival, for in this class of work

-the instructor must remain for some time with each piquet while the

-men are being put through the various duties, and cannot supervise

-concurrently at all points. Therefore, it is best, before taking

-the men out for instruction, to give a day or two solely to the

-instruction of subalterns and non-commissioned officers. When they

-have got a knowledge of what is required, have the men out, divide

-them into piquets under subalterns and section commanders, who will

-put them through the duties, and the work will go on on proper lines,

-and you will be free to go round and supervise each in turn.

-

-You will have four subalterns, sixteen section commanders, and other

-non-commissioned officers, a total of twenty rifles or so, but if you

-are short of non-commissioned officers, have out enough privates to

-give you sixteen or twenty rifles. Form them up as a piquet and make

-the supposition that it has just received its orders to break off

-from the company and go to a certain point in the outpost line and

-take up its duties there.

-

-

-                           _Day Piquets._

-

-Indicate some such point as a day piquet position at a reasonable

-distance from where the piquet is when you give it its orders,

-and let the senior non-commissioned officer march it there, as on

-service, the point chosen being, if possible, such a one as would be

-occupied on service.

-

-(_a_) This advance to the piquet is the first duty. In spite of the

-company covering troops being supposed to be somewhere in advance,

-the piquet on its march should be protected by a small patrol

-(F.S.R., 64 (1)). In taking up the position, it must not let the

-enemy see it; that is, neither the men nor their commander should

-show themselves. Very often the men are kept under cover, but the

-commander wanders about fixing places for sentries in full view of

-everyone. He should lie down and peep over the crest or whatever it

-is while making his plans.

-

-Having arrived at the piquet position, indicate a position on the

-right and on the left where other piquets are supposed to be and

-proceed with:—

-

-(_b_) Duties of outpost sentries.—These are given in I.T., 152. Post

-as many groups as will use up the whole strength in places which

-would need watching on service; if there are not enough such places

-near by, then merely for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two or

-more groups close together. A group consists of one or two men on

-duty, and their reliefs, who lie down near them. These groups are

-relieved every eight or twelve hours. Let it be understood that the

-position of their own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of these

-groups and of patrols, and it is a good plan to show the position

-by a flag. The sentries must see without being seen, know where

-other groups are, where their own and other piquets are, be told to

-challenge and halt anyone approaching as in I.T., 152 (3), and what

-to do if attacked. Let them do this to you personally, as if you were

-someone not belonging to the troops, and impress on them that they

-must be careful to teach it to their men so that _no stranger may

-ever be allowed to get close_ to a group, and to shoot if he does

-not halt. Neglect of this simple rule has led to many mishaps in all

-armies. Concealment is not easy, but must be got somehow—by artifice,

-if the ground is unfavourable. After putting all through “sentry go”

-close to the groups and teach them:—

-

-(_c_) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and 156. Patrols are not

-meant for fighting, but to get information or watch dangerous places.

-But they may have to fight to avoid capture, and they do no good

-by walking blindly into an ambush. To bring back information or

-news that the enemy are coming on, it is evidently essential that

-whatever happens to the rest of the party, one man at least should

-always be able to escape, and to avoid ambush the patrol should move

-in a formation which will prevent a surprise overwhelming the whole

-party. In short, one portion must scout, and the other be prepared

-to cover their movement and help them to get away, if possible, but

-in any case to get away itself and carry news of the enemy. But

-patrols must be limited in strength, or they will not be able to

-escape notice, and must make up for their weakness by cunning and

-stealthiness of movement.

-

-For patrolling by day, tell off the whole strength into patrols of

-four or six men, one of whom will command in each patrol. Let each

-take up the formation it would usually adopt; that is, one or two

-files in advance, followed by the rest at a distance sufficient to

-prevent the surprise of the whole by one and the same opening of

-fire. Teach the method advocated for movement across country, i.e.,

-a careful but rapid advance from one cover to another, also how to

-approach suspicious localities. The leading file halts and looks

-for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile the rear file comes nearly

-up to it; the leading file then moves forward while the rear file

-lies down with rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire at once to

-cover the others if the enemy shows himself. If the locality to be

-searched can be outflanked, the leading files should move round one

-or both flanks before closing in on it. If it is one that cannot be

-outflanked, as, for instance, a straight edge of a large wood, they

-should approach it under cover, creeping up a hedgerow perhaps, and

-so get inside. If there is no cover they may try some ruse to draw

-the enemy’s fire before getting too close, halting as if they had

-seen something, shading the eyes with the hand, pointing and then

-starting to run back as if alarmed, which might lead the enemy to

-open fire to prevent their escape. But it is rather hard to get

-men to do this play-acting unless there is a real force of “Blue”

-or “Red” enemy against them. The commander of the patrol, when

-approaching any place, should tell his men what they are to do if it

-is seen to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still and watch, or

-retire. If the latter, he should fix some place in rear where the

-patrol could rally after getting out of harm’s way.

-

-Show them how to look over a ridge, wall, or hedge, without

-attracting notice, taking off their headdress and raising the head

-slowly, keeping the rest of the body carefully under cover, and

-also to move unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges or roadside

-trees, and covering up any polished metal work of their uniform; to

-lie up on any place that commands a good view, and look long and

-carefully all over the country to catch sight of anything. Finally to

-report what they see, and to do this at once, if there is need, by

-sending one, or better, if the patrol can spare them, two men back

-to the piquet with a _written_ report, the rest still remaining in

-observation. Without having an actual force opposing you, you can

-only do this exercise with some appearance of reality by giving out

-verbal situations to the patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that wood

-which an enemy may be holding.” On this the patrol would get into

-formation and move forward. Then, when approaching the wood, “You

-have seen small parties of the enemy beyond the wood both on its

-right and left, and they are perhaps in the wood also; try and get

-into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or, if not, “show what you

-would do to draw their fire before getting close.” Then “the wood is

-held by the enemy, withdraw your patrol if you can.” As the patrol

-attempts to retire “a heavy fire is opened on you as you retire,

-showing that there is at least a company in the wood, your first

-duty is to send news of this to your piquet—how and whom would you

-send, and how would you frame your message?”

-

-(_d_) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon and take it to the place

-where the piquet is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position has

-at once to strengthen the position against attack, and this without

-waiting for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are here only training

-the non-commissioned officers in their duties we will not ask them

-actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes and entanglements;

-indeed, this, as one may term it, executive work, has its proper

-place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind, then, that we are dealing with a

-day outpost, ask or show the platoon how to strengthen the position.

-Bring out a few picks and let them spitlock on the ground the lines

-of any trenches that might be needed, paying great attention to the

-siting of the trench so that fire could be brought over all the

-ground in front. Let them indicate with exactness where and how they

-would improve and adapt existing cover. Great regard need not be had

-to the number of men in the piquet, as outposts, if attacked, should

-make as much show of force as possible, and it does good and not harm

-if there are alternative loop-holes facing in different directions;

-also accommodation must be provided for the support. The commander

-should look for ground outside the outpost line from which enfilade

-rifle or artillery fire might be brought to bear on him, and mark how

-he would protect his men from it by traverses, breaking the line of

-loop-holes into short lengths, keeping under lee of existing cover

-and so on. The strengthening of the piquet must be done with the aid

-of common-sense. It will seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit

-of trench all in one piece and hope the enemy will be good enough to

-come and knock his head against it. Cover may be made or adapted in

-several separate groups, if this is needed, so as to make it possible

-to bring fire to bear on any part of the ground in front. The piquet

-must be prepared to make as brave a show as possible, therefore the

-commander, while strengthening the point near which his piquet is to

-rest, must decide what he will do if attacked. Probably there will be

-within the limits of his piquet’s frontage one or two other points

-which might be useful for defence, and he must not expect attack

-just from one direction. With regard to such alternative positions

-he should settle when and how he will use them, and whether he can

-afford time and men to strengthen them, and, last but not least,

-whether he will be able to get men from one to the other if the enemy

-does develop a strong attack. If he can do all these he will have

-added immensely to his power of defence, provided he handles his men

-skilfully, as he will be able to hold one position till the enemy

-thinks he has defined its location, then dodge to another, while

-they will go on firing at the old one, and so make his piquet appear

-many times stronger than it is. Concealment of the defence is very

-important, and the non-commissioned officers should be reminded that

-this must be attended to. They may forget it as there is no actual

-digging.

-

-(_e_) Duties in Piquet.—The position of the piquet and alternative

-defence positions having been fixed, and trenches or other defences

-marked out on the position, and on the alternative positions if any,

-assemble the platoon at the piquet and show the non-commissioned

-officers how to tell off reliefs and other duties. Each group

-furnished by the piquet consists of three to eight men, and mounts

-one or two men as sentry, as the circumstances of the post require

-(I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry, single or double, being relieved in turn

-by the others of the group. The whole group is under command of the

-senior soldier or a non-commissioned officer. The men who are to

-form the reliefs of the groups stay with the piquet, which usually

-is composed solely of the reliefs of groups and patrols. Extra men

-who have no specific duties are not advisable unless the position is

-very exposed. Suppose your group sentries are single, and the groups

-of three men each, and relieved every eight hours, then for every

-group posted and in position there will be six men in the piquet

-resting and waiting their turn, each group thus needing a total of

-nine men—three out, six in. Patrols start from the piquet or support,

-as the commander of the company directs, and the piquet commander may

-send them out on his own initiative, if he thinks it needful. As they

-are practically all on duty as long as they are out, a turn of four

-hours is enough for them, or, rather, a third of the daylight time.

-Take your patrols from this piquet to be four strong, there will be

-for each patrol eight men in the piquet and four out on patrol, a

-total of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.

-

-In telling off a piquet on the above conditions of relief, and before

-dismissing the men to rest, the commander must pay attention to two

-main points. Firstly, he must tell off the reliefs, and give each

-relief a place to rest in. Men on outpost are usually tired and need

-all the rest they can get, especially if they are up all night.

-Therefore reliefs should be kept together and rest in one place, so

-that the commander can find them at once without stirring up the

-others to see who’s who. Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm

-posts, which they are to occupy in case of attack—each relief and

-each man of it should be given a position on the entrenchment which

-he is to hold. To ensure that they will do this at once and without

-confusion they should be made to go to these places and occupy them

-before being dismissed. There will then be no needless running about

-with consequent casualties if fire, either of artillery or infantry,

-suddenly opens.

-

-Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned officers and others) in

-your instructional piquet give out that it is to furnish—

-

-  1 Sentry over the piquet.

-

-  2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.

-

-  2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.

-

-The sentry over the piquet alone being actually posted, the two

-groups and two patrols being supposed to be out in front, as this

-part of the lesson is only concerned with the inside work of the

-piquet, and you have already shown them this work on sentry and

-patrol. As your strength is not sufficient you must make a further

-supposition, and make believe that for the reliefs of the groups one

-of your rifles represents three, and for those of the patrols one

-rifle represents two. Appoint one of the non-commissioned officers in

-turn as commander, and let him tell off accordingly.

-

-  3 Rifles for piquet sentry, one of whom he actually mounts.

-

-  1 Rifle (representing three) as second relief, No. 1 group.

-

-  1 Rifle (representing three) as third relief, No. 1 group.

-

-  2 Rifles (representing two each) for second relief, No. 1 patrol.

-

-  2 Rifles (representing two each) for third relief, No. 1 patrol.

-

-    And a similar number for No. 2 patrol and No. 2 group.

-

-Having told off these reliefs the commander should then tell them

-where they are to have their resting places and where their posts are

-in case of alarm. At this time also he would give out any special

-orders which concern the piquet. Then without dismissing the men

-he should order them to go to their resting places, and as soon as

-they are there order them to occupy their alarm posts, which should

-be done in double time, the men lying down on the places that have

-been marked out for entrenchment or improvement of existing cover.

-Make this falling in on alarm posts a standing order in the company.

-After this has been done, and each man knows exactly what he has to

-do on the alarm, the men should be dismissed to their resting places,

-which, as before said, should be separate for each relief and apart

-from each other. After being dismissed, the men would on service be

-allowed to make themselves as comfortable as possible. Other duties

-of the piquet commander are:—

-

-  (1) The opening of communication with piquets in right and left and

-        the support.

-

-  (2) The fixing of places for purposes of nature.

-

-  (3) The arrangements for getting up food to his men if they have

-        not their rations with them.

-

-  (4) Keeping his piquet in a state of readiness; besides keeping

-        accoutrements on, the men should have their rifles at their

-        sides when resting, and take them with them wherever they go.

-        There should be no such thing as piling arms on outpost.

-

-

-                          _Night Piquets._

-

-In the dark the bullet is a fool unless fired at close quarters.

-No practicable amount of shooting, even at only a hundred yards

-distance, will dislodge determined men posted under cover, and a

-serious attack must be made with the bayonet or by shooting within

-the distance at which a man may be distinguished—ten yards or so.

-F.S.R., 138 (2), lays down for the British Army that the bayonet only

-is to be used in night attacks, and we may assume that any civilized

-army we may have to meet will pursue similar tactics. Aerial

-reconnaissance may nowadays allow an enemy to locate the position

-held by the main body of his opponent, in spite of its being covered

-by outposts, but such reconnaissance does not admit of any hope of

-a successful night attack being made on that main body by eluding

-or passing through the outposts, because the surface of the ground

-cannot be sufficiently searched from above to discover the small

-obstacles which must be avoided or known if the advance of a large

-body of men is to be carried out at night. So we may take it that

-now, as formerly, any large attack will fall first on the outposts,

-supposing, as we must, that these are placed so as to hold or watch

-all possible lines of advance. In addition to this, outposts must

-expect isolated attacks made against one or two points held by them

-which the enemy desires to gain possession of. The duties of outposts

-by night are, then, to hold and defend the outpost line in sufficient

-strength to prevent any large body of the enemy breaking through,

-or getting a footing in some tactically important position on the

-line, and also to prevent the enemy’s scouts from getting through and

-making observations, and, lastly, but of most importance, to get news

-of the enemy both as a means of forestalling any attack, and for the

-use of the force commander in framing his plans. Bringing the matter

-down to the level of a piquet of an outpost company, it seems to

-resolve itself into night patrolling and night defence of a position.

-As before pointed out, enclosed country allows of piquets closing

-the lines of advance by which large bodies can only hope to move

-undiscovered, while intervening ground can be searched by patrols. On

-the other hand, open country leaves the front vulnerable everywhere,

-and calls for a greater number of piquets and closer patrolling than

-are needed by day.

-

-Of course, elementary instruction in these duties must be carried out

-by daylight to allow of supervision; so now assemble your platoon

-of non-commissioned officers and give out that you are going to

-practise night work. Choose some place for your night piquet,

-realistic as may be, a bridge, a cutting, or anything else that

-constitutes a defile or otherwise blocks a likely line of advance

-from the enemy’s direction. Also choose, and point out to the

-platoon, positions where the adjoining piquets on the right and left

-would be. Give out the following instructions to the non-commissioned

-officers:—

-

-  (1) Piquets must take up their night positions when it is getting

-        dusk, the strengthening of the piquet and construction of

-        obstacles being done in advance, secretly if possible, and

-        towards evening the working party should withdraw and leave

-        the intended night position empty till it is time to move

-        into it, further work being completed by twilight.

-

-  (2) The provision of obstacles is more necessary than entrenchment,

-        as securing the piquet from being rushed while completing the

-        latter.

-

-  (3) Men must rest on their alarm posts, and bayonets may have to be

-        kept fixed by all, if there is a possibility of a sudden

-        attack (I.T., 151 (7)), to ensure instant readiness.

-

-  (4) All piquets must stand to arms one hour before light and remain

-        ready for action till the patrols have found that there is no

-        sign of an immediate attack. When relief takes place in the

-        morning, night outposts will not return to camp till the

-        patrols report all clear.

-

-After this, let the non-commissioned officer in command withdraw the

-piquet from its day position and march it to the night position. On

-arrival ask the non-commissioned officers in turn where they would

-place the piquet exactly and where they would put their obstacles.

-Obstacles for a night piquet should be under close fire, i.e., ten or

-twenty paces, but, in addition, booby traps and alarms may be placed

-further in front. Barbed wire is the best of all obstacles. The

-actual defensive measures to be taken do not differ from those taken

-for the defence of any position not on outpost.

-

-The position of the piquet and obstacles being decided on, let the

-non-commissioned officers mark on the ground the actual work they

-would undertake, having regard to the time available, which you

-should tell them, and, on the same lines as for the day piquet, let

-them as commanders in turn divide the men into reliefs of sentries

-and patrols, tell them off to their alarm posts, and order them to

-occupy them once as if on alarm.

-

-A piquet by night, no matter how well entrenched, has a very limited

-field of action. Even with most carefully arranged night rests for

-the men’s rifles its fire effect is small except at close ranges,

-and to resist attack by relatively larger bodies it must in general

-keep behind its defences. Hence a well organised scheme of patrols is

-necessary to supplement the passive opposition which the piquet can

-offer. The patrols are charged with the duty of bringing news of any

-advance of the enemy to attack, and, if he is close enough, of spying

-out his movements on and within his outpost line, of preventing

-his patrols or scouts penetrating their own line, of watching any

-localities which are of particular importance and unoccupied by

-piquets, such, for example, as villages beyond the outpost line which

-the enemy might try to occupy by night, and, lastly, of keeping

-up communication between the various bodies of the outposts. The

-strength of patrols is limited by the necessity of their being able

-to do this work without making a noise, and a strength of three to

-eight men is advised. A patrol performs its duty of observation

-either by going from point to point, or by watching one particular

-place, when it is called a “standing patrol.” If a piquet posts any

-group sentries by night, away from the piquet, such groups have just

-the same work as standing patrols, except that they may be ordered to

-maintain their position in case of attack as they are near support,

-whereas patrols would fall back as soon as they had made sure the

-enemy was advancing, and possibly, if in accordance with their

-instructions, after treating him to a short burst of rapid fire. An

-ordinary patrol will also have to halt and listen perhaps for long

-periods, and so becomes for the nonce a standing patrol.

-

-Form up the platoon at the piquet position, and let the commander

-tell it off into three patrols to practise this duty, disregarding

-reliefs, all three to be sent out at the same time in different

-directions, one man in each to be commander. Before they start off,

-tell them the following, which piquet commanders must see to:—

-

-  (1) If there is no countersign published for the force, piquet

-        commanders must arrange either a word or a sign by which men

-        may know their own side in the dark.

-

-  (2) Patrols going out are to tell the nearest sentry which way they

-        are going (I.T., 156 (5)).

-

-  (3) For patrols a code of signals should be arranged, e.g., a hiss

-        or half-whistle, to call attention, answered by the same to

-        show that the man called has heard it, followed by the

-        signal, whatever it is:—a double hiss for “come up to me,” a

-        click of the tongue for “retire,” but anything will do

-        provided it cannot be clearly heard much further off than the

-        listeners for whom it is intended, and is neither a very

-        common nor a very uncommon sound.

-

-  (4) The piquet commander must tell patrols how long they are to

-        stay out and any places he thinks must be visited, in

-        addition to what they themselves may find advisable, on

-        closer acquaintance with the ground.

-

-A suitable formation for a night patrol of six men would be four in

-the advanced party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the rear party

-or two. The reason for the stronger party being ahead is, firstly,

-that fighting at night begins with suddenness and ends rapidly, while

-reinforcement of one party by another is slow and uncertain, and,

-secondly, to ensure that some part of the patrol may have a good

-chance of getting away with news, whatever happens to the rest:

-Bayonets should be fixed and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the

-right hand holding the small of the butt so as to come to the charge

-at once, and not to have any chance of a rifle falling on the ground.

-

-Tell patrol commanders to get their patrols into formation and

-practise movement in silence along a road and on ordinary road. If

-along a road, let them move on each side of it, off the metal on the

-roadside grass or dust, and under trees or close to the hedge or

-wall. On ordinary country the ball of the foot should be put down

-first as if to feel the surface, before putting the full weight

-of the body on the advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle, _à la_

-“boy scout,” is invaluable in moving over unexplored ground, as by

-it the real nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet can be made

-out, and awkward spills thereby avoided. The movement of patrols

-under these conditions will be very slow over any but quite level

-ground. As the patrols move let them practise the code of signals,

-halting, advancing, coming up into one line, etc., also the keeping

-up of communication by one file moving back and forward between the

-two parts of the patrol. They should practise also breaking up and

-scattering as if attacked by overwhelming numbers, each individual

-getting away as quickly and quietly as possible, and the whole

-rallying again at some place in rear. The patrol commander as he goes

-out must fix these rallying places, usually one is enough over the

-whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be _outside_ the outpost

-line. Have the patrols moved so that on their beats they may meet

-each other once or twice, and use the sign to reply when challenge

-is made. As a second practice, direct one of the meeting patrols to

-consider itself hostile, and let the commander of the other patrol

-excogitate how he would deal with men who did not stand fast on being

-told to halt and could not give the countersign.

-

-Next tell the patrols to get into position to watch various

-localities, a farm steading, a ravine, or such like, as they would

-have to do for limited periods as patrols reconnoitring on their

-beats, or for the whole night as standing patrols. One of the best

-ways in which patrols can fulfil their office is by halting and

-listening with ears near the ground for sounds of human movement.

-There is no rule for thus lying up except that they must not get

-caught themselves. A couple of men should be left quite clear of the

-patrol to get away if the others strike trouble, and the commander

-of the patrol should have word passed to these two from time to time

-that all is well with the rest, or they may wait in their place

-while the others have been quietly downed.

-

-Lastly, let patrols return to the piquet, and learn how to approach

-without getting themselves fired on, or causing useless alarm. A

-good way is for two of the patrol to advance a few steps at a time

-when near the piquet, halting and quietly code-signalling the piquet

-sentry till they get His attention and warn him that the patrol wants

-to come in.

-

-It has taken longer to write about outposts than it may take you

-to put your men through them, and I have purposely been discursive

-because a knowledge of what is needed from outposts is more important

-than any set exercise, and also because this duty is the one which

-newly raised troops are most likely to perform negligently, and at

-the same time the one which, if neglected, allows the enemy to bring

-raw troops to quick demoralisation. I have also purposely written as

-if unlimited ground were available, and, speaking generally, I think

-it is. You can, and should, practise your piqueting and patrolling on

-the ordinary countryside, with its main and bye-roads, paths, fields,

-and hedges. The practice of outposts when piquets are not entrenched,

-causes no damage, so that leave to move over the fields should not

-be hard to get, but even if it cannot be got, the principal and most

-important work of patrolling and watching all roads and paths, will

-be done on the ground on which they would be done on service. If

-fighting ever takes place in Britain, which Heaven forefend, outpost

-lines will be along the ordinary country and not on Salisbury Plain,

-so do not go into wild and desolate places for your outposts, but

-take the ordinary country round where you are.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE XV.

-

-                              DEFENCE.

-

-

-The subject of defence is treated of in F.S.R., 107-110, I.T.,

-125-135, and in Chapter VII., M.F.E., 1911. The duties required of

-the company commander and his subordinates are briefly defined by

-I.T., 132, to be similar to those they carry out in the attack. The

-whole spirit of the regulations is that the active Defence is merely

-a means to an end, viz., the ultimate assumption of the offensive,

-which may be carried out either by the same troops which have acted

-on the defensive or by fresh troops detailed for the purpose. In both

-cases the troops that have acted on the defensive must be ready to

-become the aggressors. Therefore, in training your men, you should

-keep this constantly in view and conserve a spirit of aggressive

-mobility. Men must not be allowed to think that once a position

-has been taken up and entrenched it is to be their location till

-fighting ceases; on the contrary, they should be encouraged to look

-for opportunities while still on the defensive, to occupy alternative

-positions which will make the task of the attacking enemy more

-difficult. Quickness in seizing and strengthening a position must be

-combined with mobility in leaving it to take up and strengthen a new

-one. Of course, the time available regulates the work that can be

-undertaken (M.F.E., VII. (2)); deep trenches and concealed head cover

-cannot be made with an enemy pressing in to assault, but the first

-requirement is the ability to choose positions that give a good field

-of fire and to strengthen them as thoroughly as the time available

-and the proximity of the enemy admit.

-

-In dealing with a company, the onus of choosing what localities it is

-tactically necessary to occupy and strengthen rests with the company

-commander, subject to the orders of his battalion commander. In the

-same way as on outpost, you will be given a bit of ground to defend,

-either acting with the battalion or as an isolated company, and the

-rest will be on your head. I do not propose to deliver a treatise

-on the tactical occupation of ground, but instead I will ask you to

-procure and read two books. The first is “The Defence of Duffer’s

-Drift,” by Backsight Forethought (W. Clowes and Sons), the second

-is “A Staff Officer’s Scrap Book,” by Sir Ian Hamilton (Edward

-Arnold). They are both most readable books, and are quite free of

-soporific effects. The first is small, and deals with the efforts

-of a half-company, under Lieutenant B. F., to defend a drift over a

-South African river. In the second the author takes you along with

-him through the Russo-Japanese War, of which he was a privileged

-spectator, and in your journeyings you look on at victories and

-defeats in the making, while the causes that led to them, great and

-small, are set forth, along with many shrewd comments on human nature

-and how it translates itself in the day of battle. Every fight bears

-its own lesson of what to do and what not to do in defence, and this

-told in no pedantic strain, but with the saving grace of humour, to

-mitigate the darker side of human carnage. Read them both, get to

-yourself the wisdom and understanding with which they are filled, and

-you will know how to take up a position for defence.

-

-Having educated yourself to choose the points of a defensive position

-that must be occupied if the position is to be effectively held,

-you have still to train your men to the work of defending them, and

-they must learn to be able to do without the help of a supervising

-officer, as will often be the case on service.

-

-Daylight defence is almost entirely a matter of fire, the immediate

-object being to make it impossible for the enemy to come to close

-quarters. Platoon and section commanders then must be able to dispose

-their men with this in view to the best advantage within the limits

-of the ground allotted to their units, and the men must be able to

-site their trenches or whatever form of cover has to be constructed

-so as to use their rifles to the best effect. It is no good to teach

-men to dig trenches and make loop-holes unless they know the proper

-places for them. (M.F.E., 18 (7)).

-

-At the same time, practice in digging and the use of tools is very

-necessary for men who are not accustomed to such work. The hands of

-the untrained man blister and his muscles tire under the unusual

-effort, while he expends much energy with results small in comparison

-with what he can accomplish once he has learnt to use his strength

-well. Moreover, a certain amount of technical skill is required in

-making any but the most simple cover.

-

-To practise the execution of work, you _must_ have ground which you

-are at liberty to turn up, as well as some materials for loop-holes

-and obstacles. These may not be obtainable at any and every parade,

-but you can give practice in the selection and siting of trenches

-on any bit of country without causing damage, the men merely

-spitlocking or marking with stones or anything else the position of

-the trenches on the surface of the ground, and describing what they

-propose doing.

-

-I would, therefore, advise that you make your training consist of

-two parts, firstly the siting of trenches and the planning by unit

-commanders and men of defensive work, the choice and occupation of

-alternative positions, and the assumption of the offensive from the

-defensive, all this without actually breaking ground, and, secondly,

-ground and tools being then available, the performance of a course of

-making real cover and obstacles.

-

-But the first part cannot be carried out unless the men have a

-knowledge of what trenches, loop-holes and so on are like, and the

-objects with which they are made. In a company of raw recruits taken

-from the populace at large, there will be plenty who have no ideas

-on the subject at all. You must then precede your exercises either

-by a short lecture, materials for which you will find in plenty in

-the “Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” and the manuals of training, or,

-better than a lecture, by showing them specimens of entrenchments

-made by regular troops. The main points to insist on are the securing

-of a field of fire, the necessity of concealment of the defences,

-the importance of head cover as a help to the delivery of an

-accurate fire by letting men keep the enemy in view without showing

-up themselves, the avoidance of enfilade fire by making traverses,

-or by taking advantage of intervening high ground, the provision

-of cover from downward shell fire by making the trenches deep and

-steep enough to let men stand close up to the edges, and, in the

-case of isolated posts and points held as pivots of a position, the

-necessity of preparing an all-round defence so that these pivots will

-be able to continue fighting whatever happens on the intervening

-ground. The course of work actually performed for the second part

-should include digging all kinds of trenches, by which the men will

-learn to use their tools to the best advantage, and their hands and

-muscles will become hardened, the use of the excavated earth to form

-parapets and parados (cover from fire from the rear of the trench;

-forty inches of earth are needed to keep out a bullet), the drainage

-of trenches, the making of traverses against enfilade fire, the

-making of loop-holes and head-cover with the aid of all sorts of

-materials, sand bags, brushwood and heather, straw and twigs, stones

-and bricks (which must be covered with earth to deaden the effects of

-splinters), packing boards, and so on, the concealment of trenches

-and loop-holes so as to be invisible to the enemy (this is of great

-importance), the masking of loop-holes when not in use to prevent

-light showing through, the making of dummy trenches and loop-holes to

-draw the enemy’s fire away, the improvement of existing cover, such

-as loop-holing walls and the use of hedges with or without ditches,

-making sangars, if stones are available, the making of obstacles of

-barbed and plain wire, and measuring and marking of ranges round

-a position, which should be done by some means not obvious to the

-enemy, and clearing the field of fire. It will seldom be practicable

-to obtain subjects for practical demonstration of some of the latter

-in peace time; people will object to their walls being experimented

-on or their shrubberies laid low, and so even here a description of

-the method will have to be substituted for actual performance. For

-night defence the construction of night rests for rifles is needed.

-The best I know is a packing case, filled with earth, with the front

-and rear edges notched to hold the rifle stock. The magazine is laid

-hard up against the outside of the rear edge and the notches, front

-or rear, slowly deepened with a penknife till the sights bear on the

-target; afterwards earth is banked up outside the box and head-cover

-made above. The foregoing may seem a formidable list, but they are

-things that will undoubtedly be required as soon as you get on

-shooting terms with an enemy; while if you exhaust this list and feel

-the want of further occupation, the Engineering Manual will supply

-you with further subjects for your activities.

-

-Pending your getting facilities of ground, tools, and materials

-to execute work, you can proceed with the first part of training

-outlined above. If your non-commissioned officers have not had

-experience, take them out as an instructional section in the same way

-as when teaching outpost work, and put them through the exercises

-which follow. But if they are already fairly competent, take the men

-on parade, forming them, if possible, into not less than two sections.

-

-

-                  _Instruction in Siting Trenches._

-

-Choose any position on undulating ground, form the men in extended

-order in one line in rear of it, and order them to move up, and

-mark where each would place his trench in order to fire on an enemy

-advancing from the front. In doing this it should be an invariable

-rule that men must lie down, bring the rifle into the firing

-position, look along the sights, and move forward or back till they

-see that they have got the best position to sweep the ground in their

-immediate front (see M.F.E., 31 (3)). Dead ground close to the trench

-gives the enemy a place in which to collect and organise an assault.

-Take the men in the same way on to other positions and repeat the

-lesson till they all understand that the _first thing to be done is

-this aiming with the rifle to secure a good field of fire_. At first

-halt them close to what you see is the best line, and afterwards halt

-them thirty or forty yards from it, and then give the order to choose

-sites. For instance, halt them on the top of a convex slope and let

-them find out that the best place to bring fire on to flat ground at

-its base is somewhere on the enemy’s side of the convexity, for if

-the trench were made on the top of the slope the ground immediately

-in front would be hidden by the convexity. The section commanders

-must help the men in choosing sites.

-

-After the men have fixed and marked the proposed sites, let them lay

-down their rifles three paces in rear and kneel or lie down at the

-rear edge of the site as if waiting to commence work while you and

-section and platoon commanders go round and examine the line. Ask

-details from the men—how high they would make the parapet, how thick

-it should be, how they would make head-cover, how they would conceal

-the work, and so on.

-

-

-              _Traverses and broken lines of Trenches._

-

-Repeat the exercise as above, but this time have the men in sections

-or small groups, and the trenches made not in one line, but in

-short lengths, separated by traverses. You will have to explain

-the construction and use of these to prevent enfilade fire (if not

-from long range), and to localise shell bursts. Again, have lines

-of trenches mapped out in short lengths on an irregular front, some

-a little forward, some a little back, with the earth at each end,

-banked up on the flanks with the same object (M.F.E., 33).

-

-

-                    _Short Trenches for Two Men._

-

-Bring the men extended to six or eight paces on to a position, and

-let the men of each file close to two paces from each other. Each

-file is then to choose and mark a site for a short trench to hold

-both of them, or, as it would formerly have been called, a rifle pit,

-marking where they would make loop-holes to fire both to the front,

-and obliquely towards the right and left, so as to rake the ground

-in front of the line of the other men’s pits. This arrangement is

-not officially recognised, and it does not give the closest possible

-firing line, but it is an excellent way of making men think for

-themselves.

-

-When the men have got their bearings in the matter of taking up a

-line for entrenchment, make them get into the way of changing from

-defence into attack. Take up a position as before, and as soon as

-the trenches are marked out, indicate a position at some distance as

-an objective for attack and start an advance against it, as done in

-the attack practices, forming a firing line rapidly of some named

-platoons and the support of the others. A skeleton enemy kept hidden

-till needed adds much to the realism.

-

-

-        _Defence of Pivots (M.F.E., 50 (3), and I.T., 129)._

-

-Find a position in which there are some points separated from each

-other which command the ground between, and also form such pivots

-for defence of the position as are described in the paras. above.

-According to the nature of the ground, such pivots might be, for

-platoons, as much as four hundred yards apart, i.e., attackers coming

-between them would be under fire at not more than two hundred yards.

-Send a platoon under a commander to each pivot, and let him plan and

-mark out his defensive measures, which must include:—

-

-  1. An arrangement for all-round defence, so that the pivot may be

-       self-contained and capable of continuing the fight, although

-       others may have been captured.

-

-  2. The siting accordingly of trenches and loop-holes to fire all

-       round and especially to sweep the front and rear of adjoining

-       pivots.

-

-  3. The adaptation of existing cover to save labour.

-

-  4. The provision of protection against enfilade and reverse fire,

-       and the _recognition of distant localities_ from which such

-       fire, whether of artillery or rifle, might be brought to bear

-       on the post.

-

-  5. The marking of ranges in each direction.

-

-  6. The provision of obstacles.

-

-  7. Any feasible scheme for alternative positions which his men

-       could reach and occupy under fire.

-

-  8. The concealment of the defences, provision of dummy trenches,

-       and loop-holes and any other shifts.

-

-  9. The telling off and posting of look-out men and fixing and

-       occupying of alarm posts when work has been completed.

-

-  10. Drainage and sanitation.

-

-The concealment of defences from aerial reconnaissance will, perhaps,

-soon claim more attention than it gets at present.

-

-Practise an attack after defence, starting off one platoon under your

-own orders to “go for” an indicated enemy, and sending word either

-by messenger or by semaphore to the others, either to join you and

-form a firing line, or to move out in support, but, if the latter,

-do not fail to finally call them up to reinforce the firing line;

-counter-attacks must usually be made with a relatively strong firing

-line and small support.

-

-

-               _The Company in Defence Acting Alone._

-

-When you have put non-commissioned officers and men through the

-preceding course, plan some scheme on the lines of the defence of

-Duffer’s Drift, to deal with a company isolated and beyond reach of

-immediate reinforcement. Any bridge over a railway line, a group of

-buildings supposed to contain stores, or a ford or bridge over a

-river, will provide you with an object to defend. Choose a line of

-defence round it and determine what are the essential pivots to be

-held. To do this, so as to furnish an instructive lesson, it will

-usually be necessary for you to pay a visit to the place by yourself

-and formulate your proposed defence before bringing the company on

-to the ground. Pay great attention to crossing and supporting fire

-from the pivots, and look at the surrounding country with a view to

-meeting attack from any direction, for in this case the company, as

-well as the pivots in its line of defence, must be self-contained.

-Also have regard to the certainty that you will have artillery

-fire against you, to which you will not be able to reply, and in

-consequence your proposed defences must include deep trenches or

-recesses to shelter the men from shell. Your defences will take the

-form of a chain of isolated groups about the point to be defended

-and separated from each other by possibly several hundred yards. It

-is no use simply to go and sit inside a group of buildings which

-the guns would knock about your ears and against which the enemy

-can concentrate. The better plan is to break up his attack and hide

-your weakness by occupying well-strengthened pivots, behind whose

-protection you may have some freedom of movement, and so be able,

-if the weakness or rashness of the enemy gives opportunity, to

-inaugurate local counter-attacks. These, if successful in inflicting

-a sharp and sudden loss, will make him hesitate to deliver a decisive

-attack till he has found out all about you. With one company you

-cannot expect to achieve decisive results against any considerable

-body of the enemy, but must be content with keeping him in play for

-as long a time as possible, and an attitude of active bluff is the

-best means of doing so.

-

-When you have got your plans completed, take out the company

-as strong as possible and complete in its proper platoons and

-sections—if there are too few men let one man count for two or three.

-Send off platoons to occupy and plan the defence of the pivots as

-done when practising it before. Do the same scheme on two separate

-occasions. The first time do not send out a skeleton enemy, so that

-the men may have time to look round, but for the second time send out

-some scouts under a subaltern, and let the platoons fall out on their

-positions with patrols out in front. Fix a certain hour by which you

-expect the arrangements to be all ready, and arrange for the enemy to

-advance at that time, and open fire on the patrols if they are met.

-When the patrols have fallen back the enemy closes in and starts

-sniping at the position. Then bring off a counter-attack, withdrawing

-some men for the purpose from pivots that are not threatened, and

-coming in on the flank of the attackers. In theory, of course, you

-should have a support or reserve available for this, but it does no

-harm to move men out of their trenches with the object of assuming

-the offensive, while the men learn the essential part of their work

-by all being employed on the perimeter.

-

-Have out the company yet a third time on the same or a similar

-scheme, pivots and skeleton enemy as before. On this occasion, if the

-scheme is the same, change round the platoons to different pivots

-from what they occupied before, and when the arrangements for defence

-have been settled, leave only sentries and their groups on the pivots

-as look-outs, but have patrols in front. Form the remainder of the

-men into a support in some central position, and tell them off to

-occupy as alarm posts the pivots from which they were withdrawn. When

-the skeleton enemy attacks, reinforce the threatened part of the line

-by the men of the units told off for its defence, and with part, or

-even the whole of the rest, make a counter-attack.

-

-It is very desirable, though unfortunately not often possible, to

-perform these last three practices on ground where you are at

-liberty to dig, and with an enemy of three or four companies instead

-of a few snipers.

-

-

-                          _Night Defence._

-

-A night attack may be delivered as a sequence to fighting by

-daylight, in the course of which the enemy has established himself

-sufficiently close to the defences held by his opponent to see

-clearly the way to reach the point against which he intends to lead

-his force. Or he may deliver an attack without previous fighting,

-hoping to get the better of the defenders by surprise, and basing

-his plans solely on the results of reconnaissance. In the latter

-case the attack must be preceded by a night advance, long or

-short, according as the defenders’ outposts and their patrols have

-succeeded in keeping the hostile troops at a distance or not, unless,

-indeed, the troops or their scouts or spies have not been in touch

-at all during the day in which case an attack would not be a wise

-proceeding, because the needful information about the ground and

-your forces is lacking. Such attacks as require a night advance as a

-preliminary are likely to be made either over open ground or along

-roads, for the difficulties and delays occasioned by moving troops

-over broken ground which is not thoroughly known are very great.

-But in the first case, when fighting has been going on by day, and

-the two forces are in close contact at nightfall, separated perhaps

-by only a few hundred yards, the presence of broken ground in front

-of the defences is no guarantee that the enemy may not consider an

-attack by night to have a reasonable chance of succeeding against

-any of the points which he has been trying to carry by daylight. It

-follows then that in preparing a position for defence the pivots must

-be ready to withstand attack by night as well as by day, and also

-that roads or paths leading into the position from the surrounding

-country should be held and defended by night, in spite of their being

-innocuous by daylight owing to being swept effectively by fire from

-the adjacent pivots. It will be admitted, I think, that fire by night

-is ineffectual unless at very short ranges, or when delivered by men

-of extraordinary skill such as the up-country Boer and the American

-backwoods-men were pictured to be. A European enemy will seek to

-bring off his attack with the bayonet. The defenders will try to foil

-this attack, firstly, by the use of fire at the close range, which

-allows it to be effective, and, secondly, by the use of the bayonet.

-This plainly translates itself into obstacles to keep the enemy under

-fire, obstacles to hamper him when at bayonet distance, and night

-rests to help the accuracy of the fire in certain desired directions.

-I have told you one good form of night rest, and there are several

-others, but all require some material if they are to be even

-approximately accurate. Failing material of any sort, tie white rags

-round the muzzles of the men’s rifles if you can get them. After a

-week in the field your men will have nothing that is not very dirty,

-but in a civilised country some member of the population may perhaps

-be found ready to oblige a soldier.

-

-Working still on your daylight scheme show your non-commissioned

-officers and men how to make night obstacles in addition to those

-meant for daylight defence, which latter may be any distance up to

-one hundred yards in front of the trenches. The night obstacles, on

-the other hand, should be quite close, the fire obstacles as close

-as ten yards, the bayonet obstacles, say a narrow ditch and a wire,

-close under the trenches so as to make a man stumble when trying to

-reach the defender with his bayonet. Make or plan these arrangements

-round the pivots, and then practise blocking and defending paths or

-roads by the same methods as for pivots, but with this variation,

-that a parapet which can only be used for defence at night may

-be as high as you consider needful without paying regard to its

-invisibility, while those to be used by day are kept as low as

-possible. In a practical exercise the men to hold these night posts

-would have to be furnished either from your support or by thinning

-some of the pivots.

-

-Yet the most carefully arranged trenches and obstacles will be of

-no value unless the men occupy them in time to avail themselves of

-their advantages. Time sufficient to allow of this, must be got by

-patrolling in front as for outposts, by making automatic alarms in

-front of the obstacles (M.F.E., 55 (12)), by having alert sentries

-on the defence line, and by having a good and well understood

-arrangement of alarm posts by which each man shall be ready to occupy

-at once, in silence, and without confusion, the place which has been

-assigned to him. Patrolling has been dealt with under “Outposts,”

-the alertness of your sentries will depend largely on the state

-of discipline to which you have brought your company, and on the

-commonsenseness, to coin a word, of their training. Alarm posts

-are practised in the same way as on outpost. In many corps it is a

-standing order that when in camp or bivouac, on manœuvre as well as

-on service, men are to fall in on their alarm posts once a day, the

-usual times being at retreat or on arrival in camp (F.S.R., 48 (2)),

-and this is done whether in Brigade (F.S.R., 47 (2)) or not. If such

-is the order in your battalion, adhere to it within your company when

-detached, if not, do it off your own bat. It does not fatigue the men

-and ensures attention being paid on all occasions to this important

-duty.

-

-

-

-

-                            EXERCISE XVI.

-

-                          HASTY EXPEDIENTS.

-

-

-I.T., 93 (iii.), directs the training of the section to include

-rough and ready expedients so as to form a fighting front in any

-direction. This training is of great value, both from a disciplinary

-point of view, as it makes men quick to move on an order, and also

-from the point of view of _moral_, as men accustomed to get sudden

-and unexpected orders given under imaginary circumstances will be

-more likely to keep cool, when such orders are necessitated by the

-stress of actual battle, than men who have always been trained in a

-deliberate fashion.

-

-Such sudden orders must in general mean one of two things, either

-that the enemy has got you, or you have got him, “on the hop,” if I

-may introduce an expression from the cricket field, and that there

-is every chance of the bowler, whoever he is, being badly scored

-off, unless he treats the batsman to something more difficult than

-the expensive half-volley. If you are fortunately able to find the

-enemy at a disadvantage, you will act against him by rifle fire

-alone; but, on the other hand, you may find yourself caught in a bad

-situation, by either artillery or rifle fire, or possibly by cavalry,

-who mean to use the steel. It follows then, in practising expedients,

-based, as they should be, on some possible situation, that you should

-make the central idea either offensive, as if attempting to bring

-your men into a position to get the best results from their fire, or

-defensive, as if to escape, or mitigate shell fire or rifle fire, to

-which you are subjected under adverse conditions.

-

-Against artillery fire from ranges or in positions at which you

-cannot reply effectively with rifle fire, your action at first, at

-all events, must be purely defensive, i.e., all you can do, will be

-to escape being overwhelmed by the shell fire, and even at effective

-rifle range, the shields of modern field guns, enable them to engage

-infantry on very equal terms, so long as the infantry is in front, or

-not far on a flank, of the line of guns.

-

-In the days of muzzle-loaders, it was the cavalry who possessed the

-power of suddenly annihilating infantry, when caught unprepared to

-withstand their charge. The magazine rifle has reduced this danger,

-but the quick-firing cannon has now equal, if not greater, powers of

-dealing out swift destruction to any infantry that it finds exposed

-in close formation, if only the range be known. At least once in the

-Russo-Japanese War, and again in the Turko-Bulgarian war, if we may

-believe the somewhat ill-authenticated reports yet to hand, have

-artillery wiped out of existence in a few moments several hundred

-unfortunate infantrymen, who were caught in the _rafâle_ fired at a

-range either ascertained previously, or got at the moment by good

-luck or good judgment. The contingency of being thus caught by

-artillery is evidently one that should be prepared for by infantry,

-as was the forming of squares in the old days, when a cavalry charge

-was an ever present peril. In this case of artillery fire, the

-conditions and the object desired are practically always the same—the

-infantry is in close order of some sort, and wishes to break up into

-a congeries of small groups, so as to isolate the effect of the burst

-of each shrapnel. The matter of rifle fire is different, as there

-are any number of ways in which you may seek either to escape the

-results of the enemy’s fire or attempt to use your own, and this is

-the proper field in which to practise expedients.

-

-Whenever you intend to carry out some such movement to meet a

-supposed situation, you must let the men know exactly what you are

-picturing, so that they also may understand what is needed. The

-essence of these practices is that they should be performed without

-time for deliberate thought—the men must learn to think and act

-quickly. The most satisfactory way is to be yourself mounted, as you

-can then get the whole company to hear you at once, whereas, if on

-foot, the men who are farthest from you often lose the first part

-of what you say; you then have to repeat it, and the thing loses

-its character of surprise for the rest, who have already heard it

-once. Give out the situation in a loud voice, and in as few words as

-possible, then try and give the very order you think you would give,

-if the situation was a real one on service; use your own imagination,

-in figuring what you would say, and how you would say it. To call

-attention, it seems legitimate to use your whistle, as on service

-the men would have some warning that things were about to happen,

-either by the arrival of shell or bullets, the sight of the enemy, or

-by the signal of their own scouts. In giving the situation, if you

-are receiving fire, give out what kind of fire it is, the enemy’s

-position, if it is allowable to suppose it known, or if you are

-going to be on the offensive, give out where the enemy is, and what

-he is doing, and how you learn this, i.e., by your scouts, or by

-first-hand observation. For example, while the company is marching

-in fours along a road, you see, in imagination, two shells burst

-simultaneously near by, and about two hundred yards from each other,

-and you wisely deduce that the enemy is ranging on your company. Blow

-your whistle and give out “Artillery fire is opening on the company,

-from such and such a direction—open out to columns of sections.” If

-you have taught your men what to do to escape artillery fire, they

-will open out at the double into columns of platoons, at not less

-than fifty yards interval, measuring roughly at right angles to the

-direction of the supposed fire (I.T., 118 (3)).

-

-In practising this opening out under artillery fire, which, as I have

-said, is the one specific hasty manœuvre performed under conditions

-nearly always similar, it is inexpedient to lay down any fixed rules

-for the positions to be taken up by the platoons. It sounds simple to

-say that the platoons of the leading half-company go to the right,

-and those of the rear half to the left, but when men are marching at

-ease, and shells begin bursting round them unexpectedly, I do not

-think there will be time for anyone to see which half-company is

-leading. The main thing is to get the platoons instantly away from

-the road on which the enemy has laid his guns, and from each other.

-Direct platoon commanders to lead their men at the double in any

-direction away from the platoon in front, except, of course, towards

-the rear. In theory, of course, this might result in all four making

-out towards one flank, but, even so, this is better than having any

-deliberative halts on the road, and in practice the platoons in rear

-can see which way those in front are heading, and wheel to go to

-the other flank. There is no advantage to be had from getting the

-men in the ranks into extended order, as the shrapnel scatter the

-whole width of their bursting zone in an impartial manner, nor is it

-any use to seek such slight cover as gives only a screen from view,

-unless with a view to getting away from the shell-swept locality

-without attracting notice. Platoon commanders should, of course, make

-for any cover that is sufficiently steep on the rear side to shelter

-them from the downward dropping shrapnel bullets. If there is no

-cover, the best thing after getting out into the line of platoons

-separated by fully fifty yards intervals, is to move rapidly forward.

-If cover exists with open ground round it, the men may be got away by

-“dribbling” man by man, in the hope that the enemy may not spot the

-movement, and continue or resume his shell practice, to defeat it.

-

-As regards expedients against rifle fire, I will only suggest a few,

-and leave you to invent others suited to the nature of the ground you

-have got to exercise on.

-

-  1. The company in close order is surprised by a heavy rifle fire;

-       there is cover near by sufficient to hold the whole company

-       crowded together. Order the men to get into the cover helter

-       skelter, and then advance or retire, by the successive

-       movement of platoons or sections, who take extended order at

-       their best speed as they emerge from shelter. If facilities

-       exist, tell one or two platoons to reply to the fire, from the

-       cover, till their own turn comes to move, by which time the

-       first lots that went out should have got into position to open

-       fire.

-

-  2. The company in close order is again surprised by rifle fire, but

-       there is no cover near to act as a base. Get the company

-       quickly into extended order, and let men reply to the fire as

-       soon as they have extended, using studiously slow fire.

-

-  3. The company or platoons in extended order have to change front

-       to meet an attack from a flank. As in the book, call on them

-       to line a hedge or ditch, facing so as to fire in the new

-       direction.

-

-  4. Coming through a gap in a hedge or wall, either in advance or

-       retreat, scattering off right and left, so as to get out of

-       the way of fire concentrated on the gap.

-

-  5. The scouts from a position some distance from the company report

-       a body of the enemy unaware of their presence and exposed to

-       fire. Bring the company quickly up to the scouts’ position,

-       halt, load, and adjust sights under cover and just short of

-       the firing position, and on your whistle the men advance at

-       once to the edge of the fire position and surprise the enemy

-       by a simultaneous fire from all the rifles.

-

-  6. Taking up quickly an all-round defensive position; the platoons

-       or sections go off and find the best positions in different

-       directions which you merely indicate roughly.

-

-  7. Hastily organised attacks, to dislodge an enemy unexpectedly

-       found in occupation of a position, also taking up action as

-       flank and rearguards under fire.

-

-

-

-

-                           EXERCISE XVII.

-

-                      NIGHT OPERATION TRAINING.

-

-

-I.T., 113, gives some instructions as to how men are to be taught to

-march and to use their ears and eyes at night, while F.S.R., chapter

-ix., goes into the subject at length. These operations are divided

-into night marches, night advances, and night attacks. The men of

-a company will not be fit to take a useful part in night tactical

-exercises either in company or in battalion, unless they have had

-some elementary training as laid down in “Infantry Training,”

-and have also been practised in the two indispensable duties of

-maintaining connection (F.S.R., 129 (4)) and in reconnaissance

-(F.S.R., 130 (1)). Night patrolling and the duties of night sentries

-have been dealt with under outposts, and I will not say anything

-more about them here. The rest of the elementary training contained

-in “Infantry Training” requires no explanation, and you can practise

-your men in it in small parties. There remains the maintenance of

-connection, and I have found that training for this is best done at

-first by daylight. It is very simple, and after one or two daylight

-lessons the men will work quite well by night, but to begin straight

-off under darkness will only lead to waste of time, as mistakes

-cannot easily be corrected, nor the working of a system made plain.

-The company should parade as strong as possible in this exercise,

-as, with only a few files on parade, the necessity of maintaining

-connection, and the difficulty of doing so, are not so obvious as

-when a fairly large body of men has to be handled without making a

-noise. Connection has to be maintained within the company itself,

-and also with the other companies in front or rear, if in column of

-route, or on the right and left, if deployed. In order to practise

-this connection with other companies, represent the front and rear,

-or flank section commanders of the supposed adjacent companies by a

-man for each company, who should move where those section commanders

-would be, i.e., in fours, at the head or tail of the directing flank,

-in line, on the flanks of the front rank. Use these dummies as the

-recipients of all orders and signals passed along, so that your

-company may get the habit of keeping touch with the others before it

-works with the battalion.

-

-

-                       _I. Connecting Files._

-

-The only sure way of keeping connection between bodies of troops

-moving in separate parties is by connecting files, who keep within

-sight of each other and so can seldom be at more than twenty yards

-distance apart. These files must be taught to pass commands with

-exactitude, and never to open their mouths otherwise, i.e., they

-must never speculate between themselves “Are they advancing?” or so

-forth, or talk at all, because the next file may hear some word of

-their talk and mistake it for an order. When connecting files are

-needed they must take up their places without its being necessary to

-tell them off loudly, and when no longer needed they must close into

-company in silence and in good order.

-

-Form the company into fours, turned to a flank as in column of route:

-tell the dummy section commander of the preceding company to march

-off; string the company out after him, the men marching off in files

-at about ten paces between each file without further command after

-the first one has gone, each as it moves off touching the next to

-follow, to give it notice. When they are all strung out, let the rear

-dummy section commander follow. Then pass orders up the line; use

-only the form given in I.T., 96 (3). To make sure that such verbal

-orders have reached the intended recipient, the only way, though a

-slow one, is to require him to send back a report that he has taken

-the action required. Thus, a message from the rear to the leading

-portion to halt would be answered from the leading portion by a

-report passed down the line to the commander “The leading portion,

-or, etc., has halted.” Let your first order be to halt, passed from

-the dummy company in rear up to that in front “From Colonel A. to all

-companies—halt.” On receiving the order one man of each file halts

-on his ground and turns to the rear, the other goes forward to the

-next file as quickly as he can without noise, delivers the order, and

-returns to his former place, when he halts and faces the other way

-from his comrade. Thus, on the completion of the order to halt, one

-man of each file will be facing each way. Bayonets will usually be

-fixed in night operations, and it is important, especially in Rifle

-Battalions, to accustom men to carry the rifle on the right shoulder,

-with the hand round the small of the butt and never at the trail,

-otherwise there is much danger of someone getting a stab as well as

-an order.

-

-After the halt, get on the move again by passing up the word to

-advance, and practise any other likely orders:—“Go fast in front,”

-“Go slow in front,” “The rear cannot keep up,” and so on. Follow the

-orders up the line and see that men do not tamper with the form of

-the order en route, and that they speak in a whisper when giving it

-over. Section and platoon commanders must be told all orders as they

-pass, see that their units conform, and look after the maintenance of

-the distance between files.

-

-Next practise lateral communication, the four platoons in one line

-in close order, with company intervals between each, representing

-the leading platoons of four companies drawn up in line of columns

-of platoons at deploying intervals and ready for a night advance.

-Lateral connecting files need to be closer than when following

-each other, so put out connecting files to the flanks in a similar

-way to what was done before, but at six, or eight yards interval.

-Then move, halt, and deploy the supposed column by means of these

-files, dressing and interval being kept up by the files moving up or

-stepping short, and closing on or inclining from any named company of

-direction without specific orders.

-

-

-                   _II. Marching and Formations._

-

-Form up the company and get it into fours as if in column of route,

-dummy company section commanders as before. Practise marching off

-from the halt, and halting, passing the word from the front or rear

-company along the men on the flanks of the fours. As the order comes

-along, the flank men of the fours nudge or shove the other men in

-their respective fours, and whisper to the flank men in the four in

-front or behind. There is seldom any need to speak, as a push or

-pull is enough. The platoon commanders get the word from the flank

-men of the sections of fours, and from one another as well, as they

-are to follow the order along their own platoons, and go forward or

-back to the commander of the next platoon to whom they must repeat

-it, and then resume their proper places. The platoon commander of

-the leading, or rear, platoon is responsible for passing the word

-to the nearest platoon commander of the next company. The company

-officers must arrange also to hear all orders, and should have fixed

-positions, known to all, which they will only quit temporarily.

-In marching off from the halt, the rear portion of the company

-should step out well, as soon as the order reaches them, so as to

-avoid straggling, while the leading fours preserve a uniform pace.

-In halting in battalion, the leading fours should close up on the

-company in front, and continue to do so, till it is seen that it

-has finished closing up; there is always bound to be a good deal

-of straggling at first owing to the method of giving orders. When

-this system is in good working order, move and halt the company on

-your own audibly whispered word of command, the platoon commanders

-repeating it, the system of communication being kept up as before,

-but the men moving at once on the word; this will give a fairly

-simultaneous action throughout the company while ensuring against

-loss of touch.

-

-On the same lines, practise forming line from column of platoons,

-mass, and column of platoons from column of fours, and marching in

-line, paying attention throughout to dressing and the covering of

-files in line.

-

-

-                        _III. Night Assault._

-

-Choose a position as objective, and form the company, in line or in

-column of platoons, about three hundred yards from it, with scouts

-about eighty yards in front of the company (F.S.R., 137 (4)). This

-is the formation which would usually be adopted at the position of

-deployment. When the scouts have got about one hundred yards from the

-position, or up to a line which they would recognise in the dark as

-being in close proximity to it, they should halt, and wait for the

-arrival of the company. The whole then move silently forward towards

-the position till you give the word or signal for assault, when all

-charge. Practise this stealthy advance right on to the position,

-as if the enemy were not alert, and also make the charge from

-some distance, as would be done if the enemy opened fire, which is

-recognised to be what will most often happen. After the assault the

-men should be rallied by the non-commissioned officers taking all men

-within their reach, and forming them into extemporised sections ready

-to be reformed into platoons and to begin entrenching.

-

-If by chance you get material, you may introduce refinements, in the

-way of wire-cutting men with each section, sand bags with each man,

-and bags stuffed with straw carried ready to throw on to abatis or to

-fill up trenches, to be carried in a fixed place in the company.

-

-

-                      _IV. Night Entrenching._

-

-Practise marching with arms and tools, and taking up a position to

-be entrenched, with especial regard to avoidance of noise. When

-entrenching by night, the trenches cannot be chosen to give a

-field of fire unless it has been possible to obtain access to the

-locality by day, and mark them in advance; failing this the company

-commander, as soon as the position is reached, must send patrols,

-and go himself, to ascertain that no commanding ground, at least

-in the immediate vicinity, has been left unoccupied, and, at the

-first light, all other such points within effective range as it is

-possible to hold, should be secured and entrenched, without orders

-from higher commanders. A full illustration of this, however, can

-only be done by parading at night.

-

-

-                          _V. Search Work._

-

-Practise the company in going off, as if detached from the column to

-get touch with other troops, or to find a gate or bridge by which

-some obstacle, wall, canal, etc., met with, can be passed. The

-company moves off dropping connecting files to keep touch with the

-halted column, the files halt at their distances, and pass word if

-the company has achieved its mission, and close on the company when

-the column comes up, but not before, else the column will be left out

-of touch; or, if the need has passed and the company is recalled to

-the column, the connecting files again remain at their posts till the

-company is gathered back on them.

-

-

-                          _VI. Surprises._

-

-When only a few men are on parade, advanced education, combined with

-some amusement, may be got by experimenting in the best ways of

-laying out obnoxious persons, such as hostile patrols, who have to

-be rushed in silence (F.S.R., 138 (5)). Before beginning a stalk,

-the quarry should be kept under observation to see which way he looks

-when halted, and any other idiosyncrasies. The assailant should creep

-up to him either on his flank, or from behind, moving one foot at a

-time, and bending down, though not on all fours. If the sentry looks

-his way, he must stay absolutely motionless, till he again looks

-away. My informant on this matter was a friend of a successful rifle

-thief in Upper India.

-

-After putting the company through the above daylight course, you

-should, of course, put theory into practice and do some real night

-work whenever you get the chance, putting out a skeleton enemy or

-some observers to tell you how much noise you make, and follow out

-the full instructions as to orders, watchwords, etc., given in

-F.S.R., 138 and 139. Test your men as to their ability to see in the

-dark; some men can see much more than others; spot these men and tell

-them off as “Night Scouts.” Even if they are not otherwise qualified

-as scouts, they are most useful in guiding the company over rough

-ground.

-

-

-

-

-                   A SCHEME OF A COMPANY TRAINING.

-

-

-I give below, as an example of the application of the foregoing

-exercises, a scheme of company training which I actually carried out.

-This was in the days before platoons, so I have altered the scheme to

-show what I should have done had the company organisation been what

-it now is. I was given from Monday in one week to Saturday the next

-week to march out into camp, about 10 miles, and get back, i.e., two

-days of march, and ten halted working days. I had thirty-five rounds

-per man of ball cartridge available for field practice musketry, and

-a sufficiency of blank for the requirements of skeleton enemy and

-for use with the men in one or two of the exercises. My men were

-Regulars, and during the previous furlough season I had grounded them

-piecemeal in field work.

-

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-DAY. |          |      FORENOON WORK.          |  AFTERNOON WORK.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  1  |Monday    |   March out to camp. March   |

-     |          | discipline and work of       |

-     |          | connecting files. Advanced   |

-     |          | guard. Sanitation. Water     |

-     |          | piquet and sanitary patrols. |

-     |          | Pitched a perimeter camp as  |

-     |          | for savage warfare. Trenched |

-     |          | tents against rain, and      |

-     |          | made a shelter trench round  |

-     |          | camp. Alarm posts.           |

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  2  |Tuesday   |   Individual advance in      |   Improved and

-     |          |                              | deepened camp

-     |          | extended order. Retirement   | entrenchments, made

-     |          | by pairs.                    | loop-holes, night

-     |          |                              | rests, and obstacles.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  3  |Wednesday |   Platoon and Section in     |   Field practice

-     |          | attack as part of Company.   | Musketry:—Individual

-     |          |                              | advance in extended

-     |          |                              | order. 7 rounds ball

-     |          |                              | per man.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  4  |Thursday  |   Platoon in independent     |   Field practice

-     |          | attack.                      | Musketry:—Section

-     |          |                              | in independent

-     |          |                              | attack,  7 rounds

-     |          |                              | ball per man.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  5  |Friday    |   Platoon in retirement.     |   Preliminary

-     |          |                              | training for Company

-     |          |                              | attack. Fire

-     |          |                              | discipline and

-     |          |                              | control.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  6  |Saturday  |   Company in attack with the |   Prepared target

-     |          | battalion.                   | positions and markers

-     |          |                              | butts for

-     |          |                              | snapshooting.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  7  |Monday    |   Company in attack with     |   Snapshooting, 7

-     |          |  Battalion.                  | rounds per man.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  8  |Tuesday   |   Company in attack acting   |   Snapshooting, 7

-     |          | alone.                       | rounds per man.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

-  9  |Wednesday |   Outposts.                  |   Company in attack,

-     |          |                              | 7 rounds ball.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

- 10  |Thursday  |   Defence.                   |   Company in

-     |          |                              | retirement.

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

- 11  |Friday    |   Night attack. Parade at    |   Hasty expedients.

-     |          | 2.30 a.m.                    |

------+----------+------------------------------+----------------------

- 12  |Saturday  |   March back to quarters.    |

-=====+==========+==============================+======================

-

-

-

-

-  Transcriber’s Notes

-

-  Catalog page Changed Miscellaneous Tactica to: Tactical

-  pg 62 Changed close and re-form to: reform

-  pg 63 Changed expect either a counterattack to: counter-attack

-  pg 67 Changed this exercise, though to: through

-  pg 76 Added period after: left on the position

-  pg 124 Changed trenches or make loopholes to: loop-holes

-  pg 125 Changed the line of loopholes to: loop-holes

-  pg 136 Changed: (I.T, 156 (5)) to: (I.T., 156 (5))

-  pg 182 Added comma after: entrenchments, made loop-holes

-  pg 183 Added period after: 7 rounds ball per man

-  pg 184 Added period after: Friday Night attack

-

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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 69943 ***
+
+  Transcriber’s Note
+  Italic text displayed as: _italic_
+  Bold text displayed as: =bold=
+
+
+
+
+                            THE TRAINING
+
+                                OF AN
+
+                          INFANTRY COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+                     =CATECHISM ON FIELD TRAINING=
+
+                             (=INFANTRY=).
+
+
+A series of Questions and Answers on all subjects of field training,
+extracted from the latest official TRAINING MANUALS, together
+with miscellaneous information, practical exercises and examples
+progressively arranged.
+
+                 _Revised and brought up to date by_
+
+                     =COL. H. O’DONNELL, p.s.c.=
+                     (WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT).
+                          _SIXTH EDITION._
+
+
+                              CONTENTS.
+
+Elementary—General Principles of Attack and Defence—Miscellaneous
+Tactical Operations—Warfare in uncivilised Countries—Protection
+on the Line of March—Protection when at Rest—Methods of obtaining
+Information—Quarters, Camps, and Bivouacs—Field Engineering—Diary of
+Training.
+
+      _Fully illustrated with 30 pages of Plates and Diagrams._
+
+
+                 =One of the numerous Press Opinions.=
+
+  “The book is most comprehensive, for every branch of the soldier’s
+  life is touched upon, and every situation or emergency seems to be
+  anticipated. Colonel O’Donnell’s publication is quite a military
+  encyclopædia.”—_Empress_, Calcutta.
+
+
+                           =PRICE 3/- NET.=
+
+                _From the Printers and Publishers_,
+                        GALE & POLDEN LTD.,
+                    WELLINGTON WORKS, ALDERSHOT,
+                    And at London and Portsmouth.
+
+
+
+
+                          = _The_ TRAINING=
+
+                                OF AN
+
+                          =INFANTRY COMPANY=
+
+
+                                _By_
+
+                     Major E. KIRKPATRICK, I.A.
+
+                            —————:O:—————
+
+
+                            2ND EDITION.
+
+
+                   _London_: GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,
+
+                2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
+
+                     Nelson House, PORTSMOUTH &
+                    Wellington Works, ALDERSHOT.
+                  Obtainable from all Booksellers.
+
+                 _TWO SHILLINGS & SIXPENCE_ (_Net_)
+
+                  (_Copyright under Act of 1911._)
+
+
+
+
+                             ALDERSHOT:
+
+                   PRINTED BY GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,
+                          WELLINGTON WORKS.
+
+                                1914
+
+
+
+
+                               PREFACE
+
+
+This booklet has not been written for the use and benefit of officers
+and non-commissioned officers of long experience and proved skill
+in the profession of training men for battle. To such as these it
+may only provide an object of criticism, for in the course of years
+spent in turning recruits into trained soldiers they will have
+formulated to themselves, and adopted, some system of training which
+they found productive of the best results under their own guidance.
+But there are many at present, and at a future time, should certain
+circumstances arise in the life of the nation, there may be very many
+more who may not have such stores of experience to draw on, and yet
+may be faced with the problem of rapidly converting an untrained or
+only partially trained body of men into a force capable of acting
+successfully in real war, both in attack and defence against trained
+and disciplined troops. Again, it is written, not for officers
+commanding battalions, nor for officers of cavalry and artillery,
+but only for officers commanding companies or other similar units
+of infantry, though it may, perhaps, be of use in training mounted
+troops for dismounted action.
+
+Meantime, while the pipes of peace are still smoking, it is hoped it
+may be of some use to officers and non-commissioned officers when the
+time comes to prepare schemes of company training and put them into
+execution.
+
+                                                                E. K.
+
+  _September, 1913._
+
+
+                     PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
+
+Since the above was written, the issue of new or amended Manuals
+of Training has necessitated a revision of the book, which is now
+presented in a form agreeable to the four-company organisation.
+
+The Empire is now confronted by those circumstances to which allusion
+was made in the Preface.
+
+                                                                E. K.
+
+  _September, 1914._
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS                                            ix
+
+  INTRODUCTORY REMARKS—
+
+       I.—The Intention of the Book                                 1
+
+      II.—Making the Best of their Companies
+            to Train the Modern
+            Man for the Modern Battle                               4
+
+     III.—The Standard of Training
+            assumed to have already
+            been acquired and its application
+            to further Exercises                                    9
+
+      IV.—Ground for Training—Its Use
+            and Influence—Palliation of
+            the Lack of a Training
+            Ground                                                 11
+
+       V.—Company Organisation—Moral
+            and the Personality
+            of the Commander                                       16
+
+      VI.—Discipline—Moral and Means
+            of Supervision                                         22
+
+     VII.—Organisation by Files and its
+            Effect on Moral—Cohesion                               27
+
+    VIII.—Method of Training                                       31
+
+      IX.—As to Scouts and Working
+            Dress                                                  37
+
+
+                              EXERCISES
+
+       I.—Individual Advance in Extended
+            Order                                                  38
+
+      II.—Retirement by Pairs                                      48
+
+     III.—Individual Training in Use of
+            Fire and Fire Discipline                               52
+
+      IV.—The Assault                                              60
+
+       V.—The Section and Platoon in
+            Attack                                                 64
+
+      VI.—The Section and Platoon in
+            Retirement                                             74
+
+     VII.—The Section and Platoon in
+            Independent Attack                                     78
+
+    VIII.—The Platoon as Advanced and
+            Flank Guard                                            84
+
+      IX.—Preliminary for the Attack by
+            the Company in Battalion                               89
+
+       X.—The Company in Attack with
+            the Battalion under Artillery
+            Fire                                                   93
+
+      XI.—The Company in Attack with
+            the Battalion under Rifle
+            Fire                                                   97
+
+     XII.—The Company in Attack Acting
+            Alone                                                 105
+
+    XIII.—The Company in Retirement                               107
+
+     XIV.—Outposts                                                112
+
+      XV.—Defence                                                 142
+
+     XVI.—Hasty Expedients                                        163
+
+    XVII.—Night Operations                                        171
+
+                                ————
+
+  A SCHEME OF COMPANY TRAINING                                    181
+
+
+  REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS.
+
+  I.T., 128 (3)    =    Infantry Training, 1914,
+                          Section 128, para. 3.
+
+  F.S.R.           =    Field Service Regulations,
+                          Part I. Operations, 1909
+                          (Reprint 1912).
+
+  T. & M.R.        =    Training and Manœuvre
+                          Regulations, 1913.
+
+  M.F.E.           =    Manual of Field Engineering,
+                          1911.
+
+
+
+
+                        A FEW PRESS OPINIONS.
+
+
+                     “UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.”
+
+Major E. Kirkpatrick is the author of a small book on “The Training
+of an Infantry Company.” There have been so many books and pamphlets
+of this kind—short cuts to knowledge—that one is apt to regard
+each fresh one with suspicion and even with aversion, but Major
+Kirkpatrick has much that is helpful to say, he says it well, and
+he shows how much good work may be done even in the training of the
+emasculated companies such as our military system so often leaves us.
+His instructions cover a wide field, and there must be few company
+officers who will not be grateful to the author for many valuable
+hints.
+
+
+               “UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION OF INDIA.”
+
+There are few junior officers of infantry who will not benefit by a
+study of this book. The thorough system of training elaborated in the
+seventeen exercises, which form the major portion of the book, is
+worthy of the attention of Regular as well as Territorial Officers.
+
+These elementary exercises deal with the essentials in the war
+training of the Infantry soldier, from the work of the individual
+in advance and retirement, and of the section in action and on
+protection duties, to the training of the company in attack and
+defence, and outpost.
+
+As an example of a system of training illustrating the necessity of
+attention to detail in the early instruction of the soldier, this
+series of exercises is valuable, and their value is increased by the
+constant reference to training manuals. The author wisely recommends
+the study of all the official books referred to as he recognises
+that his exercises and comments are only of value in so far as they
+illustrate and explain the principles laid down in training manuals.
+
+
+
+
+                            THE TRAINING
+
+                                OF AN
+
+                          INFANTRY COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+                        INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
+
+
+The authorised handbooks of training rightly confine themselves to
+broad principles, and do not attempt to give detailed examples of
+their application, the idea being that officers should study these
+regulations and apply the principles by the light of local conditions
+and their own experience. Infantry Training and the Field Service
+Regulations are, however, very pregnant little books, containing,
+as they do, a summary of the whole of Modern Tactics, as far as
+they concern infantry and the combined action of all arms. Time
+and thought are necessary, if the principles contained in them are
+to be translated into such intelligent action that the men trained
+on the lines laid down may be capable of doing their duty in real
+warfare, without first undergoing a bitter and costly schooling of
+useless casualties or, perhaps, even of defeat. But if an officer
+is called on to achieve this result, being himself without much
+previous experience in training, he will find himself faced with a
+task of great difficulty, and, with the best intentions, he may waste
+precious time, as well as his own and his men’s patience and energy,
+in doing parades and exercises, which are either not indispensable,
+or of minor importance for the main object. As an extreme example,
+it would be better, in a hastily raised corps, to combine the
+disciplinary training of obedience to the word of command, with
+instruction in the use of their arms, by practice in smart work in
+aiming and firing, than merely to study precision in “sloping” and
+“presenting arms,” which look well, but do not immediately affect
+fighting efficiency.
+
+For these reasons, it has occurred to me that I might do some of my
+brother officers _in esse_ or _in posse_ a service by setting out
+certain elementary exercises in training infantry soldiers, which
+I have found of value in bringing them up to a standard of battle
+training sufficiently high to need only battalion training and a
+baptism of fire to turn them into steady and reliable troops. It is
+not contended that these few examples are anything but concrete
+instances of the application of the principles of the Training
+Manuals. They are intended, as has been stated, merely for those
+who are short of time and experience, and, therefore, references to
+the manuals are given when the exercise illustrates some particular
+section of those works, and it is recommended that officers who
+intend to use these examples should look up and read the sections
+referred to before going on to the parade.
+
+Though this book is not meant for officers commanding battalions,
+I have one word to say to them, and it is this, that if they wish
+to have an efficient battalion they must let the company officers
+have proper opportunities of training their companies, apart from
+the time of company training, when the whole company is struck off
+duty. If there are six parades a week, let three or four of them be
+company parades, ordered and carried out by the company commanders;
+the balance will be quite enough to secure combination between the
+companies in battalion. On company parades, the battalion commander
+should supervise, but never interfere, unless things are being
+manifestly mismanaged. (See T. & M.R., 2 (2 and 3)). The days of
+the one man battalion are gone for ever. The company is the thing
+that matters; a good battalion can only be composed of well-trained
+companies. It is the work of the battalion commander to propound
+the general lines of training and to use the companies to the best
+advantage in combination, but the training of the individual soldier
+must be in the hands of the man who is to lead him in war.
+
+
+                                 II.
+
+On ordinary parades, the captain of an infantry company is seldom
+able to get together more than a fraction of his men. The calls on
+the company for men for duties and odd jobs, leave and furlough,
+and, in the Territorial Force, the private occupations of the men,
+allow of only a few being assembled on any one parade. This being
+so, there is a temptation—sometimes yielded to by officers who have
+not much experience, to say to themselves: “This is rot; what can
+I do without any men?” Such a question is the result of confusing
+the individual instruction of the men with the tactical practice of
+the leader in handling his company as a whole. The answer too often
+takes the form of an hour’s close order drill or something similar,
+which may do some good, but not nearly as much as if the officer
+stoutly made up his mind to make the best of a bad job and took out
+those few men and did some practical training in field operations.
+The fewer men there are on parade, the more individual attention
+will the company commander be able to give them. He will be able
+to look at each man’s work more carefully, talk to the men and get
+to know their characters as soldiers, spot who are likely to make
+good non-commissioned officers, and coach them far more than if the
+whole company were on hand at once. So do not turn up your nose at a
+company only twenty strong, but make up a scheme of exercises to be
+gone through, and, since the men who are not on parade to-day will be
+so to-morrow, arrange to do the same exercise on two, or, if needed,
+three, consecutive days, so as to catch all, or, at least, most of
+the men, and your non-commissioned officers, who are not usually so
+drawn on for off-parade duties, will become well acquainted with each
+exercise, learn what to do and how to run things, and so become both
+a help to you as instructors, and themselves gain authority and power
+of command from the knowledge of their own competency.
+
+It is quite likely that these exercises and the explanations given,
+may seem to some readers to be absurdly simple and needlessly
+long-winded, while there is also a good deal of repetition. To this
+I will make early reply that they are written for officers who are
+not too proud to accept other people’s advice in training a company
+of young soldiers of the stamp which would be forthcoming if some
+cause[1] or other tempted or constrained into military service that
+great proportion of our male population who are at present quite
+ignorant of a soldier’s work, and who, from apathy, or a hundred
+other causes, do not join the Territorial Force. Such men probably
+have never in their lives given a thought to soldiering. The majority
+of them are town born and bred, and have passed most of their lives
+among bricks and mortar. If they have ever looked carefully at the
+large or small features of a bit of country, it has been from an
+industrial, sporting, or, perhaps, sentimental, but never from a
+tactical, point of view. They have everything to learn in making use
+of ground for fighting. Their ideas of using modern arms are equally
+crude; the primitive fighting instinct will be uppermost in their
+minds, and would express itself in an incontinent desire to get to
+close quarters with their enemy, when bayonet, butt or hand grips
+would seem the proper way to settle the matter. A very laudable
+desire it is—this of wanting to close in—and one to be encouraged by
+every means, but however brave troops may be, they cannot in general
+indulge their desire to attain close quarters and the resulting
+facilities of fighting by the light of their natural instincts unless
+they have first been successful in the fire fight—the strife of the
+arms of artifice—which is waged by bullet and shell at distances
+which Nature never contemplated.
+
+It is the artificiality of the fire fight which makes the task of
+turning town-bred men into skilful soldiers such a difficult and
+lengthy process. They must be led to look at ground in relation to
+its capabilities of increasing the effectiveness of their own fire
+and also of diminishing the result of that of the enemy, i.e., they
+must learn to select good fire positions and good cover. The problem
+of finding the latter for himself against a civilized foe begins, for
+the individual soldier, as soon as the enemy’s rifle fire becomes
+effective and compels the use by his side of extended order; this
+is held to be on open ground about fourteen hundred yards from the
+enemy’s infantry (I.T., 118 (4)). Prior to this the responsibility
+for cover rests with his leaders, as he will then be in some close
+formation. Fire positions he must choose for himself as soon as
+his section commander ceases to be able to indicate his wishes, or
+to secure combined action by the whole unit. This will probably
+happen at about six hundred yards from the enemy, when individual
+fire is expected to replace controlled fire by sections. These two
+aspects of fighting—the use of ground, and the use of the rifle as a
+far-reaching weapon of almost absolute precision, if truly sighted
+and aimed—are foreign to our instincts, and the average man has to
+be trained till he is able to override his instinct and fight an
+artificial war, so as to work his way to charging distance. Some men
+need less training than others; a stalker in a deer forest is an
+adept in the use of cover, and in general, country-bred men should
+be easier to train than town-bred, but the majority of our men
+being the latter, we must lay ourselves out to teach them from the
+beginning this business of the fire fight, since success in this is
+usually necessary before the assault can succeed (I.T., 121 (7)).
+This can only be done by training them in extended order and putting
+them through various exercises chosen for the purpose. Any exercise
+which does not in some way tend to fit men for battle is mere waste
+of time; aimless perambulations of an extended line fall under this
+category, but are quite often to be seen on parade grounds. No amount
+of smartness in close order drill will compensate for a deficiency of
+field training.
+
+
+                                III.
+
+The exercises which I have drawn up, simple though they are, are of
+the nature of “Instructional Operations,” as defined by T. & M.R.,
+40 (12), and it is presupposed that the men have received, or are
+in course of receiving, sufficient instruction in the use of the
+rifle (musketry in all its branches), and of the bayonet (bayonet
+fighting), in drill in close order, and the drill grounding of
+extended order work, including signals (I.T., 90-96). We are then to
+consider ourselves to be at the stage in which the soldier is to be
+taught to work over broken country as directed in the latter part
+of para. 90, above quoted. But do not think the lessons learned at
+musketry instruction are to be forgotten and left behind by the men
+when they begin to work in extended order across country. Demand
+from your men that the rifle shall be deadly, and, by unceasing
+supervision, breed a habit among them of aiming and firing in
+extended order, whether with or without blank cartridge, with the
+same exactitude as when firing their course of musketry on the range.
+Take the high standard—a hundred men’s lives in one man’s bandolier,
+instead of a hundred bandoliers for one man’s life. The higher
+standard of the two is at least possible, though not common, but why
+not try and work towards it, so that when bullets are flying within
+decisive range of the enemy, it will be your men’s fire, that is the
+deadly close-hitting kind, that makes afraid, and not the haphazard
+jet of bullets whose inefficacy lets unhurt familiarity breed
+tolerant contempt?
+
+In the same way, when men are in close order at any time during a
+field parade, keep up the same smartness, and quick obedience to
+orders which are exacted in close order drills, in order that the
+men may become truly disciplined, and not merely so in appearance,
+so when they come under fire without being extended, as may happen
+in the early and distant stages of a fight, they will, as a matter
+of course, submit themselves to their commander’s wishes, and ignore
+their own inclinations, which, just at the first experience, even
+with very brave men, might be for an immediate and independent rush
+in some direction—perhaps forward, perhaps in another direction—they
+will be “in hand,” and free of the liability of raw troops to suffer
+from sudden panic or to become a mob, full of fight, perhaps, but
+still a mob, and as such, a force which cannot be controlled or used
+in furtherance of any general plan.
+
+
+                                 IV.
+
+The want of a suitable and accessible bit of ground on which to train
+our men is one of the chief difficulties we have to meet in the
+United Kingdom, and, of course, it is greatest in the case of town
+corps, varying with the size of towns, while in large cities ground
+is not to be had at all, save at a distance of several miles from the
+men’s dwelling places. Unfortunately, there is little doubt that the
+possession or lack of suitable training grounds has a great effect
+on the readiness, or otherwise, of troops to give a good account of
+themselves when they come under fire for the first time in their
+lives. The lack of it takes away reality from the work of the men
+in the ranks and cramps the initiative of their officers, who are
+given no opportunity to exercise their wits in figuring out practical
+situations which might occur on service.
+
+I can give no recipe for obtaining the use of ground, but from what
+I have just said I hope it is clear that the officer commanding a
+battalion or company should use every blandishment or art of which he
+is capable to get the use of a stretch of ground, and also, if it is
+at a distance, and the attendance of the men at parades voluntary,
+he should try to provide facilities for getting them to and from the
+ground. The worst bit of country is better than the barrack square.
+
+The ideal ground is that which gives conditions suited to each phase
+of the training, the principal requirements being fire positions
+and cover, and these should occur so as to provide illustrations
+of the use to be made of them in individual training, and in the
+collective training of sections, platoons, and the larger units.
+Thus, for training individual men, good ground would be that with
+an irregular surface, giving many places twenty to fifty yards
+apart, which each man could use in firing and taking cover. The
+usual seaside golf course of hummocks, furze bushes, and occasional
+watercourses, is good to teach individual men over—I say teach,
+for we must not imagine that an enemy will be so kind as to leave
+easy ground like that in his front, if he can help it. For section
+or platoon training, the surface should be similar, so that the
+individuals should still be called on to look out for their own
+halting places, but, in addition, there should be a certain number
+of small features, hillocks, banks, and so on, one to four hundred
+yards apart, which will serve as fire positions and cover for the
+whole unit, and provide the commanders with successive objectives,
+to which it will be their duty to bring their men in good order,
+and without needless exposure to the enemy’s fire. When the company
+is training together, the ground should be similar, but of greater
+extent, both broader and larger, so that sections and platoons may be
+practised in supporting each other, some being halted in these fire
+positions, and covering by their fire the movements of the others who
+are in process of gaining fresh vantage points. And so on for larger
+units and the combined action of all arms; good ground for early
+instruction is that whose features, from their nature and distance
+from each other, lend themselves to illustrate conditions under which
+the power of each unit and arm may be most profitably employed in
+conjunction with others. Troops trained over ground that gives the
+above advantages will acquire an eye for country. A knowledge of the
+uses to be made of ground will be common to all ranks, so that when
+they find themselves fighting on bad ground, which does not give much
+cover or good fire positions, they will be the more apt to search for
+such cover and fire positions as are obtainable, while troops trained
+on flat and open ground would be much slower in making the best of
+a bad job. We are not concerned with anything more than a company;
+therefore, get for your own use, if you can manage it—failing help
+from higher powers—a bit of ground of some sort, golf course, common,
+city park, or what not. It need not be very extensive. Even if it
+gives only three or four positions suitable for occupation by a
+section working in conjunction with another, say, six hundred by
+three hundred yards, it will give room for useful instruction; but,
+of course, a larger extent is preferable, as giving room for more
+extended and varied exercises. If your training ground is of limited
+extent, it should, nevertheless, if possible, have a wide field of
+view on all sides beyond its own confines, and leave you the right
+to send a few men to take positions on the adjoining country, even
+if not allowed to manœuvre about it, so that when carrying out your
+exercises you may be able to use men with blank cartridge to act as
+a skeleton enemy, when such is needed. But if you are not allowed
+to send men on to the neighbouring ground, the wide field of view
+will still enable you to indicate certain distant positions as
+_supposed_ to be held by the enemy. By this means you will be able
+to use the whole area of your permissible ground to represent a bit
+of the battlefield, and escape having to place the supposed enemy
+absurdly close to your manœuvring troops, e.g., at the edge of the
+training ground, or in some other position which makes heavy calls
+on the imagination. Britishers are not imaginative. Lastly, if all
+else fails, and you have nowhere to go except the flat parade ground,
+or even the drill hall, which in large towns is often very spacious,
+do not, I beg you, become discouraged and throw up all effort to get
+your men ready for field work. Do the exercises on the flat, limiting
+the extent of movements, if there is little room, and use flags or
+anything else to represent fire positions for sections and platoons,
+and let the men kneel or lie down between advances, if there is no
+cover. A great deal may be done in this way to lay a good foundation
+for extended order work. Your men will know the mechanism of it, and
+you will save much time when you do manage to have them out on a
+proper training ground. I.T., 107 (2), requires company commanders,
+in preparing their schemes of training, to have regard to the ground
+at their disposal; do so, therefore, even if the ground aforesaid
+is only a parade ground, and make the most of it; it is better than
+sitting still and either doing nothing, or only a weary round of
+company drill in close order. Of course, you must let the men know
+what you are driving at, or they will get bored and lose interest.
+
+
+                                 V.
+
+Having got a company of men and ground to train them on, the first
+step is to organise that company for its battle training. A company
+is organised into four platoons, each under a subaltern, with a
+sergeant as his second-in-command (platoon sergeant). Each platoon
+has four sections, and the sixteen sections of the company are
+numbered one to sixteen. The men of each of the above units remain
+permanently in that unit. _If possible_, maintain this organisation
+on duties and fatigues, though this is often a counsel of perfection,
+but quarter the men together, and insist on the maintenance of the
+organisation, _without deviation_, on parades. Have lists made up of
+the men of each platoon and section, and let men who so wish, belong
+to the same unit. Once these lists are made up, see to it by means of
+the section commanders that these men fall in on parade together in
+the place in the company where their section is standing, no matter
+how few there are; if there are but two men of one section on parade,
+they should fall in as front and rear rank men of one file. Avoid
+disseminating the men of a platoon or section among other units in
+order to raise the latter to a sizeable strength. Instead of this:
+supposing you have three weak platoons and one strong one on parade;
+of the four sections of one of the weak platoons, send two to each of
+the other two weak platoons. This will give you three platoons of,
+perhaps, unequal strength, but sufficient for work—and this without
+taking the responsibility of section commanders off their shoulders,
+and the cohesion of each unit is preserved. Some further suggestions
+on the subject of organisation will be put forward when speaking of
+_moral_.
+
+The officer who aspires to develop whatever capabilities his men
+possess of becoming individually and collectively formidable
+in battle, must pay attention to much more than mere physical
+considerations. Napoleon’s dictum, that the moral is to the physical
+as three to one is early dinned into the ears of the officer of
+Regulars, but may stand repetition in pages meant for the perusal
+of others. No officer can expect to get the most out of his men
+unless he directs his attention to the study of the psychical side
+of the training. There are two fields in which the study must be
+pursued. One is the officer’s own personality, the other that of
+his non-commissioned officers and men. T. & M.R., 8, deals with the
+former, and should be read and pondered over.
+
+In battle good men have sometimes achieved victory in spite of the
+shortcomings of their officers, but good officers, as well as men,
+are necessary for consistent success in the series of battles which
+make a campaign. Now, good officers, given time for training, will
+infallibly produce good men, provided the latter are of the average
+physique and courage. Therefore, study thyself, and try to see
+what you lack, in order to become a good officer. Cultivate your
+skill in handling your men by reading any books you can get; there
+are, unfortunately, not very many that deal with the work of such
+small units as companies or even single battalions. Go out into the
+country, or, if you have not time, recall to yourself some bit of
+country you know, and import an enemy into the landscape. Perhaps a
+few riflemen are holding ground on the flank of a road along which
+your battalion wants to march, but cannot, without undue loss, until
+these riflemen are driven off; and your commanding officer tells
+you to do the driving. In imagination, or on the ground, decide
+what position you would hold, if you were the enemy, in order to
+make yourself as nasty as possible—though having no hope of being
+reinforced—to the battalion trying to come along the road. Then
+settle in your mind what you, as commanding your company, would do to
+get rid of the annoyance. Be quite clear, what would you do? Go at
+them bald-headed? There are times and enemies when this is the best
+way; you would have to be fairly close, and the enemy not shooting
+very straight, and rather careful of his skin; or will you march a
+long way round till the enemy sees you are getting behind him, and so
+manœuvre him out? Then your battalion will be a long time waiting.
+Or will you look at the ground and find, let us suppose, a spot to
+which you will send a section or platoon to open a fire on the enemy,
+while another works its way to a point you have noted from which
+fire can be brought to sweep crossways a little knoll, or some such
+supposititious feature which seems to form the enemy’s left flank,
+and to be occupied by ten or twelve men, and which gives command
+over the rest of his position? Then, while the second lot is on its
+way, you plan to lead the remainder a little way round, under cover,
+in order to get to fairly close range of the knoll, so that when the
+second party opens fire on it, and its defenders are hampered both
+by this fire and by that of those you first posted, you may surprise
+them by an outburst of fire from your reserve, and either drive
+them off their perch by cross-fire from three directions, or, if
+they do not shift, run in at them with the bayonet, trusting to get
+across the intervening space at the cost of a few casualties, when
+your superior numbers at that point should ensure your success even
+if they actually await the bayonet. Learn to consider quickly how
+many ways there are of doing such a job as the above, and to decide
+quickly and rationally which is the best.
+
+These schemes, involving only a company or two, will not be presented
+for your solution by your battalion commander; you must set them
+yourself, and their solution, and the thinking necessary thereto
+are the best methods an officer can get of training himself without
+having his men on the ground. In your mind’s eye, put your company
+into every situation you can think of, and get it out again, and you
+will have acquired an enormous reserve of capacity for acting quickly
+and rightly when your men and your enemy are both on the ground. But
+beware of dealing in too short distances, or you may produce unreal
+pictures of war. Do not imagine manœuvres at four hundred yards from
+the enemy when every man exposed would be hit in a few minutes. The
+clearness and decision of thought you acquire will be reflected in
+the orders you give. Your men will give you their confidence when
+they see, as they are quick to do, that you know your job. There
+is nothing more disheartening for a subordinate, be he private or
+colonel, than to feel he is under control of a duffer, whose mistakes
+he will have to correct. This feeling saps discipline, and quickly
+destroys the fighting value of a body of men. In peace training, the
+men become sulky at being “bothered about,” lose interest in their
+work, and wish themselves done with parade. In war, their personal
+characters usurp the control of their actions, and they become a mob
+in uniform.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But in addition to possessing the confidence of the men in your
+tactical ability, you should seek all other means to increase your
+influence over them. Gain their respect in other ways, by honesty
+of purpose, by example, tact, devotion to duty, and so on. Gain
+their goodwill by watching over their individual and collective
+interests, though in this you must play to the gallery sufficiently
+to let them identify you as the source of benefits received. Keep
+an even temper, and do not show anger without good cause. Personal
+attachment to their officer shows itself most when men’s powers are
+taxed by hardship, fatigue, and danger; it is then a great auxiliary
+in maintaining discipline among the mass.
+
+
+                                 VI.
+
+As regards the _moral_ of the men, I.T., 1 (4 to 10) must be referred
+to. You _must_ introduce discipline—the habit of subordinating
+personal inclination to the orders of the superior promptly and
+without cavil. If your men are raw, you have to go slow just at first
+till they all know what is expected of them. Let them understand that
+orders are not given haphazard, but are invariably based on some good
+reason, which, being so, there is no need for reasons to be always
+stated, nor for recipients of orders to feel unhappy for want of
+them. If you can induce a feeling among the men that slackness on
+parade, slowness in obeying orders, and so on, are bad form, and
+tend to disgrace the company, you will do well, and this good spirit
+will enable you to enforce discipline without having recourse to
+punishment, if you are vested with the power of inflicting it.
+
+I have already said that when in close order during tactical
+exercises, you should maintain discipline in the ranks. I now go
+further and say that you should maintain it when the men are extended
+or detached from the company singly or in small groups. Evidently
+the discipline here needed is something more than mere mechanical
+obedience. What it is, is to be found in T. & M.R., 39 (4), and
+F.S.R. 12 (13), and I.T., 116 and 117. Make the men understand that
+when they are extended they must obey their unit commander’s orders
+and signals as to fire and movement at once, and without hesitation,
+and must be always on the look-out for them. Allow no talking, except
+what relates to the business in hand, such as passing of orders or
+information, results of fire, and so on. Hold the men responsible
+that if they are out of reach of the control of their leader, it is
+their duty to carry out the spirit of the orders under which they
+set out. To bring their responsibility home to them, you must make a
+point of calling men occasionally to give an account of what they
+did when detached, and why they did it, so that they may pause for a
+moment if they are of the sort that take advantage of opportunity to
+sit behind a hedge and smoke a cigarette when they ought to be up and
+doing.
+
+Here you will naturally say that this is all very well, but how is
+one to look after men scattered here and there over several hundred
+yards of rough country? Here come in the non-commissioned officers,
+of whom, so far, no mention has been made, and also your subaltern
+officers. Since success in battle will depend largely on the
+efficiency of fire unit commanders, and the normal fire unit is the
+section (I.T., 6 (4)), it is evident that the section commander is a
+very responsible person, and much must be expected from him.
+
+Your subalterns and platoon sergeants you must use as your delegates
+in supervising and leading the platoons to which they belong, except
+when they are needed to act specifically as platoon commanders,
+keeping themselves constantly on the move among the men, looking
+at the details of the work, sighting of rifles, aiming, use of
+cover, choice of lines of movement, not lying down themselves nor
+participating in the operation as combatants. When you wish to give
+them practice in setting exercises themselves, turn the whole company
+over to one of them and act yourself as critic, or act as subaltern
+under his orders. This is one means of supervision.
+
+The next is your non-commissioned officers. They are in direct
+command, and you must hold them responsible for their sections,
+but when their units are acting in conjunction with others, it is
+evident they cannot act both as commanders and instructors unless
+certain concessions are made, for if the non-commissioned officers
+as well as the men of a section were to act as they would have to do
+under real fire, each non-commissioned officer might be able only to
+supervise a man or two on his right and left, the rest being too far
+off. Therefore, at the beginning of an exercise, you should tell the
+non-commissioned officers whether, in addition to giving executive
+commands, they are to be at liberty to move about freely and act as
+instructors also. Needless to say, in instructional exercises, and
+until the men are quite seasoned, you should let them do this, but,
+on the other hand, in exercises meant to illustrate actual conflict
+and the limitations imposed by the presence of an enemy, they should
+pay attention to those limitations so that they, as well as the
+men, may be prepared to endure the disabilities imposed by Service
+conditions.
+
+Next comes yourself. Once you have given your subordinates your
+orders for any exercise, leave them to carry it through, and make
+yourself as ubiquitous as may be in supervision. Keep criticism for
+the end, and interference only for the prevention of absurdities. To
+make yourself ubiquitous, the best way is to use your horse, and make
+the noble animal do the running about with you on his back. You can
+then get through about six times what you can on your own feet, by
+cantering from one section to another, and you get a better view of
+the whole performance, but you must remember when correcting anything
+the men are doing that you are mounted, while they are probably
+kneeling or lying, and much that you see is invisible to them. Equip
+yourself with a pair of field glasses, and also with a megaphone,
+which latter should be about fourteen inches long, and carried by a
+strap over the shoulder, the strap punched so as to be capable of
+being made long or buckled up close under the arm, according as you
+need to use the megaphone, or wish to get it out of your way. Use
+your glasses to look at what sections and individual men in them are
+doing. They will reveal to you small mistakes that escape notice at
+some distance with the unaided eye. The megaphone saves you a lot of
+small excursions to get to earshot of men, and also a lot of shouting
+at a distance, which is fatiguing, and is apt to lead to exacerbation
+of tempers, both of the shouter and the listener. Moreover, it
+enables you to hear as well as speak from a distance. This is done
+simply by holding it aimed at the other man with your ear instead of
+your mouth at the mouthpiece. Use your whistle to call attention to
+orders or signals, carry it in your hand, not in your pocket, and
+put a loop in the cord and pass the loop over your middle finger,
+or you will be always dropping it. Instead of a cane, carry a small
+semaphore flag, and give your signals with it. This saves a good deal
+of arm-waving, and tends to smarten up movement, as it is more easily
+seen than the arm. By bringing all these aids into your service,
+you will find that you can make your influence felt, although the
+sections are separated by the greatest distances which they are ever
+likely to be called on to take up in battle.
+
+
+                                VII.
+
+Besides discipline, there are certain other moral influences which
+give strength to an Army. These are indicated in I.T., 1 (4 and 5).
+The two mighty forces of religion and patriotism are not treated
+of here, as they have their roots not in any system of training,
+but in the upbringing of the youth of the nation, but there is one
+force which you, as a humble commander, can call into play, and that
+is shame—the dread of losing the respect of oneself and of one’s
+comrades. During peace training you may make men dread the public
+shame of misbehaviour by the aid of those means of supervision which
+I have suggested, but in war the power to supervise is greatly
+curtailed, and it is very desirable to find something to replace it,
+and, at the same time, to supplement a too absolute reliance on the
+stoutness of men’s hearts, for this may prove a broken reed when the
+troops are largely composed of unseasoned soldiers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To a certain extent, the organisation of the company into permanent
+sections provides us with the substitute we desire, as the men of
+sections are likely to be cognisant of how their comrades behave
+when out of view of the rest of the company as long as the whole
+of the men of the section are in view of each other; but this will
+not always be the case: for example, in wood fighting or in house
+fighting, both of which would assuredly occur if our men have to
+fight in Europe. In such fighting everything comes down to the
+pushfulness of the individual soldiers, for even sections will lose
+their leaders. Therefore let us carry the principle of the company
+organisation logically one step further, and make the men of a file
+as they fall in on parade in the section act in conjunction for the
+remainder of that parade. This arrangement is recognised in the last
+edition of the Musketry Regulations, and has, at various times, been
+adopted in former drill books of our Army, and has given excellent
+results, while, if the present book does not prescribe it, at least
+it countenances it (I.T., 123 (12)), and I strongly recommend your
+introducing it into your company. It is likely to produce emulation
+in the fire fight among men whose hearts are in the right place, and
+in the assault it must produce the advantages of combination, for two
+men coming on with the bayonet in conjunction are far more likely to
+do someone an injury than if they each came on independently, since
+in the latter case a cool and skilful antagonist might dispose of one
+and then the other, even as the Japanese are said to have stepped
+aside when charged by the Russians, who, running forward blindly and
+head down, fell an easy prey to their alert little enemies, and were
+bayoneted in succession as they arrived. The proof of this pudding is
+the eating thereof, and if your company ever happens to be alongside
+a company told off daily into haphazard sections, as is sometimes
+done, in spite of rules, you will then see the difference, even if it
+is only at manœuvres. In close order they may still look alike, but
+let them be extended in rough country, and you will see that yours
+is the blade of steel; the particles of its metal are coherent; it
+will bend, but not break. The other is of wrought iron, polished on
+the surface but of brittle material, and sure to fly to pieces in any
+rough usage. By this file organisation you will produce in the men
+in the ranks the highest degree of cohesion—the habit of regulating
+their own actions in accordance with the actions and needs of others
+in furtherance of one general aim.
+
+Having secured this cohesion among the men, you have still to
+produce it within the company as between platoons and sections.
+For cohesion is the coping stone of the edifice of efficiency,
+and rests on a basis of discipline, moral and training. It makes
+possible the application of the principle of mutual support
+which is indispensable in the attack (F.S.R., 105 (4)), and it
+enables retirements and defensive action to be carried out without
+disorganisation, and with the minimum of loss. Whenever sections act
+together, see to it that the non-commissioned officers keep an eye
+on the movements of the others, and question them as to the extent
+their orders to their sections should be influenced by the needs and
+movements of the others. By this means they will be induced to check
+the inclination to play only for their own hands, and to remember
+always that their unit is part of a combination which can best attain
+success by acting accordingly.
+
+
+                                VIII.
+
+Training is the preparation of officers and men for the duties which
+they will carry out in war. These duties consist in the application
+of the principles contained in the training manuals, and it is your
+business to provide concrete examples. But in these days of long
+range arms combats take a very long time, and you cannot expect in
+a parade of perhaps one or at most two hours, and with a limited
+extent of ground, to carry out all the varied phases of an operation
+which, in warfare, would take anything from six to eighteen hours to
+complete, and would extend over perhaps five or six miles of country,
+even if we limit ourselves to the extreme ranges of heavy artillery,
+and take no account of movements not within the range of possible
+fire. Therefore, in your training, you must be analytical, choosing
+for one parade such phase or phases as you have time and ground for,
+and doing the others later on. When your company knows all it can be
+taught thus piecemeal, it will be early enough to try to get time and
+ground to perform continuous operations.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For instance, infantry in the attack will usually have to go through
+three phases: first, the advance to fire positions; second, the fire
+fight (I.T., 121 (6)); and, third, the assault, which latter must be
+divided into the charge and the steps which follow it according as it
+is successful or not. You will have to train for these three phases.
+The first, against an enemy armed with guns and rifles, would consist
+in opening out from column of route into little columns—sections or
+platoons—and moving forward in this formation, the main object being
+to escape being smashed to pieces by his artillery fire before being
+able to do him any damage (I.T., 118 (3)). Later, you would come
+under his rifle fire, and your little columns must scatter out into
+lines of men in extended order (I.T., 118 (5)). These movements seem,
+and are, very easy, but still they must be practised in peace if they
+are to be done coolly and without confusion in time of war when the
+first intimation of the necessity for opening out may be the shriek
+and crash of what will be to most of the men the first shrapnel they
+have ever seen, and withal aimed at themselves. This phase requires
+the presence of all four platoons of the company, and so may be kept
+over till the men have been trained in the phase which it precedes,
+namely, that of the fire fight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The fire fight begins when the attacking infantry have got as far
+forward as they can without having to reply to the enemy’s fire, and
+it is quite distinct from the preceding phase of passive endurance.
+Success in the fire fight is an absolute necessity for a successful
+assault. Possibly your enemy has prepared your success before war
+broke out by abstaining from training his men in musketry, but even
+if his shooting is inferior, the fire fight will call into play
+all the qualities and skill of which your men are possessed, both
+individually and collectively. Accordingly you should practise them
+in the fire fight from the opening of their fire up to the assault,
+first individually and then collectively.
+
+The assault can be dissected into the fixing of bayonets with
+as little cessation of fire as possible, the charge itself,
+followed, according as it is held to have been successful or not,
+by the rallying of the troops, pursuit of the enemy by fire and
+strengthening of the captured position, or the withdrawal or such
+mitigation of the results of failure as may fairly be attempted.
+Thus, by considering the attack as made up of phases as above, it
+is, I think, possible and instructive to practise each one of them
+separately, on a short parade, and on limited ground, by placing
+the men in the order in which they would be at beginning of any one
+phase, and carrying on from there.
+
+Before beginning any exercise, call your non-commissioned officers
+out to the front, and explain to them and to the men, in very full
+detail, what the exercise is intended to be, what points particularly
+require attention, how you want it done, and the sequence of events,
+if it involves combined action between the different units; whether
+the company is supposed to be acting by itself or as part of the
+battalion, and, if the latter, whether your side are having the
+support of artillery fire or not, where the enemy is, and what he
+is, i.e., is he infantry only, or has he also cavalry and guns, what
+he is supposed to be doing, attacking, defending, retiring, marching,
+or what. Deal with all such points before you start, otherwise you
+will find your non-commissioned officers and men filling in the
+blanks each according to his own bent of imagination, and everyone
+in consequence playing at a different game. To be thus able to
+define the scope and arrangements of the exercise, you must have it
+clearly planned out in all detail in your head. This you should do if
+possible the day before the parade, so that you will have the thing
+well thought out, and events marshalled in logical sequence.
+
+At all exercises, if possible, have the enemy represented by a
+skeleton force, as directed by T. & M.R., 48, a few actual men with
+blank cartridge, and a red range flag or two to roughly define the
+enemy’s position. Use for this purpose old soldiers, if you have
+them, or, at least, men who have already performed the exercise
+you mean to do, and it is better to take one or two men from each
+platoon than to send off a whole section, and so break up the company
+organisation. Six or eight men are quite enough to form any skeleton
+enemy that is needed for a company to manœuvre against. You must give
+the skeleton enemy definite orders as to what they are to represent,
+where they are to go, and what to do and not to do. If they are given
+at all a free hand, especially if under the enterprising British
+subaltern, they are very apt to indulge in far-reaching manœuvres,
+and subject you to sudden raids and onslaughts which upset your
+scheme for the parade, and leave you no enemy at the very point you
+wished to have him. If you cannot arrange for a skeleton enemy, at
+least never fail to indicate some position as supposed to be held
+by an enemy. If your exercise ground is limited in extent, fix the
+enemy’s position outside it, regardless of whether you have, or
+have not, licence to traverse the intervening space, so as to avoid
+carrying out your exercise within impossibly close range of the
+enemy. In default of a skeleton enemy to provide you with a target,
+tell your men to aim at any members of the public who are about the
+enemy’s position. This is better than snapping at inanimate objects,
+as it gives more interest and so keeps up careful aiming. As regards
+the general method of training, follow commonsense and the manuals,
+and work from individual up to collective, bearing in mind always
+that collective work is built up of the work of the individuals who
+throughout have to be kept up to the collar by the various arts which
+I have touched on. The less of the iron hand that is shown the
+better.
+
+
+                                 IX.
+
+I make no mention of scouts, as they are specialists. They must be
+selected after you have got to know all the men of your company and
+their capabilities. Their training as scouts cannot be carried out by
+you personally at the same time that you are training the company.
+To be really of use, it will be a whole-time job for one officer,
+and you will either have to turn them over to one of the subalterns,
+or go with them yourself, preferably the former, if the subaltern
+is capable. When they are trained and fall in on parade as scouts
+in their sections, it is a good plan to have places permanently
+reserved for them as third files from the left of sections (the blank
+file’s place) so that they can leave the ranks without disturbing the
+formation for forming fours.
+
+As regards dress one thing is quite certain, and that is that with
+only one suit of uniform men cannot appear clean and smart off duty
+in it, and yet use it for field work with all the lying down and
+knockabout wear involved. In time of national danger, appearances
+will go to the wall, and men will do their work at the expense of the
+fit of their one and only suit of uniform.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] A cause now exists, and the men have come out.
+
+
+
+
+                             EXERCISE I.
+
+                INDIVIDUAL ADVANCE IN EXTENDED ORDER.
+
+
+The exercise portrays what men will have to do when the rifle fire
+of the enemy becomes effective, and necessitates extension of the
+small columns which are used to dodge his shell fire (I.T., 118 (3)).
+This will be somewhere over one thousand yards from the enemy, and
+perhaps fourteen hundred may be taken as a maximum. From the point
+at which extension from the small columns is made up till the time
+of the assault, a line of men in extended order is the suitable
+formation, unless there is some covered way leading forward which
+can be traversed in file or other formation. Once the advance has
+begun it should be carried through as quickly as possible without
+exhausting the men too much, and fire should not be opened until it
+is absolutely necessary to neutralise that of the enemy, firstly,
+because it lessens the speed of the advance and so increases the time
+during which the attackers are exposed to the enemy’s fire; secondly,
+because once men start firing it is more difficult to lead them
+forward; and, thirdly, because it uses up cartridges whose value and
+difficulty of replacement increases at every yard nearer the enemy’s
+position.
+
+The exercise is then to train men to gain ground to the front with
+the minimum of exposure to the enemy’s fire, and as quickly as may
+be, firstly, without firing, and, secondly, while firing themselves,
+but in the latter case speed must be subordinated to the development
+of a fire of sufficient accuracy and volume to largely neutralise
+that of the enemy, for at this stage of the battle advances under
+fire will only be possible if it is inaccurate; and the only certain
+means of causing it to be inaccurate is by disturbing the enemy’s
+nerves and aim by bringing to bear on him the fire both of supporting
+troops and of the firing line itself (I.T., 118 (6)).
+
+The regulations do not encourage the opening of fire by units less
+than two platoons at ranges over one thousand yards as the results
+do not compensate for the delay. Under one thousand and up to six
+hundred it is desired that fire should be controlled and directed,
+i.e., the amount, and the target should be specified by commanders
+(I.T., 116). Under six hundred yards it is recognised that
+individual fire gives good results, and, moreover, control becomes
+almost impossible.
+
+Divide your exercise accordingly. First, teach merely the advance
+without firing, letting the men know that they are not to fire, as
+a rule, without orders under six hundred yards, and then let them
+advance firing at each halt behind cover, choosing their own target
+and times of firing as they would do in the stage of “close fire,”
+i.e., six or perhaps eight hundred yards up to assaulting distance,
+which latter is about two hundred yards from the enemy’s line of
+defences.
+
+This parade is one that can be done with very few men present, but it
+is necessary to form them up into sections with a large proportion
+of non-commissioned officers. Keep the men in their proper sections,
+but, if necessary, join two or three together, so as to form sections
+with three or four non-commissioned officers to each. Thus, if you
+form four sections, they should each be in reality a boiling down of
+the platoons. In future exercises I will also suppose that you thus
+concentrate your men, keeping the members of each section together,
+and form them into sections of size suitable to the work of the day,
+and no further allusion will be made to this.
+
+Before taking the men on to the exercise ground, you should choose
+a point on it from which you intend to start your advance. Some
+fourteen hundred or less yards from this choose a position for your
+skeleton enemy, who will consist of three or four old soldiers with
+forty rounds of blank each. If men are not available, put up a few
+red range flags. Whichever are used, put them into some position that
+an enemy might reasonably occupy; do not simply dump them down on to
+the ground. The skeleton enemy must be told to show up occasionally,
+and to open a slow but regular fire as soon as they see your men
+advancing, but only to keep it up as long as your men show themselves
+in making their advance. A complete cessation of fire will denote
+that your men are making such good use of cover as to be invisible
+to the enemy. Let your men also know that these instructions have
+been given, and that such an advance is the ideal to be sought for,
+provided always that it is not absurdly slow. If neither men nor
+flags are available you must make believe and point out a supposed
+position at a supposed distance. I have already pointed out the
+advantages of having a skeleton enemy to work against.
+
+In front of your starting point, and about four hundred yards from
+it, decide on some point at which you will let the men halt after
+they have made their way across the intervening space. Here I will
+refer you to the diagram. The line AA´ is your starting point, CC´
+the enemy’s position. Your exercise consists in showing individual
+men how to gain ground from AA´ as far as BB´, distant about four
+hundred yards from AA´, with the minimum of exposure to the enemy’s
+aimed fire. Draw up the sections, supposing there are two, on the
+line AA´, fifty to one hundred yards apart, and let the men sit down
+facing away from CC´ and, if possible, under cover, so that they may
+not see how their comrades negotiate the course. Space the available
+non-commissioned officers of each section along the course from A to
+B and A´ to B´, with orders to supervise and criticise the advance
+of each man within the limits of their beats. Allow a belt of twenty
+to thirty yards broad from A to B and from A´ up to B´, within which
+men must seek their cover. This belt is made broad here to afford
+instruction, but when the men work together in their sections, it
+will be much narrower, as they will then be extended at intervals of
+five or six paces only. Start off one man at a time from each section
+to cross from AA´ to BB´, to move as if under fire from the enemy in
+rushes from one cover to another. As soon as a man reaches BB´ he
+may fall out and watch the movements of the remainder. Do not send
+off a fresh man until the preceding one has nearly reached BB´, so
+that your non-commissioned officers may have good opportunity to look
+at each man as he goes. As for yourself, be active in supervising
+both sections, using your horse if you have one.
+
+          DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. & II. [Illustration:
+
+  CC´ = Enemy’s position about 1400^X from AA´. Enemy being
+  represented by men with blank cartridge or flags.
+
+  AA´ = Starting points 1400 yards from enemy’s position.
+
+  Men start from AA´ to cross to BB´ without exposing themselves to
+  the enemy at CC.´
+
+  Crosses indicate cover, and the chain dotted lines routes by which
+  men may advance.
+
+AA´ to BB´ is about 400^X]
+
+The following are points to be attended to:—Before leaving their
+cover, men must decide where their next halting place is to be, and
+make for it quickly, and with decision. There must be no emerging
+into the open, and then looking about for a bit of cover to go
+for. The length of each rush should not be enough to let the enemy
+have time for deliberate aim—fifty yards or so is quite the limit
+for this. If there is no cover the men must lie down flat between
+each rush. Occasionally it is advisable to make a long rush from
+one good position to another at sprinting pace without stopping at
+all (I.T., 121 (12)), so this should be practised sometimes, the
+non-commissioned officers at that part of the beat being ordered
+to tell the men what is needed. Once a man has decided on his next
+halting place, and is in wind, he should leave his cover with a jump.
+The slow uprising of a figure is sure to draw the enemy’s attention,
+and make his fire more accurate than it would be if no intimation
+were given him. Similarly, on reaching cover, men should fall down
+quickly, and not lower themselves slowly to earth.
+
+Insist on a careful choice of cover, a very small depression or
+elevation, even six inches, is enough to give cover from view, and
+therefore helps in escaping aimed fire, but in peace time men will
+not take trouble over apparently trifling things like this unless it
+is rubbed into them by close supervision. Noticeable objects should
+be avoided as the enemy may have taken their range, and they help
+him to define a point on which to concentrate fire. If a man makes
+mistakes and shows indecision at any part of the course, call him
+back to the last cover he left, and let him start again from there
+after pointing out what he has done wrong.
+
+
+          _II. The advance combined with individual fire._
+
+The second part of the exercise is done in the same way as the first,
+the men advancing and taking cover as before, but now using their
+rifles. They have to be taught to use the cover to advantage, both
+as a protection and as an aid to their shooting, and to take pains
+in searching for a good target, and in their sighting, aiming and
+firing. For purposes of instruction, six hundred yards is rather a
+short range to open fire at, and I recommend your making a start at
+eight hundred or so, i.e., two hundred yards beyond BB´ towards the
+enemy, working up to four hundred. This necessitates judging distance
+at beyond the practically point-blank ranges of the Lee-Enfield
+rifle, and makes the men use their eyes keenly to spot the enemy,
+while it avoids a certain amount of unreality which is apt to attach
+to instructional movements carried on in front of a skeleton enemy at
+the deadly short ranges under three hundred yards.
+
+Points which should be considered are:—
+
+To fire from the right and lower edge of any cover, not over the top.
+
+Make the men keep a count of the number of times they snap over the
+course (i.e., cartridges used), and report to the non-commissioned
+officer at the finish of their course.
+
+Let the men do their own judging distance, and let non-commissioned
+officers drop at once on any man who either fails to do so, or
+forgets, as they often do, to adjust the backsight.
+
+Cultivate a habit among the men of looking about for different
+targets, not firing only straight in front of themselves, but on
+their right and left, so that when they come to fire collectively
+they may feel nothing new in being told to open the enfilade fire
+recommended by I.T., 116 (11), and also get the custom of watching
+for the enemy all along his front.
+
+These two exercises of advancing with and without firing are
+the groundwork of the fighting efficiency of the soldier in the
+attack, and will be found to call for every natural and acquired
+qualification the individual possesses. Good shooting, quick
+judgment, activity, wind, and everything else are needed if the
+work is done with full observance of the conditions which would
+exist under fire. Put the men through exercises of this sort several
+times, and, if possible, on different ground, till they acquire
+quickness in choosing cover and the arts that make an expert fighter.
+Confidence in themselves will come with the skill they acquire,
+and with confidence comes decision of mind, which is really more
+important than bodily efficiency. If you have time, a useful rider to
+this exercise is to work the men by pairs, as is recommended in the
+Musketry Regulations for the observation of fire, and so introduce
+them early to the use of the file organisation which I have advised
+you to adopt.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE II.
+
+                        RETIREMENT BY PAIRS.
+
+
+A sound provision against panic among young troops is to accustom
+them to regard a retirement as all in the day’s work, and not as
+an exceptional undertaking which their anxiety may invest with
+possibilities of disaster. The essence of successful retirement in
+face of an enemy lies in the continuous opposition, or appearance
+of it, offered to the enemy by one portion of the troops, while
+others draw off to take post to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost
+portion. I.T., 137, gives the idea in few words. It does not mention
+individual training in this, but it is useful to put men through the
+movements, both to cultivate cohesion in the ranks, and as a tactical
+exercise. It may happen in war that an extended line has to give
+ground when engaged with the enemy, and this under so heavy a fire as
+to make movement except over short distances impossible without great
+loss. Such a withdrawal would mean that the troops are in a very
+tight corner, and would test them very highly, but that is another
+matter. It may happen, and should be prepared for. A withdrawal
+under these conditions might perhaps be carried out by the alternate
+movement of men in files covered by the fire of the others, until
+such a distance from the enemy had been obtained as to allow sections
+or companies to take up the alteration. Up to that distance it will
+be simply a reversal of what was done in Exercise I., but worked by
+files—a front rank man and his rear rank man, one going back a short
+distance, and the other firing to cover the movement. Again, men on
+patrol or otherwise detached may have to retire to avoid capture, or
+for many other reasons, when they might not be under close and heavy
+fire, but still would be under the necessity of preventing the enemy
+closing in on them or surrounding them. In this case, the length
+of each withdrawal would be much longer than in the former case;
+one man would fire while the other made off perhaps two or three
+hundred yards at his best speed. Train for both contingencies; it
+can be done in one and the same parade. Skeleton enemy as usual. For
+the withdrawal under heavy fire, let the sections sit down and fall
+out at BB´ (Diagram I.), and put out the non-commissioned officers
+between BA and B´ A´ as before. Call out the men by files, tell them
+to work back to A and A´, one firing, the other retiring. As a rule
+they should retire past each other before halting. The same points
+must be observed as in Exercise No. I, and the quicker they are in
+movement the better, but they must be taught to go in quick time also
+when so ordered (I.T., 137 (4)).
+
+For the retirement of a file as on patrol, do exactly the same, but
+you should work over six hundred yards of ground or so to correct any
+tendency to import the short rush into this exercise, which would
+be out of place, and also to let men have more practice in looking
+for suitable fire positions from which they can both fire on the
+enemy, _and from which they can get away when their turn comes_, a
+point they often neglect at first. The different nature of the two
+exercises must be made quite clear.
+
+At this exercise you should bring before your men the need of using
+all sorts of _ruses_ in a retirement, the use of rapid fire just
+before withdrawing, the sham withdrawal acted by ceasing fire, and
+retiring a few yards, but only to halt and re-open fire after a few
+seconds if the enemy has been tempted to expose himself, thinking the
+coast clear, the real withdrawal effected so carefully that the enemy
+is not sure whether you are there still or not, and so on; and make
+them put their own ideas of these plans into action and tell them if
+they are doing what is feasible on service or not. Bar all “manœuvre
+slimness,” i.e., anything that could not be done on service.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE III.
+
+       INDIVIDUAL TRAINING IN USE OF FIRE AND FIRE DISCIPLINE.
+
+
+Early lessons in fire discipline can be given in single rank on the
+parade ground, but the open country and extended order are wanted for
+training men to the fullest extent under service conditions. Only
+in the open country can be got the variety of targets, ranges and
+the visual training which are necessary for a complete education.
+Men must be taught, and taught again, that the taking up of extended
+order, and movement over all sorts of ground, in no way mean that
+they are to pass at once beyond the control of their unit leaders, or
+that it is optional to continue to take any sort of pains with their
+shooting just because their non-commissioned officers cannot stand
+over them, but have to shout orders from a distance.
+
+This exercise consists in advancing and retiring in extended order
+with fire and the use of cover when halted; but to allow for more
+prolonged shooting practice and closer supervision than are possible
+when carrying out an attack or retirement as on service, the halts
+are longer and movements should at first be made in quick time.
+
+Put out your skeleton enemy on a good broad front, so as to allow
+room for change of targets, and do not have them all in one straight
+line, so that each target shall call for a change of sighting. Let
+the sections work independently of each other under their section
+commanders, who, with the other non-commissioned officers, will have
+to act both as commanders and instructors. Bring the sections up to
+about twelve hundred yards from the enemy; get them into a line with
+intervals between them, i.e., spaces measuring from the flank of one
+to the flank of the other, sufficient to admit of each section being
+extended to two or three paces between men without its flank men
+coming too close to those of other sections, e.g., with two sections
+of eight file, i.e., sixteen men each; you must leave room for half
+of each to extend to two paces towards the other, and keep a fair
+interval; that is, from the centre of each of the above sections of
+eight men in each rank you want 8 ÷ 2 (half the number in the front
+rank) × 2 (two ranks) × 2 (two paces extension) = 16 paces for the
+line extended and an interval of, say, 30 yards, which gives 46
+yards between each section centre to centre. Now, let the section
+commanders order the men to extend, lie down, take cover and open
+fire. The unit commander, the non-commissioned officer in charge of
+the section, is to name the target and distance and also the rate of
+fire, rapid or slow, at all distances over six hundred yards from
+the enemy (I.T., 116 (5)), unless it is desired on occasion to train
+men to do this for themselves. After fire has been delivered, direct
+section commanders to proceed with the exercise, giving orders for
+advancing, halting and firing, the advance to be made from cover to
+cover as in Exercise No. I, but in quick time. Yourself supervise in
+chief, and tell section commanders when you want to give orders as
+to the firing or movement, and let them give the executive commands,
+after which you and they should pass along the lines and scrutinise
+each man’s actions in carrying out the orders, questioning them, and
+repealing hints you may have given when telling them the object and
+methods of the practice, if they appear not to be giving them effect.
+The value of the practice depends on the orders you give as to the
+firing and the following are suggested:—
+
+(_a_) Switching the fire of all the rifles on to different parts
+of the enemy’s position, sometimes straight in front, _but quite
+as often_ at his extreme flanks. This is to introduce the use of
+enfilade fire (I.T., 116 (11)) and the habit of giving support by
+fire to other units (F.S.R., 105 (4)), by concentrating the fire on
+to particular targets.
+
+(_b_) Distributing the fire laterally along the whole or a part
+of the enemy’s front (I.T., 116 (10)). This may be done by giving
+the section a particular extent of the enemy’s front, e.g., “from
+the dry tree to the gate in the hedge.” The section commander
+then allots those of the enemy, who can be viewed within his bit
+of front to individual men, or preferably files of men, who are
+to treat them as their especial charge and keep on firing at them
+till otherwise ordered, or till the enemy shifts. Of course, if
+there is not enough of the skeleton enemy to give each file in the
+section a live antagonist (and there won’t be on your parades), the
+commander must indicate bits of cover which individual men of the
+enemy might be expected to use and tell his men to fire at these
+spots. This is a most important practice, and needs a good deal of
+attention and application before the men get really quick at it. It
+means, of course, that on service you will make it your business
+to allow as few of the enemy’s riflemen as possible to be free of
+the distraction of having some bullets landing about them, to upset
+their nerves and aim. Unless some plan is adopted to do this all
+along his line, it is all too probable your men will be exposed to
+some accurate fire from rifles held in steady hands, and even one
+rifle so held has, to my knowledge, caused a loss of eleven men in
+as many minutes. This lateral distribution is rather difficult, but
+it is easy, compared with the concomitant task of spotting where the
+men of the enemy are hidden, if they really try to hide, at anything
+but the shortest fighting ranges. The only remedy for this is for
+each private to carry field glasses of sorts; you will not get them
+from Government, but if any of your men are keen enough to go in
+for spotting a hidden enemy for themselves with glasses and would
+bring their own to parade, forbid them not, but encourage it. I have
+been told that in some of the yeomanry corps in the South African
+war nearly every trooper raised somehow and somewhere a pair of
+glasses—some were mother o’ pearl and silver-mounted, but did the
+spotting all right in spite of that.
+
+(_c_) Passing orders and changing targets. Under heavy fire
+non-commissioned officers will not be able to move along the line,
+and orders must be passed either by word of mouth or by written
+messages passed from hand to hand; the former is apt to be slow,
+and the orders garbled en route unless practised beforehand; the
+latter is not very practical as men in action are too busy to read
+bits of paper or trouble themselves to see that they are passed on
+(I.T., 119 (4)). To practise the verbal method while the men are
+engaged in firing at any particular target, give orders to one man
+in a low tone (you would have to speak loud if ball cartridge were
+being used) to fire at some other target, and to pass the word.
+The man then tells his neighbours on each side, and yourself and a
+non-commissioned officer then follow the order each way, and when a
+man varies it admonish him to repeat just what he got from the last
+speaker, no more and no less. In a little time the men will become
+exact in taking and passing messages. This method should be confined
+to directions about firing; orders for movement should invariably
+be given by commanders by word themselves or signal, and men should
+not be allowed to repeat these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on
+service, as a signal may be seen and acted on by someone for whom it
+was not intended.
+
+(_d_) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy or bits of cover, let
+fire be directed at civilians who are moving about in the field of
+view. Call on some individual man by name to choose some such target,
+and tell him he has to pass the word to the rest of his squad what
+target he has chosen and to fire at it. This gives practice in target
+definition, i.e., describing its position so that other men can know
+just where to look for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid of
+noticeable objects to do this quickly, but it is important, as the
+difficulty of locating a well-concealed enemy with smokeless powder
+requires that every pair of eyes in the ranks should be engaged in
+the search till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen are seen,
+and the information given to everyone in the firing line. Until this
+is done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise aimed by unaimed
+fire, a pretty hopeless task. Hence train your men to use their eyes
+for seeing and their tongues for description.
+
+(_e_) Accustoming the men to judge distance, and use their backsights
+without orders. Judging distance for the men as a formal practice is
+confined to ranges under 800 yards, but it does no harm to let them
+judge greater ranges. Let the unit commanders define targets to be
+fired at, omitting to state the range, and let the men judge it for
+themselves and fire. Walk up the line and see that no man forgets to
+adjust his backsight for the distance he estimates. If possible, have
+the correct ranges taken previously with a range finder, and let the
+men know what they are after they have aimed. Each change of target
+gives the men a useful lesson in judging distance.
+
+(_f_) Having put the men through all sorts of paces in the way of
+firing while advancing and retiring, in quick time do the same thing
+again, but with the movements in double time, and, in addition,
+carry out the increases and decreases of the extension, inclines and
+changes of direction given in I.T., 93, throughout insisting on the
+same steadiness in firing as when in quick time. All this will at
+first probably get the men “rattled,” and the benefit of it is that
+after some of it they will get over being “rattled,” and will not let
+hurried orders or speed of movement interfere with deliberation and
+steadiness in shooting.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE IV.
+
+                            THE ASSAULT.
+
+
+Exercise III. can suitably be wound up by a practice in delivering
+an assault, as this does not take long, and the moral may be pointed
+that all fire training is only a preparation for a successful
+assault. The fixing of bayonets before assault commonly leads to
+a complete cessation of fire in the firing line. This is quite
+wrong, as such complete cessation of fire by the firing line must
+largely surrender for the time being that superiority of fire which
+facilitates the delivery of the assault (I.T., 121 (7)), for it gives
+the enemy a chance to take aim again. Supporting fire by artillery
+or infantry not in the firing line cannot be relied on when the
+firing line has reached assaulting distance. Therefore, do not have a
+simultaneous fixing of bayonets, but let one-half fix while the other
+fires, and the best arrangement is evidently one that ensures a fire
+being kept up along the whole front and not in patches. The system I
+have found most satisfactory is to fix bayonets by ranks, the front
+rank fixing while the rear rank continues firing, and then the rear
+rank fixing while the front rank fires. It may be done by odd and
+even files, or other ways, but, the company being organised in files,
+the same men are usually in the front and rear rank, and there is no
+difficulty in their remembering which they are. The important thing
+is to adhere to one system once it is adopted, and have it well
+understood by all. It does not matter much if a few men fix bayonets
+out of turn, so long as the fire is merely diminished and not stopped
+during the time bayonets are being fixed. In the charge, the men
+should work by their files, i.e., the two men of each file should act
+together and run at the same objective. The meaning of this is that
+in actual conflict two men would go together for the same individual
+enemy, and between the two of them they would be pretty sure to bring
+him to an untimely end, if the enemy really waited for the steel, and
+with less chance of his doing damage than if the combat took place
+man-to-man; thereafter they could turn their attentions to some other
+person.
+
+For the practice choose and indicate any position for assault; work
+sections up to about two hundred yards from it, and then order rapid
+fire and bayonets to be fixed. As soon as all are ready, order the
+charge to be sounded. (I.T., 124). When the men hear the bugle they
+must at once jump from their cover and go straight and hard at the
+position; there must be no waiting by individuals to fire a last shot
+or two. The rush should be made suddenly and swiftly, so that the
+enemy has no time to see what is happening before the men are well on
+their way at him. When the position is reached, pass right through
+it and well beyond it, to escape hostile gunfire (I.T., 124 (5)),
+and then order the “Halt,” when the men may lie down under cover and
+open a pursuing fire. Walk along the line and see, with the help of
+non-commissioned officers, whether men of each file are together; if
+so, it will be proof that they have obeyed the directions to keep
+together during the charge. Allow a minute or two of the pursuing
+fire, then let section or platoon commanders sound their whistles,
+close and reform their sections under cover. On the whistle-sound
+(a succession of short blasts), men rise and double to where the
+commander is, resume their places, and lie down. This re-organisation
+is very important for you as company commander, for by it you get
+your men formed up quickly into platoons and ready to be closed
+into company or to take fresh orders in the minimum of time. The
+usual thing seen is that after the assault the ground is covered
+with a mixture of men of all companies staring about, and apparently
+thinking the show at an end, whereas on service this is the very time
+you may expect either a counter-attack by infantry or a burst of
+artillery fire directed on the lost position.
+
+To repeat the orders of the assault: “Rapid Fire; Fix Bayonets;
+Charge; Halt and Take Cover; Commence Fire; Rally and Close Under
+Cover,” and be ready for further happenings.
+
+
+
+
+                             EXERCISE V.
+
+               THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN THE ATTACK.
+
+
+Having trained the individual men in the work needed of them, the
+next step is to make use of that individual skill to the best effect
+in combination under orders of a commander. The section is the
+lowest unit recognised for _training_ (I.T., 107), and it also is
+the normal unit used in firing (I.T., 6 (4)). When the company is
+advancing in the attack, or retiring, its sections and platoons will
+often be widely separated from each other, and the company commander
+cannot look after each one in detail, so that the platoon commanders,
+and under them the section commanders, must be fully competent to
+lead their men without supervision, in accordance with the general
+intention given them before the company opened out. So the training
+of men in combination must be accompanied by the training of your
+section and platoon commanders.
+
+The duties of fire unit commanders are laid down in I.T., 116 (5),
+and those of section commanders in I.T., 116 and 123 (10). Before
+you proceed with this exercise have up these non-commissioned
+officers and devote ten minutes to an exposition of what is contained
+in the above paragraphs. Dilate on them, and show how neglect of
+those duties hampers the company commanders. At the same time,
+desire them to maintain among the men during sectional exercises the
+standard of individual training which was obtained in the preliminary
+exercises. Unless they do so the men will soon cease to apply what
+they then learnt, and so forget it in battle until the occurrence of
+casualties impresses its value afresh in their minds. Also give them
+the gist of what follows as to the advance and description of fire
+phases.
+
+The exercise gives commanders the opportunity of doing what they
+will have to do when the company is attacking or retiring, but
+without their having to keep an eye on the movements of the other
+platoons. The men should now be extended at full intervals as on
+service, five or six yards apart, this being held to be the most
+that is needed. Put out the skeleton enemy in groups, one group as
+objective of attack for each section or platoon on parade, and the
+groups sufficiently apart to prevent them interfering with each other
+when extended as above, for they are to act independently. Take up
+the advance as if at fourteen hundred from the enemy, when his rifle
+fire on open ground would compel you to change from small columns
+of sections or platoons into the line of extended men (I.T., 118
+(5)). The advance up to assaulting distance, from fourteen hundred
+yards, consists (I.T., 121 (7)), in the first place, of an advance
+to fire positions. Now Musketry Regulations lay down that fire by
+less than two platoons is of little effect over one thousand yards,
+so do not encourage commanders to open fire till one thousand yards
+at least, and use the space fourteen hundred to one thousand yards
+for instruction in getting their sections or platoons forward as
+quickly, and with as little exposure, as possible. Secondly, the
+advance consists of a fire fight combined with further advances up
+to the assaulting position. In this fire fight controlled collective
+fire is better than individual fire (I.T., 116 (7) (iii)), so up to
+six hundred yards let firing take place, only on the specific orders
+of commanders, who accordingly are to name the targets and ranges. In
+this phase therefore make them choose forward fire positions and work
+their units forward, using controlled collective fire at the same
+time.
+
+Under six hundred yards it is apparently held best to accept the
+inevitable and allow individual fire, the unit commanders being still
+responsible for getting their men forward up to the position of
+assault—about two hundred yards from the enemy. Still at this close
+range unit commanders should do what they can to direct the fire, and
+especially they should see that men fire slowly and carefully. In
+general the rate of firing or snapping is far too fast, and pouches
+would be empty long before the assaulting position would be reached.
+
+Owing to the great importance of training the sections, it is
+advisable to let them do this exercise, through both the phases
+below, separately from each other, and not in platoon. When they know
+all about it, let them work in platoon.
+
+Having drawn up your sections in line at fourteen hundred yards,
+order the section commanders to extend and move on, and signal the
+skeleton enemy to open fire.
+
+
+_First Phase: Fourteen to One Thousand Yards, Gaining Ground Without
+                              Firing._
+
+Practise the section commanders in all ways of getting their sections
+forward without undue exposure or delay, by rushes of the whole
+section, man-by-man from one and both flanks and by files, together,
+and any other way that suggests itself. Stand over the section
+commanders in turn and tell them to advance the section by one method
+and then by another, and ask them which seems most suitable for
+various conditions of fire and ground (I.T., 118 (4)). The advance
+should be steady and determined. Before starting the advance from one
+position to another, section commanders are to decide and _must tell
+the men_ to what point they mean the next advance to be made (I.T.,
+108 (2)), in the same way as individual men were taught to mark their
+next halting places.
+
+Attention must be paid to the way in which advances are inaugurated.
+Rushes must be sudden and simultaneous (I.T., 92 (5)). The men have
+been trained to leave their cover quickly. The unit commander must
+give his directions for the next move without getting up (if himself
+lying) and tell the men to be prepared; when all are ready, he and
+the men must jump up together and rush at once on the word or signal.
+The object of this, of course, is to avoid a concentrated fire being
+directed on the unit commander, and, perhaps, the two or three men
+nearest him, if they get up before the others, which would make it
+likely that some of them would be hit immediately, while the rest
+of the unit looked for a new leader, and so no advance take place;
+whereas if everyone gets on the move together a casualty or two will
+not bring the whole to a standstill. Of course, commanders should
+lead the way, but they must get in front by sprinting the first few
+yards.
+
+
+ _Second Phase: One thousand to Six Hundred Yards (Collective Fire)
+      and Six Hundred to Two Hundred Yards (Individual Fire)._
+
+As soon as a section begins to fire, it becomes possible for it to
+practise the lessons in the use of fire which were learnt in Exercise
+III., such as concentration and distribution of fire. From one
+position the commander must choose his next fire position, and work
+his section up to it in whatever way is most suitable. On flat and
+open ground this position may simply be the halting place of the next
+rush, thirty or forty paces to the front, but it is more instructive
+and practical to have positions far enough from each other, say one
+hundred and fifty or two hundred yards, to necessitate the advancing
+section making several successive rushes and using various devices
+to gain ground without attracting the enemy’s attention. Practise
+sections in all ways of advancing from one position to another,
+as was done before firing began, and encourage the use of covered
+ways. This exercise, if properly done, represents what the section
+would have to do in battle. For the purpose of instruction, the unit
+commanders should be allowed to move about as instructors, but when
+all ranks have been through the exercise and know what is needed, you
+should practise it under service conditions, and tell unit commanders
+to behave as if under fire; this is important, as it lets all see
+how much will be asked of the individual man under fire, and how
+difficult it is to exercise any wide control.
+
+For the same reason you must in this exercise begin the practice of
+ordering casualties of leaders, and carry it on through the whole of
+the rest of the training. Order section commanders to be casualties,
+and let the next senior man carry on, then order that man to become
+a casualty, and let the next one take command. Collect these
+casualties with you and let them go round with you, and have for a
+time the onlooker’s view of the game. Do not stint in ordering them,
+but let every man be ready to take up command. This readiness to
+assume command and to carry on the advance in spite of the absence
+of leaders is most valuable in battle and on parade for training,
+keeps men’s attention fixed on the business, and helps to counteract
+disorder when companies and sections get mixed up in reinforcement in
+battalion attack.
+
+Under six hundred yards let the men use individual fire, choosing
+their own targets; at this time try to get them into the way of
+looking for the targets which most require to be shot at at the
+moment—they must be always looking along the enemy’s line, and must
+not acquire the paralysing habit of only seeing straight in front of
+themselves.
+
+Call on unit commanders to keep in view the question of expenditure
+of ammunition. It is no good ordering men to snap-fire 200 times in
+the course of an advance when they would only have 100 rounds in
+their pouches on service, and no means of getting more; when blank
+is being used they should see that the ammunition of casualties is
+collected and redistributed.
+
+At some time in the course of this exercise the section must be
+practised in improving cover as if under fire, i.e., working lying
+down. The nature of the work depends on what tools you have, but it
+should be attempted if possible. Order the section to do it when
+halted together in some fire position. At first they will shape
+badly and expose themselves a lot, but if you have time for practice
+they get into the way of digging in very quickly. If there are stones
+pile up “schanzes.” Attention should be paid to concealment of the
+cover, so as not to make it a target for the whole countryside, and
+it must give cover from fire or view, or both; one often sees men
+making molehills which show up their position without being capable
+of stopping a bullet. Better not make them at all than that way.
+
+Wind up the advance occasionally by an assault, as it is a mistake
+to let the idea take hold that the fire fight is the end of all
+things. This, I think, is the reason that the word “skirmishing” has
+disappeared from the book of training, as it connoted an indecisive
+action, whereas the whole spirit of the present training is that it
+shall be directed to the delivery of an assault and the ousting of
+the enemy from his position. Scouts are the only people who may have
+to skirmish in the former accepted meaning of the word, and they
+only do so until the firing line joins them, or they withdraw after
+reconnoitring.
+
+
+                            _In Platoon._
+
+Next work the sections together in their platoons on similar lines.
+Practise again all ways of gaining ground; by rushes of the whole
+platoon, or if one or more sections, man by man, and so on, as taught
+to the section. Fire should be directed by the platoon commander, and
+controlled by the section commander. Teach the lateral distribution
+of fire along a given front among the four sections of the platoon.
+Teach also the principle of covering fire, one section being sent
+to make its way with every use of cover to a forward fire position,
+while the remainder continue firing. The first section, on arrival
+at the new fire position, opens fire, and the others follow in
+due course, one section only being dumb while the movement is in
+progress. If there is a choice of good lines of advance it is better
+that sections should not follow each other on one line, as the enemy
+may have noticed the move and be waiting for them.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE VI.
+
+               THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN RETIREMENT.
+
+
+For the general principles of retirements see I.T., 137. The platoon,
+when working with the company, will take its turn at being the
+rearmost portion of the troops, and will have the difficult task of
+getting away while in touch with the enemy, but its retirement will
+be covered by the fire of other portions of the company. On the other
+hand, if a platoon or section finds itself beyond support from other
+troops, as might happen often enough, it will have to act itself as a
+rearguard and retire by alternate parts.
+
+In both cases great advantage is gained if the position held can be
+vacated so stealthily that the enemy shall not be aware of its having
+been vacated till the defenders are well on their way to the rear.
+For this reason it will be worth while to accustom the men to employ,
+when practicable, a procedure used in mountain warfare, withdrawing
+the bulk of men first and leaving only a few quick-footed men to keep
+up appearances and fire as long as possible and then retiring them
+at speed. Also all men must be taught to grovel backwards on their
+stomachs from the crest of their fire position till sufficiently
+under cover, if there is cover, to stand up without being seen, after
+which they rise and make off.
+
+Send out the skeleton enemy with instructions to follow up the
+retirement slowly, and not to close in on the sections, as it is easy
+and tempting to do this when there are no bullets in the rifles.
+
+      (_a_) _As a Section or Platoon Acting with the Company._
+
+Do the practice first by sections and then in platoon. Draw up the
+unit on a fire position about eight hundred yards from the enemy, the
+men in extended order, lying down, and open fire on the enemy. Tell
+the commander to choose his next halting place and retire his unit
+on it, which he should do on the lines before indicated. The halting
+places should be chosen as far apart as two to four hundred yards;
+short retirements merely prolong the time exposure to fire and should
+not be used unless the enemy are very close or the fire very heavy.
+Once the men are clear of the position, they should move as fast as
+they can, trusting to escape casualties, by speed, the alteration
+of range, and the fire of the few men left on the position. As a
+rule, carry out all retirements at the double, so that the men shall
+not be confused by the hasty movement. As soon as the first party
+has reached the new position, the fringe of men left on the old one
+should creep back and go as hard as they can to rejoin their section
+or platoon, and they should be taught to judge the time of going for
+themselves, so as not to “let in” the section or themselves, by going
+too early or staying too late. Repeat the movement to one or two
+further positions. It is a strenuous practice and makes demands on
+the men’s limbs, wind, and willingness, but the rearguard is the post
+of honour and danger. Order casualties of leaders from time to time,
+and let the men be called to move in quick time sometimes, which they
+would have to do if there were signs of unsteadiness.
+
+            (_b_) _As a Section or Platoon Acting Alone._
+
+Act on the same lines as before, but let the commander run the
+show, which he should be able to do, after having done it under
+supervision. One party (a file or two in the case of a section,
+or one or two sections in that of a platoon) gets back to a fire
+position and opens fire to cover the retirement of the other. In
+general, it is better that both parties should not fall back on one
+and the same fire position; on the contrary, if they act on a wide
+front in ordinary country—say, three hundred yards apart—their fire
+is equally effective, but the enemy is broken up, and the danger of
+their being outflanked or surrounded is less. For the same reason it
+is good practice, if the platoon is strong, to send out groups of
+four or five men still further on the flanks, and a group to precede
+the whole on the line of retirement by six hundred yards or so, in
+order to occupy positions and deny them to the enemy, and after one
+or two turns of this exercise tell the skeleton enemy to follow on
+harder and try to work round the flanks. In this part also continue
+to order casualties of leaders.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE VII.
+
+           THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN INDEPENDENT ATTACK.
+
+
+It is very important to secure the intelligent co-operation of
+section and platoon commanders in the operations in which their
+company or battalion is taking part. I have read that in the
+Russo-Japanese War the result of one of the battles—I think at
+Penlin, 31st July—turned on the action of an infantry section who
+gained a footing on the extreme flank of the Russian line, and
+drove off the defenders in the immediate vicinity, opened a way for
+the advance of the greater numbers, and led to the outflanking and
+retreat of the whole Russian force. If you give your unit commanders
+some chances of carrying out attacks, acting as if unsupported by
+other troops, they will find themselves faced with the same problems
+which confront commanders of larger bodies in the attack, and they
+will be more likely, when acting in combination, to look beyond just
+the limits of their own commands; they will be led to comprehend
+the object of operations and the difficulties in the way, and
+will become quick to seize any opportunity to further the general
+plan without waiting for orders. It is true that so small a body
+as a section would seldom be formally told to attack an objective
+single-handed, but there are often occasions on service when a
+platoon might have to carry out an attack on a small scale, as when a
+few of the enemy’s riflemen are making themselves unpleasant, while
+not in sufficient force to do more than “snipe,” or to require the
+diversion against them of a whole company. Though a section as now
+constituted is a very small unit to work with, I think no excuse is
+needed for performing the attack with the smallest unit, having in
+view the excellent training it forms for non-commissioned officers
+and men. However, for this practice, it is advisable to form sections
+somewhat above the usual strength, by joining two together, so as
+to give at least eighteen rifles in the whole. After having put the
+sections through the exercise, you will, of course, let the platoon
+commanders carry out the attack with their platoons.
+
+Put out a skeleton enemy of three or four men for each platoon or
+section, or one only for all to attack in turn, and post this enemy
+in some commanding place, with a good field of view and fire so
+that if possible the unit shall have twelve to eight hundred yards
+to manœuvre over before coming to close quarters. As an example,
+give out the supposition that this enemy are a cavalry patrol of the
+enemy, who have dismounted and are using their rifles on the company
+as it is on the move from somewhere to somewhere else. The section or
+platoon is ordered to drive them off, neutralise their fire, or hold
+them in check, in case they should be the forerunners of a greater
+number. The enemy should begin to fire on a signal from you (with
+your flag), which you should give as you tell off the commander for
+the duty. If the other units are to attack the same enemy in turn,
+you should halt them under cover or turn them to the rear, so as not
+to see too much of the method the first lot choose to carry out their
+job.
+
+The method of the attack will depend on the nature of the ground—what
+suits one case may not suit another, and there may be two or three
+courses open in attacking any one position. The commander should
+accordingly look well at the ground before deciding how he will carry
+out the attack, but there are certain principles common to attacks,
+great or small, which he should put into practice. He should secure
+himself from interruption on his flanks and rear, and he should
+provide a supporting fire to distract the enemy and cover the advance
+of his main force. He cannot make large detachments or indulge in
+wide patrolling, nor would such small bodies as platoons be sent
+off to attack if such were advisable; but, at least he can post a
+file or two on some high ground, or, failing that, on one flank out
+of decisive range of the enemy, i.e., about eight hundred yards
+from him, with orders to keep up a steady fire until his advance
+masks their fire. This will prevent, or at least give warning of,
+an attempt to cut in on the rear. He may also send a file perhaps
+two or three hundred yards to either flank, to move parallel with
+his advance and prevent his being enfiladed at short range, if the
+enemy should be tactless enough to avail himself of a chance of
+meeting the advance by a counter-attack. Until he sees pretty well
+what he has in front of him, he should divide his party into two,
+sending one to engage the enemy and keeping the other as a reserve to
+support the first by fire if they get into difficulties, and to be
+available to carry on the attack after the other has got the enemy
+well busy, either by reinforcing it directly, or, better still, by
+continuing the advance along a fresh line leading to some position
+from which the enemy can be finally turned out, either by fire or
+by a charge, the first half joining in and advancing as soon as the
+enemy has turned his attention to the new attack. Both parties should
+keep scouts or a patrol of some sort out in front of them until the
+foreground is proved not to contain any hidden body of the enemy,
+or until the opening of fire by their own side makes it necessary
+for the scouts to merge into the firing line. I have seen on service
+a half-company go off to take post as a piquet on a long ridge; it
+neglected the above precautions, beyond having some scouts in front.
+There were four or five of the enemy on the ridge, and they waited
+till the scouts were close, shot some down and drove the others to
+cover, and then turned their fire on to the half-company, who were
+also driven to ground, and, as there was little cover, they were
+tied up till set free by some more infantry, who had to be specially
+sent off to move along the ridge. Had the half-company moved in two
+portions, the first would have contained this weak enemy, and the
+rear party could easily have circled round and got on to the ridge
+farther along, which would at once have caused the enemy to clear
+out. See F.S.R., I., I, as to the results of the violation of the
+principles of leading troops, and as therein directed, impress the
+principles taught on the minds of your non-commissioned officers, who
+are commanders, albeit only of platoons and sections.
+
+
+
+
+                           EXERCISE VIII.
+
+       THE PLATOON AS AN ADVANCED GUARD AND AS A FLANK GUARD.
+
+
+(_a_) When the company is on the march, it should always be preceded
+by an advanced guard—either a party of scouts, or, more usually, by
+one of the platoons. After the advanced guard comes in contact with
+the enemy its further action becomes either an attack to drive off
+the enemy, or a defence to delay his advancing, according to his
+strength and tactics; so I propose here merely to indicate suitable
+formations of march in ordinary, i.e., non-mountainous country, so
+that the platoons may be practised in taking them up without delay on
+being told off for the duty. The exercise takes little time, and can
+be done on the same parade as the flank guard exercise.
+
+An advanced guard may come under Are at any moment, and to provide
+against surprise (F.S.R., 64), its leading portions may move in
+extended order. The duties are given in F.S.R., 68, and apply quite
+completely to so small a body as a platoon. The platoon should be
+divided into a vanguard and a main guard. For the vanguard, a common
+plan is simply to extend a section on either side of the road, but I
+prefer to divide the section into three patrols, or more if strength
+permits, who work along in a general line—one to search the road
+and its immediate vicinity, and one on each side. The nature of the
+country regulates the breadth of ground the centre patrol can search
+from the road, and the distance to which the others are sent out on
+each side. The other sections follow as main guard, not so close as
+to be at once mixed up with the vanguard if fire is opened on the
+latter, nor so far as to be unable to support it quickly with fire.
+The advanced guard is responsible for keeping touch with the main
+body (the company) (F.S.R., 64 (4)), but the company commander should
+satisfy himself that this is being done. If view is restricted, the
+main guard must drop a connecting file to keep connection. This file
+must march with their beards on their shoulders, to see what the
+company is doing, and let the commander know, and also to signal
+to the company, if the platoon has had to halt. If the country is
+open, the commander should still tell off a file for this duty, who
+will march with the platoon, but be continually on the look-out to
+the rear. The platoon commander ought, of course, to keep a watch
+himself, but may have other things to attend to, and it is well to
+take precautions against the platoon either getting too far in front
+or letting the company get too close to it, by marching on while the
+platoon is investigating some suspicious locality.
+
+
+                (_b_) _The Platoon as a Flank Guard._
+
+A platoon may sometimes be used as a flank guard, as when a small
+convoy is on the march with only a company or two as escort. Flank
+guards are dismissed in a few words in F.S.R., 70. It is worth while
+to practise them once or twice to avoid delay in taking up the
+formation when the march is being started, or in improvising a method
+of fighting off the enemy if he attacks.
+
+Represent the convoy or whatever it is by a man with a red flag to
+move along the road; the platoon is then to move along parallel to
+the road, and far enough off to afford protection from effective
+rifle fire, i.e., at least eight hundred yards in open country. The
+skeleton enemy should be instructed to keep about the same distance
+again on the flank beyond the platoon, and to move along parallel
+with it without closing in, opening fire on an agreed signal.
+
+The march formation should be on the same principles as those for the
+advanced guard. The platoon should move in two bodies, and patrols
+or scouts should precede it, both in the direction of the march and
+towards the flank which is being guarded. It is important to keep
+touch with the main body by connecting files at all times, otherwise
+if the road changes direction out of view of the flank guard it may
+separate them too far or bring them too close to the company.
+
+The method of fighting merely to hold off the enemy resembles that
+used by a rear guard for the same purpose, i.e., fire and movement
+by alternate portions. When the enemy opens fire on your signal, the
+patrol on the flank either falls back, or the platoon reinforces it.
+The patrol in the line of advance should still continue to precede
+the movements of the platoon in that direction, and should be told to
+conform to its movement. The platoon replies to the enemy’s fire as
+soon as possible and begins the lateral fight—one half is sent, if
+possible under cover, to take up a fire position farther along the
+direction of the line of march, preceded by the patrol, which, to
+some extent, secures it from surprise from that direction. As soon
+as the leading party has found a fire position and opens its fire,
+the other follows it, and either halts alongside it, so allowing it
+to go off to a new position, or continues its movement beyond it
+and takes up a third position to cover the further movements. The
+latter method is the quicker, as it saves the time of replacing men
+of the first party in their fire position by those of the second. The
+exercise need not be prolonged, as a few of these lateral movements
+are quite sufficient illustration to enable the men in future to take
+up their duty quickly.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE IX.
+
+       PRELIMINARY FOR THE ATTACK BY THE COMPANY IN BATTALION.
+
+
+A company attacking as part of the battalion is sure to find the
+men of different platoons mixed up in the course of the attack with
+those of other platoons, both of that company and of others. Before
+practising the attack, accompanied with this mixture of platoons,
+it is advisable to train them and their non-commissioned officers
+for their duties without allowing any mixing up. This may be done by
+bringing all the platoons of the company up into one line, and then
+extending each on its own ground. The result is that each platoon
+may be taken to represent the leading platoon of four companies told
+off to furnish the firing line and supports (I.T., 122). The four
+platoons form thus the firing line, the other three supposititious
+platoons of each company being in support. This formation would be
+taken up when the enemy’s rifle fire began to be effective, i.e.,
+at or under fourteen hundred yards. Within this distance the firing
+line has to press on through the zones in which it uses collective
+and individual fire up to assaulting distance, being reinforced as
+needed, firstly by the supports, and finally at the time of the
+assault by all or part of the local reserve, which, in this case,
+would be composed of the four companies of the battalion not detailed
+to furnish the firing line and supports.
+
+Put out a skeleton enemy with orders to remain in one position, and
+fire slowly, but continuously. Draw up the four platoons, or as many
+as are present of the company at fourteen hundred yards or so from
+the enemy, in one line and at sufficient intervals to allow of their
+extending to five paces, _plus_ some space between flanks of sections
+after extension, to allow plenty of choice of lines of advance.
+Indicate to each platoon a part of the enemy’s position which it is
+to regard as its final objective of assault (I.T., 121 (3)). Have the
+men extended to five paces, and carry out the attack right through on
+the lines of Exercise V., and finish with an assault and rally after
+it. Each company would have an officer with its platoon in the firing
+line to direct the fire. If fire is opened between fourteen hundred
+and one thousand yards, it will not be effective against ordinary
+targets unless the whole four platoons direct their fire on the same
+target. Under one thousand yards fire should be controlled by section
+commanders and directed by platoon commanders.
+
+Practise concentration of the fire of the four platoons on one part
+of the enemy’s line and lateral distribution of fire _within the
+limits of that part_. Give each platoon a fraction of this fraction
+of the enemy’s frontage to deal with, and let the platoon commander
+again tell off his sections to fire at various marks inside _his_
+limits. Again switch the fire of all four platoons on to some other
+particular bit of the enemy’s position, as done in previous exercises.
+
+To do this you must introduce and work with thoroughness a system of
+inter-communication (I.T., 119), but it should be one approved and
+adopted by your battalion commander, otherwise each company of the
+battalion may be found using a different one. It is to be understood
+that orders as to the direction of fire in no way interfere with the
+gaining of ground to the front, a platoon firing at one object ceases
+fire in order to advance, but resumes its fire on the same object
+when it again halts.
+
+As soon as section fire is opened, encourage mutual support, some
+part of the line firing while others advance, and make section
+commanders continue to observe this principle.
+
+At some one parade for this exercise halt the whole line during the
+attack and practise entrenching under fire, the men working lying
+down (I.T., 121 (13)). Thereafter resume the advance.
+
+Move about yourself and let your section commanders do so also, and
+check any slovenly work on the part of the men in using, quitting,
+or getting into cover, and in the use of their rifles and judging
+distance if, as should often be done, it is left to them to estimate
+how far they are from the target of the moment.
+
+
+
+
+                             EXERCISE X.
+
+   THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION UNDER ARTILLERY FIRE.
+
+
+When the battalion is moving forward to attack, and before the
+enemy’s rifle fire is more than a distant and future danger, that of
+his artillery becomes an imminent and formidable menace as soon as
+the limits of its range are crossed, because of the suddenness with
+which it is capable of dealing destruction. Whether his artillery
+actually opens on the battalion is another matter. If the battalion
+shows up as a tempting target in column of route or mass, he most
+certainly will fire on it, but if it is skilfully led it may possibly
+escape his notice altogether; at the same time, it is hardly likely
+that it can move from five thousand to fourteen hundred yards from
+the enemy’s infantry without giving some indications of its movement,
+and the probability is, that at some part of the advance it will
+find itself the recipient of the enemy’s attention. To escape the
+effect of this fire, the battalion and the company will have to
+break up into small shallow columns such as platoons or sections at
+least 50 yards from each other laterally (I.T., 118) and two hundred
+yards from front to rear; in fact, a lot of little groups of men
+sufficiently apart to prevent the burst of one shell covering more
+than one group. The advance in this order constitutes the first phase
+of the infantry attack. The company must be practised in getting into
+this formation, and moving in it so as to avoid confusion in action,
+and also to let non-commissioned officers and men understand that
+this formation does not free them from the control of their commander.
+
+At manœuvres and exercises the adoption of this formation is
+sometimes burked on various pretexts, of which the most heinous is to
+say that the results of artillery fire are overrated, and the risk
+run in keeping in closed formation is more than compensated for by
+the comfort of the men, maintenance of control and saving of time.
+This theory I fancy had its origin in the South African War, where
+the Boer artillery was skilful but exiguous, if judged by European
+standards. I have not been under shell fire myself, but I have seen
+the results of it on a column of about two hundred men who came along
+a watercourse two thousand yards or so from the guns, in something
+resembling a march formation. The guns had the range, and the enemy
+left about fifty dead in that watercourse in a few minutes, so
+personally I am going to open out my company and trust to my peace
+training of it to keep it in hand and get it along fast enough to be
+on the spot when wanted.
+
+I need hardly give details how to practise this. The point is, to get
+the company opened out quickly and without confusion, and this is to
+be done by telling your platoon commanders what you want and where
+they are to go, and not by any drill. Platoons may further split up
+into columns of sections. Leave it to your platoon commanders to have
+the sections moved apart to intervals of fifty yards. If the enemy’s
+artillery is straight in front, a diamond formation seems suitable—a
+platoon at each angle—the length of the diagonal front to rear being
+over two hundred yards and side to side over one hundred; or the
+platoons may simply follow each other at two hundred yards distance,
+though this is not a very handy arrangement. But, subject to keeping
+the distances large enough, it is not the formation that matters, but
+the way it is taken up, and I will leave it at that.
+
+At the end of this phase of endurance of the enemy’s artillery fire
+the company comes under rifle fire and has to take to extended
+order, and on service it would perhaps have to do this and plunge
+into the attack without the platoons closing in from the scattered
+formation in which they have so far moved. But for the first few
+times you should close up at fourteen hundred yards and start from
+there, so as to tell the men what is next to be done when they come
+under rifle fire, and in any case the size of your exercise ground
+would probably necessitate your doing the two phases over more or
+less the same bit of ground.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XI.
+
+     THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION, UNDER RIFLE FIRE.
+
+
+The immediate objects of the fire fight within effective rifle range
+are to produce a fire sufficiently heavy to overcome the fire of
+the defence, and to reach a position from which the assault can be
+delivered (I.T., 121 (5 and 6)). In theory, then, the desideratum
+is to get so many men up to about two hundred yards from the enemy
+that they form a line practically shoulder to shoulder, in order
+that their fire may be at least as heavy as that of the enemy,
+if the latter are also in one continuous line, and in default of
+circumstances admitting of effective covering fire being maintained
+from positions in rear or on a flank. On this supposition it is
+frequently argued that a battalion and its companies, when advancing
+to the attack, should do so on a front not greater than that which
+the battalion would occupy if it were in single rank, but this does
+not really follow. The nature of the ground may be such that to
+attempt to build up a shoulder-to-shoulder firing line all along
+the enemy’s position within charging distance, may be merely to send
+men to useless destruction by exposing them on fire-swept spaces,
+where they are sure to be knocked over before they can do any good.
+On the other hand, there may be other points where men may be massed
+so as to give not only a firing line of maximum density, but also
+a supporting force both to replace casualties and to carry out the
+assault. These are the points which it is of importance to gain and
+hold in strength sufficient to carry out the object of the attack—the
+assault. It is the duty of the battalion commander to give each of
+his firing line companies some such point as their objective, and to
+define the frontage and direction of their attack. It is similarly
+the duty of the commander of a firing line company to give each of
+his sections an objective within the limits assigned to his company
+(I.T., 122 (4) and 123 (3-)). The problem for solution is, how to
+get to those points, and so it does not appear to matter much what
+frontage the battalion and its companies occupy when they start off
+for the attack at the fourteen hundred yards limit of effective
+rifle fire, provided of course, they do not encroach on the frontage
+of other units. Indeed, an attack which starts on a wide base and
+concentrates only in its later stages seems much more likely than one
+which starts from base equal to a single rank frontage to keep the
+enemy uncertain of its objective, and to be able to bring oblique
+or enfilade fire to bear on portions of his line. Therefore, when
+practising the company in attack, do not be bound by cast iron rules
+as to the breadth of the zone of ground within which you are to
+bring your company from fourteen hundred yards up to the charging
+position. Four platoons following one straight behind the other, at
+two hundred yards distance, make a very unwieldy procession, and,
+in general, I would advise you to use something in the nature of a
+diamond formation at first, the three platoons in rear making their
+own way forward till they reinforce the leading portion which finally
+consists of the whole company.
+
+Put out the skeleton enemy on a front of, roughly, what your company
+will occupy in single rank, and let the position, if possible, have
+within it two, or at most, three points, which you can assign as
+objectives to the platoon commanders. You must consider this position
+as having been assigned to you as objective by your battalion
+commander, the ground on the right and left of it being the prey
+of other companies, and not the object of your assault, though it
+should, nevertheless, frequently be the object of your _fire_ during
+the advance.
+
+Draw up the company at about fourteen hundred yards from the enemy.
+Tell the platoon commanders the relative positions the platoons are
+to take up when the advance begins, roughly the distances between
+them (I.T., 123 (7)), the direction of the attack, if the enemy’s
+position is not quite clearly to be seen, the frontage on which the
+company is free to manœuvre, and the points which the sections are to
+regard as their objectives; the details contained in I.T., 123 and
+124, may also be enumerated if the commanders are not experienced.
+As regards these details, I recommend that scouts be formed not in a
+line of men extended at wide intervals, but as a line of patrols of
+four or six men each, and you or a subaltern should halt them early
+in the attack and tell them to send back word that they are held up
+by fire, or that they have defined the enemy’s position; on this the
+nearest platoon reinforces them, and the process of building up the
+firing line begins from that point. As regards inter-communication,
+use connecting files and semaphore signalling to join up the various
+parts and make real use of them, but avoid sham messages.
+
+As soon as the object and manner of the attack have been detailed to
+all, tell the platoon commanders to move off their platoons to their
+positions and extend them ready to advance, and the scouts to get off
+in front. Five paces is the least extension to ensure that a bullet
+aimed at one man may miss him with a fair chance of not hitting his
+neighbour. Do not let the scouts go too far away, because at this
+time of getting to grips with the enemy, their usefulness, when
+acting with their companies is mainly limited to guarding against
+ambush at close range, and as ground scouts to prevent the company
+coming against some unseen obstacle, barbed wire, donga, canal, or
+what not.
+
+As soon as all are in position, the company may be considered as
+being in the formation in which it would have arrived at the point
+where, in addition to the enemy’s artillery fire, it comes under
+heavy and fairly accurate rifle fire. Give the signal to advance,
+and let the platoon commanders begin to work their platoons forward,
+using what covered ways they can find. After a little of this, have
+the scouts halted and reinforce them by one platoon, order fire to be
+opened, bearing in mind that one platoon’s fire is probably useless
+at over one thousand yards from the enemy, but if your company is in
+the diamond formation the platoons on each flank will probably be
+able to fire, and with favourable ground, e.g., a knoll, or bluff
+somewhere on the line of advance, the rear platoon also will be able
+to fire over the heads of the firing line. There is no danger in this
+if the men hold their rifles straight, and it would assuredly be done
+in war. I have myself seen it, and the chances of an accident are
+minimised by practice in peace. During this early opening of fire
+use every effort to keep the fire from being merely a make-believe,
+i.e., send word round by your connecting files or semaphore to fire
+at certain targets, and see that section commanders direct their
+fire accordingly. In battle the information as to which part of the
+enemy’s position seemed most to demand attention would, of course,
+reach you from those of your side who were suffering fire coming from
+that part of the position, and the result of your passing the word
+to fire at it as above would be that a shower of bullets would come
+dropping all round it, to the upsetting of the aim of the hostile
+marksmen. Under cover of this fire your firing line may be allowed to
+gain a little ground, platoons moving alternately so as to avoid a
+cessation of fire. Thereafter continue to gain ground, and gradually
+reinforce the firing line till all your supports are absorbed and
+the whole company is in the firing line. When this has taken place
+the line will consist of a mixture of men of different sections
+and platoons. Avoid unreal movements in attempting to keep the men
+of each unit together in reinforcing and recognise that admixture
+is unavoidable. (I.T., 93 (11) and 123 (9)). The organising of the
+resultant disorder is one of the essential objects of training for
+the attack. Make your section commanders call on the men to right and
+left of them, if they are nearer them than any other unit commander,
+to act under their orders. Thus: “Private A to Private J under my
+orders.” Have this done constantly till it becomes a matter of
+course. The men of files can always hang together, but prove that
+this is being done by asking men where their file mates are. Get this
+system started as soon as reinforcement is begun, and keep it in full
+swing throughout. Once it is started, these extemporized fire units
+must apply the principles learnt by the intact sections and squads
+in Exercise IX., i.e., supporting fire by part to cover movement of
+the others, control and distribution of fire, etc., and so work on
+up to assaulting distance and deliver an assault. After this, let
+section and platoon commanders reform their men and units as quickly
+as possible, and then reform the company under your own orders. At
+subsequent parades introduce casualties among the section and platoon
+commanders, and let the senior privates in each of the mixed up fire
+units step into their places and carry on the attack without halt or
+confusion.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XII.
+
+                 THE COMPANY IN ATTACK ACTING ALONE.
+
+
+On service a company may often have to attack some post of the
+enemy without having the support of either artillery or infantry,
+and exercises framed to illustrate these conditions are very useful
+in developing the initiative of all ranks. In paragraph V. of the
+preamble I gave an example, and I think, if you will peruse it again,
+you will see what sort of thing you should arrange for the exercise.
+At inspections one sometimes sees a company sent off by itself to
+carry out such an attack, and the method often adopted is to tell
+off the company into the firing line and supports, and, perhaps, a
+reserve. The whole then go straight for the object and perform a
+sort of travesty of what the company does when acting as part of a
+battalion. By this time I trust you will be quick to perceive that
+this is just what it ought not to do. As an isolated force it has
+to do much more than simply to form a firing line and bring off an
+assault. It must secure its flanks, have a real reserve, employ a
+flank as well as a frontal attack, provide for its own withdrawal
+if worsted, be prepared to deal with a counter-attack, and observe
+all the principles laid down in I.T., 121. _Mutatis mutandis_, your
+reserve may consist of only a platoon, your flank guards a file or
+two of men, your flank attacks a section or platoon with a subaltern
+accompanying it, and so on, but the precautions must be taken and
+the principles put into practice, or your attack would run risk
+of failure. You would do it all on service; therefore, do it all
+in peace. Carry out such exercises, carefully planned, and with
+observance of service conditions, and I am quite sure you will see
+what a great deal there is to be done in this direction before you
+feel yourself and your company quite competent to undertake a similar
+task in the field. That first exercise against a skeleton enemy will
+be the forerunner of many others. Your criticism of the action of
+your non-commissioned officers must be carefully considered, as there
+are usually several justifiable ways of doing a thing, and it should
+always be constructive and not merely destructive (T. & M.R., 2 (2)).
+
+
+
+
+                           EXERCISE XIII.
+
+                     THE COMPANY IN RETIREMENT.
+
+
+The men have been practised in retirement in pairs in Exercise
+II., and the sections and platoons have also learned their part in
+Exercise VI. It remains to train the company for this duty, which
+it might have to do either as acting as rearguard to the battalion,
+whether the latter was, or was not, in conjunction with other troops,
+or as if effecting its withdrawal when isolated. In both cases the
+procedure and distribution are pretty much alike. In the former case,
+the company, if it gets into difficulties, _may_ be able to get help
+from the rest of the force, but in the latter it will not be able
+to do so, and the commander should be especially careful to have
+in hand some portion of his company which he can use to extricate
+any detachment which gets “tied up.” On the other hand, it is very
+desirable that the main body should not be called on to reinforce
+the rearguard when the company is not acting alone. So that in both
+cases you should be prepared to meet eventualities from your own
+resources. Again, a rearguard is bound to have the majority of
+its force in action in order to hold back the enemy and present an
+appearance of force, so that it is not always possible to set apart
+a portion of so small a body as a company to act solely as reserve,
+and to remain continuously outside the actual combat. The solution
+of the difficulty seems to lie in an intelligent application of the
+principles of rearguard fighting given in F.S.R., 71 to 73, and the
+early but timeous withdrawal from the fighting line of a portion
+of the company who move back to a position in rear from which they
+can cover the withdrawal of the remainder, but are still available
+to be thrown into the fight, if it is necessary to inaugurate some
+sort of a counter attack to give portions heavily engaged a chance
+to break away from close grips. It is important in this exercise
+to teach non-commissioned officers and men to be ready to adopt
+quickly any method of withdrawal that may be ordered, because the
+nature of the ground must determine the way in which a withdrawal can
+best be effected, and the nature of the ground may vary every few
+hundred yards. Therefore I merely suggest some ways of practising
+retirements, and during the course of the exercise you should change
+from one to another, and also encourage commanders to act on their
+own initiative, when, as will probably happen, your system of
+inter-communication fails to act with sufficient speed and accuracy.
+I.T., 137, gives general rules as to the action of platoons and
+sections, and the standard set up in Exercises II. and VI. should be
+adhered to. Send out the skeleton enemy with orders to follow up the
+retirement, but not to close in under six hundred yards.
+
+(_a_) Get the whole company deployed into one line of platoons,
+with intervals between them, occupying a wide front, four to eight
+hundred yards, the men at five or more paces extension. This may
+seem too wide a front, but, after all, the intervals between the
+platoons are only two hundred and forty yards, and an enemy trying
+to break straight through the line would be under fire at one
+hundred and twenty yards or less, while a wide front is the best
+precaution against having your flanks turned and your retreat
+intercepted.
+
+Send back a platoon from one of the flanks to take up quickly a
+position in rear clear away from the firing line; three hundred to
+six hundred yards is not too much; let it open fire, and let the
+remainder of the firing line work back by retirement of alternate
+sections, each running back thirty or forty yards, beginning this
+movement from the flank from which the first platoon went, the
+platoon on the other flank holding on and only giving ground when the
+two centre platoons have got well on their way to the line on which
+the first platoon is halted. This is a slow retirement, but gives a
+maximum of continuous fire and the flanks are strong.
+
+(_b_) With the whole company extended in one line, and no intervals
+between platoons. Retire by short rushes of alternate sections;
+the rushes must be quite short, twenty yards at most, so that the
+sections that have retired can fire through the intervals of the
+rear portion of the line the instant that it begins to retire. This
+is meant for use after an unsuccessful assault, and only on flat
+ground.
+
+(_c_) With the company extended in one line, but with intervals
+between the platoons. Order the flank platoons to retire and take
+post to cover the withdrawal of the two centre platoons, who remain
+in position till the flank platoons are ready to open fire. Watch
+how the platoon commanders handle their platoons; they should do so
+artfully, as taught in Exercise VI.
+
+(_d_) Retire by half-companies, two platoons together, using your
+subalterns as half-company commanders, and putting the onus of
+finding suitable covering positions on them, merely telling them
+to cover each other’s retirement.
+
+(_e_) With the company all holding one position, leave the scouts
+or picked men to cover the retirement by rapid fire, and withdraw
+the remainder at full speed, then cover the retirement of the
+scouts by the fire of the whole from a position in rear. Watch
+that the scouts creep back from their cover without letting the
+enemy know they are going; and of this screen of scouts the flank
+men ought usually to be the last to go in order to make the enemy
+believe that the position is still occupied.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XIV.
+
+                              OUTPOSTS.
+
+
+                                 I.
+
+The general rules for outposts and the part played by an outpost
+company are to be found in I.T., 147 to 157, and it is necessary
+accordingly to train for those duties in peace. Let us begin from
+the beginning, and see what infantry outposts are and what they have
+to do. A line of infantry outposts will very often have to be taken
+up after a day’s fighting, or in close proximity to the enemy before
+a battle. The commander of an outpost battalion will be told by the
+staff to take up with his battalion a certain length of the front,
+say, from Farm A to Hill B, inclusive—perhaps a mile or even two in
+extent. He cannot possibly have time to ride all along the front and
+fix places for piquets and sentries. Instead of this, he looks at
+the ground and comes to the conclusion that it will require, say,
+all his four companies in the outpost line. He divides up his front
+into four parts, and gives each of his companies one part. It is
+his duty to see that the eight companies form along the line that
+combines the best facilities for defence and reconnaissance to the
+front. Accordingly, he tells the captain of A Company to take from
+Farm A to, say, the wood X, inclusive, the captain of B Company
+from the wood X, exclusive, to, say, the stream ML, inclusive, and
+so along. The captains of companies then have to go off and take up
+their frontages. As beforesaid, infantry outposts must expect to take
+up their line close to the enemy, and often when dusk is falling.
+This gives you your clue as to how it should be done. You must march
+your company in fighting formation, so as not to be ambushed—a screen
+of scouts or other covering troops in front and on the flanks, a
+party, section, or platoon ready to succour the covering party, and
+hold up the enemy, and a reserve ready to act under your orders,
+either for attack or defence. Your movement and the taking up of
+your line should be unseen by the enemy; therefore, move carefully
+under cover both from distant and close positions, from which you
+may be seen. The line must be taken up quickly. The main thing is
+to get it occupied; therefore, it is a mistake to halt the company
+while you plod round the whole of the front and plan just where each
+piquet and sentry will be. Instead, take a good look at the line as
+you march and decide what are the essential points to be held for
+defence and as observation points. As soon as your scouts have made
+good the ground a little in front of those points, send off what you
+think are necessary, sections or platoons, to seize these points,
+and act as piquets till you go round and adjust details. Thus your
+company will occupy the line in rough-and-ready fashion as quickly
+as they can advance. When the company breaks up to go to the piquet
+posts, go with any one of the piquets which is to be on one flank and
+settle the exact position of the piquet with reference to the line
+you intend to hold as your line of resistance, and any other details
+which you think the piquet commander should attend to, such as what
+localities should be patrolled, and estimate the number of men
+required. Any surplus sections should accompany you from this piquet,
+and you and they then go along the line to the other piquets which
+you arrange similarly, using the surplus to reinforce those piquets
+that need them, and if at the end you have still a surplus of men you
+may either form them as a support in rear or dismiss them to remain
+with their own platoons. For purposes of messing on service the
+latter is convenient, but, tactically, a support is often needed, in
+which case the men’s comfort must take second place.
+
+You must make a clear distinction between day and night outposts,
+though you practise the latter by daylight. Infantry outposts by day
+and until the enemy advances, are firstly patrols and look-out men,
+whose business is to look for any movement on the part of the enemy,
+and to prevent his seeing their own side’s doings, and to report
+what they see of the enemy’s, and, secondly, a line of piquets who
+occupy the line decided on as the line of resistance, and who may
+fall out and rest while things are quiet, with supports and sometimes
+a reserve behind them. The patrols are active agents in getting
+information in front of the outpost line, and they will mostly
+consist of mounted troops except in close country or thick weather.
+The look-out sentries are passive obstacles to the enemy’s patrols
+or scouts penetrating the line; the piquets are the reserve of force
+ready to be called into action when needed. But a line suitable for
+observation and resistance by day is seldom suitable by night also.
+Fighting by day is done by shooting, and rough ground affording cover
+is likely to be chosen for the advance of the attackers. By night,
+however, the attack will be made with the bayonet, and the attacker
+will avoid broken country, which will confuse and delay his advance.
+Choose your outpost line accordingly. By day seek for a good field
+of fire, mutually supporting positions, and good facilities for
+observation, and strengthen the position you mean to fight on. By
+night close the likely ways by which an enemy may advance by putting
+piquets on them in strengthened positions with obstacles prepared
+in front, and patrols lying out on intervening ground to intercept
+scouts. Thus, in an undulating hedge-covered country with many roads,
+by day your piquets would be behind the crests of the undulations,
+sentries only on the look-out, and patrols scouting in front. By
+night your piquets would be on the roads, which they would block with
+barbed wire or abattis of cut hedge stuff, and your patrols in the
+fields between and lying out along the road in front at some place
+where they could watch anything passing, and get back to the piquet
+line without running risks of being shot by their own side. We will
+see below what training is required for non-commissioned officers
+and men in their duties on piquet, patrol and sentry. When you have
+trained them in these duties, take up an outpost line as a tactical
+exercise with your company, acting as an outpost company by day,
+and then as by night, and if you have scouts send them out to act
+as an enemy’s patrol in front to see how much of the operation of
+taking up the line is visible to them; then, after a certain hour,
+let them try to make their way through the line unseen. They must
+not work round the flanks as _ex hypothesi_; these are held by other
+outpost companies; finally, let them start sniping the outposts as
+if ushering in an attack, and let your piquets take up the line of
+resistance, your patrols falling back on the firing beginning.
+
+
+                                 II.
+
+        _The Training of Men and Platoons in Outpost Duties._
+
+An outpost company will more often consist of two or more small
+piquets of one or more platoons with a support, than simply of one
+large piquet with its support, so that when you come to train the
+whole company, as above, in taking up a part of an outpost line, the
+performance of the work will depend largely on the ability of your
+platoon and section commanders to direct the men in their duties.
+Unless they are capable of doing this, time will be wasted as you
+will be occupied with one portion of the line while the rest are
+doing nothing and awaiting your arrival, for in this class of work
+the instructor must remain for some time with each piquet while the
+men are being put through the various duties, and cannot supervise
+concurrently at all points. Therefore, it is best, before taking
+the men out for instruction, to give a day or two solely to the
+instruction of subalterns and non-commissioned officers. When they
+have got a knowledge of what is required, have the men out, divide
+them into piquets under subalterns and section commanders, who will
+put them through the duties, and the work will go on on proper lines,
+and you will be free to go round and supervise each in turn.
+
+You will have four subalterns, sixteen section commanders, and other
+non-commissioned officers, a total of twenty rifles or so, but if you
+are short of non-commissioned officers, have out enough privates to
+give you sixteen or twenty rifles. Form them up as a piquet and make
+the supposition that it has just received its orders to break off
+from the company and go to a certain point in the outpost line and
+take up its duties there.
+
+
+                           _Day Piquets._
+
+Indicate some such point as a day piquet position at a reasonable
+distance from where the piquet is when you give it its orders,
+and let the senior non-commissioned officer march it there, as on
+service, the point chosen being, if possible, such a one as would be
+occupied on service.
+
+(_a_) This advance to the piquet is the first duty. In spite of the
+company covering troops being supposed to be somewhere in advance,
+the piquet on its march should be protected by a small patrol
+(F.S.R., 64 (1)). In taking up the position, it must not let the
+enemy see it; that is, neither the men nor their commander should
+show themselves. Very often the men are kept under cover, but the
+commander wanders about fixing places for sentries in full view of
+everyone. He should lie down and peep over the crest or whatever it
+is while making his plans.
+
+Having arrived at the piquet position, indicate a position on the
+right and on the left where other piquets are supposed to be and
+proceed with:—
+
+(_b_) Duties of outpost sentries.—These are given in I.T., 152. Post
+as many groups as will use up the whole strength in places which
+would need watching on service; if there are not enough such places
+near by, then merely for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two or
+more groups close together. A group consists of one or two men on
+duty, and their reliefs, who lie down near them. These groups are
+relieved every eight or twelve hours. Let it be understood that the
+position of their own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of these
+groups and of patrols, and it is a good plan to show the position
+by a flag. The sentries must see without being seen, know where
+other groups are, where their own and other piquets are, be told to
+challenge and halt anyone approaching as in I.T., 152 (3), and what
+to do if attacked. Let them do this to you personally, as if you were
+someone not belonging to the troops, and impress on them that they
+must be careful to teach it to their men so that _no stranger may
+ever be allowed to get close_ to a group, and to shoot if he does
+not halt. Neglect of this simple rule has led to many mishaps in all
+armies. Concealment is not easy, but must be got somehow—by artifice,
+if the ground is unfavourable. After putting all through “sentry go”
+close to the groups and teach them:—
+
+(_c_) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and 156. Patrols are not
+meant for fighting, but to get information or watch dangerous places.
+But they may have to fight to avoid capture, and they do no good
+by walking blindly into an ambush. To bring back information or
+news that the enemy are coming on, it is evidently essential that
+whatever happens to the rest of the party, one man at least should
+always be able to escape, and to avoid ambush the patrol should move
+in a formation which will prevent a surprise overwhelming the whole
+party. In short, one portion must scout, and the other be prepared
+to cover their movement and help them to get away, if possible, but
+in any case to get away itself and carry news of the enemy. But
+patrols must be limited in strength, or they will not be able to
+escape notice, and must make up for their weakness by cunning and
+stealthiness of movement.
+
+For patrolling by day, tell off the whole strength into patrols of
+four or six men, one of whom will command in each patrol. Let each
+take up the formation it would usually adopt; that is, one or two
+files in advance, followed by the rest at a distance sufficient to
+prevent the surprise of the whole by one and the same opening of
+fire. Teach the method advocated for movement across country, i.e.,
+a careful but rapid advance from one cover to another, also how to
+approach suspicious localities. The leading file halts and looks
+for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile the rear file comes nearly
+up to it; the leading file then moves forward while the rear file
+lies down with rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire at once to
+cover the others if the enemy shows himself. If the locality to be
+searched can be outflanked, the leading files should move round one
+or both flanks before closing in on it. If it is one that cannot be
+outflanked, as, for instance, a straight edge of a large wood, they
+should approach it under cover, creeping up a hedgerow perhaps, and
+so get inside. If there is no cover they may try some ruse to draw
+the enemy’s fire before getting too close, halting as if they had
+seen something, shading the eyes with the hand, pointing and then
+starting to run back as if alarmed, which might lead the enemy to
+open fire to prevent their escape. But it is rather hard to get
+men to do this play-acting unless there is a real force of “Blue”
+or “Red” enemy against them. The commander of the patrol, when
+approaching any place, should tell his men what they are to do if it
+is seen to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still and watch, or
+retire. If the latter, he should fix some place in rear where the
+patrol could rally after getting out of harm’s way.
+
+Show them how to look over a ridge, wall, or hedge, without
+attracting notice, taking off their headdress and raising the head
+slowly, keeping the rest of the body carefully under cover, and
+also to move unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges or roadside
+trees, and covering up any polished metal work of their uniform; to
+lie up on any place that commands a good view, and look long and
+carefully all over the country to catch sight of anything. Finally to
+report what they see, and to do this at once, if there is need, by
+sending one, or better, if the patrol can spare them, two men back
+to the piquet with a _written_ report, the rest still remaining in
+observation. Without having an actual force opposing you, you can
+only do this exercise with some appearance of reality by giving out
+verbal situations to the patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that wood
+which an enemy may be holding.” On this the patrol would get into
+formation and move forward. Then, when approaching the wood, “You
+have seen small parties of the enemy beyond the wood both on its
+right and left, and they are perhaps in the wood also; try and get
+into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or, if not, “show what you
+would do to draw their fire before getting close.” Then “the wood is
+held by the enemy, withdraw your patrol if you can.” As the patrol
+attempts to retire “a heavy fire is opened on you as you retire,
+showing that there is at least a company in the wood, your first
+duty is to send news of this to your piquet—how and whom would you
+send, and how would you frame your message?”
+
+(_d_) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon and take it to the place
+where the piquet is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position has
+at once to strengthen the position against attack, and this without
+waiting for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are here only training
+the non-commissioned officers in their duties we will not ask them
+actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes and entanglements;
+indeed, this, as one may term it, executive work, has its proper
+place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind, then, that we are dealing with a
+day outpost, ask or show the platoon how to strengthen the position.
+Bring out a few picks and let them spitlock on the ground the lines
+of any trenches that might be needed, paying great attention to the
+siting of the trench so that fire could be brought over all the
+ground in front. Let them indicate with exactness where and how they
+would improve and adapt existing cover. Great regard need not be had
+to the number of men in the piquet, as outposts, if attacked, should
+make as much show of force as possible, and it does good and not harm
+if there are alternative loop-holes facing in different directions;
+also accommodation must be provided for the support. The commander
+should look for ground outside the outpost line from which enfilade
+rifle or artillery fire might be brought to bear on him, and mark how
+he would protect his men from it by traverses, breaking the line of
+loop-holes into short lengths, keeping under lee of existing cover
+and so on. The strengthening of the piquet must be done with the aid
+of common-sense. It will seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit
+of trench all in one piece and hope the enemy will be good enough to
+come and knock his head against it. Cover may be made or adapted in
+several separate groups, if this is needed, so as to make it possible
+to bring fire to bear on any part of the ground in front. The piquet
+must be prepared to make as brave a show as possible, therefore the
+commander, while strengthening the point near which his piquet is to
+rest, must decide what he will do if attacked. Probably there will be
+within the limits of his piquet’s frontage one or two other points
+which might be useful for defence, and he must not expect attack
+just from one direction. With regard to such alternative positions
+he should settle when and how he will use them, and whether he can
+afford time and men to strengthen them, and, last but not least,
+whether he will be able to get men from one to the other if the enemy
+does develop a strong attack. If he can do all these he will have
+added immensely to his power of defence, provided he handles his men
+skilfully, as he will be able to hold one position till the enemy
+thinks he has defined its location, then dodge to another, while
+they will go on firing at the old one, and so make his piquet appear
+many times stronger than it is. Concealment of the defence is very
+important, and the non-commissioned officers should be reminded that
+this must be attended to. They may forget it as there is no actual
+digging.
+
+(_e_) Duties in Piquet.—The position of the piquet and alternative
+defence positions having been fixed, and trenches or other defences
+marked out on the position, and on the alternative positions if any,
+assemble the platoon at the piquet and show the non-commissioned
+officers how to tell off reliefs and other duties. Each group
+furnished by the piquet consists of three to eight men, and mounts
+one or two men as sentry, as the circumstances of the post require
+(I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry, single or double, being relieved in turn
+by the others of the group. The whole group is under command of the
+senior soldier or a non-commissioned officer. The men who are to
+form the reliefs of the groups stay with the piquet, which usually
+is composed solely of the reliefs of groups and patrols. Extra men
+who have no specific duties are not advisable unless the position is
+very exposed. Suppose your group sentries are single, and the groups
+of three men each, and relieved every eight hours, then for every
+group posted and in position there will be six men in the piquet
+resting and waiting their turn, each group thus needing a total of
+nine men—three out, six in. Patrols start from the piquet or support,
+as the commander of the company directs, and the piquet commander may
+send them out on his own initiative, if he thinks it needful. As they
+are practically all on duty as long as they are out, a turn of four
+hours is enough for them, or, rather, a third of the daylight time.
+Take your patrols from this piquet to be four strong, there will be
+for each patrol eight men in the piquet and four out on patrol, a
+total of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.
+
+In telling off a piquet on the above conditions of relief, and before
+dismissing the men to rest, the commander must pay attention to two
+main points. Firstly, he must tell off the reliefs, and give each
+relief a place to rest in. Men on outpost are usually tired and need
+all the rest they can get, especially if they are up all night.
+Therefore reliefs should be kept together and rest in one place, so
+that the commander can find them at once without stirring up the
+others to see who’s who. Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm
+posts, which they are to occupy in case of attack—each relief and
+each man of it should be given a position on the entrenchment which
+he is to hold. To ensure that they will do this at once and without
+confusion they should be made to go to these places and occupy them
+before being dismissed. There will then be no needless running about
+with consequent casualties if fire, either of artillery or infantry,
+suddenly opens.
+
+Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned officers and others) in
+your instructional piquet give out that it is to furnish—
+
+  1 Sentry over the piquet.
+
+  2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.
+
+  2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.
+
+The sentry over the piquet alone being actually posted, the two
+groups and two patrols being supposed to be out in front, as this
+part of the lesson is only concerned with the inside work of the
+piquet, and you have already shown them this work on sentry and
+patrol. As your strength is not sufficient you must make a further
+supposition, and make believe that for the reliefs of the groups one
+of your rifles represents three, and for those of the patrols one
+rifle represents two. Appoint one of the non-commissioned officers in
+turn as commander, and let him tell off accordingly.
+
+  3 Rifles for piquet sentry, one of whom he actually mounts.
+
+  1 Rifle (representing three) as second relief, No. 1 group.
+
+  1 Rifle (representing three) as third relief, No. 1 group.
+
+  2 Rifles (representing two each) for second relief, No. 1 patrol.
+
+  2 Rifles (representing two each) for third relief, No. 1 patrol.
+
+    And a similar number for No. 2 patrol and No. 2 group.
+
+Having told off these reliefs the commander should then tell them
+where they are to have their resting places and where their posts are
+in case of alarm. At this time also he would give out any special
+orders which concern the piquet. Then without dismissing the men
+he should order them to go to their resting places, and as soon as
+they are there order them to occupy their alarm posts, which should
+be done in double time, the men lying down on the places that have
+been marked out for entrenchment or improvement of existing cover.
+Make this falling in on alarm posts a standing order in the company.
+After this has been done, and each man knows exactly what he has to
+do on the alarm, the men should be dismissed to their resting places,
+which, as before said, should be separate for each relief and apart
+from each other. After being dismissed, the men would on service be
+allowed to make themselves as comfortable as possible. Other duties
+of the piquet commander are:—
+
+  (1) The opening of communication with piquets in right and left and
+        the support.
+
+  (2) The fixing of places for purposes of nature.
+
+  (3) The arrangements for getting up food to his men if they have
+        not their rations with them.
+
+  (4) Keeping his piquet in a state of readiness; besides keeping
+        accoutrements on, the men should have their rifles at their
+        sides when resting, and take them with them wherever they go.
+        There should be no such thing as piling arms on outpost.
+
+
+                          _Night Piquets._
+
+In the dark the bullet is a fool unless fired at close quarters.
+No practicable amount of shooting, even at only a hundred yards
+distance, will dislodge determined men posted under cover, and a
+serious attack must be made with the bayonet or by shooting within
+the distance at which a man may be distinguished—ten yards or so.
+F.S.R., 138 (2), lays down for the British Army that the bayonet only
+is to be used in night attacks, and we may assume that any civilized
+army we may have to meet will pursue similar tactics. Aerial
+reconnaissance may nowadays allow an enemy to locate the position
+held by the main body of his opponent, in spite of its being covered
+by outposts, but such reconnaissance does not admit of any hope of
+a successful night attack being made on that main body by eluding
+or passing through the outposts, because the surface of the ground
+cannot be sufficiently searched from above to discover the small
+obstacles which must be avoided or known if the advance of a large
+body of men is to be carried out at night. So we may take it that
+now, as formerly, any large attack will fall first on the outposts,
+supposing, as we must, that these are placed so as to hold or watch
+all possible lines of advance. In addition to this, outposts must
+expect isolated attacks made against one or two points held by them
+which the enemy desires to gain possession of. The duties of outposts
+by night are, then, to hold and defend the outpost line in sufficient
+strength to prevent any large body of the enemy breaking through,
+or getting a footing in some tactically important position on the
+line, and also to prevent the enemy’s scouts from getting through and
+making observations, and, lastly, but of most importance, to get news
+of the enemy both as a means of forestalling any attack, and for the
+use of the force commander in framing his plans. Bringing the matter
+down to the level of a piquet of an outpost company, it seems to
+resolve itself into night patrolling and night defence of a position.
+As before pointed out, enclosed country allows of piquets closing
+the lines of advance by which large bodies can only hope to move
+undiscovered, while intervening ground can be searched by patrols. On
+the other hand, open country leaves the front vulnerable everywhere,
+and calls for a greater number of piquets and closer patrolling than
+are needed by day.
+
+Of course, elementary instruction in these duties must be carried out
+by daylight to allow of supervision; so now assemble your platoon
+of non-commissioned officers and give out that you are going to
+practise night work. Choose some place for your night piquet,
+realistic as may be, a bridge, a cutting, or anything else that
+constitutes a defile or otherwise blocks a likely line of advance
+from the enemy’s direction. Also choose, and point out to the
+platoon, positions where the adjoining piquets on the right and left
+would be. Give out the following instructions to the non-commissioned
+officers:—
+
+  (1) Piquets must take up their night positions when it is getting
+        dusk, the strengthening of the piquet and construction of
+        obstacles being done in advance, secretly if possible, and
+        towards evening the working party should withdraw and leave
+        the intended night position empty till it is time to move
+        into it, further work being completed by twilight.
+
+  (2) The provision of obstacles is more necessary than entrenchment,
+        as securing the piquet from being rushed while completing the
+        latter.
+
+  (3) Men must rest on their alarm posts, and bayonets may have to be
+        kept fixed by all, if there is a possibility of a sudden
+        attack (I.T., 151 (7)), to ensure instant readiness.
+
+  (4) All piquets must stand to arms one hour before light and remain
+        ready for action till the patrols have found that there is no
+        sign of an immediate attack. When relief takes place in the
+        morning, night outposts will not return to camp till the
+        patrols report all clear.
+
+After this, let the non-commissioned officer in command withdraw the
+piquet from its day position and march it to the night position. On
+arrival ask the non-commissioned officers in turn where they would
+place the piquet exactly and where they would put their obstacles.
+Obstacles for a night piquet should be under close fire, i.e., ten or
+twenty paces, but, in addition, booby traps and alarms may be placed
+further in front. Barbed wire is the best of all obstacles. The
+actual defensive measures to be taken do not differ from those taken
+for the defence of any position not on outpost.
+
+The position of the piquet and obstacles being decided on, let the
+non-commissioned officers mark on the ground the actual work they
+would undertake, having regard to the time available, which you
+should tell them, and, on the same lines as for the day piquet, let
+them as commanders in turn divide the men into reliefs of sentries
+and patrols, tell them off to their alarm posts, and order them to
+occupy them once as if on alarm.
+
+A piquet by night, no matter how well entrenched, has a very limited
+field of action. Even with most carefully arranged night rests for
+the men’s rifles its fire effect is small except at close ranges,
+and to resist attack by relatively larger bodies it must in general
+keep behind its defences. Hence a well organised scheme of patrols is
+necessary to supplement the passive opposition which the piquet can
+offer. The patrols are charged with the duty of bringing news of any
+advance of the enemy to attack, and, if he is close enough, of spying
+out his movements on and within his outpost line, of preventing
+his patrols or scouts penetrating their own line, of watching any
+localities which are of particular importance and unoccupied by
+piquets, such, for example, as villages beyond the outpost line which
+the enemy might try to occupy by night, and, lastly, of keeping
+up communication between the various bodies of the outposts. The
+strength of patrols is limited by the necessity of their being able
+to do this work without making a noise, and a strength of three to
+eight men is advised. A patrol performs its duty of observation
+either by going from point to point, or by watching one particular
+place, when it is called a “standing patrol.” If a piquet posts any
+group sentries by night, away from the piquet, such groups have just
+the same work as standing patrols, except that they may be ordered to
+maintain their position in case of attack as they are near support,
+whereas patrols would fall back as soon as they had made sure the
+enemy was advancing, and possibly, if in accordance with their
+instructions, after treating him to a short burst of rapid fire. An
+ordinary patrol will also have to halt and listen perhaps for long
+periods, and so becomes for the nonce a standing patrol.
+
+Form up the platoon at the piquet position, and let the commander
+tell it off into three patrols to practise this duty, disregarding
+reliefs, all three to be sent out at the same time in different
+directions, one man in each to be commander. Before they start off,
+tell them the following, which piquet commanders must see to:—
+
+  (1) If there is no countersign published for the force, piquet
+        commanders must arrange either a word or a sign by which men
+        may know their own side in the dark.
+
+  (2) Patrols going out are to tell the nearest sentry which way they
+        are going (I.T., 156 (5)).
+
+  (3) For patrols a code of signals should be arranged, e.g., a hiss
+        or half-whistle, to call attention, answered by the same to
+        show that the man called has heard it, followed by the
+        signal, whatever it is:—a double hiss for “come up to me,” a
+        click of the tongue for “retire,” but anything will do
+        provided it cannot be clearly heard much further off than the
+        listeners for whom it is intended, and is neither a very
+        common nor a very uncommon sound.
+
+  (4) The piquet commander must tell patrols how long they are to
+        stay out and any places he thinks must be visited, in
+        addition to what they themselves may find advisable, on
+        closer acquaintance with the ground.
+
+A suitable formation for a night patrol of six men would be four in
+the advanced party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the rear party
+or two. The reason for the stronger party being ahead is, firstly,
+that fighting at night begins with suddenness and ends rapidly, while
+reinforcement of one party by another is slow and uncertain, and,
+secondly, to ensure that some part of the patrol may have a good
+chance of getting away with news, whatever happens to the rest:
+Bayonets should be fixed and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the
+right hand holding the small of the butt so as to come to the charge
+at once, and not to have any chance of a rifle falling on the ground.
+
+Tell patrol commanders to get their patrols into formation and
+practise movement in silence along a road and on ordinary road. If
+along a road, let them move on each side of it, off the metal on the
+roadside grass or dust, and under trees or close to the hedge or
+wall. On ordinary country the ball of the foot should be put down
+first as if to feel the surface, before putting the full weight
+of the body on the advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle, _à la_
+“boy scout,” is invaluable in moving over unexplored ground, as by
+it the real nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet can be made
+out, and awkward spills thereby avoided. The movement of patrols
+under these conditions will be very slow over any but quite level
+ground. As the patrols move let them practise the code of signals,
+halting, advancing, coming up into one line, etc., also the keeping
+up of communication by one file moving back and forward between the
+two parts of the patrol. They should practise also breaking up and
+scattering as if attacked by overwhelming numbers, each individual
+getting away as quickly and quietly as possible, and the whole
+rallying again at some place in rear. The patrol commander as he goes
+out must fix these rallying places, usually one is enough over the
+whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be _outside_ the outpost
+line. Have the patrols moved so that on their beats they may meet
+each other once or twice, and use the sign to reply when challenge
+is made. As a second practice, direct one of the meeting patrols to
+consider itself hostile, and let the commander of the other patrol
+excogitate how he would deal with men who did not stand fast on being
+told to halt and could not give the countersign.
+
+Next tell the patrols to get into position to watch various
+localities, a farm steading, a ravine, or such like, as they would
+have to do for limited periods as patrols reconnoitring on their
+beats, or for the whole night as standing patrols. One of the best
+ways in which patrols can fulfil their office is by halting and
+listening with ears near the ground for sounds of human movement.
+There is no rule for thus lying up except that they must not get
+caught themselves. A couple of men should be left quite clear of the
+patrol to get away if the others strike trouble, and the commander
+of the patrol should have word passed to these two from time to time
+that all is well with the rest, or they may wait in their place
+while the others have been quietly downed.
+
+Lastly, let patrols return to the piquet, and learn how to approach
+without getting themselves fired on, or causing useless alarm. A
+good way is for two of the patrol to advance a few steps at a time
+when near the piquet, halting and quietly code-signalling the piquet
+sentry till they get His attention and warn him that the patrol wants
+to come in.
+
+It has taken longer to write about outposts than it may take you
+to put your men through them, and I have purposely been discursive
+because a knowledge of what is needed from outposts is more important
+than any set exercise, and also because this duty is the one which
+newly raised troops are most likely to perform negligently, and at
+the same time the one which, if neglected, allows the enemy to bring
+raw troops to quick demoralisation. I have also purposely written as
+if unlimited ground were available, and, speaking generally, I think
+it is. You can, and should, practise your piqueting and patrolling on
+the ordinary countryside, with its main and bye-roads, paths, fields,
+and hedges. The practice of outposts when piquets are not entrenched,
+causes no damage, so that leave to move over the fields should not
+be hard to get, but even if it cannot be got, the principal and most
+important work of patrolling and watching all roads and paths, will
+be done on the ground on which they would be done on service. If
+fighting ever takes place in Britain, which Heaven forefend, outpost
+lines will be along the ordinary country and not on Salisbury Plain,
+so do not go into wild and desolate places for your outposts, but
+take the ordinary country round where you are.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XV.
+
+                              DEFENCE.
+
+
+The subject of defence is treated of in F.S.R., 107-110, I.T.,
+125-135, and in Chapter VII., M.F.E., 1911. The duties required of
+the company commander and his subordinates are briefly defined by
+I.T., 132, to be similar to those they carry out in the attack. The
+whole spirit of the regulations is that the active Defence is merely
+a means to an end, viz., the ultimate assumption of the offensive,
+which may be carried out either by the same troops which have acted
+on the defensive or by fresh troops detailed for the purpose. In both
+cases the troops that have acted on the defensive must be ready to
+become the aggressors. Therefore, in training your men, you should
+keep this constantly in view and conserve a spirit of aggressive
+mobility. Men must not be allowed to think that once a position
+has been taken up and entrenched it is to be their location till
+fighting ceases; on the contrary, they should be encouraged to look
+for opportunities while still on the defensive, to occupy alternative
+positions which will make the task of the attacking enemy more
+difficult. Quickness in seizing and strengthening a position must be
+combined with mobility in leaving it to take up and strengthen a new
+one. Of course, the time available regulates the work that can be
+undertaken (M.F.E., VII. (2)); deep trenches and concealed head cover
+cannot be made with an enemy pressing in to assault, but the first
+requirement is the ability to choose positions that give a good field
+of fire and to strengthen them as thoroughly as the time available
+and the proximity of the enemy admit.
+
+In dealing with a company, the onus of choosing what localities it is
+tactically necessary to occupy and strengthen rests with the company
+commander, subject to the orders of his battalion commander. In the
+same way as on outpost, you will be given a bit of ground to defend,
+either acting with the battalion or as an isolated company, and the
+rest will be on your head. I do not propose to deliver a treatise
+on the tactical occupation of ground, but instead I will ask you to
+procure and read two books. The first is “The Defence of Duffer’s
+Drift,” by Backsight Forethought (W. Clowes and Sons), the second
+is “A Staff Officer’s Scrap Book,” by Sir Ian Hamilton (Edward
+Arnold). They are both most readable books, and are quite free of
+soporific effects. The first is small, and deals with the efforts
+of a half-company, under Lieutenant B. F., to defend a drift over a
+South African river. In the second the author takes you along with
+him through the Russo-Japanese War, of which he was a privileged
+spectator, and in your journeyings you look on at victories and
+defeats in the making, while the causes that led to them, great and
+small, are set forth, along with many shrewd comments on human nature
+and how it translates itself in the day of battle. Every fight bears
+its own lesson of what to do and what not to do in defence, and this
+told in no pedantic strain, but with the saving grace of humour, to
+mitigate the darker side of human carnage. Read them both, get to
+yourself the wisdom and understanding with which they are filled, and
+you will know how to take up a position for defence.
+
+Having educated yourself to choose the points of a defensive position
+that must be occupied if the position is to be effectively held,
+you have still to train your men to the work of defending them, and
+they must learn to be able to do without the help of a supervising
+officer, as will often be the case on service.
+
+Daylight defence is almost entirely a matter of fire, the immediate
+object being to make it impossible for the enemy to come to close
+quarters. Platoon and section commanders then must be able to dispose
+their men with this in view to the best advantage within the limits
+of the ground allotted to their units, and the men must be able to
+site their trenches or whatever form of cover has to be constructed
+so as to use their rifles to the best effect. It is no good to teach
+men to dig trenches and make loop-holes unless they know the proper
+places for them. (M.F.E., 18 (7)).
+
+At the same time, practice in digging and the use of tools is very
+necessary for men who are not accustomed to such work. The hands of
+the untrained man blister and his muscles tire under the unusual
+effort, while he expends much energy with results small in comparison
+with what he can accomplish once he has learnt to use his strength
+well. Moreover, a certain amount of technical skill is required in
+making any but the most simple cover.
+
+To practise the execution of work, you _must_ have ground which you
+are at liberty to turn up, as well as some materials for loop-holes
+and obstacles. These may not be obtainable at any and every parade,
+but you can give practice in the selection and siting of trenches
+on any bit of country without causing damage, the men merely
+spitlocking or marking with stones or anything else the position of
+the trenches on the surface of the ground, and describing what they
+propose doing.
+
+I would, therefore, advise that you make your training consist of
+two parts, firstly the siting of trenches and the planning by unit
+commanders and men of defensive work, the choice and occupation of
+alternative positions, and the assumption of the offensive from the
+defensive, all this without actually breaking ground, and, secondly,
+ground and tools being then available, the performance of a course of
+making real cover and obstacles.
+
+But the first part cannot be carried out unless the men have a
+knowledge of what trenches, loop-holes and so on are like, and the
+objects with which they are made. In a company of raw recruits taken
+from the populace at large, there will be plenty who have no ideas
+on the subject at all. You must then precede your exercises either
+by a short lecture, materials for which you will find in plenty in
+the “Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” and the manuals of training, or,
+better than a lecture, by showing them specimens of entrenchments
+made by regular troops. The main points to insist on are the securing
+of a field of fire, the necessity of concealment of the defences,
+the importance of head cover as a help to the delivery of an
+accurate fire by letting men keep the enemy in view without showing
+up themselves, the avoidance of enfilade fire by making traverses,
+or by taking advantage of intervening high ground, the provision
+of cover from downward shell fire by making the trenches deep and
+steep enough to let men stand close up to the edges, and, in the
+case of isolated posts and points held as pivots of a position, the
+necessity of preparing an all-round defence so that these pivots will
+be able to continue fighting whatever happens on the intervening
+ground. The course of work actually performed for the second part
+should include digging all kinds of trenches, by which the men will
+learn to use their tools to the best advantage, and their hands and
+muscles will become hardened, the use of the excavated earth to form
+parapets and parados (cover from fire from the rear of the trench;
+forty inches of earth are needed to keep out a bullet), the drainage
+of trenches, the making of traverses against enfilade fire, the
+making of loop-holes and head-cover with the aid of all sorts of
+materials, sand bags, brushwood and heather, straw and twigs, stones
+and bricks (which must be covered with earth to deaden the effects of
+splinters), packing boards, and so on, the concealment of trenches
+and loop-holes so as to be invisible to the enemy (this is of great
+importance), the masking of loop-holes when not in use to prevent
+light showing through, the making of dummy trenches and loop-holes to
+draw the enemy’s fire away, the improvement of existing cover, such
+as loop-holing walls and the use of hedges with or without ditches,
+making sangars, if stones are available, the making of obstacles of
+barbed and plain wire, and measuring and marking of ranges round
+a position, which should be done by some means not obvious to the
+enemy, and clearing the field of fire. It will seldom be practicable
+to obtain subjects for practical demonstration of some of the latter
+in peace time; people will object to their walls being experimented
+on or their shrubberies laid low, and so even here a description of
+the method will have to be substituted for actual performance. For
+night defence the construction of night rests for rifles is needed.
+The best I know is a packing case, filled with earth, with the front
+and rear edges notched to hold the rifle stock. The magazine is laid
+hard up against the outside of the rear edge and the notches, front
+or rear, slowly deepened with a penknife till the sights bear on the
+target; afterwards earth is banked up outside the box and head-cover
+made above. The foregoing may seem a formidable list, but they are
+things that will undoubtedly be required as soon as you get on
+shooting terms with an enemy; while if you exhaust this list and feel
+the want of further occupation, the Engineering Manual will supply
+you with further subjects for your activities.
+
+Pending your getting facilities of ground, tools, and materials
+to execute work, you can proceed with the first part of training
+outlined above. If your non-commissioned officers have not had
+experience, take them out as an instructional section in the same way
+as when teaching outpost work, and put them through the exercises
+which follow. But if they are already fairly competent, take the men
+on parade, forming them, if possible, into not less than two sections.
+
+
+                  _Instruction in Siting Trenches._
+
+Choose any position on undulating ground, form the men in extended
+order in one line in rear of it, and order them to move up, and
+mark where each would place his trench in order to fire on an enemy
+advancing from the front. In doing this it should be an invariable
+rule that men must lie down, bring the rifle into the firing
+position, look along the sights, and move forward or back till they
+see that they have got the best position to sweep the ground in their
+immediate front (see M.F.E., 31 (3)). Dead ground close to the trench
+gives the enemy a place in which to collect and organise an assault.
+Take the men in the same way on to other positions and repeat the
+lesson till they all understand that the _first thing to be done is
+this aiming with the rifle to secure a good field of fire_. At first
+halt them close to what you see is the best line, and afterwards halt
+them thirty or forty yards from it, and then give the order to choose
+sites. For instance, halt them on the top of a convex slope and let
+them find out that the best place to bring fire on to flat ground at
+its base is somewhere on the enemy’s side of the convexity, for if
+the trench were made on the top of the slope the ground immediately
+in front would be hidden by the convexity. The section commanders
+must help the men in choosing sites.
+
+After the men have fixed and marked the proposed sites, let them lay
+down their rifles three paces in rear and kneel or lie down at the
+rear edge of the site as if waiting to commence work while you and
+section and platoon commanders go round and examine the line. Ask
+details from the men—how high they would make the parapet, how thick
+it should be, how they would make head-cover, how they would conceal
+the work, and so on.
+
+
+              _Traverses and broken lines of Trenches._
+
+Repeat the exercise as above, but this time have the men in sections
+or small groups, and the trenches made not in one line, but in
+short lengths, separated by traverses. You will have to explain
+the construction and use of these to prevent enfilade fire (if not
+from long range), and to localise shell bursts. Again, have lines
+of trenches mapped out in short lengths on an irregular front, some
+a little forward, some a little back, with the earth at each end,
+banked up on the flanks with the same object (M.F.E., 33).
+
+
+                    _Short Trenches for Two Men._
+
+Bring the men extended to six or eight paces on to a position, and
+let the men of each file close to two paces from each other. Each
+file is then to choose and mark a site for a short trench to hold
+both of them, or, as it would formerly have been called, a rifle pit,
+marking where they would make loop-holes to fire both to the front,
+and obliquely towards the right and left, so as to rake the ground
+in front of the line of the other men’s pits. This arrangement is
+not officially recognised, and it does not give the closest possible
+firing line, but it is an excellent way of making men think for
+themselves.
+
+When the men have got their bearings in the matter of taking up a
+line for entrenchment, make them get into the way of changing from
+defence into attack. Take up a position as before, and as soon as
+the trenches are marked out, indicate a position at some distance as
+an objective for attack and start an advance against it, as done in
+the attack practices, forming a firing line rapidly of some named
+platoons and the support of the others. A skeleton enemy kept hidden
+till needed adds much to the realism.
+
+
+        _Defence of Pivots (M.F.E., 50 (3), and I.T., 129)._
+
+Find a position in which there are some points separated from each
+other which command the ground between, and also form such pivots
+for defence of the position as are described in the paras. above.
+According to the nature of the ground, such pivots might be, for
+platoons, as much as four hundred yards apart, i.e., attackers coming
+between them would be under fire at not more than two hundred yards.
+Send a platoon under a commander to each pivot, and let him plan and
+mark out his defensive measures, which must include:—
+
+  1. An arrangement for all-round defence, so that the pivot may be
+       self-contained and capable of continuing the fight, although
+       others may have been captured.
+
+  2. The siting accordingly of trenches and loop-holes to fire all
+       round and especially to sweep the front and rear of adjoining
+       pivots.
+
+  3. The adaptation of existing cover to save labour.
+
+  4. The provision of protection against enfilade and reverse fire,
+       and the _recognition of distant localities_ from which such
+       fire, whether of artillery or rifle, might be brought to bear
+       on the post.
+
+  5. The marking of ranges in each direction.
+
+  6. The provision of obstacles.
+
+  7. Any feasible scheme for alternative positions which his men
+       could reach and occupy under fire.
+
+  8. The concealment of the defences, provision of dummy trenches,
+       and loop-holes and any other shifts.
+
+  9. The telling off and posting of look-out men and fixing and
+       occupying of alarm posts when work has been completed.
+
+  10. Drainage and sanitation.
+
+The concealment of defences from aerial reconnaissance will, perhaps,
+soon claim more attention than it gets at present.
+
+Practise an attack after defence, starting off one platoon under your
+own orders to “go for” an indicated enemy, and sending word either
+by messenger or by semaphore to the others, either to join you and
+form a firing line, or to move out in support, but, if the latter,
+do not fail to finally call them up to reinforce the firing line;
+counter-attacks must usually be made with a relatively strong firing
+line and small support.
+
+
+               _The Company in Defence Acting Alone._
+
+When you have put non-commissioned officers and men through the
+preceding course, plan some scheme on the lines of the defence of
+Duffer’s Drift, to deal with a company isolated and beyond reach of
+immediate reinforcement. Any bridge over a railway line, a group of
+buildings supposed to contain stores, or a ford or bridge over a
+river, will provide you with an object to defend. Choose a line of
+defence round it and determine what are the essential pivots to be
+held. To do this, so as to furnish an instructive lesson, it will
+usually be necessary for you to pay a visit to the place by yourself
+and formulate your proposed defence before bringing the company on
+to the ground. Pay great attention to crossing and supporting fire
+from the pivots, and look at the surrounding country with a view to
+meeting attack from any direction, for in this case the company, as
+well as the pivots in its line of defence, must be self-contained.
+Also have regard to the certainty that you will have artillery
+fire against you, to which you will not be able to reply, and in
+consequence your proposed defences must include deep trenches or
+recesses to shelter the men from shell. Your defences will take the
+form of a chain of isolated groups about the point to be defended
+and separated from each other by possibly several hundred yards. It
+is no use simply to go and sit inside a group of buildings which
+the guns would knock about your ears and against which the enemy
+can concentrate. The better plan is to break up his attack and hide
+your weakness by occupying well-strengthened pivots, behind whose
+protection you may have some freedom of movement, and so be able,
+if the weakness or rashness of the enemy gives opportunity, to
+inaugurate local counter-attacks. These, if successful in inflicting
+a sharp and sudden loss, will make him hesitate to deliver a decisive
+attack till he has found out all about you. With one company you
+cannot expect to achieve decisive results against any considerable
+body of the enemy, but must be content with keeping him in play for
+as long a time as possible, and an attitude of active bluff is the
+best means of doing so.
+
+When you have got your plans completed, take out the company
+as strong as possible and complete in its proper platoons and
+sections—if there are too few men let one man count for two or three.
+Send off platoons to occupy and plan the defence of the pivots as
+done when practising it before. Do the same scheme on two separate
+occasions. The first time do not send out a skeleton enemy, so that
+the men may have time to look round, but for the second time send out
+some scouts under a subaltern, and let the platoons fall out on their
+positions with patrols out in front. Fix a certain hour by which you
+expect the arrangements to be all ready, and arrange for the enemy to
+advance at that time, and open fire on the patrols if they are met.
+When the patrols have fallen back the enemy closes in and starts
+sniping at the position. Then bring off a counter-attack, withdrawing
+some men for the purpose from pivots that are not threatened, and
+coming in on the flank of the attackers. In theory, of course, you
+should have a support or reserve available for this, but it does no
+harm to move men out of their trenches with the object of assuming
+the offensive, while the men learn the essential part of their work
+by all being employed on the perimeter.
+
+Have out the company yet a third time on the same or a similar
+scheme, pivots and skeleton enemy as before. On this occasion, if the
+scheme is the same, change round the platoons to different pivots
+from what they occupied before, and when the arrangements for defence
+have been settled, leave only sentries and their groups on the pivots
+as look-outs, but have patrols in front. Form the remainder of the
+men into a support in some central position, and tell them off to
+occupy as alarm posts the pivots from which they were withdrawn. When
+the skeleton enemy attacks, reinforce the threatened part of the line
+by the men of the units told off for its defence, and with part, or
+even the whole of the rest, make a counter-attack.
+
+It is very desirable, though unfortunately not often possible, to
+perform these last three practices on ground where you are at
+liberty to dig, and with an enemy of three or four companies instead
+of a few snipers.
+
+
+                          _Night Defence._
+
+A night attack may be delivered as a sequence to fighting by
+daylight, in the course of which the enemy has established himself
+sufficiently close to the defences held by his opponent to see
+clearly the way to reach the point against which he intends to lead
+his force. Or he may deliver an attack without previous fighting,
+hoping to get the better of the defenders by surprise, and basing
+his plans solely on the results of reconnaissance. In the latter
+case the attack must be preceded by a night advance, long or
+short, according as the defenders’ outposts and their patrols have
+succeeded in keeping the hostile troops at a distance or not, unless,
+indeed, the troops or their scouts or spies have not been in touch
+at all during the day in which case an attack would not be a wise
+proceeding, because the needful information about the ground and
+your forces is lacking. Such attacks as require a night advance as a
+preliminary are likely to be made either over open ground or along
+roads, for the difficulties and delays occasioned by moving troops
+over broken ground which is not thoroughly known are very great.
+But in the first case, when fighting has been going on by day, and
+the two forces are in close contact at nightfall, separated perhaps
+by only a few hundred yards, the presence of broken ground in front
+of the defences is no guarantee that the enemy may not consider an
+attack by night to have a reasonable chance of succeeding against
+any of the points which he has been trying to carry by daylight. It
+follows then that in preparing a position for defence the pivots must
+be ready to withstand attack by night as well as by day, and also
+that roads or paths leading into the position from the surrounding
+country should be held and defended by night, in spite of their being
+innocuous by daylight owing to being swept effectively by fire from
+the adjacent pivots. It will be admitted, I think, that fire by night
+is ineffectual unless at very short ranges, or when delivered by men
+of extraordinary skill such as the up-country Boer and the American
+backwoods-men were pictured to be. A European enemy will seek to
+bring off his attack with the bayonet. The defenders will try to foil
+this attack, firstly, by the use of fire at the close range, which
+allows it to be effective, and, secondly, by the use of the bayonet.
+This plainly translates itself into obstacles to keep the enemy under
+fire, obstacles to hamper him when at bayonet distance, and night
+rests to help the accuracy of the fire in certain desired directions.
+I have told you one good form of night rest, and there are several
+others, but all require some material if they are to be even
+approximately accurate. Failing material of any sort, tie white rags
+round the muzzles of the men’s rifles if you can get them. After a
+week in the field your men will have nothing that is not very dirty,
+but in a civilised country some member of the population may perhaps
+be found ready to oblige a soldier.
+
+Working still on your daylight scheme show your non-commissioned
+officers and men how to make night obstacles in addition to those
+meant for daylight defence, which latter may be any distance up to
+one hundred yards in front of the trenches. The night obstacles, on
+the other hand, should be quite close, the fire obstacles as close
+as ten yards, the bayonet obstacles, say a narrow ditch and a wire,
+close under the trenches so as to make a man stumble when trying to
+reach the defender with his bayonet. Make or plan these arrangements
+round the pivots, and then practise blocking and defending paths or
+roads by the same methods as for pivots, but with this variation,
+that a parapet which can only be used for defence at night may
+be as high as you consider needful without paying regard to its
+invisibility, while those to be used by day are kept as low as
+possible. In a practical exercise the men to hold these night posts
+would have to be furnished either from your support or by thinning
+some of the pivots.
+
+Yet the most carefully arranged trenches and obstacles will be of
+no value unless the men occupy them in time to avail themselves of
+their advantages. Time sufficient to allow of this, must be got by
+patrolling in front as for outposts, by making automatic alarms in
+front of the obstacles (M.F.E., 55 (12)), by having alert sentries
+on the defence line, and by having a good and well understood
+arrangement of alarm posts by which each man shall be ready to occupy
+at once, in silence, and without confusion, the place which has been
+assigned to him. Patrolling has been dealt with under “Outposts,”
+the alertness of your sentries will depend largely on the state
+of discipline to which you have brought your company, and on the
+commonsenseness, to coin a word, of their training. Alarm posts
+are practised in the same way as on outpost. In many corps it is a
+standing order that when in camp or bivouac, on manœuvre as well as
+on service, men are to fall in on their alarm posts once a day, the
+usual times being at retreat or on arrival in camp (F.S.R., 48 (2)),
+and this is done whether in Brigade (F.S.R., 47 (2)) or not. If such
+is the order in your battalion, adhere to it within your company when
+detached, if not, do it off your own bat. It does not fatigue the men
+and ensures attention being paid on all occasions to this important
+duty.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XVI.
+
+                          HASTY EXPEDIENTS.
+
+
+I.T., 93 (iii.), directs the training of the section to include
+rough and ready expedients so as to form a fighting front in any
+direction. This training is of great value, both from a disciplinary
+point of view, as it makes men quick to move on an order, and also
+from the point of view of _moral_, as men accustomed to get sudden
+and unexpected orders given under imaginary circumstances will be
+more likely to keep cool, when such orders are necessitated by the
+stress of actual battle, than men who have always been trained in a
+deliberate fashion.
+
+Such sudden orders must in general mean one of two things, either
+that the enemy has got you, or you have got him, “on the hop,” if I
+may introduce an expression from the cricket field, and that there
+is every chance of the bowler, whoever he is, being badly scored
+off, unless he treats the batsman to something more difficult than
+the expensive half-volley. If you are fortunately able to find the
+enemy at a disadvantage, you will act against him by rifle fire
+alone; but, on the other hand, you may find yourself caught in a bad
+situation, by either artillery or rifle fire, or possibly by cavalry,
+who mean to use the steel. It follows then, in practising expedients,
+based, as they should be, on some possible situation, that you should
+make the central idea either offensive, as if attempting to bring
+your men into a position to get the best results from their fire, or
+defensive, as if to escape, or mitigate shell fire or rifle fire, to
+which you are subjected under adverse conditions.
+
+Against artillery fire from ranges or in positions at which you
+cannot reply effectively with rifle fire, your action at first, at
+all events, must be purely defensive, i.e., all you can do, will be
+to escape being overwhelmed by the shell fire, and even at effective
+rifle range, the shields of modern field guns, enable them to engage
+infantry on very equal terms, so long as the infantry is in front, or
+not far on a flank, of the line of guns.
+
+In the days of muzzle-loaders, it was the cavalry who possessed the
+power of suddenly annihilating infantry, when caught unprepared to
+withstand their charge. The magazine rifle has reduced this danger,
+but the quick-firing cannon has now equal, if not greater, powers of
+dealing out swift destruction to any infantry that it finds exposed
+in close formation, if only the range be known. At least once in the
+Russo-Japanese War, and again in the Turko-Bulgarian war, if we may
+believe the somewhat ill-authenticated reports yet to hand, have
+artillery wiped out of existence in a few moments several hundred
+unfortunate infantrymen, who were caught in the _rafâle_ fired at a
+range either ascertained previously, or got at the moment by good
+luck or good judgment. The contingency of being thus caught by
+artillery is evidently one that should be prepared for by infantry,
+as was the forming of squares in the old days, when a cavalry charge
+was an ever present peril. In this case of artillery fire, the
+conditions and the object desired are practically always the same—the
+infantry is in close order of some sort, and wishes to break up into
+a congeries of small groups, so as to isolate the effect of the burst
+of each shrapnel. The matter of rifle fire is different, as there
+are any number of ways in which you may seek either to escape the
+results of the enemy’s fire or attempt to use your own, and this is
+the proper field in which to practise expedients.
+
+Whenever you intend to carry out some such movement to meet a
+supposed situation, you must let the men know exactly what you are
+picturing, so that they also may understand what is needed. The
+essence of these practices is that they should be performed without
+time for deliberate thought—the men must learn to think and act
+quickly. The most satisfactory way is to be yourself mounted, as you
+can then get the whole company to hear you at once, whereas, if on
+foot, the men who are farthest from you often lose the first part
+of what you say; you then have to repeat it, and the thing loses
+its character of surprise for the rest, who have already heard it
+once. Give out the situation in a loud voice, and in as few words as
+possible, then try and give the very order you think you would give,
+if the situation was a real one on service; use your own imagination,
+in figuring what you would say, and how you would say it. To call
+attention, it seems legitimate to use your whistle, as on service
+the men would have some warning that things were about to happen,
+either by the arrival of shell or bullets, the sight of the enemy, or
+by the signal of their own scouts. In giving the situation, if you
+are receiving fire, give out what kind of fire it is, the enemy’s
+position, if it is allowable to suppose it known, or if you are
+going to be on the offensive, give out where the enemy is, and what
+he is doing, and how you learn this, i.e., by your scouts, or by
+first-hand observation. For example, while the company is marching
+in fours along a road, you see, in imagination, two shells burst
+simultaneously near by, and about two hundred yards from each other,
+and you wisely deduce that the enemy is ranging on your company. Blow
+your whistle and give out “Artillery fire is opening on the company,
+from such and such a direction—open out to columns of sections.” If
+you have taught your men what to do to escape artillery fire, they
+will open out at the double into columns of platoons, at not less
+than fifty yards interval, measuring roughly at right angles to the
+direction of the supposed fire (I.T., 118 (3)).
+
+In practising this opening out under artillery fire, which, as I have
+said, is the one specific hasty manœuvre performed under conditions
+nearly always similar, it is inexpedient to lay down any fixed rules
+for the positions to be taken up by the platoons. It sounds simple to
+say that the platoons of the leading half-company go to the right,
+and those of the rear half to the left, but when men are marching at
+ease, and shells begin bursting round them unexpectedly, I do not
+think there will be time for anyone to see which half-company is
+leading. The main thing is to get the platoons instantly away from
+the road on which the enemy has laid his guns, and from each other.
+Direct platoon commanders to lead their men at the double in any
+direction away from the platoon in front, except, of course, towards
+the rear. In theory, of course, this might result in all four making
+out towards one flank, but, even so, this is better than having any
+deliberative halts on the road, and in practice the platoons in rear
+can see which way those in front are heading, and wheel to go to
+the other flank. There is no advantage to be had from getting the
+men in the ranks into extended order, as the shrapnel scatter the
+whole width of their bursting zone in an impartial manner, nor is it
+any use to seek such slight cover as gives only a screen from view,
+unless with a view to getting away from the shell-swept locality
+without attracting notice. Platoon commanders should, of course, make
+for any cover that is sufficiently steep on the rear side to shelter
+them from the downward dropping shrapnel bullets. If there is no
+cover, the best thing after getting out into the line of platoons
+separated by fully fifty yards intervals, is to move rapidly forward.
+If cover exists with open ground round it, the men may be got away by
+“dribbling” man by man, in the hope that the enemy may not spot the
+movement, and continue or resume his shell practice, to defeat it.
+
+As regards expedients against rifle fire, I will only suggest a few,
+and leave you to invent others suited to the nature of the ground you
+have got to exercise on.
+
+  1. The company in close order is surprised by a heavy rifle fire;
+       there is cover near by sufficient to hold the whole company
+       crowded together. Order the men to get into the cover helter
+       skelter, and then advance or retire, by the successive
+       movement of platoons or sections, who take extended order at
+       their best speed as they emerge from shelter. If facilities
+       exist, tell one or two platoons to reply to the fire, from the
+       cover, till their own turn comes to move, by which time the
+       first lots that went out should have got into position to open
+       fire.
+
+  2. The company in close order is again surprised by rifle fire, but
+       there is no cover near to act as a base. Get the company
+       quickly into extended order, and let men reply to the fire as
+       soon as they have extended, using studiously slow fire.
+
+  3. The company or platoons in extended order have to change front
+       to meet an attack from a flank. As in the book, call on them
+       to line a hedge or ditch, facing so as to fire in the new
+       direction.
+
+  4. Coming through a gap in a hedge or wall, either in advance or
+       retreat, scattering off right and left, so as to get out of
+       the way of fire concentrated on the gap.
+
+  5. The scouts from a position some distance from the company report
+       a body of the enemy unaware of their presence and exposed to
+       fire. Bring the company quickly up to the scouts’ position,
+       halt, load, and adjust sights under cover and just short of
+       the firing position, and on your whistle the men advance at
+       once to the edge of the fire position and surprise the enemy
+       by a simultaneous fire from all the rifles.
+
+  6. Taking up quickly an all-round defensive position; the platoons
+       or sections go off and find the best positions in different
+       directions which you merely indicate roughly.
+
+  7. Hastily organised attacks, to dislodge an enemy unexpectedly
+       found in occupation of a position, also taking up action as
+       flank and rearguards under fire.
+
+
+
+
+                           EXERCISE XVII.
+
+                      NIGHT OPERATION TRAINING.
+
+
+I.T., 113, gives some instructions as to how men are to be taught to
+march and to use their ears and eyes at night, while F.S.R., chapter
+ix., goes into the subject at length. These operations are divided
+into night marches, night advances, and night attacks. The men of
+a company will not be fit to take a useful part in night tactical
+exercises either in company or in battalion, unless they have had
+some elementary training as laid down in “Infantry Training,”
+and have also been practised in the two indispensable duties of
+maintaining connection (F.S.R., 129 (4)) and in reconnaissance
+(F.S.R., 130 (1)). Night patrolling and the duties of night sentries
+have been dealt with under outposts, and I will not say anything
+more about them here. The rest of the elementary training contained
+in “Infantry Training” requires no explanation, and you can practise
+your men in it in small parties. There remains the maintenance of
+connection, and I have found that training for this is best done at
+first by daylight. It is very simple, and after one or two daylight
+lessons the men will work quite well by night, but to begin straight
+off under darkness will only lead to waste of time, as mistakes
+cannot easily be corrected, nor the working of a system made plain.
+The company should parade as strong as possible in this exercise,
+as, with only a few files on parade, the necessity of maintaining
+connection, and the difficulty of doing so, are not so obvious as
+when a fairly large body of men has to be handled without making a
+noise. Connection has to be maintained within the company itself,
+and also with the other companies in front or rear, if in column of
+route, or on the right and left, if deployed. In order to practise
+this connection with other companies, represent the front and rear,
+or flank section commanders of the supposed adjacent companies by a
+man for each company, who should move where those section commanders
+would be, i.e., in fours, at the head or tail of the directing flank,
+in line, on the flanks of the front rank. Use these dummies as the
+recipients of all orders and signals passed along, so that your
+company may get the habit of keeping touch with the others before it
+works with the battalion.
+
+
+                       _I. Connecting Files._
+
+The only sure way of keeping connection between bodies of troops
+moving in separate parties is by connecting files, who keep within
+sight of each other and so can seldom be at more than twenty yards
+distance apart. These files must be taught to pass commands with
+exactitude, and never to open their mouths otherwise, i.e., they
+must never speculate between themselves “Are they advancing?” or so
+forth, or talk at all, because the next file may hear some word of
+their talk and mistake it for an order. When connecting files are
+needed they must take up their places without its being necessary to
+tell them off loudly, and when no longer needed they must close into
+company in silence and in good order.
+
+Form the company into fours, turned to a flank as in column of route:
+tell the dummy section commander of the preceding company to march
+off; string the company out after him, the men marching off in files
+at about ten paces between each file without further command after
+the first one has gone, each as it moves off touching the next to
+follow, to give it notice. When they are all strung out, let the rear
+dummy section commander follow. Then pass orders up the line; use
+only the form given in I.T., 96 (3). To make sure that such verbal
+orders have reached the intended recipient, the only way, though a
+slow one, is to require him to send back a report that he has taken
+the action required. Thus, a message from the rear to the leading
+portion to halt would be answered from the leading portion by a
+report passed down the line to the commander “The leading portion,
+or, etc., has halted.” Let your first order be to halt, passed from
+the dummy company in rear up to that in front “From Colonel A. to all
+companies—halt.” On receiving the order one man of each file halts
+on his ground and turns to the rear, the other goes forward to the
+next file as quickly as he can without noise, delivers the order, and
+returns to his former place, when he halts and faces the other way
+from his comrade. Thus, on the completion of the order to halt, one
+man of each file will be facing each way. Bayonets will usually be
+fixed in night operations, and it is important, especially in Rifle
+Battalions, to accustom men to carry the rifle on the right shoulder,
+with the hand round the small of the butt and never at the trail,
+otherwise there is much danger of someone getting a stab as well as
+an order.
+
+After the halt, get on the move again by passing up the word to
+advance, and practise any other likely orders:—“Go fast in front,”
+“Go slow in front,” “The rear cannot keep up,” and so on. Follow the
+orders up the line and see that men do not tamper with the form of
+the order en route, and that they speak in a whisper when giving it
+over. Section and platoon commanders must be told all orders as they
+pass, see that their units conform, and look after the maintenance of
+the distance between files.
+
+Next practise lateral communication, the four platoons in one line
+in close order, with company intervals between each, representing
+the leading platoons of four companies drawn up in line of columns
+of platoons at deploying intervals and ready for a night advance.
+Lateral connecting files need to be closer than when following
+each other, so put out connecting files to the flanks in a similar
+way to what was done before, but at six, or eight yards interval.
+Then move, halt, and deploy the supposed column by means of these
+files, dressing and interval being kept up by the files moving up or
+stepping short, and closing on or inclining from any named company of
+direction without specific orders.
+
+
+                   _II. Marching and Formations._
+
+Form up the company and get it into fours as if in column of route,
+dummy company section commanders as before. Practise marching off
+from the halt, and halting, passing the word from the front or rear
+company along the men on the flanks of the fours. As the order comes
+along, the flank men of the fours nudge or shove the other men in
+their respective fours, and whisper to the flank men in the four in
+front or behind. There is seldom any need to speak, as a push or
+pull is enough. The platoon commanders get the word from the flank
+men of the sections of fours, and from one another as well, as they
+are to follow the order along their own platoons, and go forward or
+back to the commander of the next platoon to whom they must repeat
+it, and then resume their proper places. The platoon commander of
+the leading, or rear, platoon is responsible for passing the word
+to the nearest platoon commander of the next company. The company
+officers must arrange also to hear all orders, and should have fixed
+positions, known to all, which they will only quit temporarily.
+In marching off from the halt, the rear portion of the company
+should step out well, as soon as the order reaches them, so as to
+avoid straggling, while the leading fours preserve a uniform pace.
+In halting in battalion, the leading fours should close up on the
+company in front, and continue to do so, till it is seen that it
+has finished closing up; there is always bound to be a good deal
+of straggling at first owing to the method of giving orders. When
+this system is in good working order, move and halt the company on
+your own audibly whispered word of command, the platoon commanders
+repeating it, the system of communication being kept up as before,
+but the men moving at once on the word; this will give a fairly
+simultaneous action throughout the company while ensuring against
+loss of touch.
+
+On the same lines, practise forming line from column of platoons,
+mass, and column of platoons from column of fours, and marching in
+line, paying attention throughout to dressing and the covering of
+files in line.
+
+
+                        _III. Night Assault._
+
+Choose a position as objective, and form the company, in line or in
+column of platoons, about three hundred yards from it, with scouts
+about eighty yards in front of the company (F.S.R., 137 (4)). This
+is the formation which would usually be adopted at the position of
+deployment. When the scouts have got about one hundred yards from the
+position, or up to a line which they would recognise in the dark as
+being in close proximity to it, they should halt, and wait for the
+arrival of the company. The whole then move silently forward towards
+the position till you give the word or signal for assault, when all
+charge. Practise this stealthy advance right on to the position,
+as if the enemy were not alert, and also make the charge from
+some distance, as would be done if the enemy opened fire, which is
+recognised to be what will most often happen. After the assault the
+men should be rallied by the non-commissioned officers taking all men
+within their reach, and forming them into extemporised sections ready
+to be reformed into platoons and to begin entrenching.
+
+If by chance you get material, you may introduce refinements, in the
+way of wire-cutting men with each section, sand bags with each man,
+and bags stuffed with straw carried ready to throw on to abatis or to
+fill up trenches, to be carried in a fixed place in the company.
+
+
+                      _IV. Night Entrenching._
+
+Practise marching with arms and tools, and taking up a position to
+be entrenched, with especial regard to avoidance of noise. When
+entrenching by night, the trenches cannot be chosen to give a
+field of fire unless it has been possible to obtain access to the
+locality by day, and mark them in advance; failing this the company
+commander, as soon as the position is reached, must send patrols,
+and go himself, to ascertain that no commanding ground, at least
+in the immediate vicinity, has been left unoccupied, and, at the
+first light, all other such points within effective range as it is
+possible to hold, should be secured and entrenched, without orders
+from higher commanders. A full illustration of this, however, can
+only be done by parading at night.
+
+
+                          _V. Search Work._
+
+Practise the company in going off, as if detached from the column to
+get touch with other troops, or to find a gate or bridge by which
+some obstacle, wall, canal, etc., met with, can be passed. The
+company moves off dropping connecting files to keep touch with the
+halted column, the files halt at their distances, and pass word if
+the company has achieved its mission, and close on the company when
+the column comes up, but not before, else the column will be left out
+of touch; or, if the need has passed and the company is recalled to
+the column, the connecting files again remain at their posts till the
+company is gathered back on them.
+
+
+                          _VI. Surprises._
+
+When only a few men are on parade, advanced education, combined with
+some amusement, may be got by experimenting in the best ways of
+laying out obnoxious persons, such as hostile patrols, who have to
+be rushed in silence (F.S.R., 138 (5)). Before beginning a stalk,
+the quarry should be kept under observation to see which way he looks
+when halted, and any other idiosyncrasies. The assailant should creep
+up to him either on his flank, or from behind, moving one foot at a
+time, and bending down, though not on all fours. If the sentry looks
+his way, he must stay absolutely motionless, till he again looks
+away. My informant on this matter was a friend of a successful rifle
+thief in Upper India.
+
+After putting the company through the above daylight course, you
+should, of course, put theory into practice and do some real night
+work whenever you get the chance, putting out a skeleton enemy or
+some observers to tell you how much noise you make, and follow out
+the full instructions as to orders, watchwords, etc., given in
+F.S.R., 138 and 139. Test your men as to their ability to see in the
+dark; some men can see much more than others; spot these men and tell
+them off as “Night Scouts.” Even if they are not otherwise qualified
+as scouts, they are most useful in guiding the company over rough
+ground.
+
+
+
+
+                   A SCHEME OF A COMPANY TRAINING.
+
+
+I give below, as an example of the application of the foregoing
+exercises, a scheme of company training which I actually carried out.
+This was in the days before platoons, so I have altered the scheme to
+show what I should have done had the company organisation been what
+it now is. I was given from Monday in one week to Saturday the next
+week to march out into camp, about 10 miles, and get back, i.e., two
+days of march, and ten halted working days. I had thirty-five rounds
+per man of ball cartridge available for field practice musketry, and
+a sufficiency of blank for the requirements of skeleton enemy and
+for use with the men in one or two of the exercises. My men were
+Regulars, and during the previous furlough season I had grounded them
+piecemeal in field work.
+
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+DAY. |          |      FORENOON WORK.          |  AFTERNOON WORK.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  1  |Monday    |   March out to camp. March   |
+     |          | discipline and work of       |
+     |          | connecting files. Advanced   |
+     |          | guard. Sanitation. Water     |
+     |          | piquet and sanitary patrols. |
+     |          | Pitched a perimeter camp as  |
+     |          | for savage warfare. Trenched |
+     |          | tents against rain, and      |
+     |          | made a shelter trench round  |
+     |          | camp. Alarm posts.           |
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  2  |Tuesday   |   Individual advance in      |   Improved and
+     |          |                              | deepened camp
+     |          | extended order. Retirement   | entrenchments, made
+     |          | by pairs.                    | loop-holes, night
+     |          |                              | rests, and obstacles.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  3  |Wednesday |   Platoon and Section in     |   Field practice
+     |          | attack as part of Company.   | Musketry:—Individual
+     |          |                              | advance in extended
+     |          |                              | order. 7 rounds ball
+     |          |                              | per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  4  |Thursday  |   Platoon in independent     |   Field practice
+     |          | attack.                      | Musketry:—Section
+     |          |                              | in independent
+     |          |                              | attack,  7 rounds
+     |          |                              | ball per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  5  |Friday    |   Platoon in retirement.     |   Preliminary
+     |          |                              | training for Company
+     |          |                              | attack. Fire
+     |          |                              | discipline and
+     |          |                              | control.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  6  |Saturday  |   Company in attack with the |   Prepared target
+     |          | battalion.                   | positions and markers
+     |          |                              | butts for
+     |          |                              | snapshooting.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  7  |Monday    |   Company in attack with     |   Snapshooting, 7
+     |          |  Battalion.                  | rounds per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  8  |Tuesday   |   Company in attack acting   |   Snapshooting, 7
+     |          | alone.                       | rounds per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  9  |Wednesday |   Outposts.                  |   Company in attack,
+     |          |                              | 7 rounds ball.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+ 10  |Thursday  |   Defence.                   |   Company in
+     |          |                              | retirement.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+ 11  |Friday    |   Night attack. Parade at    |   Hasty expedients.
+     |          | 2.30 a.m.                    |
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+ 12  |Saturday  |   March back to quarters.    |
+=====+==========+==============================+======================
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Notes
+
+  Catalog page Changed Miscellaneous Tactica to: Tactical
+  pg 62 Changed close and re-form to: reform
+  pg 63 Changed expect either a counterattack to: counter-attack
+  pg 67 Changed this exercise, though to: through
+  pg 76 Added period after: left on the position
+  pg 124 Changed trenches or make loopholes to: loop-holes
+  pg 125 Changed the line of loopholes to: loop-holes
+  pg 136 Changed: (I.T, 156 (5)) to: (I.T., 156 (5))
+  pg 182 Added comma after: entrenchments, made loop-holes
+  pg 183 Added period after: 7 rounds ball per man
+  pg 184 Added period after: Friday Night attack
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 69943 ***
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-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you

-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the

-country where you are located before using this eBook.

-</div>

-

-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The training of an infantry company</p>

-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Edward Kirkpatrick</p>

-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 3, 2023 [eBook #69943]</p>

-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>

-  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Brian Coe, Bob Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p>

-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINING OF AN INFANTRY COMPANY ***</div>

-

-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 65%">

-<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover">

-</div>

-

-

-

-<h1>

-THE TRAINING<br>

-

-<span class="fs60">OF AN</span><br>

-

-INFANTRY COMPANY.</h1>

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-</div>

-

-<div class="pageborder">

-<p class="center fs150"><b>CATECHISM ON FIELD TRAINING</b></p>

-

-<p class="center">(<b>INFANTRY</b>).</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p>A series of Questions and Answers on

-all subjects of field training, extracted

-from the latest official TRAINING

-MANUALS, together with miscellaneous

-information, practical exercises

-and examples progressively arranged.</p>

-</div>

-

-<p class="center">

-<em>Revised and brought up to date by</em><br>

-<span class="fs130 wsp"><b>COL. H. O’DONNELL, p.s.c.</b></span><br>

-<span class="fs80 wsp">(WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT).<br>

-<em>SIXTH EDITION.</em></span></p>

-

-<hr class="r65">

-

-<p class="center">CONTENTS.</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p>Elementary—General Principles of Attack

-and Defence—Miscellaneous Tactical

-Operations—Warfare in uncivilised Countries—Protection

-on the Line of March—Protection

-when at Rest—Methods of

-obtaining Information—Quarters, Camps,

-and Bivouacs—Field Engineering—Diary

-of Training.</p>

-</div>

-

-<p class="center"><em>Fully illustrated with 30 pages of Plates and Diagrams.</em></p>

-

-<hr class="r35">

-

-<p class="center"><b>One of the numerous Press Opinions.</b></p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-

-<p>“The book is most comprehensive, for every

-branch of the soldier’s life is touched upon, and

-every situation or emergency seems to be anticipated.

-Colonel O’Donnell’s publication is quite

-a military encyclopædia.”—<cite>Empress</cite>, Calcutta.</p>

-</div>

-

-

-<p class="center"><b>PRICE 3/- NET.</b></p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-

-<p class="center wsp"><em>From the Printers and Publishers</em>,<br>

-GALE &amp; POLDEN LTD.,<br>

-<span class="smcap">Wellington Works, Aldershot</span>,<br>

-And at London and Portsmouth.</p>

-</div>

-</div>

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p class="center wsp">

-<span class="fs150"><b><em>The</em> TRAINING</b></span><br>

-<br>

-<span class="fs80">OF AN</span><br>

-<br>

-<span class="smcap fs150"><b>Infantry Company</b></span><br>

-<br>

-<br>

-<span class="fs80"><em>By</em></span><br>

-<br>

-<span class="fs130">Major <span class="smcap">E. Kirkpatrick</span>, I.A.</span><br>

-<br>

-<br>

-—————:O:—————

-<br>

-<br>

-<br>

-<span class="smcap fs120">2nd Edition.</span><br>

-<br></p>

-

-<hr class="r15">

-

-<p class="center wsp"><br>

-<em>London</em>: <span class="smcap">Gale &amp; Polden, Ltd.</span>,<br>

-<br>

-2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.<br>

-<br>

-Nelson House, PORTSMOUTH &amp;<br>

-Wellington Works, ALDERSHOT.<br>

-Obtainable from all Booksellers.<br>

-<br></p>

-

-<hr class="r90">

-

-<p class="center fs130 wsp">

-<em>TWO SHILLINGS &amp; SIXPENCE</em> (<em>Net</em>)<br>

-

-<span class="fs80">(<em>Copyright under Act of 1911.</em>)</span><br>

-</p>

-</div>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p class="center">

-<span class="smcap">Aldershot</span>:<br>

-<br>

-PRINTED BY GALE &amp; POLDEN, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>,<br>

-<span class="smcap">Wellington Works</span>.<br>

-<br></p>

-<hr class="r5">

-<p class="center"><span style="margin-left: -1em;">1914</span></p>

-</div>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2>

-</div>

-

-

-<p>This booklet has not been written for

-the use and benefit of officers and non-commissioned

-officers of long experience

-and proved skill in the profession of

-training men for battle. To such as

-these it may only provide an object of

-criticism, for in the course of years spent

-in turning recruits into trained soldiers

-they will have formulated to themselves,

-and adopted, some system of training

-which they found productive of the best

-results under their own guidance. But

-there are many at present, and at a future

-time, should certain circumstances arise

-in the life of the nation, there may be very

-many more who may not have such stores

-of experience to draw on, and yet may

-be faced with the problem of rapidly

-converting an untrained or only partially

-trained body of men into a force capable

-of acting successfully in real war, both

-in attack and defence against trained and

-disciplined troops. Again, it is written,

-not for officers commanding battalions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span>

-nor for officers of cavalry and artillery,

-but only for officers commanding companies

-or other similar units of infantry,

-though it may, perhaps, be of use in

-training mounted troops for dismounted

-action.</p>

-

-<p>Meantime, while the pipes of peace are

-still smoking, it is hoped it may be of

-some use to officers and non-commissioned

-officers when the time comes to prepare

-schemes of company training and put

-them into execution.</p>

-

-<p class="right">

-E. K.<br>

-</p>

-

-<p><em>September, 1913.</em></p>

-

-<hr class="r15">

-

-<p class="center">PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.</p>

-

-<p>Since the above was written, the issue of

-new or amended Manuals of Training has

-necessitated a revision of the book, which

-is now presented in a form agreeable to

-the four-company organisation.</p>

-

-<p>The Empire is now confronted by those

-circumstances to which allusion was made

-in the Preface.</p>

-

-<p class="right">

-E. K.<br>

-</p>

-

-<p><em>September, 1914.</em></p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>

-</div>

-

-<table class="autotable">

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl"></td>

-<td class="tdl"></td>

-<td class="tdr"><span class="fs80">PAGE</span></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl" colspan="2">List of Abbreviations</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Introductory Remarks—</td>

-<td class="tdl"></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr" style="width:13%">I.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Intention of the Book</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">II.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Making the Best of their Companies to Train the Modern Man for the Modern Battle</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">III.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Standard of Training assumed to have already been acquired and its application to further Exercises</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">IV.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Ground for Training—Its Use and Influence—Palliation of the Lack of a Training Ground</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">V.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Company Organisation—Moral and the Personality of the Commander</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VI.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Discipline—Moral and Means of Supervision</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VII.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Organisation by Files and its Effect on Moral—Cohesion</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VIII.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Method of Training</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">IX.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">As to Scouts and Working Dress</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr style="height:40px">

-<td class="tdc" colspan="3"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</span>EXERCISES</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">I.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Individual Advance in Extended Order</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">II.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Retirement by Pairs</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">III.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Individual Training in Use of Fire and Fire Discipline</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">IV.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Assault</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">V.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Attack</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VI.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Retirement</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VII.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Independent Attack</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">VIII.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Platoon as Advanced and Flank Guard</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">IX.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Preliminary for the Attack by the Company in Battalion</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">X.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack with the Battalion under Artillery Fire</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XI.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack with the Battalion under Rifle Fire</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XII.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack Acting Alone</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XIII.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">The Company in Retirement</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XIV.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Outposts</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XV.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Defence</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XVI.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Hasty Expedients</td>

-<td class="tdr"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</span><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr">XVII.—</td>

-<td class="tdl">Night Operations</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdr"></td>

-<td class="tdc">————</td>

-<td class="tdr"></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl" colspan="2">A Scheme of Company Training</td>

-<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td>

-</tr>

-</table>

-<br>

-

-<p class="center fs120">REFERENCES <span class="fs80">AND</span> ABBREVIATIONS.</p>

-

-<table class="autotable">

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl" style="width:20%">I.T., 128 (3)</td>

-<td class="tdl">= Infantry Training, 1914, Section 128, para. 3.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl">F.S.R.</td>

-<td class="tdl">= Field Service Regulations, Part I. Operations, 1909 (Reprint 1912).</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl">T. &amp; M.R.</td>

-<td class="tdl">= Training and Manœuvre Regulations, 1913.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdl">M.F.E.</td>

-<td class="tdl">= Manual of Field Engineering, 1911.</td>

-</tr>

-</table>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_FEW_PRESS_OPINIONS">A FEW PRESS OPINIONS.</h2>

-</div>

-

-<hr class="r15">

-

-<p class="center">“UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.”</p>

-

-<p>Major E. Kirkpatrick is the author of a small book on

-“The Training of an Infantry Company.” There have

-been so many books and pamphlets of this kind—short

-cuts to knowledge—that one is apt to regard each fresh

-one with suspicion and even with aversion, but Major

-Kirkpatrick has much that is helpful to say, he says it

-well, and he shows how much good work may be done

-even in the training of the emasculated companies such

-as our military system so often leaves us. His instructions

-cover a wide field, and there must be few company

-officers who will not be grateful to the author for many

-valuable hints.</p>

-

-

-<p class="center">“UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION OF INDIA.”</p>

-

-<p>There are few junior officers of infantry who will not

-benefit by a study of this book. The thorough system of

-training elaborated in the seventeen exercises, which

-form the major portion of the book, is worthy of the

-attention of Regular as well as Territorial Officers.</p>

-

-<p>These elementary exercises deal with the essentials in

-the war training of the Infantry soldier, from the work of

-the individual in advance and retirement, and of the

-section in action and on protection duties, to the training

-of the company in attack and defence, and outpost.</p>

-

-<p>As an example of a system of training illustrating the

-necessity of attention to detail in the early instruction of

-the soldier, this series of exercises is valuable, and their

-value is increased by the constant reference to training

-manuals. The author wisely recommends the study of

-all the official books referred to as he recognises that his

-exercises and comments are only of value in so far as they

-illustrate and explain the principles laid down in training

-manuals.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter"></div>

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>

-

-<p class="center fs150"><b>THE TRAINING</b></p>

-

-<p class="center fs80">OF AN</p>

-

-<p class="center fs150"><b>INFANTRY COMPANY.</b></p>

-

-

-<hr class="r35">

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTORY_REMARKS">INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.</h2>

-

-<p>The authorised handbooks of training

-rightly confine themselves to broad principles,

-and do not attempt to give

-detailed examples of their application,

-the idea being that officers should study

-these regulations and apply the principles

-by the light of local conditions and their

-own experience. Infantry Training and

-the Field Service Regulations are, however,

-very pregnant little books, containing,

-as they do, a summary of the whole

-of Modern Tactics, as far as they concern

-infantry and the combined action of all

-arms. Time and thought are necessary,

-if the principles contained in them are to

-be translated into such intelligent action

-that the men trained on the lines laid

-down may be capable of doing their duty

-in real warfare, without first undergoing

-a bitter and costly schooling of useless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span>

-casualties or, perhaps, even of defeat.

-But if an officer is called on to achieve this

-result, being himself without much previous

-experience in training, he will find

-himself faced with a task of great difficulty,

-and, with the best intentions, he

-may waste precious time, as well as his

-own and his men’s patience and energy,

-in doing parades and exercises, which are

-either not indispensable, or of minor

-importance for the main object. As an

-extreme example, it would be better, in

-a hastily raised corps, to combine the

-disciplinary training of obedience to the

-word of command, with instruction in the

-use of their arms, by practice in smart

-work in aiming and firing, than merely

-to study precision in “sloping” and

-“presenting arms,” which look well,

-but do not immediately affect fighting

-efficiency.</p>

-

-<p>For these reasons, it has occurred to

-me that I might do some of my brother

-officers <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in esse</i> or <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in posse</i> a service by

-setting out certain elementary exercises in

-training infantry soldiers, which I have

-found of value in bringing them up to a

-standard of battle training sufficiently

-high to need only battalion training and

-a baptism of fire to turn them into steady

-and reliable troops. It is not contended

-that these few examples are anything but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span>

-concrete instances of the application of

-the principles of the Training Manuals.

-They are intended, as has been stated,

-merely for those who are short of time

-and experience, and, therefore, references

-to the manuals are given when the exercise

-illustrates some particular section of those

-works, and it is recommended that

-officers who intend to use these examples

-should look up and read the sections

-referred to before going on to the parade.</p>

-

-<p>Though this book is not meant for

-officers commanding battalions, I have

-one word to say to them, and it is this,

-that if they wish to have an efficient

-battalion they must let the company

-officers have proper opportunities of training

-their companies, apart from the time

-of company training, when the whole

-company is struck off duty. If there are

-six parades a week, let three or four of

-them be company parades, ordered and

-carried out by the company commanders;

-the balance will be quite enough to secure

-combination between the companies in

-battalion. On company parades, the

-battalion commander should supervise,

-but never interfere, unless things are

-being manifestly mismanaged. (See

-T. &amp; M.R., 2 (2 and 3)). The days

-of the one man battalion are gone

-for ever. The company is the thing that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>

-matters; a good battalion can only be

-composed of well-trained companies. It

-is the work of the battalion commander

-to propound the general lines of training

-and to use the companies to the best

-advantage in combination, but the training

-of the individual soldier must be in

-the hands of the man who is to lead him

-in war.</p>

-

-

-<h3>II.</h3>

-

-<p>On ordinary parades, the captain of

-an infantry company is seldom able to

-get together more than a fraction of his

-men. The calls on the company for men

-for duties and odd jobs, leave and furlough,

-and, in the Territorial Force, the

-private occupations of the men, allow of

-only a few being assembled on any one

-parade. This being so, there is a temptation—sometimes

-yielded to by officers

-who have not much experience, to say to

-themselves: “This is rot; what can I do

-without any men?” Such a question is

-the result of confusing the individual

-instruction of the men with the tactical

-practice of the leader in handling his

-company as a whole. The answer too

-often takes the form of an hour’s close

-order drill or something similar, which

-may do some good, but not nearly as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span>

-much as if the officer stoutly made up his

-mind to make the best of a bad job and

-took out those few men and did some

-practical training in field operations. The

-fewer men there are on parade, the more

-individual attention will the company

-commander be able to give them. He will

-be able to look at each man’s work more

-carefully, talk to the men and get to

-know their characters as soldiers, spot

-who are likely to make good non-commissioned

-officers, and coach them far more

-than if the whole company were on hand

-at once. So do not turn up your nose at

-a company only twenty strong, but make

-up a scheme of exercises to be gone

-through, and, since the men who are not

-on parade to-day will be so to-morrow,

-arrange to do the same exercise on two,

-or, if needed, three, consecutive days, so

-as to catch all, or, at least, most of the

-men, and your non-commissioned officers,

-who are not usually so drawn on for off-parade

-duties, will become well acquainted

-with each exercise, learn what

-to do and how to run things, and so

-become both a help to you as instructors,

-and themselves gain authority and power

-of command from the knowledge of their

-own competency.</p>

-

-<p>It is quite likely that these exercises and

-the explanations given, may seem to some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>

-readers to be absurdly simple and needlessly

-long-winded, while there is also a

-good deal of repetition. To this I will

-make early reply that they are written for

-officers who are not too proud to accept

-other people’s advice in training a company

-of young soldiers of the stamp

-which would be forthcoming if some

-cause<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> or other tempted or constrained into

-military service that great proportion of

-our male population who are at present

-quite ignorant of a soldier’s work, and

-who, from apathy, or a hundred other

-causes, do not join the Territorial Force.

-Such men probably have never in their

-lives given a thought to soldiering. The

-majority of them are town born and bred,

-and have passed most of their lives among

-bricks and mortar. If they have ever

-looked carefully at the large or small

-features of a bit of country, it has been

-from an industrial, sporting, or, perhaps,

-sentimental, but never from a tactical,

-point of view. They have everything to

-learn in making use of ground for fighting.

-Their ideas of using modern arms

-are equally crude; the primitive fighting

-instinct will be uppermost in their minds,

-and would express itself in an incontinent

-desire to get to close quarters with their

-enemy, when bayonet, butt or hand grips<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>

-would seem the proper way to settle the

-matter. A very laudable desire it is—this

-of wanting to close in—and one to

-be encouraged by every means, but however

-brave troops may be, they cannot in

-general indulge their desire to attain

-close quarters and the resulting facilities

-of fighting by the light of their natural

-instincts unless they have first been successful

-in the fire fight—the strife of the

-arms of artifice—which is waged by bullet

-and shell at distances which Nature never

-contemplated.</p>

-

-<p>It is the artificiality of the fire fight

-which makes the task of turning town-bred

-men into skilful soldiers such a

-difficult and lengthy process. They must

-be led to look at ground in relation to its

-capabilities of increasing the effectiveness

-of their own fire and also of diminishing

-the result of that of the enemy, i.e., they

-must learn to select good fire positions

-and good cover. The problem of finding

-the latter for himself against a civilized

-foe begins, for the individual soldier, as

-soon as the enemy’s rifle fire becomes

-effective and compels the use by his side

-of extended order; this is held to be on

-open ground about fourteen hundred

-yards from the enemy’s infantry (I.T.,

-118 (4)). Prior to this the responsibility

-for cover rests with his leaders, as he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>

-will then be in some close formation. Fire

-positions he must choose for himself as

-soon as his section commander ceases

-to be able to indicate his wishes, or

-to secure combined action by the whole

-unit. This will probably happen at

-about six hundred yards from the enemy,

-when individual fire is expected to

-replace controlled fire by sections. These

-two aspects of fighting—the use of

-ground, and the use of the rifle as a

-far-reaching weapon of almost absolute

-precision, if truly sighted and aimed—are

-foreign to our instincts, and the

-average man has to be trained till he is

-able to override his instinct and fight an

-artificial war, so as to work his way to

-charging distance. Some men need less

-training than others; a stalker in a deer

-forest is an adept in the use of cover, and

-in general, country-bred men should be

-easier to train than town-bred, but the

-majority of our men being the latter, we

-must lay ourselves out to teach them from

-the beginning this business of the fire

-fight, since success in this is usually

-necessary before the assault can succeed

-(I.T., 121 (7)). This can only

-be done by training them in extended

-order and putting them through various

-exercises chosen for the purpose. Any

-exercise which does not in some way tend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>

-to fit men for battle is mere waste of

-time; aimless perambulations of an extended

-line fall under this category, but

-are quite often to be seen on parade

-grounds. No amount of smartness in

-close order drill will compensate for a

-deficiency of field training.</p>

-

-

-<h3>III.</h3>

-

-<p>The exercises which I have drawn up,

-simple though they are, are of the nature

-of “Instructional Operations,” as defined

-by T. &amp; M.R., 40 (12), and it is presupposed

-that the men have received, or

-are in course of receiving, sufficient instruction

-in the use of the rifle (musketry

-in all its branches), and of the bayonet

-(bayonet fighting), in drill in close order,

-and the drill grounding of extended

-order work, including signals (I.T.,

-90-96). We are then to consider ourselves

-to be at the stage in which the soldier is

-to be taught to work over broken country

-as directed in the latter part of para. 90,

-above quoted. But do not think the

-lessons learned at musketry instruction are

-to be forgotten and left behind by the

-men when they begin to work in extended

-order across country. Demand

-from your men that the rifle shall be

-deadly, and, by unceasing supervision,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>

-breed a habit among them of aiming and

-firing in extended order, whether with

-or without blank cartridge, with the same

-exactitude as when firing their course of

-musketry on the range. Take the high

-standard—a hundred men’s lives in one

-man’s bandolier, instead of a hundred

-bandoliers for one man’s life. The higher

-standard of the two is at least possible,

-though not common, but why not try and

-work towards it, so that when bullets are

-flying within decisive range of the enemy,

-it will be your men’s fire, that is the

-deadly close-hitting kind, that makes

-afraid, and not the haphazard jet of

-bullets whose inefficacy lets unhurt

-familiarity breed tolerant contempt?</p>

-

-<p>In the same way, when men are in close

-order at any time during a field parade,

-keep up the same smartness, and quick

-obedience to orders which are exacted in

-close order drills, in order that the men

-may become truly disciplined, and not

-merely so in appearance, so when they

-come under fire without being extended,

-as may happen in the early and distant

-stages of a fight, they will, as a matter

-of course, submit themselves to their

-commander’s wishes, and ignore their own

-inclinations, which, just at the first experience,

-even with very brave men, might

-be for an immediate and independent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>

-rush in some direction—perhaps forward,

-perhaps in another direction—they will

-be “in hand,” and free of the liability

-of raw troops to suffer from sudden panic

-or to become a mob, full of fight, perhaps,

-but still a mob, and as such, a

-force which cannot be controlled or used

-in furtherance of any general plan.</p>

-

-

-<h3>IV.</h3>

-

-<p>The want of a suitable and accessible

-bit of ground on which to train our men

-is one of the chief difficulties we have to

-meet in the United Kingdom, and, of

-course, it is greatest in the case of town

-corps, varying with the size of towns,

-while in large cities ground is not to be

-had at all, save at a distance of several

-miles from the men’s dwelling places.

-Unfortunately, there is little doubt that

-the possession or lack of suitable training

-grounds has a great effect on the readiness,

-or otherwise, of troops to give a

-good account of themselves when they

-come under fire for the first time in their

-lives. The lack of it takes away reality

-from the work of the men in the ranks

-and cramps the initiative of their officers,

-who are given no opportunity to exercise

-their wits in figuring out practical situations

-which might occur on service.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p>

-

-<p>I can give no recipe for obtaining the

-use of ground, but from what I have just

-said I hope it is clear that the officer commanding

-a battalion or company should

-use every blandishment or art of which

-he is capable to get the use of a stretch

-of ground, and also, if it is at a distance,

-and the attendance of the men at parades

-voluntary, he should try to provide facilities

-for getting them to and from the

-ground. The worst bit of country is

-better than the barrack square.</p>

-

-<p>The ideal ground is that which gives

-conditions suited to each phase of the

-training, the principal requirements being

-fire positions and cover, and these should

-occur so as to provide illustrations of

-the use to be made of them in individual

-training, and in the collective training of

-sections, platoons, and the larger units.

-Thus, for training individual men, good

-ground would be that with an irregular

-surface, giving many places twenty to

-fifty yards apart, which each man could

-use in firing and taking cover. The

-usual seaside golf course of hummocks,

-furze bushes, and occasional watercourses,

-is good to teach individual men over—I

-say teach, for we must not imagine that

-an enemy will be so kind as to leave easy

-ground like that in his front, if he can

-help it. For section or platoon training,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>

-the surface should be similar, so that the

-individuals should still be called on to

-look out for their own halting places, but,

-in addition, there should be a certain

-number of small features, hillocks, banks,

-and so on, one to four hundred yards

-apart, which will serve as fire positions

-and cover for the whole unit, and provide

-the commanders with successive

-objectives, to which it will be their duty

-to bring their men in good order, and

-without needless exposure to the enemy’s

-fire. When the company is training

-together, the ground should be similar,

-but of greater extent, both broader and

-larger, so that sections and platoons may

-be practised in supporting each other,

-some being halted in these fire positions,

-and covering by their fire the movements

-of the others who are in process of gaining

-fresh vantage points. And so on for

-larger units and the combined action of

-all arms; good ground for early instruction

-is that whose features, from their

-nature and distance from each other, lend

-themselves to illustrate conditions under

-which the power of each unit and arm

-may be most profitably employed in conjunction

-with others. Troops trained over

-ground that gives the above advantages

-will acquire an eye for country. A knowledge

-of the uses to be made of ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>

-will be common to all ranks, so that when

-they find themselves fighting on bad

-ground, which does not give much cover

-or good fire positions, they will be the

-more apt to search for such cover and fire

-positions as are obtainable, while troops

-trained on flat and open ground would be

-much slower in making the best of a bad

-job. We are not concerned with anything

-more than a company; therefore, get for

-your own use, if you can manage it—failing

-help from higher powers—a bit of

-ground of some sort, golf course, common,

-city park, or what not. It need not be

-very extensive. Even if it gives only three

-or four positions suitable for occupation

-by a section working in conjunction with

-another, say, six hundred by three

-hundred yards, it will give room for useful

-instruction; but, of course, a larger

-extent is preferable, as giving room for

-more extended and varied exercises. If

-your training ground is of limited extent,

-it should, nevertheless, if possible, have

-a wide field of view on all sides beyond

-its own confines, and leave you the right

-to send a few men to take positions on the

-adjoining country, even if not allowed to

-manœuvre about it, so that when carrying

-out your exercises you may be able to use

-men with blank cartridge to act as a skeleton

-enemy, when such is needed. But if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>

-you are not allowed to send men on

-to the neighbouring ground, the wide field

-of view will still enable you to indicate

-certain distant positions as <em>supposed</em> to

-be held by the enemy. By this means you

-will be able to use the whole area of your

-permissible ground to represent a bit of

-the battlefield, and escape having to

-place the supposed enemy absurdly close

-to your manœuvring troops, e.g., at the

-edge of the training ground, or in some

-other position which makes heavy calls on

-the imagination. Britishers are not

-imaginative. Lastly, if all else fails, and

-you have nowhere to go except the flat

-parade ground, or even the drill hall,

-which in large towns is often very spacious,

-do not, I beg you, become discouraged

-and throw up all effort to get

-your men ready for field work. Do the

-exercises on the flat, limiting the extent of

-movements, if there is little room, and

-use flags or anything else to represent fire

-positions for sections and platoons, and let

-the men kneel or lie down between

-advances, if there is no cover. A great

-deal may be done in this way to lay a

-good foundation for extended order

-work. Your men will know the mechanism

-of it, and you will save much time when

-you do manage to have them out on a

-proper training ground. I.T., 107 (2), requires<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>

-company commanders, in preparing

-their schemes of training, to have regard

-to the ground at their disposal; do so,

-therefore, even if the ground aforesaid is

-only a parade ground, and make the most

-of it; it is better than sitting still and

-either doing nothing, or only a weary

-round of company drill in close order.

-Of course, you must let the men know

-what you are driving at, or they will get

-bored and lose interest.</p>

-

-

-<h3>V.</h3>

-

-<p>Having got a company of men and

-ground to train them on, the first step is

-to organise that company for its battle

-training. A company is organised into

-four platoons, each under a subaltern, with

-a sergeant as his second-in-command

-(platoon sergeant). Each platoon has

-four sections, and the sixteen sections

-of the company are numbered one

-to sixteen. The men of each of

-the above units remain permanently in

-that unit. <em>If possible</em>, maintain this

-organisation on duties and fatigues,

-though this is often a counsel of perfection,

-but quarter the men together, and

-insist on the maintenance of the organisation,

-<em>without deviation</em>, on parades. Have

-lists made up of the men of each platoon

-and section, and let men who so wish,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>

-belong to the same unit. Once these lists

-are made up, see to it by means of the

-section commanders that these men fall in

-on parade together in the place in the

-company where their section is standing,

-no matter how few there are; if there are

-but two men of one section on parade, they

-should fall in as front and rear rank men

-of one file. Avoid disseminating the

-men of a platoon or section among other

-units in order to raise the latter to a sizeable

-strength. Instead of this: supposing

-you have three weak platoons and

-one strong one on parade; of the four

-sections of one of the weak platoons, send

-two to each of the other two weak platoons.

-This will give you three platoons of, perhaps,

-unequal strength, but sufficient for

-work—and this without taking the responsibility

-of section commanders off their

-shoulders, and the cohesion of each

-unit is preserved. Some further suggestions

-on the subject of organisation will be put

-forward when speaking of <em>moral</em>.</p>

-

-<p>The officer who aspires to develop whatever

-capabilities his men possess of

-becoming individually and collectively

-formidable in battle, must pay attention

-to much more than mere physical considerations.

-Napoleon’s dictum, that the

-moral is to the physical as three to one is

-early dinned into the ears of the officer of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>

-Regulars, but may stand repetition in

-pages meant for the perusal of others.

-No officer can expect to get the most out

-of his men unless he directs his attention

-to the study of the psychical side of the

-training. There are two fields in which

-the study must be pursued. One is the

-officer’s own personality, the other that of

-his non-commissioned officers and men.

-T. &amp; M.R., 8, deals with the former, and

-should be read and pondered over.</p>

-

-<p>In battle good men have sometimes

-achieved victory in spite of the shortcomings

-of their officers, but good officers,

-as well as men, are necessary for consistent

-success in the series of battles

-which make a campaign. Now, good

-officers, given time for training, will infallibly

-produce good men, provided the

-latter are of the average physique and

-courage. Therefore, study thyself, and

-try to see what you lack, in order to become

-a good officer. Cultivate your skill

-in handling your men by reading any

-books you can get; there are, unfortunately,

-not very many that deal with the

-work of such small units as companies

-or even single battalions. Go out

-into the country, or, if you have

-not time, recall to yourself some bit of

-country you know, and import an enemy

-into the landscape. Perhaps a few riflemen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>

-are holding ground on the flank of a

-road along which your battalion wants

-to march, but cannot, without undue loss,

-until these riflemen are driven off; and

-your commanding officer tells you to do

-the driving. In imagination, or on the

-ground, decide what position you would

-hold, if you were the enemy, in order to

-make yourself as nasty as possible—though

-having no hope of being reinforced—to

-the battalion trying to come

-along the road. Then settle in your mind

-what you, as commanding your company,

-would do to get rid of the annoyance.

-Be quite clear, what would you do? Go

-at them bald-headed? There are times

-and enemies when this is the best way;

-you would have to be fairly close, and

-the enemy not shooting very straight, and

-rather careful of his skin; or will you

-march a long way round till the enemy

-sees you are getting behind him, and so

-manœuvre him out? Then your battalion

-will be a long time waiting. Or will you

-look at the ground and find, let us suppose,

-a spot to which you will send a

-section or platoon to open a fire on the

-enemy, while another works its way to a

-point you have noted from which fire can be

-brought to sweep crossways a little knoll,

-or some such supposititious feature which

-seems to form the enemy’s left flank, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>

-to be occupied by ten or twelve men, and

-which gives command over the rest of his

-position? Then, while the second lot is on

-its way, you plan to lead the remainder a

-little way round, under cover, in order to

-get to fairly close range of the knoll, so

-that when the second party opens fire on it,

-and its defenders are hampered both by

-this fire and by that of those you first

-posted, you may surprise them by an

-outburst of fire from your reserve, and

-either drive them off their perch by

-cross-fire from three directions, or, if they

-do not shift, run in at them with the

-bayonet, trusting to get across the intervening

-space at the cost of a few casualties,

-when your superior numbers at that

-point should ensure your success even if

-they actually await the bayonet. Learn

-to consider quickly how many ways there

-are of doing such a job as the above, and

-to decide quickly and rationally which is

-the best.</p>

-

-<p>These schemes, involving only a company

-or two, will not be presented for your solution

-by your battalion commander; you

-must set them yourself, and their solution,

-and the thinking necessary thereto are the

-best methods an officer can get of training

-himself without having his men on the

-ground. In your mind’s eye, put your

-company into every situation you can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>

-think of, and get it out again, and you

-will have acquired an enormous reserve of

-capacity for acting quickly and rightly

-when your men and your enemy are both

-on the ground. But beware of dealing in

-too short distances, or you may produce

-unreal pictures of war. Do not imagine

-manœuvres at four hundred yards from the

-enemy when every man exposed would be

-hit in a few minutes. The clearness and

-decision of thought you acquire will be

-reflected in the orders you give. Your

-men will give you their confidence when

-they see, as they are quick to do, that you

-know your job. There is nothing more

-disheartening for a subordinate, be he

-private or colonel, than to feel he is under

-control of a duffer, whose mistakes he will

-have to correct. This feeling saps discipline,

-and quickly destroys the fighting

-value of a body of men. In peace training,

-the men become sulky at being

-“bothered about,” lose interest in their

-work, and wish themselves done with

-parade. In war, their personal characters

-usurp the control of their actions, and they

-become a mob in uniform.</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>But in addition to possessing the confidence

-of the men in your tactical ability,

-you should seek all other means to increase

-your influence over them. Gain their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>

-respect in other ways, by honesty of purpose,

-by example, tact, devotion to duty,

-and so on. Gain their goodwill by watching

-over their individual and collective

-interests, though in this you must play to

-the gallery sufficiently to let them identify

-you as the source of benefits received.

-Keep an even temper, and do not show

-anger without good cause. Personal attachment

-to their officer shows itself most

-when men’s powers are taxed by hardship,

-fatigue, and danger; it is then a great

-auxiliary in maintaining discipline among

-the mass.</p>

-

-

-<h3>VI.</h3>

-

-<p>As regards the <em>moral</em> of the men,

-I.T., 1 (4 to 10) must be referred to.

-You <em>must</em> introduce discipline—the habit

-of subordinating personal inclination to

-the orders of the superior promptly and

-without cavil. If your men are raw, you

-have to go slow just at first till they all

-know what is expected of them. Let

-them understand that orders are not given

-haphazard, but are invariably based on

-some good reason, which, being so, there

-is no need for reasons to be always stated,

-nor for recipients of orders to feel unhappy

-for want of them. If you can induce a

-feeling among the men that slackness on

-parade, slowness in obeying orders, and so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>

-on, are bad form, and tend to disgrace the

-company, you will do well, and this good

-spirit will enable you to enforce discipline

-without having recourse to punishment, if

-you are vested with the power of inflicting

-it.</p>

-

-<p>I have already said that when in close

-order during tactical exercises, you should

-maintain discipline in the ranks. I now

-go further and say that you should maintain

-it when the men are extended or

-detached from the company singly or in

-small groups. Evidently the discipline

-here needed is something more than mere

-mechanical obedience. What it is, is to

-be found in T. &amp; M.R., 39 (4), and F.S.R. 12

-(13), and I.T., 116 and 117. Make the

-men understand that when they are extended

-they must obey their unit commander’s

-orders and signals as to fire and

-movement at once, and without hesitation,

-and must be always on the look-out

-for them. Allow no talking, except what

-relates to the business in hand, such as

-passing of orders or information, results

-of fire, and so on. Hold the men responsible

-that if they are out of reach of the

-control of their leader, it is their duty to

-carry out the spirit of the orders under

-which they set out. To bring their

-responsibility home to them, you must

-make a point of calling men occasionally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>

-to give an account of what they did when

-detached, and why they did it, so that they

-may pause for a moment if they are of the

-sort that take advantage of opportunity

-to sit behind a hedge and smoke a

-cigarette when they ought to be up and

-doing.</p>

-

-<p>Here you will naturally say that this is

-all very well, but how is one to look after

-men scattered here and there over several

-hundred yards of rough country? Here

-come in the non-commissioned officers, of

-whom, so far, no mention has been made,

-and also your subaltern officers. Since

-success in battle will depend largely on the

-efficiency of fire unit commanders, and the

-normal fire unit is the section (I.T., 6 (4)),

-it is evident that the section commander is

-a very responsible person, and much must

-be expected from him.</p>

-

-<p>Your subalterns and platoon sergeants

-you must use as your delegates in supervising

-and leading the platoons to which

-they belong, except when they are needed

-to act specifically as platoon commanders,

-keeping themselves constantly on the

-move among the men, looking at the details

-of the work, sighting of rifles, aiming,

-use of cover, choice of lines of movement,

-not lying down themselves nor participating

-in the operation as combatants. When you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>

-wish to give them practice in setting exercises

-themselves, turn the whole company

-over to one of them and act yourself as

-critic, or act as subaltern under his orders.

-This is one means of supervision.</p>

-

-<p>The next is your non-commissioned

-officers. They are in direct command,

-and you must hold them responsible for

-their sections, but when their units

-are acting in conjunction with others, it

-is evident they cannot act both as commanders

-and instructors unless certain

-concessions are made, for if the non-commissioned

-officers as well as the men of a

-section were to act as they would have to

-do under real fire, each non-commissioned

-officer might be able only to supervise a

-man or two on his right and left, the rest

-being too far off. Therefore, at the beginning

-of an exercise, you should tell the

-non-commissioned officers whether, in

-addition to giving executive commands,

-they are to be at liberty to move about

-freely and act as instructors also. Needless

-to say, in instructional exercises, and

-until the men are quite seasoned, you

-should let them do this, but, on the other

-hand, in exercises meant to illustrate

-actual conflict and the limitations imposed

-by the presence of an enemy, they should

-pay attention to those limitations so that

-they, as well as the men, may be prepared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>

-to endure the disabilities imposed by Service

-conditions.</p>

-

-<p>Next comes yourself. Once you have

-given your subordinates your orders for

-any exercise, leave them to carry it

-through, and make yourself as ubiquitous

-as may be in supervision. Keep criticism

-for the end, and interference only

-for the prevention of absurdities. To

-make yourself ubiquitous, the best way

-is to use your horse, and make

-the noble animal do the running about

-with you on his back. You can then get

-through about six times what you can on

-your own feet, by cantering from one

-section to another, and you get a better

-view of the whole performance, but you

-must remember when correcting anything

-the men are doing that you are mounted,

-while they are probably kneeling or lying,

-and much that you see is invisible to them.

-Equip yourself with a pair of field glasses,

-and also with a megaphone, which latter

-should be about fourteen inches long, and

-carried by a strap over the shoulder, the

-strap punched so as to be capable of being

-made long or buckled up close under the

-arm, according as you need to use the

-megaphone, or wish to get it out of your

-way. Use your glasses to look at what

-sections and individual men in them are

-doing. They will reveal to you small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>

-mistakes that escape notice at some

-distance with the unaided eye. The megaphone

-saves you a lot of small excursions

-to get to earshot of men, and also a lot of

-shouting at a distance, which is fatiguing,

-and is apt to lead to exacerbation of

-tempers, both of the shouter and the

-listener. Moreover, it enables you to hear

-as well as speak from a distance. This is

-done simply by holding it aimed at the

-other man with your ear instead of your

-mouth at the mouthpiece. Use your

-whistle to call attention to orders or

-signals, carry it in your hand, not in your

-pocket, and put a loop in the cord and

-pass the loop over your middle finger, or

-you will be always dropping it. Instead

-of a cane, carry a small semaphore flag,

-and give your signals with it. This saves

-a good deal of arm-waving, and tends to

-smarten up movement, as it is more easily

-seen than the arm. By bringing all these

-aids into your service, you will find that

-you can make your influence felt, although

-the sections are separated by the greatest

-distances which they are ever likely to be

-called on to take up in battle.</p>

-

-

-<h3>VII.</h3>

-

-<p>Besides discipline, there are certain

-other moral influences which give strength<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>

-to an Army. These are indicated

-in I.T., 1 (4 and 5). The two mighty

-forces of religion and patriotism are

-not treated of here, as they have their

-roots not in any system of training,

-but in the upbringing of the youth

-of the nation, but there is one force

-which you, as a humble commander, can

-call into play, and that is shame—the

-dread of losing the respect of oneself and

-of one’s comrades. During peace training

-you may make men dread the public

-shame of misbehaviour by the aid of those

-means of supervision which I have suggested,

-but in war the power to supervise

-is greatly curtailed, and it is very desirable

-to find something to replace it, and, at the

-same time, to supplement a too absolute

-reliance on the stoutness of men’s hearts,

-for this may prove a broken reed when

-the troops are largely composed of unseasoned

-soldiers.</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>To a certain extent, the organisation of

-the company into permanent sections provides

-us with the substitute we desire, as

-the men of sections are likely to be

-cognisant of how their comrades behave

-when out of view of the rest of

-the company as long as the whole

-of the men of the section are in

-view of each other; but this will not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>

-always be the case: for example, in wood

-fighting or in house fighting, both of

-which would assuredly occur if our men

-have to fight in Europe. In such fighting

-everything comes down to the pushfulness

-of the individual soldiers, for even sections

-will lose their leaders. Therefore let us

-carry the principle of the company

-organisation logically one step further, and

-make the men of a file as they fall in on

-parade in the section act in conjunction for

-the remainder of that parade. This

-arrangement is recognised in the last edition

-of the Musketry Regulations, and has,

-at various times, been adopted in former

-drill books of our Army, and has given

-excellent results, while, if the present

-book does not prescribe it, at least

-it countenances it (I.T., 123 (12)), and

-I strongly recommend your introducing

-it into your company. It is likely

-to produce emulation in the fire fight

-among men whose hearts are in the

-right place, and in the assault it must produce

-the advantages of combination, for

-two men coming on with the bayonet in

-conjunction are far more likely to do

-someone an injury than if they each came

-on independently, since in the latter case

-a cool and skilful antagonist might dispose

-of one and then the other, even as the

-Japanese are said to have stepped aside<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>

-when charged by the Russians, who, running

-forward blindly and head down, fell

-an easy prey to their alert little enemies,

-and were bayoneted in succession as they

-arrived. The proof of this pudding is the

-eating thereof, and if your company ever

-happens to be alongside a company told

-off daily into haphazard sections, as

-is sometimes done, in spite of rules,

-you will then see the difference, even

-if it is only at manœuvres. In close

-order they may still look alike, but let

-them be extended in rough country, and

-you will see that yours is the blade of

-steel; the particles of its metal are coherent;

-it will bend, but not break. The

-other is of wrought iron, polished on the

-surface but of brittle material, and sure to

-fly to pieces in any rough usage. By this

-file organisation you will produce in the

-men in the ranks the highest degree of

-cohesion—the habit of regulating their

-own actions in accordance with the

-actions and needs of others in furtherance

-of one general aim.</p>

-

-<p>Having secured this cohesion among the

-men, you have still to produce it within

-the company as between platoons and

-sections. For cohesion is the coping stone

-of the edifice of efficiency, and rests on a

-basis of discipline, moral and training.

-It makes possible the application of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>

-the principle of mutual support which

-is indispensable in the attack (F.S.R.,

-105 (4)), and it enables retirements

-and defensive action to be carried out

-without disorganisation, and with the

-minimum of loss. Whenever sections

-act together, see to it that the non-commissioned

-officers keep an eye on the

-movements of the others, and question

-them as to the extent their orders to their

-sections should be influenced by the needs

-and movements of the others. By this

-means they will be induced to check the

-inclination to play only for their own

-hands, and to remember always that their

-unit is part of a combination which can

-best attain success by acting accordingly.</p>

-

-

-<h3>VIII.</h3>

-

-<p>Training is the preparation of officers

-and men for the duties which they will

-carry out in war. These duties consist in

-the application of the principles contained

-in the training manuals, and it is your

-business to provide concrete examples.

-But in these days of long range arms combats

-take a very long time, and you cannot

-expect in a parade of perhaps one or at

-most two hours, and with a limited extent

-of ground, to carry out all the varied

-phases of an operation which, in warfare,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>

-would take anything from six to eighteen

-hours to complete, and would extend over

-perhaps five or six miles of country, even

-if we limit ourselves to the extreme ranges

-of heavy artillery, and take no account of

-movements not within the range of possible

-fire. Therefore, in your training, you

-must be analytical, choosing for one

-parade such phase or phases as you have

-time and ground for, and doing the others

-later on. When your company knows all it

-can be taught thus piecemeal, it will be

-early enough to try to get time and ground

-to perform continuous operations.</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>For instance, infantry in the attack will

-usually have to go through three phases:

-first, the advance to fire positions; second,

-the fire fight (I.T., 121 (6)); and,

-third, the assault, which latter must

-be divided into the charge and the steps

-which follow it according as it is successful

-or not. You will have to train for

-these three phases. The first, against an

-enemy armed with guns and rifles, would

-consist in opening out from column of

-route into little columns—sections or

-platoons—and moving forward in this

-formation, the main object being to

-escape being smashed to pieces by his

-artillery fire before being able to do him

-any damage (I.T., 118 (3)). Later, you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>

-would come under his rifle fire, and your

-little columns must scatter out into lines

-of men in extended order (I.T., 118 (5)).

-These movements seem, and are, very easy,

-but still they must be practised in peace

-if they are to be done coolly and without

-confusion in time of war when the first

-intimation of the necessity for opening out

-may be the shriek and crash of what will be

-to most of the men the first shrapnel

-they have ever seen, and withal aimed

-at themselves. This phase requires the

-presence of all four platoons of the company,

-and so may be kept over till the men

-have been trained in the phase which it

-precedes, namely, that of the fire fight.</p>

-

-<hr class="tb">

-

-<p>The fire fight begins when the attacking

-infantry have got as far forward as they

-can without having to reply to the enemy’s

-fire, and it is quite distinct from the preceding

-phase of passive endurance. Success

-in the fire fight is an absolute necessity

-for a successful assault. Possibly your

-enemy has prepared your success before

-war broke out by abstaining from training

-his men in musketry, but even if his shooting

-is inferior, the fire fight will call into

-play all the qualities and skill of which

-your men are possessed, both individually

-and collectively. Accordingly you should

-practise them in the fire fight from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>

-opening of their fire up to the assault, first

-individually and then collectively.</p>

-

-<p>The assault can be dissected into the

-fixing of bayonets with as little cessation

-of fire as possible, the charge itself, followed,

-according as it is held to have been

-successful or not, by the rallying of the

-troops, pursuit of the enemy by fire and

-strengthening of the captured position, or

-the withdrawal or such mitigation of the

-results of failure as may fairly be attempted.

-Thus, by considering the attack

-as made up of phases as above, it is, I

-think, possible and instructive to practise

-each one of them separately, on a short

-parade, and on limited ground, by placing

-the men in the order in which they would

-be at beginning of any one phase, and

-carrying on from there.</p>

-

-<p>Before beginning any exercise, call your

-non-commissioned officers out to the front,

-and explain to them and to the men, in

-very full detail, what the exercise is intended

-to be, what points particularly

-require attention, how you want it done,

-and the sequence of events, if it involves

-combined action between the different

-units; whether the company is supposed

-to be acting by itself or as part of the

-battalion, and, if the latter, whether your

-side are having the support of artillery fire

-or not, where the enemy is, and what he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>

-is, i.e., is he infantry only, or has he also

-cavalry and guns, what he is supposed to

-be doing, attacking, defending, retiring,

-marching, or what. Deal with all such

-points before you start, otherwise you will

-find your non-commissioned officers and

-men filling in the blanks each according to

-his own bent of imagination, and everyone

-in consequence playing at a different game.

-To be thus able to define the scope and

-arrangements of the exercise, you must

-have it clearly planned out in all detail in

-your head. This you should do if possible

-the day before the parade, so that you will

-have the thing well thought out, and events

-marshalled in logical sequence.</p>

-

-<p>At all exercises, if possible, have the

-enemy represented by a skeleton force, as

-directed by T. &amp; M.R., 48, a few actual

-men with blank cartridge, and a red range

-flag or two to roughly define the enemy’s

-position. Use for this purpose old soldiers,

-if you have them, or, at least, men

-who have already performed the exercise

-you mean to do, and it is better to take

-one or two men from each platoon than

-to send off a whole section, and so

-break up the company organisation. Six

-or eight men are quite enough to form any

-skeleton enemy that is needed for a company

-to manœuvre against. You must

-give the skeleton enemy definite orders as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>

-to what they are to represent, where they

-are to go, and what to do and not to do.

-If they are given at all a free hand, especially

-if under the enterprising British

-subaltern, they are very apt to indulge in

-far-reaching manœuvres, and subject you

-to sudden raids and onslaughts which upset

-your scheme for the parade, and leave

-you no enemy at the very point you wished

-to have him. If you cannot arrange for a

-skeleton enemy, at least never fail to indicate

-some position as supposed to be held

-by an enemy. If your exercise ground is

-limited in extent, fix the enemy’s position

-outside it, regardless of whether you have,

-or have not, licence to traverse the intervening

-space, so as to avoid carrying out

-your exercise within impossibly close range

-of the enemy. In default of a skeleton

-enemy to provide you with a target, tell

-your men to aim at any members of the

-public who are about the enemy’s position.

-This is better than snapping at inanimate

-objects, as it gives more interest and so

-keeps up careful aiming. As regards the

-general method of training, follow commonsense

-and the manuals, and work from

-individual up to collective, bearing in mind

-always that collective work is built up of

-the work of the individuals who throughout

-have to be kept up to the collar by the

-various arts which I have touched on. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>

-less of the iron hand that is shown the

-better.</p>

-

-

-<h3>IX.</h3>

-

-<p>I make no mention of scouts, as they are

-specialists. They must be selected after

-you have got to know all the men of your

-company and their capabilities. Their

-training as scouts cannot be carried out by

-you personally at the same time that you

-are training the company. To be really of

-use, it will be a whole-time job for one

-officer, and you will either have to turn

-them over to one of the subalterns, or go

-with them yourself, preferably the former,

-if the subaltern is capable. When they

-are trained and fall in on parade as scouts

-in their sections, it is a good plan to have

-places permanently reserved for them as

-third files from the left of sections (the

-blank file’s place) so that they can leave the

-ranks without disturbing the formation for

-forming fours.</p>

-

-<p>As regards dress one thing is quite

-certain, and that is that with only

-one suit of uniform men cannot appear

-clean and smart off duty in it, and yet use

-it for field work with all the lying down

-and knockabout wear involved. In time

-of national danger, appearances will go to

-the wall, and men will do their work at the

-expense of the fit of their one and only suit

-of uniform.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p>

-

-

-<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>

-

-<div class="footnote">

-

-<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> A cause now exists, and the men have come out.</p>

-

-</div>

-</div>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_I">EXERCISE I.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Individual Advance in Extended Order.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The exercise portrays what men will

-have to do when the rifle fire of the enemy

-becomes effective, and necessitates extension

-of the small columns which are used

-to dodge his shell fire (I.T., 118 (3)). This

-will be somewhere over one thousand yards

-from the enemy, and perhaps fourteen hundred

-may be taken as a maximum. From

-the point at which extension from the small

-columns is made up till the time of the

-assault, a line of men in extended order is

-the suitable formation, unless there is some

-covered way leading forward which can be

-traversed in file or other formation. Once

-the advance has begun it should be

-carried through as quickly as possible

-without exhausting the men too much, and

-fire should not be opened until it is absolutely

-necessary to neutralise that of the

-enemy, firstly, because it lessens the speed

-of the advance and so increases the time

-during which the attackers are exposed to

-the enemy’s fire; secondly, because once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>

-men start firing it is more difficult to lead

-them forward; and, thirdly, because it uses

-up cartridges whose value and difficulty of

-replacement increases at every yard

-nearer the enemy’s position.</p>

-

-<p>The exercise is then to train men to gain

-ground to the front with the minimum of

-exposure to the enemy’s fire, and as quickly

-as may be, firstly, without firing, and,

-secondly, while firing themselves, but in

-the latter case speed must be subordinated

-to the development of a fire of sufficient

-accuracy and volume to largely neutralise

-that of the enemy, for at this stage of the

-battle advances under fire will only be

-possible if it is inaccurate; and the only

-certain means of causing it to be inaccurate

-is by disturbing the enemy’s nerves and

-aim by bringing to bear on him the fire

-both of supporting troops and of the firing

-line itself (I.T., 118 (6)).</p>

-

-<p>The regulations do not encourage the

-opening of fire by units less than two

-platoons at ranges over one thousand yards

-as the results do not compensate for the

-delay. Under one thousand and up to six

-hundred it is desired that fire should

-be controlled and directed, i.e., the

-amount, and the target should be specified

-by commanders (I.T., 116). Under

-six hundred yards it is recognised<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>

-that individual fire gives good results,

-and, moreover, control becomes almost

-impossible.</p>

-

-<p>Divide your exercise accordingly. First,

-teach merely the advance without firing,

-letting the men know that they are not to

-fire, as a rule, without orders under six hundred

-yards, and then let them advance

-firing at each halt behind cover, choosing

-their own target and times of firing as they

-would do in the stage of “close fire,” i.e.,

-six or perhaps eight hundred yards up to

-assaulting distance, which latter is about

-two hundred yards from the enemy’s line of

-defences.</p>

-

-<p>This parade is one that can be done with

-very few men present, but it is necessary

-to form them up into sections with a large

-proportion of non-commissioned officers.

-Keep the men in their proper sections, but,

-if necessary, join two or three together, so

-as to form sections with three or four non-commissioned

-officers to each. Thus, if you

-form four sections, they should each be in

-reality a boiling down of the platoons. In

-future exercises I will also suppose that you

-thus concentrate your men, keeping the

-members of each section together, and

-form them into sections of size suitable to

-the work of the day, and no further allusion

-will be made to this.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p>

-

-<p>Before taking the men on to the exercise

-ground, you should choose a point on it

-from which you intend to start your advance.

-Some fourteen hundred or less

-yards from this choose a position for your

-skeleton enemy, who will consist of three

-or four old soldiers with forty rounds of

-blank each. If men are not available, put

-up a few red range flags. Whichever are

-used, put them into some position that an

-enemy might reasonably occupy; do not

-simply dump them down on to the ground.

-The skeleton enemy must be told to show

-up occasionally, and to open a slow but

-regular fire as soon as they see your men

-advancing, but only to keep it up as long as

-your men show themselves in making their

-advance. A complete cessation of fire will

-denote that your men are making such good

-use of cover as to be invisible to the

-enemy. Let your men also know that

-these instructions have been given, and

-that such an advance is the ideal to be

-sought for, provided always that it is not

-absurdly slow. If neither men nor flags are

-available you must make believe and point

-out a supposed position at a supposed

-distance. I have already pointed out the

-advantages of having a skeleton enemy to

-work against.</p>

-

-<p>In front of your starting point, and about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>

-four hundred yards from it, decide on some

-point at which you will let the men halt

-after they have made their way across the

-intervening space. Here I will refer you to

-the diagram. The line AA´ is your starting

-point, CC´ the enemy’s position. Your

-exercise consists in showing individual men

-how to gain ground from AA´ as far as

-BB´, distant about four hundred yards

-from AA´, with the minimum of exposure

-to the enemy’s aimed fire. Draw up the sections,

-supposing there are two, on the line

-AA´, fifty to one hundred yards apart, and

-let the men sit down facing away from

-CC´ and, if possible, under cover, so that

-they may not see how their comrades

-negotiate the course. Space the available

-non-commissioned officers of each section

-along the course from A to B and A´ to

-B´, with orders to supervise and criticise

-the advance of each man within the limits

-of their beats. Allow a belt of twenty to

-thirty yards broad from A to B and from

-A´ up to B´, within which men must seek

-their cover. This belt is made broad here

-to afford instruction, but when the men

-work together in their sections, it will be

-much narrower, as they will then be extended

-at intervals of five or six paces only.

-Start off one man at a time from each section

-to cross from AA´ to BB´, to move as

-if under fire from the enemy in rushes from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>

-one cover to another. As soon as a man

-reaches BB´ he may fall out and watch the

-movements of the remainder. Do not send

-off a fresh man until the preceding one has

-nearly reached BB´, so that your non-commissioned

-officers may have good opportunity

-to look at each man as he goes. As

-for yourself, be active in supervising both

-sections, using your horse if you have one.</p>

-

-<p class="center bold p2">DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. &amp; II.</p>

-

-<hr class="r15">

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-

-<p>CC´ = Enemy’s position about 1400<sup>X</sup> from AA´. Enemy<br>

-<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">being represented by men with blank cartridge</span><br>

-<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">or flags.</span></p>

-</div>

-

-<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_b_044" style="max-width: 39.8125em;">

-  <img class="w100" src="images/i_b_044.jpg" alt="DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. &amp; II.">

-  <figcaption class="caption">

-</figcaption>

-</figure>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-

-<p>AA´ = Starting points 1400 yards from enemy’s

-position.</p>

-

-<p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Men start from AA´ to cross to BB´</span><br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">without exposing themselves to the</span><br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">enemy at CC.´</span></p>

-

-<p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Crosses indicate cover, and the chain</span><br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">dotted lines routes by which men</span><br>

-<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">may advance.</span></p>

-

-<p>AA´ to BB´ is about 400<sup>X</sup></p>

-</div>

-

-<p>The following are points to be attended

-to:—Before leaving their cover, men must

-decide where their next halting place is to

-be, and make for it quickly, and with

-decision. There must be no emerging into

-the open, and then looking about for a bit

-of cover to go for. The length of each

-rush should not be enough to let the enemy

-have time for deliberate aim—fifty yards or

-so is quite the limit for this. If there is

-no cover the men must lie down flat between

-each rush. Occasionally it is

-advisable to make a long rush from one

-good position to another at sprinting

-pace without stopping at all (I.T., 121

-(12)), so this should be practised sometimes,

-the non-commissioned officers at that

-part of the beat being ordered to tell the

-men what is needed. Once a man has decided

-on his next halting place, and is in

-wind, he should leave his cover with a

-jump. The slow uprising of a figure is

-sure to draw the enemy’s attention, and

-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>make his fire more accurate than it would

-be if no intimation were given him. Similarly,

-on reaching cover, men should fall

-down quickly, and not lower themselves

-slowly to earth.</p>

-

-<p>Insist on a careful choice of cover, a very

-small depression or elevation, even six

-inches, is enough to give cover from view,

-and therefore helps in escaping aimed fire,

-but in peace time men will not take trouble

-over apparently trifling things like this unless

-it is rubbed into them by close supervision.

-Noticeable objects should be

-avoided as the enemy may have taken their

-range, and they help him to define a point

-on which to concentrate fire. If a man

-makes mistakes and shows indecision at

-any part of the course, call him back to the

-last cover he left, and let him start again

-from there after pointing out what he has

-done wrong.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>II. The advance combined with individual

-fire.</em></h3>

-

-<p>The second part of the exercise is done

-in the same way as the first, the men advancing

-and taking cover as before, but

-now using their rifles. They have to be

-taught to use the cover to advantage, both

-as a protection and as an aid to their shooting,

-and to take pains in searching for a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>

-good target, and in their sighting, aiming

-and firing. For purposes of instruction, six

-hundred yards is rather a short range to

-open fire at, and I recommend your making

-a start at eight hundred or so, i.e., two hundred

-yards beyond BB´ towards the enemy,

-working up to four hundred. This necessitates

-judging distance at beyond the practically

-point-blank ranges of the Lee-Enfield

-rifle, and makes the men use their

-eyes keenly to spot the enemy, while it

-avoids a certain amount of unreality which

-is apt to attach to instructional movements

-carried on in front of a skeleton enemy at

-the deadly short ranges under three hundred

-yards.</p>

-

-<p>Points which should be considered

-are:—</p>

-

-<p>To fire from the right and lower edge of

-any cover, not over the top.</p>

-

-<p>Make the men keep a count of the number

-of times they snap over the course (i.e.,

-cartridges used), and report to the non-commissioned

-officer at the finish of their

-course.</p>

-

-<p>Let the men do their own judging distance,

-and let non-commissioned officers

-drop at once on any man who either fails

-to do so, or forgets, as they often do, to

-adjust the backsight.</p>

-

-<p>Cultivate a habit among the men of looking

-about for different targets, not firing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>

-only straight in front of themselves, but on

-their right and left, so that when they come

-to fire collectively they may feel nothing

-new in being told to open the enfilade fire

-recommended by I.T., 116 (11), and also

-get the custom of watching for the enemy

-all along his front.</p>

-

-<p>These two exercises of advancing with

-and without firing are the groundwork of

-the fighting efficiency of the soldier in the

-attack, and will be found to call for every

-natural and acquired qualification the individual

-possesses. Good shooting, quick

-judgment, activity, wind, and everything

-else are needed if the work is done with

-full observance of the conditions which

-would exist under fire. Put the men through

-exercises of this sort several times, and,

-if possible, on different ground, till they

-acquire quickness in choosing cover and

-the arts that make an expert fighter. Confidence

-in themselves will come with the

-skill they acquire, and with confidence

-comes decision of mind, which is really

-more important than bodily efficiency. If

-you have time, a useful rider to this exercise

-is to work the men by pairs, as is recommended

-in the Musketry Regulations

-for the observation of fire, and so introduce

-them early to the use of the file organisation

-which I have advised you to adopt.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_II">EXERCISE II.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Retirement by Pairs.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>A sound provision against panic among

-young troops is to accustom them to regard

-a retirement as all in the day’s work, and

-not as an exceptional undertaking which

-their anxiety may invest with possibilities

-of disaster. The essence of successful retirement

-in face of an enemy lies in the

-continuous opposition, or appearance of it,

-offered to the enemy by one portion of the

-troops, while others draw off to take post

-to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost

-portion. I.T., 137, gives the idea in

-few words. It does not mention individual

-training in this, but it is useful to put men

-through the movements, both to cultivate

-cohesion in the ranks, and as a tactical

-exercise. It may happen in war that an

-extended line has to give ground when

-engaged with the enemy, and this under so

-heavy a fire as to make movement except

-over short distances impossible without

-great loss. Such a withdrawal would mean

-that the troops are in a very tight corner,

-and would test them very highly, but that

-is another matter. It may happen, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>

-should be prepared for. A withdrawal

-under these conditions might perhaps be

-carried out by the alternate movement of

-men in files covered by the fire of the

-others, until such a distance from the

-enemy had been obtained as to allow sections

-or companies to take up the

-alteration. Up to that distance it will be

-simply a reversal of what was done in

-Exercise I., but worked by files—a front

-rank man and his rear rank man, one

-going back a short distance, and the other

-firing to cover the movement. Again, men

-on patrol or otherwise detached may have

-to retire to avoid capture, or for many other

-reasons, when they might not be under

-close and heavy fire, but still would be

-under the necessity of preventing the

-enemy closing in on them or surrounding

-them. In this case, the length of each

-withdrawal would be much longer than in

-the former case; one man would fire while

-the other made off perhaps two or three

-hundred yards at his best speed. Train

-for both contingencies; it can be done in

-one and the same parade. Skeleton enemy

-as usual. For the withdrawal under

-heavy fire, let the sections sit down and

-fall out at BB´ (Diagram I.), and put out

-the non-commissioned officers between BA

-and B´ A´ as before. Call out the men by

-files, tell them to work back to A and A´,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>

-one firing, the other retiring. As a rule they

-should retire past each other before halting.

-The same points must be observed as in

-Exercise No. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, and the quicker they are

-in movement the better, but they must be

-taught to go in quick time also when so

-ordered (I.T., 137 (4)).</p>

-

-<p>For the retirement of a file as on patrol,

-do exactly the same, but you should work

-over six hundred yards of ground or so to

-correct any tendency to import the short

-rush into this exercise, which would be out

-of place, and also to let men have more

-practice in looking for suitable fire positions

-from which they can both fire on the

-enemy, <em>and from which they can get away

-when their turn comes</em>, a point they often

-neglect at first. The different nature of

-the two exercises must be made quite

-clear.</p>

-

-<p>At this exercise you should bring before

-your men the need of using all sorts of

-<em>ruses</em> in a retirement, the use of rapid fire

-just before withdrawing, the sham withdrawal

-acted by ceasing fire, and retiring

-a few yards, but only to halt and re-open

-fire after a few seconds if the enemy has

-been tempted to expose himself, thinking

-the coast clear, the real withdrawal effected

-so carefully that the enemy is not sure

-whether you are there still or not, and so

-on; and make them put their own ideas of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>

-these plans into action and tell them if they

-are doing what is feasible on service or

-not. Bar all “manœuvre slimness,” i.e.,

-anything that could not be done on service.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_III">EXERCISE III.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Individual Training in use of Fire

-and Fire Discipline.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Early lessons in fire discipline can be

-given in single rank on the parade ground,

-but the open country and extended order

-are wanted for training men to the fullest

-extent under service conditions. Only in

-the open country can be got the variety

-of targets, ranges and the visual training

-which are necessary for a complete education.

-Men must be taught, and taught

-again, that the taking up of extended

-order, and movement over all sorts of

-ground, in no way mean that they are

-to pass at once beyond the control of

-their unit leaders, or that it is optional to

-continue to take any sort of pains with

-their shooting just because their non-commissioned

-officers cannot stand over them,

-but have to shout orders from a distance.</p>

-

-<p>This exercise consists in advancing

-and retiring in extended order with fire

-and the use of cover when halted; but to

-allow for more prolonged shooting practice

-and closer supervision than are possible

-when carrying out an attack or retirement<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>

-as on service, the halts are longer

-and movements should at first be made

-in quick time.</p>

-

-<p>Put out your skeleton enemy on a good

-broad front, so as to allow room for

-change of targets, and do not have them

-all in one straight line, so that each target

-shall call for a change of sighting. Let

-the sections work independently of each

-other under their section commanders,

-who, with the other non-commissioned

-officers, will have to act both as commanders

-and instructors. Bring the

-sections up to about twelve hundred yards

-from the enemy; get them into a line with

-intervals between them, i.e., spaces

-measuring from the flank of one to the

-flank of the other, sufficient to admit of

-each section being extended to two or

-three paces between men without its flank

-men coming too close to those of other

-sections, e.g., with two sections of eight

-file, i.e., sixteen men each; you must

-leave room for half of each to extend to

-two paces towards the other, and keep a

-fair interval; that is, from the centre of

-each of the above sections of eight men

-in each rank you want 8 ÷ 2 (half the

-number in the front rank) × 2 (two ranks)

-× 2 (two paces extension) = 16 paces for

-the line extended and an interval of, say,

-30 yards, which gives 46 yards between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>

-each section centre to centre. Now, let

-the section commanders order the men to

-extend, lie down, take cover and open

-fire. The unit commander, the non-commissioned

-officer in charge of the section, is

-to name the target and distance and also

-the rate of fire, rapid or slow, at all distances

-over six hundred yards from the

-enemy (I.T., 116 (5)), unless it is desired

-on occasion to train men to do this for

-themselves. After fire has been delivered,

-direct section commanders to proceed

-with the exercise, giving orders for advancing,

-halting and firing, the advance

-to be made from cover to cover as in

-Exercise No. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, but in quick time. Yourself

-supervise in chief, and tell section

-commanders when you want to give

-orders as to the firing or movement, and

-let them give the executive commands,

-after which you and they should pass

-along the lines and scrutinise each man’s

-actions in carrying out the orders, questioning

-them, and repealing hints you

-may have given when telling them the

-object and methods of the practice, if

-they appear not to be giving them effect.

-The value of the practice depends on the

-orders you give as to the firing and the

-following are suggested:—</p>

-

-<p>(<em>a</em>) Switching the fire of all the rifles

-on to different parts of the enemy’s position,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>

-sometimes straight in front, <em>but

-quite as often</em> at his extreme flanks. This

-is to introduce the use of enfilade fire

-(I.T., 116 (11)) and the habit of giving support

-by fire to other units (F.S.R., 105 (4)),

-by concentrating the fire on to particular

-targets.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>b</em>) Distributing the fire laterally along

-the whole or a part of the enemy’s front

-(I.T., 116 (10)). This may be done by

-giving the section a particular extent of the

-enemy’s front, e.g., “from the dry tree to

-the gate in the hedge.” The section commander

-then allots those of the enemy,

-who can be viewed within his bit of front

-to individual men, or preferably files of

-men, who are to treat them as their especial

-charge and keep on firing at them

-till otherwise ordered, or till the enemy

-shifts. Of course, if there is not enough

-of the skeleton enemy to give each file in

-the section a live antagonist (and there

-won’t be on your parades), the commander

-must indicate bits of cover

-which individual men of the enemy might

-be expected to use and tell his men to fire

-at these spots. This is a most important

-practice, and needs a good deal of attention

-and application before the men get

-really quick at it. It means, of course,

-that on service you will make it your

-business to allow as few of the enemy’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>

-riflemen as possible to be free of the distraction

-of having some bullets landing

-about them, to upset their nerves and aim.

-Unless some plan is adopted to do this

-all along his line, it is all too probable

-your men will be exposed to some accurate

-fire from rifles held in steady hands,

-and even one rifle so held has, to my

-knowledge, caused a loss of eleven men

-in as many minutes. This lateral distribution

-is rather difficult, but it is easy,

-compared with the concomitant task of

-spotting where the men of the enemy are

-hidden, if they really try to hide, at anything

-but the shortest fighting ranges.

-The only remedy for this is for each private

-to carry field glasses of sorts; you

-will not get them from Government, but

-if any of your men are keen enough to

-go in for spotting a hidden enemy for

-themselves with glasses and would bring

-their own to parade, forbid them not, but

-encourage it. I have been told that in some

-of the yeomanry corps in the South

-African war nearly every trooper raised

-somehow and somewhere a pair of glasses—some

-were mother o’ pearl and silver-mounted,

-but did the spotting all right

-in spite of that.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>c</em>) Passing orders and changing targets.

-Under heavy fire non-commissioned

-officers will not be able to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>

-move along the line, and orders must

-be passed either by word of mouth

-or by written messages passed from hand to

-hand; the former is apt to be slow, and the

-orders garbled en route unless practised

-beforehand; the latter is not very practical

-as men in action are too busy to read bits

-of paper or trouble themselves to see that

-they are passed on (I.T., 119 (4)). To

-practise the verbal method while the men

-are engaged in firing at any particular

-target, give orders to one man in a low

-tone (you would have to speak loud if ball

-cartridge were being used) to fire at some

-other target, and to pass the word. The

-man then tells his neighbours on each side,

-and yourself and a non-commissioned

-officer then follow the order each way, and

-when a man varies it admonish him to repeat

-just what he got from the last speaker,

-no more and no less. In a little time the

-men will become exact in taking and passing

-messages. This method should be confined

-to directions about firing; orders for

-movement should invariably be given by

-commanders by word themselves or signal,

-and men should not be allowed to repeat

-these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on

-service, as a signal may be seen and acted

-on by someone for whom it was not intended.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>d</em>) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>

-or bits of cover, let fire be directed at

-civilians who are moving about in the field

-of view. Call on some individual man by

-name to choose some such target, and tell

-him he has to pass the word to the rest of

-his squad what target he has chosen and

-to fire at it. This gives practice in target

-definition, i.e., describing its position so

-that other men can know just where to look

-for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid

-of noticeable objects to do this quickly,

-but it is important, as the difficulty of locating

-a well-concealed enemy with smokeless

-powder requires that every pair of eyes in

-the ranks should be engaged in the search

-till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen

-are seen, and the information given to

-everyone in the firing line. Until this is

-done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise

-aimed by unaimed fire, a pretty hopeless

-task. Hence train your men to use

-their eyes for seeing and their tongues for

-description.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>e</em>) Accustoming the men to judge distance,

-and use their backsights without

-orders. Judging distance for the men as a

-formal practice is confined to ranges under

-800 yards, but it does no harm to let them

-judge greater ranges. Let the unit commanders

-define targets to be fired at, omitting

-to state the range, and let the men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>

-judge it for themselves and fire. Walk up

-the line and see that no man forgets to

-adjust his backsight for the distance he

-estimates. If possible, have the correct

-ranges taken previously with a range

-finder, and let the men know what they are

-after they have aimed. Each change of

-target gives the men a useful lesson in

-judging distance.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>f</em>) Having put the men through all

-sorts of paces in the way of firing while

-advancing and retiring, in quick time do

-the same thing again, but with the movements

-in double time, and, in addition,

-carry out the increases and decreases of the

-extension, inclines and changes of direction

-given in I.T., 93, throughout insisting

-on the same steadiness in firing as

-when in quick time. All this will at first

-probably get the men “rattled,” and the

-benefit of it is that after some of it they

-will get over being “rattled,” and will not

-let hurried orders or speed of movement

-interfere with deliberation and steadiness

-in shooting.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_IV">EXERCISE IV.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Assault.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Exercise III. can suitably be wound up

-by a practice in delivering an assault, as

-this does not take long, and the moral

-may be pointed that all fire training is

-only a preparation for a successful

-assault. The fixing of bayonets before

-assault commonly leads to a complete

-cessation of fire in the firing line. This

-is quite wrong, as such complete cessation

-of fire by the firing line must largely surrender

-for the time being that superiority

-of fire which facilitates the delivery

-of the assault (I.T., 121 (7)), for it

-gives the enemy a chance to take aim

-again. Supporting fire by artillery or

-infantry not in the firing line cannot be

-relied on when the firing line has reached

-assaulting distance. Therefore, do not

-have a simultaneous fixing of bayonets,

-but let one-half fix while the other fires,

-and the best arrangement is evidently one

-that ensures a fire being kept up along

-the whole front and not in patches. The

-system I have found most satisfactory is

-to fix bayonets by ranks, the front rank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>

-fixing while the rear rank continues firing,

-and then the rear rank fixing while the

-front rank fires. It may be done by odd

-and even files, or other ways, but, the

-company being organised in files, the

-same men are usually in the front and

-rear rank, and there is no difficulty in

-their remembering which they are. The

-important thing is to adhere to one

-system once it is adopted, and have it

-well understood by all. It does not

-matter much if a few men fix bayonets

-out of turn, so long as the fire is merely

-diminished and not stopped during the

-time bayonets are being fixed. In the

-charge, the men should work by their

-files, i.e., the two men of each file should

-act together and run at the same objective.

-The meaning of this is that in actual

-conflict two men would go together for

-the same individual enemy, and between

-the two of them they would be pretty sure

-to bring him to an untimely end, if the

-enemy really waited for the steel, and

-with less chance of his doing damage than

-if the combat took place man-to-man;

-thereafter they could turn their attentions

-to some other person.</p>

-

-<p>For the practice choose and indicate

-any position for assault; work sections

-up to about two hundred yards

-from it, and then order rapid fire and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>

-bayonets to be fixed. As soon as all

-are ready, order the charge to be sounded.

-(I.T., 124). When the men hear the

-bugle they must at once jump from their

-cover and go straight and hard at the

-position; there must be no waiting by individuals

-to fire a last shot or two. The

-rush should be made suddenly and

-swiftly, so that the enemy has no time to

-see what is happening before the men are

-well on their way at him. When the

-position is reached, pass right through it

-and well beyond it, to escape hostile gunfire

-(I.T., 124 (5)), and then order the

-“Halt,” when the men may lie down

-under cover and open a pursuing fire.

-Walk along the line and see, with the

-help of non-commissioned officers, whether

-men of each file are together; if so, it will

-be proof that they have obeyed the directions

-to keep together during the charge.

-Allow a minute or two of the pursuing

-fire, then let section or platoon commanders

-sound their whistles, close and

-reform their sections under cover. On

-the whistle-sound (a succession of short

-blasts), men rise and double to where

-the commander is, resume their places,

-and lie down. This re-organisation

-is very important for you as company

-commander, for by it you get your

-men formed up quickly into platoons<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>

-and ready to be closed into company or to

-take fresh orders in the minimum of time.

-The usual thing seen is that after the

-assault the ground is covered with a mixture

-of men of all companies staring

-about, and apparently thinking the show

-at an end, whereas on service this is the

-very time you may expect either a counter-attack

-by infantry or a burst of artillery

-fire directed on the lost position.</p>

-

-<p>To repeat the orders of the assault:

-“Rapid Fire; Fix Bayonets; Charge;

-Halt and Take Cover; Commence Fire;

-Rally and Close Under Cover,” and be

-ready for further happenings.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_V">EXERCISE V.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in the

-Attack.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>Having trained the individual men in the

-work needed of them, the next step is to

-make use of that individual skill to the best

-effect in combination under orders of a

-commander. The section is the lowest unit

-recognised for <em>training</em> (I.T., 107), and

-it also is the normal unit used in firing

-(I.T., 6 (4)). When the company is advancing

-in the attack, or retiring, its sections

-and platoons will often be widely

-separated from each other, and the company

-commander cannot look after each

-one in detail, so that the platoon

-commanders, and under them the section

-commanders, must be fully competent

-to lead their men without supervision,

-in accordance with the general

-intention given them before the company

-opened out. So the training of men

-in combination must be accompanied by

-the training of your section and platoon

-commanders.</p>

-

-<p>The duties of fire unit commanders are

-laid down in I.T., 116 (5), and those of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>

-section commanders in I.T., 116 and 123

-(10). Before you proceed with this

-exercise have up these non-commissioned

-officers and devote ten minutes to an exposition

-of what is contained in the above

-paragraphs. Dilate on them, and show

-how neglect of those duties hampers the

-company commanders. At the same time,

-desire them to maintain among the men

-during sectional exercises the standard of

-individual training which was obtained in

-the preliminary exercises. Unless they

-do so the men will soon cease to apply what

-they then learnt, and so forget it in battle

-until the occurrence of casualties impresses

-its value afresh in their minds. Also

-give them the gist of what follows as to the

-advance and description of fire phases.</p>

-

-<p>The exercise gives commanders the

-opportunity of doing what they will

-have to do when the company is attacking

-or retiring, but without their having to keep

-an eye on the movements of the other

-platoons. The men should now be extended

-at full intervals as on service, five or six

-yards apart, this being held to be the most

-that is needed. Put out the skeleton

-enemy in groups, one group as objective

-of attack for each section or platoon on

-parade, and the groups sufficiently apart to

-prevent them interfering with each other

-when extended as above, for they are to act<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>

-independently. Take up the advance as if

-at fourteen hundred from the enemy, when

-his rifle fire on open ground would compel

-you to change from small columns of sections

-or platoons into the line of extended

-men (I.T., 118 (5)). The advance up to

-assaulting distance, from fourteen hundred

-yards, consists (I.T., 121 (7)), in the first

-place, of an advance to fire positions. Now

-Musketry Regulations lay down that fire

-by less than two platoons is of little effect

-over one thousand yards, so do not

-encourage commanders to open fire till

-one thousand yards at least, and use the

-space fourteen hundred to one thousand

-yards for instruction in getting their

-sections or platoons forward as quickly,

-and with as little exposure, as possible.

-Secondly, the advance consists

-of a fire fight combined with further

-advances up to the assaulting position. In

-this fire fight controlled collective fire is

-better than individual fire (I.T., 116 (7)

-(iii)), so up to six hundred yards let firing

-take place, only on the specific orders of

-commanders, who accordingly are to name

-the targets and ranges. In this phase

-therefore make them choose forward fire

-positions and work their units forward,

-using controlled collective fire at the same

-time.</p>

-

-<p>Under six hundred yards it is apparently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>

-held best to accept the inevitable and allow

-individual fire, the unit commanders being

-still responsible for getting their men forward

-up to the position of assault—about

-two hundred yards from the enemy. Still

-at this close range unit commanders should

-do what they can to direct the fire, and

-especially they should see that men fire

-slowly and carefully. In general the rate

-of firing or snapping is far too fast, and

-pouches would be empty long before the

-assaulting position would be reached.</p>

-

-<p>Owing to the great importance of training

-the sections, it is advisable to let them

-do this exercise, through both the phases

-below, separately from each other, and not

-in platoon. When they know all about it,

-let them work in platoon.</p>

-

-<p>Having drawn up your sections in line

-at fourteen hundred yards, order the section

-commanders to extend and move on,

-and signal the skeleton enemy to open fire.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>First Phase: Fourteen to One Thousand

-Yards, Gaining Ground Without Firing.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Practise the section commanders in all

-ways of getting their sections forward

-without undue exposure or delay, by

-rushes of the whole section, man-by-man

-from one and both flanks and

-by files, together, and any other way<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span>

-that suggests itself. Stand over the

-section commanders in turn and tell

-them to advance the section by one

-method and then by another, and ask them

-which seems most suitable for various conditions

-of fire and ground (I.T., 118

-(4)). The advance should be steady

-and determined. Before starting the

-advance from one position to another,

-section commanders are to decide and

-<em>must tell the men</em> to what point they mean

-the next advance to be made (I.T., 108

-(2)), in the same way as individual men

-were taught to mark their next halting

-places.</p>

-

-<p>Attention must be paid to the way in

-which advances are inaugurated. Rushes

-must be sudden and simultaneous

-(I.T., 92 (5)). The men have been

-trained to leave their cover quickly.

-The unit commander must give his

-directions for the next move without

-getting up (if himself lying) and

-tell the men to be prepared; when

-all are ready, he and the men must

-jump up together and rush at once on the

-word or signal. The object of this, of

-course, is to avoid a concentrated fire being

-directed on the unit commander, and,

-perhaps, the two or three men nearest him,

-if they get up before the others, which

-would make it likely that some of them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>

-would be hit immediately, while the rest

-of the unit looked for a new leader, and so

-no advance take place; whereas if everyone

-gets on the move together a casualty

-or two will not bring the whole to a standstill.

-Of course, commanders should lead

-the way, but they must get in front by

-sprinting the first few yards.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>Second Phase: One thousand to Six Hundred

-Yards (Collective Fire) and Six

-Hundred to Two Hundred Yards (Individual

-Fire).</em></h3>

-

-<p>As soon as a section begins to fire, it

-becomes possible for it to practise the

-lessons in the use of fire which were learnt

-in Exercise III., such as concentration and

-distribution of fire. From one position the

-commander must choose his next fire position,

-and work his section up to it in whatever

-way is most suitable. On flat and

-open ground this position may simply

-be the halting place of the next rush,

-thirty or forty paces to the front, but

-it is more instructive and practical to

-have positions far enough from each other,

-say one hundred and fifty or two hundred

-yards, to necessitate the advancing section

-making several successive rushes and using

-various devices to gain ground without

-attracting the enemy’s attention. Practise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>

-sections in all ways of advancing from one

-position to another, as was done before

-firing began, and encourage the use of

-covered ways. This exercise, if properly

-done, represents what the section

-would have to do in battle. For the purpose

-of instruction, the unit commanders

-should be allowed to move about as instructors,

-but when all ranks have been

-through the exercise and know what is

-needed, you should practise it under service

-conditions, and tell unit commanders

-to behave as if under fire; this is important,

-as it lets all see how much will be

-asked of the individual man under fire,

-and how difficult it is to exercise any wide

-control.</p>

-

-<p>For the same reason you must in this

-exercise begin the practice of ordering

-casualties of leaders, and carry it on

-through the whole of the rest of the training.

-Order section commanders to

-be casualties, and let the next senior

-man carry on, then order that man

-to become a casualty, and let the next one

-take command. Collect these casualties

-with you and let them go round with you,

-and have for a time the onlooker’s view

-of the game. Do not stint in ordering

-them, but let every man be ready to take

-up command. This readiness to assume

-command and to carry on the advance in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>

-spite of the absence of leaders is most valuable

-in battle and on parade for training,

-keeps men’s attention fixed on the business,

-and helps to counteract disorder when

-companies and sections get mixed up in

-reinforcement in battalion attack.</p>

-

-<p>Under six hundred yards let the men

-use individual fire, choosing their own

-targets; at this time try to get them into

-the way of looking for the targets which

-most require to be shot at at the moment—they

-must be always looking along the

-enemy’s line, and must not acquire the

-paralysing habit of only seeing straight in

-front of themselves.</p>

-

-<p>Call on unit commanders to keep in

-view the question of expenditure of ammunition.

-It is no good ordering men to

-snap-fire 200 times in the course of an

-advance when they would only have 100

-rounds in their pouches on service, and no

-means of getting more; when blank is

-being used they should see that the ammunition

-of casualties is collected and

-redistributed.</p>

-

-<p>At some time in the course of this exercise

-the section must be practised in improving

-cover as if under fire, i.e., working

-lying down. The nature of the work

-depends on what tools you have, but it

-should be attempted if possible. Order

-the section to do it when halted together<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>

-in some fire position. At first they will

-shape badly and expose themselves a lot,

-but if you have time for practice they get

-into the way of digging in very quickly.

-If there are stones pile up “schanzes.”

-Attention should be paid to concealment

-of the cover, so as not to make it a target

-for the whole countryside, and it must give

-cover from fire or view, or both; one often

-sees men making molehills which show up

-their position without being capable of

-stopping a bullet. Better not make them

-at all than that way.</p>

-

-<p>Wind up the advance occasionally by an

-assault, as it is a mistake to let the idea

-take hold that the fire fight is the end of

-all things. This, I think, is the reason

-that the word “skirmishing” has disappeared

-from the book of training, as it

-connoted an indecisive action, whereas the

-whole spirit of the present training is that

-it shall be directed to the delivery of an

-assault and the ousting of the enemy from

-his position. Scouts are the only people

-who may have to skirmish in the former

-accepted meaning of the word, and they

-only do so until the firing line joins them,

-or they withdraw after reconnoitring.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>In Platoon.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Next work the sections together in

-their platoons on similar lines. Practise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>

-again all ways of gaining ground; by

-rushes of the whole platoon, or if one or

-more sections, man by man, and so on, as

-taught to the section. Fire should be

-directed by the platoon commander, and

-controlled by the section commander.

-Teach the lateral distribution of fire along

-a given front among the four sections of

-the platoon. Teach also the principle of

-covering fire, one section being sent to

-make its way with every use of cover to a

-forward fire position, while the remainder

-continue firing. The first section, on

-arrival at the new fire position, opens fire,

-and the others follow in due course, one

-section only being dumb while the movement

-is in progress. If there is a choice of

-good lines of advance it is better that

-sections should not follow each other on

-one line, as the enemy may have noticed

-the move and be waiting for them.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VI">EXERCISE VI.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in

-Retirement.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>For the general principles of retirements

-see I.T., 137. The platoon, when working

-with the company, will take its turn at

-being the rearmost portion of the troops,

-and will have the difficult task of getting

-away while in touch with the enemy, but

-its retirement will be covered by the fire

-of other portions of the company. On

-the other hand, if a platoon or section finds

-itself beyond support from other troops, as

-might happen often enough, it will have

-to act itself as a rearguard and retire by

-alternate parts.</p>

-

-<p>In both cases great advantage is gained

-if the position held can be vacated so

-stealthily that the enemy shall not be

-aware of its having been vacated till the

-defenders are well on their way to the rear.

-For this reason it will be worth while to

-accustom the men to employ, when practicable,

-a procedure used in mountain

-warfare, withdrawing the bulk of men

-first and leaving only a few quick-footed

-men to keep up appearances and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span>

-fire as long as possible and then retiring

-them at speed. Also all men must be

-taught to grovel backwards on their

-stomachs from the crest of their fire position

-till sufficiently under cover, if there is

-cover, to stand up without being seen, after

-which they rise and make off.</p>

-

-<p>Send out the skeleton enemy with instructions

-to follow up the retirement

-slowly, and not to close in on the sections,

-as it is easy and tempting to do this when

-there are no bullets in the rifles.</p>

-

-<h3>(<em>a</em>) <em>As a Section or Platoon Acting with the

-Company.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Do the practice first by sections and then

-in platoon. Draw up the unit on a fire position

-about eight hundred yards from the

-enemy, the men in extended order, lying

-down, and open fire on the enemy. Tell

-the commander to choose his next halting

-place and retire his unit on it,

-which he should do on the lines before

-indicated. The halting places should be

-chosen as far apart as two to four hundred

-yards; short retirements merely prolong

-the time exposure to fire and should not be

-used unless the enemy are very close or the

-fire very heavy. Once the men are clear

-of the position, they should move as fast

-as they can, trusting to escape casualties,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>

-by speed, the alteration of range, and the

-fire of the few men left on the position.

-As a rule, carry out all retirements at the

-double, so that the men shall not be confused

-by the hasty movement. As soon

-as the first party has reached the new

-position, the fringe of men left on the

-old one should creep back and go as

-hard as they can to rejoin their

-section or platoon, and they should be

-taught to judge the time of going for

-themselves, so as not to “let in” the section

-or themselves, by going too early or

-staying too late. Repeat the movement to

-one or two further positions. It is a

-strenuous practice and makes demands on

-the men’s limbs, wind, and willingness,

-but the rearguard is the post of honour

-and danger. Order casualties of leaders

-from time to time, and let the men be

-called to move in quick time sometimes,

-which they would have to do if there were

-signs of unsteadiness.</p>

-

-<h3>(<em>b</em>) <em>As a Section or Platoon Acting Alone.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Act on the same lines as before, but let

-the commander run the show, which he

-should be able to do, after having done it

-under supervision. One party (a file or two

-in the case of a section, or one or

-two sections in that of a platoon) gets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>

-back to a fire position and opens fire to

-cover the retirement of the other. In

-general, it is better that both parties

-should not fall back on one and the same

-fire position; on the contrary, if they act

-on a wide front in ordinary country—say,

-three hundred yards apart—their fire is

-equally effective, but the enemy is broken

-up, and the danger of their being outflanked

-or surrounded is less. For the

-same reason it is good practice, if the platoon

-is strong, to send out groups of four

-or five men still further on the flanks, and

-a group to precede the whole on the line

-of retirement by six hundred yards or so,

-in order to occupy positions and deny them

-to the enemy, and after one or two turns

-of this exercise tell the skeleton enemy to

-follow on harder and try to work round

-the flanks. In this part also continue to

-order casualties of leaders.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VII">EXERCISE VII.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in

-Independent Attack.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>It is very important to secure the intelligent

-co-operation of section and platoon

-commanders in the operations in which

-their company or battalion is taking part.

-I have read that in the Russo-Japanese

-War the result of one of the battles—I

-think at Penlin, 31st July—turned on

-the action of an infantry section who

-gained a footing on the extreme flank of

-the Russian line, and drove off the defenders

-in the immediate vicinity, opened

-a way for the advance of the greater

-numbers, and led to the outflanking and

-retreat of the whole Russian force. If you

-give your unit commanders some chances of

-carrying out attacks, acting as if unsupported

-by other troops, they will find

-themselves faced with the same problems

-which confront commanders of larger

-bodies in the attack, and they will be

-more likely, when acting in combination,

-to look beyond just the limits of their own

-commands; they will be led to comprehend

-the object of operations and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>

-difficulties in the way, and will become

-quick to seize any opportunity to further

-the general plan without waiting for

-orders. It is true that so small a body as a

-section would seldom be formally told to

-attack an objective single-handed, but there

-are often occasions on service when a

-platoon might have to carry out an attack

-on a small scale, as when a few of the

-enemy’s riflemen are making themselves

-unpleasant, while not in sufficient force to

-do more than “snipe,” or to require the

-diversion against them of a whole company.

-Though a section as now constituted is a

-very small unit to work with, I think no

-excuse is needed for performing the attack

-with the smallest unit, having in view the

-excellent training it forms for non-commissioned

-officers and men. However, for

-this practice, it is advisable to form sections

-somewhat above the usual strength, by

-joining two together, so as to give at least

-eighteen rifles in the whole. After having

-put the sections through the exercise, you

-will, of course, let the platoon commanders

-carry out the attack with their platoons.</p>

-

-<p>Put out a skeleton enemy of three or

-four men for each platoon or section, or

-one only for all to attack in turn, and

-post this enemy in some commanding

-place, with a good field of view and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>

-fire so that if possible the unit shall

-have twelve to eight hundred yards to

-manœuvre over before coming to close

-quarters. As an example, give out the

-supposition that this enemy are a cavalry

-patrol of the enemy, who have dismounted

-and are using their rifles on the

-company as it is on the move from somewhere

-to somewhere else. The section or

-platoon is ordered to drive them off, neutralise

-their fire, or hold them in check, in case

-they should be the forerunners of a greater

-number. The enemy should begin to fire

-on a signal from you (with your flag),

-which you should give as you tell off

-the commander for the duty. If the

-other units are to attack the same

-enemy in turn, you should halt them

-under cover or turn them to the rear, so

-as not to see too much of the method the

-first lot choose to carry out their job.</p>

-

-<p>The method of the attack will depend

-on the nature of the ground—what suits

-one case may not suit another, and there

-may be two or three courses open in

-attacking any one position. The commander

-should accordingly look well

-at the ground before deciding how he will

-carry out the attack, but there are certain

-principles common to attacks, great or

-small, which he should put into practice.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>

-He should secure himself from interruption

-on his flanks and rear, and he should

-provide a supporting fire to distract the

-enemy and cover the advance of his main

-force. He cannot make large detachments

-or indulge in wide patrolling, nor

-would such small bodies as platoons be sent

-off to attack if such were advisable; but,

-at least he can post a file or two

-on some high ground, or, failing that,

-on one flank out of decisive range of the

-enemy, i.e., about eight hundred yards

-from him, with orders to keep up a steady

-fire until his advance masks their fire.

-This will prevent, or at least give warning

-of, an attempt to cut in on the rear.

-He may also send a file perhaps two or

-three hundred yards to either flank, to

-move parallel with his advance and prevent

-his being enfiladed at short range,

-if the enemy should be tactless enough

-to avail himself of a chance of meeting

-the advance by a counter-attack. Until

-he sees pretty well what he has in front

-of him, he should divide his party

-into two, sending one to engage the

-enemy and keeping the other as a

-reserve to support the first by fire if they

-get into difficulties, and to be available

-to carry on the attack after the other has

-got the enemy well busy, either by reinforcing

-it directly, or, better still, by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>

-continuing the advance along a fresh line

-leading to some position from which the

-enemy can be finally turned out, either

-by fire or by a charge, the first half

-joining in and advancing as soon as the

-enemy has turned his attention to the

-new attack. Both parties should keep

-scouts or a patrol of some sort out in front

-of them until the foreground is proved

-not to contain any hidden body of the

-enemy, or until the opening of fire by

-their own side makes it necessary for the

-scouts to merge into the firing line. I

-have seen on service a half-company go

-off to take post as a piquet on a long

-ridge; it neglected the above precautions,

-beyond having some scouts in front.

-There were four or five of the enemy on

-the ridge, and they waited till the scouts

-were close, shot some down and drove

-the others to cover, and then turned their

-fire on to the half-company, who were

-also driven to ground, and, as there was

-little cover, they were tied up till set free

-by some more infantry, who had to be

-specially sent off to move along the ridge.

-Had the half-company moved in two

-portions, the first would have contained

-this weak enemy, and the rear party

-could easily have circled round and got

-on to the ridge farther along, which would

-at once have caused the enemy to clear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>

-out. See F.S.R., I., <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, as to the results

-of the violation of the principles of leading

-troops, and as therein directed, impress

-the principles taught on the minds

-of your non-commissioned officers, who

-are commanders, albeit only of platoons

-and sections.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VIII">EXERCISE VIII.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Platoon as an Advanced Guard

-and as a Flank Guard.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>(<em>a</em>) When the company is on the march,

-it should always be preceded by an advanced

-guard—either a party of scouts,

-or, more usually, by one of the platoons.

-After the advanced guard comes in contact

-with the enemy its further action

-becomes either an attack to drive off the

-enemy, or a defence to delay his advancing,

-according to his strength and

-tactics; so I propose here merely to indicate

-suitable formations of march in

-ordinary, i.e., non-mountainous country,

-so that the platoons may be practised in

-taking them up without delay on being

-told off for the duty. The exercise takes

-little time, and can be done on the same

-parade as the flank guard exercise.</p>

-

-<p>An advanced guard may come under

-Are at any moment, and to provide

-against surprise (F.S.R., 64), its leading

-portions may move in extended order.

-The duties are given in F.S.R., 68, and

-apply quite completely to so small a body

-as a platoon. The platoon should be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>

-divided into a vanguard and a main guard.

-For the vanguard, a common plan is

-simply to extend a section on either side of

-the road, but I prefer to divide the section

-into three patrols, or more if strength permits,

-who work along in a general line—one

-to search the road and its immediate

-vicinity, and one on each side. The

-nature of the country regulates the

-breadth of ground the centre patrol can

-search from the road, and the distance to

-which the others are sent out on each side.

-The other sections follow as main guard,

-not so close as to be at once mixed up

-with the vanguard if fire is opened on the

-latter, nor so far as to be unable to support

-it quickly with fire. The advanced

-guard is responsible for keeping touch

-with the main body (the company)

-(F.S.R., 64 (4)), but the company commander

-should satisfy himself that this

-is being done. If view is restricted, the

-main guard must drop a connecting

-file to keep connection. This file must

-march with their beards on their shoulders,

-to see what the company is doing, and

-let the commander know, and also

-to signal to the company, if the platoon

-has had to halt. If the country is open,

-the commander should still tell off

-a file for this duty, who will march with

-the platoon, but be continually on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>

-look-out to the rear. The platoon

-commander ought, of course, to keep a

-watch himself, but may have other things

-to attend to, and it is well to take precautions

-against the platoon either getting

-too far in front or letting the company

-get too close to it, by marching on while

-the platoon is investigating some suspicious

-locality.</p>

-

-

-<h3>(<em>b</em>) <em>The Platoon as a Flank Guard.</em></h3>

-

-<p>A platoon may sometimes be used as a

-flank guard, as when a small convoy is

-on the march with only a company or two

-as escort. Flank guards are dismissed in

-a few words in F.S.R., 70. It is worth

-while to practise them once or twice to

-avoid delay in taking up the formation

-when the march is being started, or in improvising

-a method of fighting off the

-enemy if he attacks.</p>

-

-<p>Represent the convoy or whatever it is

-by a man with a red flag to move along

-the road; the platoon is then to move along

-parallel to the road, and far enough off

-to afford protection from effective rifle

-fire, i.e., at least eight hundred yards in

-open country. The skeleton enemy should

-be instructed to keep about the same distance

-again on the flank beyond the

-platoon, and to move along parallel with it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>

-without closing in, opening fire on an

-agreed signal.</p>

-

-<p>The march formation should be on the

-same principles as those for the advanced

-guard. The platoon should move in two

-bodies, and patrols or scouts should precede

-it, both in the direction of the march

-and towards the flank which is being

-guarded. It is important to keep touch

-with the main body by connecting files at

-all times, otherwise if the road changes

-direction out of view of the flank guard

-it may separate them too far or bring

-them too close to the company.</p>

-

-<p>The method of fighting merely to hold

-off the enemy resembles that used by a

-rear guard for the same purpose, i.e., fire

-and movement by alternate portions.

-When the enemy opens fire on your signal,

-the patrol on the flank either falls back,

-or the platoon reinforces it. The patrol

-in the line of advance should still continue

-to precede the movements of the

-platoon in that direction, and should be

-told to conform to its movement. The

-platoon replies to the enemy’s fire as soon

-as possible and begins the lateral fight—one

-half is sent, if possible under cover,

-to take up a fire position farther along the

-direction of the line of march, preceded

-by the patrol, which, to some extent,

-secures it from surprise from that direction.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>

-As soon as the leading party has

-found a fire position and opens its fire,

-the other follows it, and either halts

-alongside it, so allowing it to go off to a

-new position, or continues its movement

-beyond it and takes up a third position to

-cover the further movements. The latter

-method is the quicker, as it saves the time

-of replacing men of the first party in

-their fire position by those of the second.

-The exercise need not be prolonged, as a

-few of these lateral movements are quite

-sufficient illustration to enable the men in

-future to take up their duty quickly.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_IX">EXERCISE IX.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Preliminary for the Attack by the

-Company in Battalion.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>A company attacking as part of the

-battalion is sure to find the men of different

-platoons mixed up in the course of the

-attack with those of other platoons, both of

-that company and of others. Before

-practising the attack, accompanied with

-this mixture of platoons, it is advisable

-to train them and their non-commissioned

-officers for their duties without

-allowing any mixing up. This may be

-done by bringing all the platoons of the

-company up into one line, and then

-extending each on its own ground. The

-result is that each platoon may be taken

-to represent the leading platoon of four

-companies told off to furnish the firing

-line and supports (I.T., 122). The four

-platoons form thus the firing line, the

-other three supposititious platoons of each

-company being in support. This formation

-would be taken up when the enemy’s

-rifle fire began to be effective, i.e., at or

-under fourteen hundred yards. Within

-this distance the firing line has to press<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>

-on through the zones in which it uses collective

-and individual fire up to assaulting

-distance, being reinforced as needed,

-firstly by the supports, and finally at the

-time of the assault by all or part of the

-local reserve, which, in this case, would

-be composed of the four companies of the

-battalion not detailed to furnish the firing

-line and supports.</p>

-

-<p>Put out a skeleton enemy with orders to

-remain in one position, and fire slowly,

-but continuously. Draw up the four

-platoons, or as many as are present of the

-company at fourteen hundred yards or

-so from the enemy, in one line and at

-sufficient intervals to allow of their extending

-to five paces, <em>plus</em> some space

-between flanks of sections after extension,

-to allow plenty of choice of lines of advance.

-Indicate to each platoon a part of

-the enemy’s position which it is to regard

-as its final objective of assault (I.T.,

-121 (3)). Have the men extended to five

-paces, and carry out the attack right

-through on the lines of Exercise V., and

-finish with an assault and rally after it.

-Each company would have an officer with

-its platoon in the firing line to direct the fire.

-If fire is opened between fourteen hundred

-and one thousand yards, it will not

-be effective against ordinary targets unless

-the whole four platoons direct their fire<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>

-on the same target. Under one thousand

-yards fire should be controlled by section

-commanders and directed by platoon commanders.</p>

-

-<p>Practise concentration of the fire of the

-four platoons on one part of the enemy’s

-line and lateral distribution of fire <em>within

-the limits of that part</em>. Give each platoon

-a fraction of this fraction of the enemy’s

-frontage to deal with, and let the platoon

-commander again tell off his sections to fire

-at various marks inside <em>his</em> limits. Again

-switch the fire of all four platoons on to

-some other particular bit of the enemy’s

-position, as done in previous exercises.</p>

-

-<p>To do this you must introduce and work

-with thoroughness a system of inter-communication

-(I.T., 119), but it should be

-one approved and adopted by your

-battalion commander, otherwise each company

-of the battalion may be found using

-a different one. It is to be understood

-that orders as to the direction of fire in

-no way interfere with the gaining of

-ground to the front, a platoon firing at

-one object ceases fire in order to advance,

-but resumes its fire on the same object

-when it again halts.</p>

-

-<p>As soon as section fire is opened,

-encourage mutual support, some part of the

-line firing while others advance, and make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>

-section commanders continue to observe

-this principle.</p>

-

-<p>At some one parade for this exercise

-halt the whole line during the attack and

-practise entrenching under fire, the men

-working lying down (I.T., 121 (13)).

-Thereafter resume the advance.</p>

-

-<p>Move about yourself and let your section

-commanders do so also, and check

-any slovenly work on the part of the men

-in using, quitting, or getting into cover,

-and in the use of their rifles and judging

-distance if, as should often be done, it

-is left to them to estimate how far they

-are from the target of the moment.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_X">EXERCISE X.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack with the

-Battalion under Artillery Fire.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>When the battalion is moving forward

-to attack, and before the enemy’s rifle fire

-is more than a distant and future danger,

-that of his artillery becomes an imminent

-and formidable menace as soon as the

-limits of its range are crossed, because of

-the suddenness with which it is capable

-of dealing destruction. Whether his

-artillery actually opens on the battalion

-is another matter. If the battalion shows

-up as a tempting target in column of route

-or mass, he most certainly will fire

-on it, but if it is skilfully led it may

-possibly escape his notice altogether; at

-the same time, it is hardly likely that it

-can move from five thousand to fourteen

-hundred yards from the enemy’s infantry

-without giving some indications of its

-movement, and the probability is, that at

-some part of the advance it will find

-itself the recipient of the enemy’s attention.

-To escape the effect of this fire,

-the battalion and the company will have

-to break up into small shallow columns<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>

-such as platoons or sections at least 50

-yards from each other laterally (I.T.,

-118) and two hundred yards from

-front to rear; in fact, a lot of little

-groups of men sufficiently apart to

-prevent the burst of one shell covering

-more than one group. The advance

-in this order constitutes the first phase of

-the infantry attack. The company must

-be practised in getting into this formation,

-and moving in it so as to avoid confusion

-in action, and also to let non-commissioned

-officers and men understand

-that this formation does not free them

-from the control of their commander.</p>

-

-<p>At manœuvres and exercises the adoption

-of this formation is sometimes

-burked on various pretexts, of which the

-most heinous is to say that the results of

-artillery fire are overrated, and the risk

-run in keeping in closed formation is more

-than compensated for by the comfort of

-the men, maintenance of control and

-saving of time. This theory I fancy had

-its origin in the South African War,

-where the Boer artillery was skilful but

-exiguous, if judged by European standards.

-I have not been under shell fire

-myself, but I have seen the results of it

-on a column of about two hundred men

-who came along a watercourse two

-thousand yards or so from the guns, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span>

-something resembling a march formation.

-The guns had the range, and the enemy

-left about fifty dead in that watercourse

-in a few minutes, so personally I am

-going to open out my company and trust

-to my peace training of it to keep it in

-hand and get it along fast enough to be

-on the spot when wanted.</p>

-

-<p>I need hardly give details how to practise

-this. The point is, to get the

-company opened out quickly and without

-confusion, and this is to be done by telling

-your platoon commanders what you

-want and where they are to go, and not

-by any drill. Platoons may further split

-up into columns of sections. Leave it to

-your platoon commanders to have the sections

-moved apart to intervals of fifty yards.

-If the enemy’s artillery is straight in front,

-a diamond formation seems suitable—a

-platoon at each angle—the length of the

-diagonal front to rear being over two hundred

-yards and side to side over one hundred;

-or the platoons may simply follow

-each other at two hundred yards distance,

-though this is not a very handy arrangement.

-But, subject to keeping the distances

-large enough, it is not the formation

-that matters, but the way it is taken up,

-and I will leave it at that.</p>

-

-<p>At the end of this phase of endurance

-of the enemy’s artillery fire the company<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span>

-comes under rifle fire and has to take to

-extended order, and on service it would

-perhaps have to do this and plunge into

-the attack without the platoons closing in

-from the scattered formation in which

-they have so far moved. But for the

-first few times you should close up at

-fourteen hundred yards and start from

-there, so as to tell the men what is next

-to be done when they come under rifle

-fire, and in any case the size of your exercise

-ground would probably necessitate

-your doing the two phases over more or

-less the same bit of ground.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XI">EXERCISE XI.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack with the

-Battalion, under Rifle Fire.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The immediate objects of the fire fight

-within effective rifle range are to produce

-a fire sufficiently heavy to overcome

-the fire of the defence, and to reach

-a position from which the assault can be

-delivered (I.T., 121 (5 and 6)). In theory,

-then, the desideratum is to get so many

-men up to about two hundred yards from

-the enemy that they form a line practically

-shoulder to shoulder, in order that

-their fire may be at least as heavy as that

-of the enemy, if the latter are also in one

-continuous line, and in default of circumstances

-admitting of effective covering

-fire being maintained from positions in

-rear or on a flank. On this supposition it

-is frequently argued that a battalion and

-its companies, when advancing to the

-attack, should do so on a front not

-greater than that which the battalion

-would occupy if it were in single rank, but

-this does not really follow. The nature

-of the ground may be such that to attempt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>

-to build up a shoulder-to-shoulder firing

-line all along the enemy’s position within

-charging distance, may be merely to send

-men to useless destruction by exposing

-them on fire-swept spaces, where they are

-sure to be knocked over before they can do

-any good. On the other hand, there may

-be other points where men may be massed

-so as to give not only a firing line of

-maximum density, but also a supporting

-force both to replace casualties and to

-carry out the assault. These are the points

-which it is of importance to gain and

-hold in strength sufficient to carry out the

-object of the attack—the assault. It is

-the duty of the battalion commander to

-give each of his firing line companies

-some such point as their objective, and to

-define the frontage and direction of

-their attack. It is similarly the duty

-of the commander of a firing line

-company to give each of his sections

-an objective within the limits assigned to

-his company (I.T., 122 (4) and 123 (3-)).

-The problem for solution is, how to get to

-those points, and so it does not appear to

-matter much what frontage the battalion

-and its companies occupy when they start

-off for the attack at the fourteen hundred

-yards limit of effective rifle fire, provided

-of course, they do not encroach on the

-frontage of other units. Indeed, an attack<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>

-which starts on a wide base and concentrates

-only in its later stages seems

-much more likely than one which starts

-from base equal to a single rank frontage

-to keep the enemy uncertain of its

-objective, and to be able to bring oblique

-or enfilade fire to bear on portions of his

-line. Therefore, when practising the company

-in attack, do not be bound by cast

-iron rules as to the breadth of the zone of

-ground within which you are to bring

-your company from fourteen hundred

-yards up to the charging position. Four

-platoons following one straight behind the

-other, at two hundred yards distance,

-make a very unwieldy procession, and, in

-general, I would advise you to use something

-in the nature of a diamond formation

-at first, the three platoons in rear

-making their own way forward till they

-reinforce the leading portion which finally

-consists of the whole company.</p>

-

-<p>Put out the skeleton enemy on a front

-of, roughly, what your company will

-occupy in single rank, and let the position,

-if possible, have within it two, or at

-most, three points, which you can assign

-as objectives to the platoon commanders.

-You must consider this position as having

-been assigned to you as objective by your

-battalion commander, the ground on the

-right and left of it being the prey of other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>

-companies, and not the object of your

-assault, though it should, nevertheless,

-frequently be the object of your <em>fire</em>

-during the advance.</p>

-

-<p>Draw up the company at about fourteen

-hundred yards from the enemy. Tell

-the platoon commanders the relative positions

-the platoons are to take up when the

-advance begins, roughly the distances

-between them (I.T., 123 (7)), the direction

-of the attack, if the enemy’s position is not

-quite clearly to be seen, the frontage on

-which the company is free to manœuvre,

-and the points which the sections are to

-regard as their objectives; the details

-contained in I.T., 123 and 124, may

-also be enumerated if the commanders

-are not experienced. As regards these

-details, I recommend that scouts be

-formed not in a line of men extended

-at wide intervals, but as a line

-of patrols of four or six men each, and

-you or a subaltern should halt them early

-in the attack and tell them to send back

-word that they are held up by fire, or

-that they have defined the enemy’s position;

-on this the nearest platoon reinforces

-them, and the process of building up the

-firing line begins from that point. As

-regards inter-communication, use connecting

-files and semaphore signalling to join

-up the various parts and make real use of

-them, but avoid sham messages.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p>

-

-<p>As soon as the object and manner of

-the attack have been detailed to all, tell

-the platoon commanders to move off their

-platoons to their positions and extend them

-ready to advance, and the scouts to get

-off in front. Five paces is the least extension

-to ensure that a bullet aimed at

-one man may miss him with a fair chance

-of not hitting his neighbour. Do not let

-the scouts go too far away, because at

-this time of getting to grips with the

-enemy, their usefulness, when acting with

-their companies is mainly limited to

-guarding against ambush at close range,

-and as ground scouts to prevent the company

-coming against some unseen obstacle,

-barbed wire, donga, canal, or what not.</p>

-

-<p>As soon as all are in position, the company

-may be considered as being in the

-formation in which it would have arrived

-at the point where, in addition to the

-enemy’s artillery fire, it comes under

-heavy and fairly accurate rifle fire. Give

-the signal to advance, and let the platoon

-commanders begin to work their platoons

-forward, using what covered ways they

-can find. After a little of this, have the

-scouts halted and reinforce them by one

-platoon, order fire to be opened, bearing

-in mind that one platoon’s fire is probably

-useless at over one thousand yards from

-the enemy, but if your company is in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>

-diamond formation the platoons on each

-flank will probably be able to fire, and

-with favourable ground, e.g., a knoll, or

-bluff somewhere on the line of advance,

-the rear platoon also will be able to fire

-over the heads of the firing line. There

-is no danger in this if the men hold their

-rifles straight, and it would assuredly

-be done in war. I have myself seen it,

-and the chances of an accident are minimised

-by practice in peace. During this

-early opening of fire use every effort to

-keep the fire from being merely a make-believe,

-i.e., send word round by your

-connecting files or semaphore to fire at

-certain targets, and see that section commanders

-direct their fire accordingly.

-In battle the information as to which part

-of the enemy’s position seemed most to

-demand attention would, of course, reach

-you from those of your side who were

-suffering fire coming from that part of the

-position, and the result of your passing

-the word to fire at it as above would be

-that a shower of bullets would come dropping

-all round it, to the upsetting of the

-aim of the hostile marksmen. Under

-cover of this fire your firing line may be

-allowed to gain a little ground, platoons

-moving alternately so as to avoid a cessation

-of fire. Thereafter continue to gain

-ground, and gradually reinforce the firing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>

-line till all your supports are absorbed

-and the whole company is in the firing

-line. When this has taken place the line

-will consist of a mixture of men of

-different sections and platoons. Avoid

-unreal movements in attempting to keep

-the men of each unit together in reinforcing

-and recognise that admixture is

-unavoidable. (I.T., 93 (11) and 123

-(9)). The organising of the resultant

-disorder is one of the essential

-objects of training for the attack. Make

-your section commanders call on the

-men to right and left of them, if

-they are nearer them than any other unit

-commander, to act under their orders.

-Thus: “Private A to Private J under my

-orders.” Have this done constantly till

-it becomes a matter of course. The men

-of files can always hang together, but

-prove that this is being done by asking

-men where their file mates are. Get this

-system started as soon as reinforcement is

-begun, and keep it in full swing throughout.

-Once it is started, these extemporized

-fire units must apply the principles

-learnt by the intact sections and squads in

-Exercise IX., i.e., supporting fire by part

-to cover movement of the others, control

-and distribution of fire, etc., and so work

-on up to assaulting distance and deliver

-an assault. After this, let section and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>

-platoon commanders reform their men

-and units as quickly as possible, and

-then reform the company under your

-own orders. At subsequent parades

-introduce casualties among the section and

-platoon commanders, and let the senior

-privates in each of the mixed up fire units

-step into their places and carry on the

-attack without halt or confusion.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XII">EXERCISE XII.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack Acting

-Alone.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>On service a company may often have

-to attack some post of the enemy without

-having the support of either artillery or

-infantry, and exercises framed to illustrate

-these conditions are very useful in

-developing the initiative of all ranks. In

-paragraph V. of the preamble I gave an

-example, and I think, if you will peruse

-it again, you will see what sort of thing

-you should arrange for the exercise. At

-inspections one sometimes sees a company

-sent off by itself to carry out such an

-attack, and the method often adopted is

-to tell off the company into the firing line

-and supports, and, perhaps, a reserve.

-The whole then go straight for the object

-and perform a sort of travesty of what

-the company does when acting as part of

-a battalion. By this time I trust you will

-be quick to perceive that this is just what

-it ought not to do. As an isolated force

-it has to do much more than simply to

-form a firing line and bring off an assault.

-It must secure its flanks, have a real<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>

-reserve, employ a flank as well as a

-frontal attack, provide for its own withdrawal

-if worsted, be prepared to deal

-with a counter-attack, and observe all

-the principles laid down in I.T., 121.

-<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mutatis mutandis</i>, your reserve may consist

-of only a platoon, your flank

-guards a file or two of men, your

-flank attacks a section or platoon with

-a subaltern accompanying it, and so

-on, but the precautions must be taken

-and the principles put into practice,

-or your attack would run risk of failure.

-You would do it all on service; therefore,

-do it all in peace. Carry out such exercises,

-carefully planned, and with observance

-of service conditions, and I am quite

-sure you will see what a great deal there

-is to be done in this direction before you

-feel yourself and your company quite

-competent to undertake a similar task in

-the field. That first exercise against a

-skeleton enemy will be the forerunner

-of many others. Your criticism of the

-action of your non-commissioned officers

-must be carefully considered, as there are

-usually several justifiable ways of doing

-a thing, and it should always be constructive

-and not merely destructive (T. &amp; M.R.,

-2 (2)).</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XIII">EXERCISE XIII.<br>

-<span class="smcap">The Company in Retirement.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The men have been practised in retirement

-in pairs in Exercise II., and the sections

-and platoons have also learned their

-part in Exercise VI. It remains to train the

-company for this duty, which it might have

-to do either as acting as rearguard to

-the battalion, whether the latter was, or

-was not, in conjunction with other troops,

-or as if effecting its withdrawal when

-isolated. In both cases the procedure and

-distribution are pretty much alike. In the

-former case, the company, if it gets into

-difficulties, <em>may</em> be able to get help from

-the rest of the force, but in the latter it

-will not be able to do so, and the commander

-should be especially careful to have

-in hand some portion of his company which

-he can use to extricate any detachment

-which gets “tied up.” On the other hand,

-it is very desirable that the main body

-should not be called on to reinforce the

-rearguard when the company is not acting

-alone. So that in both cases you should be

-prepared to meet eventualities from your

-own resources. Again, a rearguard is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span>

-bound to have the majority of its force in

-action in order to hold back the enemy

-and present an appearance of force, so that

-it is not always possible to set apart a

-portion of so small a body as a company to

-act solely as reserve, and to remain continuously

-outside the actual combat. The

-solution of the difficulty seems to lie in

-an intelligent application of the principles

-of rearguard fighting given in F.S.R., 71 to

-73, and the early but timeous withdrawal

-from the fighting line of a portion of the

-company who move back to a position in

-rear from which they can cover the withdrawal

-of the remainder, but are still available

-to be thrown into the fight, if it is

-necessary to inaugurate some sort of a

-counter attack to give portions heavily

-engaged a chance to break away from close

-grips. It is important in this exercise to

-teach non-commissioned officers and men

-to be ready to adopt quickly any method

-of withdrawal that may be ordered, because

-the nature of the ground must

-determine the way in which a withdrawal

-can best be effected, and the nature of the

-ground may vary every few hundred yards.

-Therefore I merely suggest some ways of

-practising retirements, and during the

-course of the exercise you should change

-from one to another, and also encourage

-commanders to act on their own initiative,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>

-when, as will probably happen, your system

-of inter-communication fails to act with

-sufficient speed and accuracy. I.T., 137,

-gives general rules as to the action of platoons

-and sections, and the standard set up

-in Exercises II. and VI. should be adhered

-to. Send out the skeleton enemy with

-orders to follow up the retirement, but not

-to close in under six hundred yards.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>a</em>) Get the whole company deployed

-into one line of platoons, with intervals between

-them, occupying a wide front, four

-to eight hundred yards, the men at five or

-more paces extension. This may seem too

-wide a front, but, after all, the intervals

-between the platoons are only two hundred

-and forty yards, and an enemy trying to

-break straight through the line would be

-under fire at one hundred and twenty yards

-or less, while a wide front is the best

-precaution against having your flanks

-turned and your retreat intercepted.</p>

-

-<p>Send back a platoon from one of the

-flanks to take up quickly a position in rear

-clear away from the firing line; three hundred

-to six hundred yards is not too much;

-let it open fire, and let the remainder of the

-firing line work back by retirement of

-alternate sections, each running back thirty

-or forty yards, beginning this movement

-from the flank from which the first platoon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>

-went, the platoon on the other flank holding

-on and only giving ground when the two

-centre platoons have got well on their way

-to the line on which the first platoon is

-halted. This is a slow retirement, but

-gives a maximum of continuous fire and

-the flanks are strong.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>b</em>) With the whole company extended in

-one line, and no intervals between platoons.

-Retire by short rushes of alternate sections;

-the rushes must be quite short, twenty

-yards at most, so that the sections that have

-retired can fire through the intervals of the

-rear portion of the line the instant that it

-begins to retire. This is meant for use

-after an unsuccessful assault, and only on

-flat ground.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>c</em>) With the company extended in one

-line, but with intervals between the

-platoons. Order the flank platoons to

-retire and take post to cover the withdrawal

-of the two centre platoons, who

-remain in position till the flank platoons

-are ready to open fire. Watch how the

-platoon commanders handle their platoons;

-they should do so artfully, as taught

-in Exercise VI.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>d</em>) Retire by half-companies, two platoons

-together, using your subalterns as

-half-company commanders, and putting the

-onus of finding suitable covering positions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>

-on them, merely telling them to cover each

-other’s retirement.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>e</em>) With the company all holding one

-position, leave the scouts or picked men to

-cover the retirement by rapid fire, and

-withdraw the remainder at full speed, then

-cover the retirement of the scouts by the

-fire of the whole from a position in rear.

-Watch that the scouts creep back from

-their cover without letting the enemy know

-they are going; and of this screen of scouts

-the flank men ought usually to be the last

-to go in order to make the enemy believe

-that the position is still occupied.</p>

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XIV">EXERCISE XIV.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Outposts.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<h3>I.</h3>

-

-<p>The general rules for outposts and the

-part played by an outpost company are to

-be found in I.T., 147 to 157, and it is necessary

-accordingly to train for those duties in

-peace. Let us begin from the beginning,

-and see what infantry outposts are and

-what they have to do. A line of infantry

-outposts will very often have to be taken up

-after a day’s fighting, or in close proximity

-to the enemy before a battle. The commander

-of an outpost battalion will be

-told by the staff to take up with his battalion

-a certain length of the front, say,

-from Farm A to Hill B, inclusive—perhaps

-a mile or even two in extent. He

-cannot possibly have time to ride all along

-the front and fix places for piquets and

-sentries. Instead of this, he looks at the

-ground and comes to the conclusion that

-it will require, say, all his four companies

-in the outpost line. He divides up his

-front into four parts, and gives each of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>

-his companies one part. It is his duty to

-see that the eight companies form along

-the line that combines the best facilities

-for defence and reconnaissance to the

-front. Accordingly, he tells the captain

-of A Company to take from Farm A to,

-say, the wood X, inclusive, the captain of

-B Company from the wood X, exclusive,

-to, say, the stream ML, inclusive, and so

-along. The captains of companies then

-have to go off and take up their frontages.

-As beforesaid, infantry outposts must

-expect to take up their line close to the

-enemy, and often when dusk is falling.

-This gives you your clue as to how it

-should be done. You must march your

-company in fighting formation, so as not

-to be ambushed—a screen of scouts

-or other covering troops in front and

-on the flanks, a party, section, or platoon

-ready to succour the covering party, and

-hold up the enemy, and a reserve ready

-to act under your orders, either for attack

-or defence. Your movement and the

-taking up of your line should be unseen by

-the enemy; therefore, move carefully

-under cover both from distant and close

-positions, from which you may be seen.

-The line must be taken up quickly. The

-main thing is to get it occupied; therefore,

-it is a mistake to halt the company

-while you plod round the whole of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>

-front and plan just where each piquet and

-sentry will be. Instead, take a good look

-at the line as you march and decide what

-are the essential points to be held for

-defence and as observation points. As

-soon as your scouts have made good the

-ground a little in front of those points,

-send off what you think are necessary,

-sections or platoons, to seize these

-points, and act as piquets till you go

-round and adjust details. Thus your

-company will occupy the line in rough-and-ready

-fashion as quickly as they can

-advance. When the company breaks up

-to go to the piquet posts, go with any one

-of the piquets which is to be on one flank

-and settle the exact position of the piquet

-with reference to the line you intend to

-hold as your line of resistance, and any

-other details which you think the piquet

-commander should attend to, such as what

-localities should be patrolled, and estimate

-the number of men required. Any surplus

-sections should accompany you from this

-piquet, and you and they then go along the

-line to the other piquets which you arrange

-similarly, using the surplus to reinforce

-those piquets that need them, and if at the

-end you have still a surplus of men you

-may either form them as a support in rear

-or dismiss them to remain with their own

-platoons. For purposes of messing on service

-the latter is convenient, but, tactically,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>

-a support is often needed, in which case the

-men’s comfort must take second place.</p>

-

-<p>You must make a clear distinction

-between day and night outposts, though

-you practise the latter by daylight. Infantry

-outposts by day and until the

-enemy advances, are firstly patrols and

-look-out men, whose business is to look

-for any movement on the part of the

-enemy, and to prevent his seeing their

-own side’s doings, and to report what

-they see of the enemy’s, and, secondly,

-a line of piquets who occupy the line decided

-on as the line of resistance, and who

-may fall out and rest while things are

-quiet, with supports and sometimes a

-reserve behind them. The patrols are

-active agents in getting information in

-front of the outpost line, and they

-will mostly consist of mounted troops

-except in close country or thick weather.

-The look-out sentries are passive obstacles

-to the enemy’s patrols or scouts

-penetrating the line; the piquets are the

-reserve of force ready to be called into

-action when needed. But a line suitable

-for observation and resistance by day is

-seldom suitable by night also. Fighting

-by day is done by shooting, and rough

-ground affording cover is likely to be

-chosen for the advance of the attackers.

-By night, however, the attack will be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span>

-made with the bayonet, and the attacker

-will avoid broken country, which will

-confuse and delay his advance. Choose

-your outpost line accordingly. By day

-seek for a good field of fire, mutually

-supporting positions, and good facilities

-for observation, and strengthen the position

-you mean to fight on. By night

-close the likely ways by which an enemy

-may advance by putting piquets on them

-in strengthened positions with obstacles

-prepared in front, and patrols lying out

-on intervening ground to intercept scouts.

-Thus, in an undulating hedge-covered

-country with many roads, by day your

-piquets would be behind the crests of the

-undulations, sentries only on the look-out,

-and patrols scouting in front. By night

-your piquets would be on the roads, which

-they would block with barbed wire or

-abattis of cut hedge stuff, and your patrols

-in the fields between and lying out along

-the road in front at some place where they

-could watch anything passing, and get

-back to the piquet line without running

-risks of being shot by their own side. We

-will see below what training is required

-for non-commissioned officers and men in

-their duties on piquet, patrol and sentry.

-When you have trained them in these

-duties, take up an outpost line as a tactical

-exercise with your company, acting as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span>

-an outpost company by day, and then as

-by night, and if you have scouts send

-them out to act as an enemy’s patrol in

-front to see how much of the operation

-of taking up the line is visible to them;

-then, after a certain hour, let them try

-to make their way through the line unseen.

-They must not work round the flanks as

-<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ex hypothesi</i>; these are held by other outpost

-companies; finally, let them start

-sniping the outposts as if ushering in an

-attack, and let your piquets take up the

-line of resistance, your patrols falling

-back on the firing beginning.</p>

-

-

-<h3>II.</h3>

-

-<p class="center"><em>The Training of Men and Platoons in

-Outpost Duties.</em></p>

-

-<p>An outpost company will more often

-consist of two or more small piquets of

-one or more platoons with a support, than

-simply of one large piquet with its support,

-so that when you come to train the whole

-company, as above, in taking up a part

-of an outpost line, the performance of the

-work will depend largely on the ability

-of your platoon and section commanders

-to direct the men in their duties.

-Unless they are capable of doing this,

-time will be wasted as you will be occupied

-with one portion of the line while<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>

-the rest are doing nothing and awaiting

-your arrival, for in this class of work the

-instructor must remain for some time with

-each piquet while the men are being put

-through the various duties, and cannot

-supervise concurrently at all points.

-Therefore, it is best, before taking the

-men out for instruction, to give a day or

-two solely to the instruction of subalterns

-and non-commissioned officers. When

-they have got a knowledge of what is

-required, have the men out, divide them

-into piquets under subalterns and section

-commanders, who will put them through

-the duties, and the work will go on on

-proper lines, and you will be free to go

-round and supervise each in turn.</p>

-

-<p>You will have four subalterns, sixteen

-section commanders, and other non-commissioned

-officers, a total of twenty rifles

-or so, but if you are short of non-commissioned

-officers, have out enough privates to

-give you sixteen or twenty rifles. Form

-them up as a piquet and make the supposition

-that it has just received its orders to

-break off from the company and go to a

-certain point in the outpost line and take

-up its duties there.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>Day Piquets.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Indicate some such point as a day piquet

-position at a reasonable distance from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span>

-where the piquet is when you give it its

-orders, and let the senior non-commissioned

-officer march it there, as on service,

-the point chosen being, if possible, such a

-one as would be occupied on service.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>a</em>) This advance to the piquet is the

-first duty. In spite of the company covering

-troops being supposed to be somewhere

-in advance, the piquet on its march should

-be protected by a small patrol (F.S.R.,

-64 (1)). In taking up the position, it

-must not let the enemy see it; that is,

-neither the men nor their commander

-should show themselves. Very often the

-men are kept under cover, but the commander

-wanders about fixing places for

-sentries in full view of everyone. He

-should lie down and peep over the crest

-or whatever it is while making his plans.</p>

-

-<p>Having arrived at the piquet position,

-indicate a position on the right and on

-the left where other piquets are supposed

-to be and proceed with:—</p>

-

-<p>(<em>b</em>) Duties of outpost sentries.—These

-are given in I.T., 152. Post as many

-groups as will use up the whole

-strength in places which would need

-watching on service; if there are not

-enough such places near by, then merely

-for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two

-or more groups close together. A

-group consists of one or two men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>

-on duty, and their reliefs, who lie

-down near them. These groups are relieved

-every eight or twelve hours. Let

-it be understood that the position of their

-own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of

-these groups and of patrols, and it is a

-good plan to show the position by a flag.

-The sentries must see without being seen,

-know where other groups are, where their

-own and other piquets are, be told to

-challenge and halt anyone approaching as

-in I.T., 152 (3), and what to do if

-attacked. Let them do this to you personally,

-as if you were someone not belonging

-to the troops, and impress on

-them that they must be careful to teach

-it to their men so that <em>no stranger may

-ever be allowed to get close</em> to a group,

-and to shoot if he does not halt. Neglect

-of this simple rule has led to many mishaps

-in all armies. Concealment is not

-easy, but must be got somehow—by

-artifice, if the ground is unfavourable.

-After putting all through “sentry go”

-close to the groups and teach them:—</p>

-

-<p>(<em>c</em>) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and

-156. Patrols are not meant for fighting,

-but to get information or watch dangerous

-places. But they may have to fight

-to avoid capture, and they do no good

-by walking blindly into an ambush.

-To bring back information or news that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span>

-the enemy are coming on, it is evidently

-essential that whatever happens to the rest

-of the party, one man at least should

-always be able to escape, and to avoid

-ambush the patrol should move in a formation

-which will prevent a surprise overwhelming

-the whole party. In short, one

-portion must scout, and the other be prepared

-to cover their movement and help

-them to get away, if possible, but in any

-case to get away itself and carry news of

-the enemy. But patrols must be limited

-in strength, or they will not be able to

-escape notice, and must make up for their

-weakness by cunning and stealthiness of

-movement.</p>

-

-<p>For patrolling by day, tell off the whole

-strength into patrols of four or six men,

-one of whom will command in each patrol.

-Let each take up the formation it would

-usually adopt; that is, one or two files in

-advance, followed by the rest at a distance

-sufficient to prevent the surprise of the

-whole by one and the same opening of

-fire. Teach the method advocated for

-movement across country, i.e., a careful but

-rapid advance from one cover to another,

-also how to approach suspicious localities.

-The leading file halts and looks

-for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile

-the rear file comes nearly up to

-it; the leading file then moves forward<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span>

-while the rear file lies down with

-rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire

-at once to cover the others if the enemy

-shows himself. If the locality to be

-searched can be outflanked, the leading

-files should move round one or both flanks

-before closing in on it. If it is one that

-cannot be outflanked, as, for instance, a

-straight edge of a large wood, they should

-approach it under cover, creeping up a

-hedgerow perhaps, and so get inside. If

-there is no cover they may try some ruse

-to draw the enemy’s fire before getting

-too close, halting as if they had seen

-something, shading the eyes with the

-hand, pointing and then starting to run

-back as if alarmed, which might lead the

-enemy to open fire to prevent their escape.

-But it is rather hard to get men to do

-this play-acting unless there is a real force

-of “Blue” or “Red” enemy against

-them. The commander of the patrol,

-when approaching any place, should tell

-his men what they are to do if it is seen

-to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still

-and watch, or retire. If the latter, he

-should fix some place in rear where the

-patrol could rally after getting out of

-harm’s way.</p>

-

-<p>Show them how to look over a ridge,

-wall, or hedge, without attracting notice,

-taking off their headdress and raising the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>

-head slowly, keeping the rest of the body

-carefully under cover, and also to move

-unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges

-or roadside trees, and covering up any

-polished metal work of their uniform; to

-lie up on any place that commands a good

-view, and look long and carefully all over

-the country to catch sight of anything.

-Finally to report what they see, and to

-do this at once, if there is need, by sending

-one, or better, if the patrol can spare

-them, two men back to the piquet with a

-<em>written</em> report, the rest still remaining in

-observation. Without having an actual

-force opposing you, you can only do this

-exercise with some appearance of reality

-by giving out verbal situations to the

-patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that

-wood which an enemy may be holding.”

-On this the patrol would get into formation

-and move forward. Then, when

-approaching the wood, “You have seen

-small parties of the enemy beyond the

-wood both on its right and left, and they

-are perhaps in the wood also; try and get

-into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or,

-if not, “show what you would do to draw

-their fire before getting close.” Then

-“the wood is held by the enemy, withdraw

-your patrol if you can.” As the

-patrol attempts to retire “a heavy fire is

-opened on you as you retire, showing that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>

-there is at least a company in the wood,

-your first duty is to send news of this

-to your piquet—how and whom would you

-send, and how would you frame your

-message?”</p>

-

-<p>(<em>d</em>) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon

-and take it to the place where the piquet

-is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position

-has at once to strengthen the position

-against attack, and this without waiting

-for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are

-here only training the non-commissioned

-officers in their duties we will not ask them

-actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes

-and entanglements; indeed, this, as one

-may term it, executive work, has its proper

-place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind,

-then, that we are dealing with a day outpost,

-ask or show the platoon how to

-strengthen the position. Bring out a few

-picks and let them spitlock on the ground

-the lines of any trenches that might be

-needed, paying great attention to the siting

-of the trench so that fire could be brought

-over all the ground in front. Let them

-indicate with exactness where and how

-they would improve and adapt existing

-cover. Great regard need not be had to

-the number of men in the piquet, as outposts,

-if attacked, should make as much

-show of force as possible, and it does good

-and not harm if there are alternative loop-holes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>

-facing in different directions; also

-accommodation must be provided for

-the support. The commander should

-look for ground outside the outpost

-line from which enfilade rifle or artillery

-fire might be brought to bear on

-him, and mark how he would protect

-his men from it by traverses, breaking the

-line of loop-holes into short lengths, keeping

-under lee of existing cover and so on.

-The strengthening of the piquet must be

-done with the aid of common-sense. It will

-seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit

-of trench all in one piece and hope the

-enemy will be good enough to come and

-knock his head against it. Cover may be

-made or adapted in several separate

-groups, if this is needed, so as to make it

-possible to bring fire to bear on any part

-of the ground in front. The piquet must

-be prepared to make as brave a show as

-possible, therefore the commander, while

-strengthening the point near which his

-piquet is to rest, must decide what he will

-do if attacked. Probably there will be

-within the limits of his piquet’s frontage

-one or two other points which might be

-useful for defence, and he must not expect

-attack just from one direction. With

-regard to such alternative positions he

-should settle when and how he will use

-them, and whether he can afford time and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>

-men to strengthen them, and, last but

-not least, whether he will be able to get

-men from one to the other if the enemy

-does develop a strong attack. If he can

-do all these he will have added immensely

-to his power of defence, provided he

-handles his men skilfully, as he will be

-able to hold one position till the enemy

-thinks he has defined its location, then

-dodge to another, while they will go

-on firing at the old one, and so make his

-piquet appear many times stronger than it

-is. Concealment of the defence is very

-important, and the non-commissioned

-officers should be reminded that this must

-be attended to. They may forget it as

-there is no actual digging.</p>

-

-<p>(<em>e</em>) Duties in Piquet.—The position of

-the piquet and alternative defence positions

-having been fixed, and trenches or other

-defences marked out on the position, and

-on the alternative positions if any, assemble

-the platoon at the piquet and show the

-non-commissioned officers how to tell off

-reliefs and other duties. Each group furnished

-by the piquet consists of

-three to eight men, and mounts one or two

-men as sentry, as the circumstances of the

-post require (I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry,

-single or double, being relieved in turn by

-the others of the group. The whole group

-is under command of the senior soldier or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span>

-a non-commissioned officer. The men

-who are to form the reliefs of the groups

-stay with the piquet, which usually is composed

-solely of the reliefs of groups and

-patrols. Extra men who have no specific

-duties are not advisable unless the position

-is very exposed. Suppose your group

-sentries are single, and the groups of three

-men each, and relieved every eight hours,

-then for every group posted and in position

-there will be six men in the piquet resting

-and waiting their turn, each group thus

-needing a total of nine men—three out, six

-in. Patrols start from the piquet or support,

-as the commander of the company

-directs, and the piquet commander may

-send them out on his own initiative, if he

-thinks it needful. As they are practically

-all on duty as long as they are out, a turn

-of four hours is enough for them, or, rather,

-a third of the daylight time. Take your

-patrols from this piquet to be four strong,

-there will be for each patrol eight men in

-the piquet and four out on patrol, a total

-of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.</p>

-

-<p>In telling off a piquet on the above conditions

-of relief, and before dismissing the

-men to rest, the commander must pay attention

-to two main points. Firstly, he

-must tell off the reliefs, and give each relief

-a place to rest in. Men on outpost

-are usually tired and need all the rest they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>

-can get, especially if they are up all night.

-Therefore reliefs should be kept together

-and rest in one place, so that the commander

-can find them at once without

-stirring up the others to see who’s who.

-Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm

-posts, which they are to occupy in case of

-attack—each relief and each man of it

-should be given a position on the entrenchment

-which he is to hold. To ensure that

-they will do this at once and without confusion

-they should be made to go to these

-places and occupy them before being dismissed.

-There will then be no needless

-running about with consequent casualties

-if fire, either of artillery or infantry, suddenly

-opens.</p>

-

-<p>Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned

-officers and others) in your instructional

-piquet give out that it is to furnish—</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent">1 Sentry over the piquet.<br>

-2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.<br>

-2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.</p>

-</div>

-

-<p>The sentry over the piquet alone being

-actually posted, the two groups and two

-patrols being supposed to be out in front,

-as this part of the lesson is only concerned

-with the inside work of the piquet, and

-you have already shown them this work on

-sentry and patrol. As your strength is not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span>

-sufficient you must make a further supposition,

-and make believe that for the

-reliefs of the groups one of your rifles represents

-three, and for those of the patrols

-one rifle represents two. Appoint one of

-the non-commissioned officers in turn as

-commander, and let him tell off accordingly.</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent">3 Rifles for piquet sentry, one of whom he actually mounts.<br>

-1 Rifle (representing three) as second relief, No. 1 group.<br>

-1 Rifle (representing three) as third relief, No. 1 group.<br>

-2 Rifles (representing two each) for second relief, No. 1 patrol.<br>

-2 Rifles (representing two each) for third relief, No. 1 patrol.<br>

-<span style="padding-left: .8em">And a similar number for No. 2  patrol and No. 2 group.</span></p>

-</div>

-

-<p>Having told off these reliefs the commander

-should then tell them where they

-are to have their resting places and where

-their posts are in case of alarm. At this

-time also he would give out any special

-orders which concern the piquet. Then

-without dismissing the men he should

-order them to go to their resting places,

-and as soon as they are there order them

-to occupy their alarm posts, which should

-be done in double time, the men lying

-down on the places that have been marked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span>

-out for entrenchment or improvement of

-existing cover. Make this falling in on

-alarm posts a standing order in the company.

-After this has been done, and each

-man knows exactly what he has to do on

-the alarm, the men should be dismissed to

-their resting places, which, as before said,

-should be separate for each relief and apart

-from each other. After being dismissed,

-the men would on service be allowed to

-make themselves as comfortable as possible.

-Other duties of the piquet commander

-are:—</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-  (1) The opening of communication with piquets in right and left and the support.</p>

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-  (2) The fixing of places for purposes of nature.</p>

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-  (3) The arrangements for getting up food to his men if they have not their rations with them.</p>

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-  (4) Keeping his piquet in a state of readiness; besides keeping accoutrements on, the men

-should have their rifles at their sides when resting, and take them with them wherever they

-go. There should be no such thing as piling arms on outpost.</p>

-</div>

-

-<h3><em>Night Piquets.</em></h3>

-

-<p>In the dark the bullet is a fool unless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>

-fired at close quarters. No practicable

-amount of shooting, even at only a

-hundred yards distance, will dislodge determined

-men posted under cover, and a

-serious attack must be made with the

-bayonet or by shooting within the distance

-at which a man may be distinguished—ten

-yards or so. F.S.R., 138 (2), lays

-down for the British Army that the

-bayonet only is to be used in night attacks,

-and we may assume that any civilized

-army we may have to meet will pursue

-similar tactics. Aerial reconnaissance may

-nowadays allow an enemy to locate the

-position held by the main body of his

-opponent, in spite of its being covered by

-outposts, but such reconnaissance does not

-admit of any hope of a successful night

-attack being made on that main body by

-eluding or passing through the outposts,

-because the surface of the ground cannot

-be sufficiently searched from above to discover

-the small obstacles which must be

-avoided or known if the advance of a

-large body of men is to be carried out at

-night. So we may take it that now, as

-formerly, any large attack will fall first

-on the outposts, supposing, as we must,

-that these are placed so as to hold or

-watch all possible lines of advance. In

-addition to this, outposts must expect isolated

-attacks made against one or two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span>

-points held by them which the enemy

-desires to gain possession of. The duties

-of outposts by night are, then, to hold

-and defend the outpost line in sufficient

-strength to prevent any large body of the

-enemy breaking through, or getting a

-footing in some tactically important position

-on the line, and also to prevent the

-enemy’s scouts from getting through and

-making observations, and, lastly, but of

-most importance, to get news of the enemy

-both as a means of forestalling any

-attack, and for the use of the force commander

-in framing his plans. Bringing

-the matter down to the level of a piquet

-of an outpost company, it seems to resolve

-itself into night patrolling and night

-defence of a position. As before pointed

-out, enclosed country allows of piquets

-closing the lines of advance by which

-large bodies can only hope to move undiscovered,

-while intervening ground can be

-searched by patrols. On the other hand,

-open country leaves the front vulnerable

-everywhere, and calls for a greater number

-of piquets and closer patrolling than

-are needed by day.</p>

-

-<p>Of course, elementary instruction in

-these duties must be carried out by daylight

-to allow of supervision; so now

-assemble your platoon of non-commissioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span>

-officers and give out that you are going to

-practise night work. Choose some place

-for your night piquet, realistic as may be,

-a bridge, a cutting, or anything else that

-constitutes a defile or otherwise blocks a

-likely line of advance from the enemy’s

-direction. Also choose, and point out to

-the platoon, positions where the adjoining

-piquets on the right and left would be.

-Give out the following instructions to the

-non-commissioned officers:—</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (1) Piquets must take up their night

-    positions when it is getting dusk,

-    the strengthening of the piquet

-    and construction of obstacles

-    being done in advance, secretly if

-    possible, and towards evening the

-    working party should withdraw

-    and leave the intended night position

-    empty till it is time to move

-    into it, further work being completed

-    by twilight.</p>

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (2) The provision of obstacles is

-    more necessary than entrenchment,

-    as securing the piquet from

-    being rushed while completing

-    the latter.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (3) Men must rest on their alarm

-    posts, and bayonets may have to

-    be kept fixed by all, if there is

-    a possibility of a sudden attack

-    (I.T., 151 (7)), to ensure instant

-    readiness.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span></p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (4) All piquets must stand to arms

-    one hour before light and remain

-    ready for action till the patrols

-    have found that there is no sign

-    of an immediate attack. When

-    relief takes place in the morning,

-    night outposts will not return to

-    camp till the patrols report all

-    clear.</p>

-</div>

-

-

-<p>After this, let the non-commissioned

-officer in command withdraw the piquet

-from its day position and march it to the

-night position. On arrival ask the non-commissioned

-officers in turn where they

-would place the piquet exactly and where

-they would put their obstacles. Obstacles

-for a night piquet should be under close

-fire, i.e., ten or twenty paces, but, in

-addition, booby traps and alarms may be

-placed further in front. Barbed wire is

-the best of all obstacles. The actual

-defensive measures to be taken do not

-differ from those taken for the defence of

-any position not on outpost.</p>

-

-<p>The position of the piquet and obstacles

-being decided on, let the non-commissioned

-officers mark on the ground the

-actual work they would undertake, having

-regard to the time available, which you

-should tell them, and, on the same lines<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span>

-as for the day piquet, let them as commanders

-in turn divide the men into reliefs

-of sentries and patrols, tell them off

-to their alarm posts, and order them to

-occupy them once as if on alarm.</p>

-

-<p>A piquet by night, no matter how well

-entrenched, has a very limited field of

-action. Even with most carefully arranged

-night rests for the men’s rifles its fire effect

-is small except at close ranges, and to resist

-attack by relatively larger bodies it

-must in general keep behind its defences.

-Hence a well organised scheme of patrols

-is necessary to supplement the passive opposition

-which the piquet can offer. The

-patrols are charged with the duty of bringing

-news of any advance of the enemy to

-attack, and, if he is close enough, of spying

-out his movements on and within his outpost

-line, of preventing his patrols or scouts

-penetrating their own line, of watching any

-localities which are of particular importance

-and unoccupied by piquets, such, for

-example, as villages beyond the outpost

-line which the enemy might try to occupy

-by night, and, lastly, of keeping up communication

-between the various bodies of

-the outposts. The strength of patrols is

-limited by the necessity of their being able

-to do this work without making a noise,

-and a strength of three to eight men is

-advised. A patrol performs its duty of observation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>

-either by going from point to

-point, or by watching one particular place,

-when it is called a “standing patrol.” If a

-piquet posts any group sentries by night,

-away from the piquet, such groups have

-just the same work as standing patrols,

-except that they may be ordered to maintain

-their position in case of attack as

-they are near support, whereas patrols

-would fall back as soon as they had made

-sure the enemy was advancing, and possibly,

-if in accordance with their instructions,

-after treating him to a short burst of

-rapid fire. An ordinary patrol will also

-have to halt and listen perhaps for long

-periods, and so becomes for the nonce a

-standing patrol.</p>

-

-<p>Form up the platoon at the piquet position,

-and let the commander tell it off into

-three patrols to practise this duty, disregarding

-reliefs, all three to be sent out at

-the same time in different directions, one

-man in each to be commander. Before

-they start off, tell them the following, which

-piquet commanders must see to:—</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (1) If there is no countersign published

-    for the force, piquet commanders

-    must arrange either a

-    word or a sign by which men may

-    know their own side in the dark.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (2) Patrols going out are to tell the

-    nearest sentry which way they are

-    going (I.T., 156 (5)).</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (3) For patrols a code of signals<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>

-    should be arranged, e.g., a hiss or

-    half-whistle, to call attention,

-    answered by the same to show

-    that the man called has heard it,

-    followed by the signal, whatever

-    it is:—a double hiss for “come up

-    to me,” a click of the tongue for

-    “retire,” but anything will do provided

-    it cannot be clearly heard

-    much further off than the listeners

-    for whom it is intended, and is

-    neither a very common nor a very

-    uncommon sound.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    (4) The piquet commander must tell

-    patrols how long they are to stay

-    out and any places he thinks must

-    be visited, in addition to what they

-    themselves may find advisable, on

-    closer acquaintance with the ground.</p>

-</div>

-

-

-<p>A suitable formation for a night patrol

-of six men would be four in the advanced

-party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the

-rear party or two. The reason for the

-stronger party being ahead is, firstly, that

-fighting at night begins with suddenness

-and ends rapidly, while reinforcement of

-one party by another is slow and uncertain,

-and, secondly, to ensure that some

-part of the patrol may have a good chance

-of getting away with news, whatever happens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span>

-to the rest: Bayonets should be fixed

-and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the

-right hand holding the small of the butt so

-as to come to the charge at once, and not

-to have any chance of a rifle falling on the

-ground.</p>

-

-<p>Tell patrol commanders to get their

-patrols into formation and practise movement

-in silence along a road and on

-ordinary road. If along a road, let them

-move on each side of it, off the metal on

-the roadside grass or dust, and under trees

-or close to the hedge or wall. On ordinary

-country the ball of the foot should be put

-down first as if to feel the surface, before

-putting the full weight of the body on the

-advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle,

-<em>à la</em> “boy scout,” is invaluable in moving

-over unexplored ground, as by it the real

-nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet

-can be made out, and awkward spills

-thereby avoided. The movement of

-patrols under these conditions will be very

-slow over any but quite level ground. As

-the patrols move let them practise the code

-of signals, halting, advancing, coming up

-into one line, etc., also the keeping up of

-communication by one file moving back and

-forward between the two parts of the

-patrol. They should practise also breaking

-up and scattering as if attacked by

-overwhelming numbers, each individual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>

-getting away as quickly and quietly as

-possible, and the whole rallying again at

-some place in rear. The patrol commander

-as he goes out must fix these rallying

-places, usually one is enough over the

-whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be

-<em>outside</em> the outpost line. Have the patrols

-moved so that on their beats they may

-meet each other once or twice, and use the

-sign to reply when challenge is made. As

-a second practice, direct one of the meeting

-patrols to consider itself hostile, and

-let the commander of the other patrol

-excogitate how he would deal with men

-who did not stand fast on being told to

-halt and could not give the countersign.</p>

-

-<p>Next tell the patrols to get into position

-to watch various localities, a farm steading,

-a ravine, or such like, as they would have to

-do for limited periods as patrols reconnoitring

-on their beats, or for the whole

-night as standing patrols. One of the best

-ways in which patrols can fulfil their office

-is by halting and listening with ears near

-the ground for sounds of human movement.

-There is no rule for thus lying up except

-that they must not get caught themselves.

-A couple of men should be left quite clear

-of the patrol to get away if the others

-strike trouble, and the commander of the

-patrol should have word passed to these

-two from time to time that all is well with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span>

-the rest, or they may wait in their place

-while the others have been quietly

-downed.</p>

-

-<p>Lastly, let patrols return to the piquet,

-and learn how to approach without getting

-themselves fired on, or causing useless

-alarm. A good way is for two of the patrol

-to advance a few steps at a time when near

-the piquet, halting and quietly code-signalling

-the piquet sentry till they get His attention

-and warn him that the patrol wants

-to come in.</p>

-

-<p>It has taken longer to write about outposts

-than it may take you to put your men

-through them, and I have purposely been

-discursive because a knowledge of what is

-needed from outposts is more important

-than any set exercise, and also because

-this duty is the one which newly raised

-troops are most likely to perform negligently,

-and at the same time the one which,

-if neglected, allows the enemy to bring raw

-troops to quick demoralisation. I have also

-purposely written as if unlimited ground

-were available, and, speaking generally, I

-think it is. You can, and should, practise

-your piqueting and patrolling on the

-ordinary countryside, with its main and

-bye-roads, paths, fields, and hedges. The

-practice of outposts when piquets are not

-entrenched, causes no damage, so that

-leave to move over the fields should not be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span>

-hard to get, but even if it cannot be got,

-the principal and most important work of

-patrolling and watching all roads and paths,

-will be done on the ground on which they

-would be done on service. If fighting ever

-takes place in Britain, which Heaven forefend,

-outpost lines will be along the ordinary

-country and not on Salisbury Plain, so

-do not go into wild and desolate places

-for your outposts, but take the ordinary

-country round where you are.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XV">EXERCISE XV.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Defence.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>The subject of defence is treated of in

-F.S.R., 107-110, I.T., 125-135, and in

-Chapter VII., M.F.E., 1911. The duties

-required of the company commander and

-his subordinates are briefly defined by I.T.,

-132, to be similar to those they carry out in

-the attack. The whole spirit of the regulations

-is that the active Defence is merely a

-means to an end, viz., the ultimate assumption

-of the offensive, which may be carried

-out either by the same troops which have

-acted on the defensive or by fresh troops

-detailed for the purpose. In both cases

-the troops that have acted on the defensive

-must be ready to become the aggressors.

-Therefore, in training your men, you

-should keep this constantly in view and

-conserve a spirit of aggressive mobility.

-Men must not be allowed to think that

-once a position has been taken up and

-entrenched it is to be their location till

-fighting ceases; on the contrary, they

-should be encouraged to look for opportunities

-while still on the defensive,

-to occupy alternative positions which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>

-will make the task of the attacking

-enemy more difficult. Quickness

-in seizing and strengthening a position

-must be combined with mobility in

-leaving it to take up and strengthen a

-new one. Of course, the time available

-regulates the work that can be undertaken

-(M.F.E., VII. (2)); deep trenches and

-concealed head cover cannot be made with

-an enemy pressing in to assault, but the

-first requirement is the ability to choose

-positions that give a good field of fire

-and to strengthen them as thoroughly as

-the time available and the proximity of

-the enemy admit.</p>

-

-<p>In dealing with a company, the onus of

-choosing what localities it is tactically

-necessary to occupy and strengthen rests

-with the company commander, subject to

-the orders of his battalion commander.

-In the same way as on outpost, you will

-be given a bit of ground to defend, either

-acting with the battalion or as an isolated

-company, and the rest will be on your

-head. I do not propose to deliver a

-treatise on the tactical occupation of

-ground, but instead I will ask you to procure

-and read two books. The first is

-“The Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” by

-Backsight Forethought (W. Clowes and

-Sons), the second is “A Staff Officer’s

-Scrap Book,” by Sir Ian Hamilton<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>

-(Edward Arnold). They are both most

-readable books, and are quite free of

-soporific effects. The first is small, and

-deals with the efforts of a half-company,

-under Lieutenant B. F., to defend a drift

-over a South African river. In the second

-the author takes you along with him

-through the Russo-Japanese War, of which

-he was a privileged spectator, and in your

-journeyings you look on at victories and

-defeats in the making, while the causes

-that led to them, great and small, are set

-forth, along with many shrewd comments

-on human nature and how it translates

-itself in the day of battle. Every fight

-bears its own lesson of what to do and

-what not to do in defence, and this told

-in no pedantic strain, but with the saving

-grace of humour, to mitigate the darker

-side of human carnage. Read them both,

-get to yourself the wisdom and understanding

-with which they are filled, and

-you will know how to take up a position

-for defence.</p>

-

-<p>Having educated yourself to choose the

-points of a defensive position that must

-be occupied if the position is to be effectively

-held, you have still to train your

-men to the work of defending them, and

-they must learn to be able to do without

-the help of a supervising officer, as will

-often be the case on service.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span></p>

-

-<p>Daylight defence is almost entirely a

-matter of fire, the immediate object being

-to make it impossible for the enemy to come

-to close quarters. Platoon and section commanders

-then must be able to dispose their

-men with this in view to the best advantage

-within the limits of the ground

-allotted to their units, and the men must

-be able to site their trenches or whatever

-form of cover has to be constructed so

-as to use their rifles to the best effect. It

-is no good to teach men to dig trenches

-and make loop-holes unless they know the

-proper places for them. (M.F.E., 18 (7)).</p>

-

-<p>At the same time, practice in digging

-and the use of tools is very necessary for

-men who are not accustomed to such work.

-The hands of the untrained man blister

-and his muscles tire under the unusual

-effort, while he expends much energy with

-results small in comparison with what he

-can accomplish once he has learnt to use

-his strength well. Moreover, a certain

-amount of technical skill is required in

-making any but the most simple cover.</p>

-

-<p>To practise the execution of work, you

-<em>must</em> have ground which you are at liberty

-to turn up, as well as some materials for

-loop-holes and obstacles. These may not

-be obtainable at any and every parade,

-but you can give practice in the selection

-and siting of trenches on any bit of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>

-country without causing damage, the men

-merely spitlocking or marking with stones

-or anything else the position of the

-trenches on the surface of the ground, and

-describing what they propose doing.</p>

-

-<p>I would, therefore, advise that you

-make your training consist of two parts,

-firstly the siting of trenches and the planning

-by unit commanders and men of

-defensive work, the choice and occupation

-of alternative positions, and the assumption

-of the offensive from the defensive,

-all this without actually breaking ground,

-and, secondly, ground and tools being

-then available, the performance of a course

-of making real cover and obstacles.</p>

-

-<p>But the first part cannot be carried out

-unless the men have a knowledge of what

-trenches, loop-holes and so on are like,

-and the objects with which they are made.

-In a company of raw recruits taken from

-the populace at large, there will be plenty

-who have no ideas on the subject at all.

-You must then precede your exercises either

-by a short lecture, materials for which you

-will find in plenty in the “Defence of

-Duffer’s Drift,” and the manuals of training,

-or, better than a lecture, by showing

-them specimens of entrenchments made by

-regular troops. The main points to insist

-on are the securing of a field of fire, the

-necessity of concealment of the defences,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span>

-the importance of head cover as a help to

-the delivery of an accurate fire by letting

-men keep the enemy in view without showing

-up themselves, the avoidance of enfilade

-fire by making traverses, or by taking

-advantage of intervening high ground,

-the provision of cover from downward

-shell fire by making the trenches deep and

-steep enough to let men stand close up

-to the edges, and, in the case of isolated

-posts and points held as pivots of a position,

-the necessity of preparing an all-round

-defence so that these pivots will be

-able to continue fighting whatever happens

-on the intervening ground. The course

-of work actually performed for the second

-part should include digging all kinds of

-trenches, by which the men will learn to

-use their tools to the best advantage, and

-their hands and muscles will become

-hardened, the use of the excavated earth

-to form parapets and parados (cover from

-fire from the rear of the trench; forty

-inches of earth are needed to keep out a

-bullet), the drainage of trenches, the making

-of traverses against enfilade fire, the

-making of loop-holes and head-cover with

-the aid of all sorts of materials, sand

-bags, brushwood and heather, straw and

-twigs, stones and bricks (which must be

-covered with earth to deaden the effects

-of splinters), packing boards, and so on,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span>

-the concealment of trenches and loop-holes

-so as to be invisible to the enemy (this is

-of great importance), the masking of loop-holes

-when not in use to prevent light

-showing through, the making of dummy

-trenches and loop-holes to draw the

-enemy’s fire away, the improvement of

-existing cover, such as loop-holing walls

-and the use of hedges with or without

-ditches, making sangars, if stones are

-available, the making of obstacles of

-barbed and plain wire, and measuring and

-marking of ranges round a position, which

-should be done by some means not obvious

-to the enemy, and clearing the field of

-fire. It will seldom be practicable to

-obtain subjects for practical demonstration

-of some of the latter in peace time;

-people will object to their walls being

-experimented on or their shrubberies laid

-low, and so even here a description of the

-method will have to be substituted for

-actual performance. For night defence

-the construction of night rests for rifles is

-needed. The best I know is a packing

-case, filled with earth, with the front and

-rear edges notched to hold the rifle stock.

-The magazine is laid hard up against the

-outside of the rear edge and the notches,

-front or rear, slowly deepened with a penknife

-till the sights bear on the target;

-afterwards earth is banked up outside the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span>

-box and head-cover made above. The

-foregoing may seem a formidable list, but

-they are things that will undoubtedly be

-required as soon as you get on shooting

-terms with an enemy; while if you exhaust

-this list and feel the want of further

-occupation, the Engineering Manual will

-supply you with further subjects for your

-activities.</p>

-

-<p>Pending your getting facilities of

-ground, tools, and materials to execute

-work, you can proceed with the first part

-of training outlined above. If your non-commissioned

-officers have not had experience,

-take them out as an instructional

-section in the same way as when teaching

-outpost work, and put them through the

-exercises which follow. But if they are

-already fairly competent, take the men

-on parade, forming them, if possible, into

-not less than two sections.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>Instruction in Siting Trenches.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Choose any position on undulating

-ground, form the men in extended order

-in one line in rear of it, and order them

-to move up, and mark where each would

-place his trench in order to fire on an

-enemy advancing from the front. In

-doing this it should be an invariable rule

-that men must lie down, bring the rifle into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span>

-the firing position, look along the sights,

-and move forward or back till they see that

-they have got the best position to sweep the

-ground in their immediate front (see

-M.F.E., 31 (3)). Dead ground close to

-the trench gives the enemy a place in which

-to collect and organise an assault. Take

-the men in the same way on to other positions

-and repeat the lesson till they all

-understand that the <em>first thing to be done

-is this aiming with the rifle to secure a

-good field of fire</em>. At first halt them

-close to what you see is the best line, and

-afterwards halt them thirty or forty yards

-from it, and then give the order to choose

-sites. For instance, halt them on the top

-of a convex slope and let them find out

-that the best place to bring fire on to flat

-ground at its base is somewhere on the

-enemy’s side of the convexity, for if the

-trench were made on the top of the slope

-the ground immediately in front would be

-hidden by the convexity. The section

-commanders must help the men in choosing

-sites.</p>

-

-<p>After the men have fixed and marked

-the proposed sites, let them lay down their

-rifles three paces in rear and kneel or lie

-down at the rear edge of the site as if

-waiting to commence work while you and

-section and platoon commanders go round

-and examine the line. Ask details from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span>

-the men—how high they would make the

-parapet, how thick it should be, how they

-would make head-cover, how they would

-conceal the work, and so on.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>Traverses and broken lines of Trenches.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Repeat the exercise as above, but this

-time have the men in sections or small

-groups, and the trenches made not in one

-line, but in short lengths, separated by

-traverses. You will have to explain the

-construction and use of these to prevent

-enfilade fire (if not from long range), and

-to localise shell bursts. Again, have lines

-of trenches mapped out in short lengths

-on an irregular front, some a little forward,

-some a little back, with the earth

-at each end, banked up on the flanks with

-the same object (M.F.E., 33).</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>Short Trenches for Two Men.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Bring the men extended to six or eight

-paces on to a position, and let the men of

-each file close to two paces from each

-other. Each file is then to choose and

-mark a site for a short trench to hold both

-of them, or, as it would formerly have

-been called, a rifle pit, marking where

-they would make loop-holes to fire both

-to the front, and obliquely towards the

-right and left, so as to rake the ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span>

-in front of the line of the other men’s pits.

-This arrangement is not officially recognised,

-and it does not give the closest

-possible firing line, but it is an excellent

-way of making men think for themselves.</p>

-

-<p>When the men have got their bearings

-in the matter of taking up a line for entrenchment,

-make them get into the way

-of changing from defence into attack.

-Take up a position as before, and as soon

-as the trenches are marked out, indicate a

-position at some distance as an objective

-for attack and start an advance against

-it, as done in the attack practices, forming

-a firing line rapidly of some named

-platoons and the support of the others. A

-skeleton enemy kept hidden till needed

-adds much to the realism.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>Defence of Pivots (M.F.E., 50 (3), and

-I.T., 129).</em></h3>

-

-<p>Find a position in which there are some

-points separated from each other which

-command the ground between, and also

-form such pivots for defence of the position

-as are described in the paras.

-above. According to the nature of

-the ground, such pivots might be, for

-platoons, as much as four hundred yards

-apart, i.e., attackers coming between them

-would be under fire at not more than two

-hundred yards. Send a platoon under a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span>

-commander to each pivot, and let him

-plan and mark out his defensive measures,

-which must include:—</p>

-

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    1. An arrangement for all-round defence,

-    so that the pivot may be

-    self-contained and capable of

-    continuing the fight, although

-    others may have been captured.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    2. The siting accordingly of trenches

-    and loop-holes to fire all round

-    and especially to sweep the front

-    and rear of adjoining pivots.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    3. The adaptation of existing cover to

-    save labour.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    4. The provision of protection against

-    enfilade and reverse fire, and the

-    <em>recognition of distant localities</em>

-    from which such fire, whether of

-    artillery or rifle, might be

-    brought to bear on the post.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    5. The marking of ranges in each

-    direction.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    6. The provision of obstacles.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    7. Any feasible scheme for alternative

-    positions which his men could

-    reach and occupy under fire.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    8. The concealment of the defences,

-    provision of dummy trenches,

-    and loop-holes and any other

-    shifts.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    9. The telling off and posting of

-    look-out men and fixing and

-    occupying of alarm posts when

-    work has been completed.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    10. Drainage and sanitation.</p>

-</div>

-

-

-

-

-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span>

-

-<p>The concealment of defences from aerial

-reconnaissance will, perhaps, soon claim

-more attention than it gets at present.</p>

-

-<p>Practise an attack after defence, starting

-off one platoon under your own orders

-to “go for” an indicated enemy, and

-sending word either by messenger or by

-semaphore to the others, either to join

-you and form a firing line, or to move out

-in support, but, if the latter, do not fail

-to finally call them up to reinforce the

-firing line; counter-attacks must usually

-be made with a relatively strong firing

-line and small support.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>The Company in Defence Acting Alone.</em></h3>

-

-<p>When you have put non-commissioned

-officers and men through the preceding

-course, plan some scheme on the lines of

-the defence of Duffer’s Drift, to deal with

-a company isolated and beyond reach of

-immediate reinforcement. Any bridge

-over a railway line, a group of buildings

-supposed to contain stores, or a ford or

-bridge over a river, will provide you with

-an object to defend. Choose a line of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>

-defence round it and determine what are

-the essential pivots to be held. To do

-this, so as to furnish an instructive lesson,

-it will usually be necessary for you to

-pay a visit to the place by yourself and

-formulate your proposed defence before

-bringing the company on to the ground.

-Pay great attention to crossing and supporting

-fire from the pivots, and look at

-the surrounding country with a view to

-meeting attack from any direction, for

-in this case the company, as well as the

-pivots in its line of defence, must be self-contained.

-Also have regard to the certainty

-that you will have artillery fire

-against you, to which you will not be able

-to reply, and in consequence your proposed

-defences must include deep trenches

-or recesses to shelter the men from shell.

-Your defences will take the form of a

-chain of isolated groups about the point

-to be defended and separated from each

-other by possibly several hundred yards.

-It is no use simply to go and sit inside a

-group of buildings which the guns would

-knock about your ears and against which

-the enemy can concentrate. The better

-plan is to break up his attack and hide

-your weakness by occupying well-strengthened

-pivots, behind whose protection you

-may have some freedom of movement, and

-so be able, if the weakness or rashness of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span>

-the enemy gives opportunity, to inaugurate

-local counter-attacks. These, if successful

-in inflicting a sharp and sudden loss,

-will make him hesitate to deliver a decisive

-attack till he has found out all about

-you. With one company you cannot

-expect to achieve decisive results against

-any considerable body of the enemy, but

-must be content with keeping him in play

-for as long a time as possible, and an

-attitude of active bluff is the best means

-of doing so.</p>

-

-<p>When you have got your plans completed,

-take out the company as strong as

-possible and complete in its proper platoons

-and sections—if there are too few

-men let one man count for two or three.

-Send off platoons to occupy and plan the

-defence of the pivots as done when practising

-it before. Do the same scheme

-on two separate occasions. The first time

-do not send out a skeleton enemy, so that

-the men may have time to look round, but

-for the second time send out some scouts

-under a subaltern, and let the platoons fall

-out on their positions with patrols out in

-front. Fix a certain hour by which you

-expect the arrangements to be all ready,

-and arrange for the enemy to advance at

-that time, and open fire on the patrols if

-they are met. When the patrols have

-fallen back the enemy closes in and starts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>

-sniping at the position. Then bring off a

-counter-attack, withdrawing some men for

-the purpose from pivots that are not

-threatened, and coming in on the flank of

-the attackers. In theory, of course, you

-should have a support or reserve available

-for this, but it does no harm to move men

-out of their trenches with the object of

-assuming the offensive, while the men learn

-the essential part of their work by all being

-employed on the perimeter.</p>

-

-<p>Have out the company yet a third time

-on the same or a similar scheme, pivots

-and skeleton enemy as before. On this

-occasion, if the scheme is the same, change

-round the platoons to different pivots from

-what they occupied before, and when the

-arrangements for defence have been

-settled, leave only sentries and their groups

-on the pivots as look-outs, but have patrols

-in front. Form the remainder of the men

-into a support in some central position, and

-tell them off to occupy as alarm posts the

-pivots from which they were withdrawn.

-When the skeleton enemy attacks, reinforce

-the threatened part of the line by the

-men of the units told off for its defence,

-and with part, or even the whole of the

-rest, make a counter-attack.</p>

-

-<p>It is very desirable, though unfortunately

-not often possible, to perform these last

-three practices on ground where you are at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>

-liberty to dig, and with an enemy of three

-or four companies instead of a few snipers.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>Night Defence.</em></h3>

-

-<p>A night attack may be delivered as a

-sequence to fighting by daylight, in the

-course of which the enemy has established

-himself sufficiently close to the defences

-held by his opponent to see clearly the way

-to reach the point against which he intends

-to lead his force. Or he may deliver an

-attack without previous fighting, hoping to

-get the better of the defenders by surprise,

-and basing his plans solely on the

-results of reconnaissance. In the latter

-case the attack must be preceded by a

-night advance, long or short, according as

-the defenders’ outposts and their patrols

-have succeeded in keeping the hostile

-troops at a distance or not, unless, indeed,

-the troops or their scouts or spies have not

-been in touch at all during the day in

-which case an attack would not be a wise

-proceeding, because the needful information

-about the ground and your forces

-is lacking. Such attacks as require a night

-advance as a preliminary are likely to be

-made either over open ground or along

-roads, for the difficulties and delays occasioned

-by moving troops over broken

-ground which is not thoroughly known are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span>

-very great. But in the first case, when

-fighting has been going on by day, and the

-two forces are in close contact at nightfall,

-separated perhaps by only a few hundred

-yards, the presence of broken ground

-in front of the defences is no guarantee

-that the enemy may not consider an attack

-by night to have a reasonable chance of

-succeeding against any of the points which

-he has been trying to carry by daylight.

-It follows then that in preparing a position

-for defence the pivots must be ready to

-withstand attack by night as well as by

-day, and also that roads or paths leading

-into the position from the surrounding

-country should be held and defended by

-night, in spite of their being innocuous by

-daylight owing to being swept effectively

-by fire from the adjacent pivots. It will

-be admitted, I think, that fire by night is

-ineffectual unless at very short ranges, or

-when delivered by men of extraordinary

-skill such as the up-country Boer and the

-American backwoods-men were pictured

-to be. A European enemy will seek to

-bring off his attack with the bayonet. The

-defenders will try to foil this attack, firstly,

-by the use of fire at the close range, which

-allows it to be effective, and, secondly, by

-the use of the bayonet. This plainly

-translates itself into obstacles to keep the

-enemy under fire, obstacles to hamper him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span>

-when at bayonet distance, and night rests

-to help the accuracy of the fire in certain

-desired directions. I have told you one

-good form of night rest, and there are

-several others, but all require some material

-if they are to be even approximately accurate.

-Failing material of any sort, tie

-white rags round the muzzles of the men’s

-rifles if you can get them. After a week

-in the field your men will have nothing that

-is not very dirty, but in a civilised country

-some member of the population may perhaps

-be found ready to oblige a soldier.</p>

-

-<p>Working still on your daylight scheme

-show your non-commissioned officers and

-men how to make night obstacles in addition

-to those meant for daylight defence,

-which latter may be any distance up to one

-hundred yards in front of the trenches.

-The night obstacles, on the other hand,

-should be quite close, the fire obstacles as

-close as ten yards, the bayonet obstacles,

-say a narrow ditch and a wire, close under

-the trenches so as to make a man stumble

-when trying to reach the defender with his

-bayonet. Make or plan these arrangements

-round the pivots, and then practise

-blocking and defending paths or roads by

-the same methods as for pivots, but with

-this variation, that a parapet which can

-only be used for defence at night may be

-as high as you consider needful without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>

-paying regard to its invisibility, while

-those to be used by day are kept as low as

-possible. In a practical exercise the men

-to hold these night posts would have to be

-furnished either from your support or by

-thinning some of the pivots.</p>

-

-<p>Yet the most carefully arranged trenches

-and obstacles will be of no value unless the

-men occupy them in time to avail themselves

-of their advantages. Time sufficient

-to allow of this, must be got by

-patrolling in front as for outposts, by making

-automatic alarms in front of the obstacles

-(M.F.E., 55 (12)), by having alert

-sentries on the defence line, and by having

-a good and well understood arrangement

-of alarm posts by which each man shall be

-ready to occupy at once, in silence, and

-without confusion, the place which has

-been assigned to him. Patrolling has been

-dealt with under “Outposts,” the alertness

-of your sentries will depend largely on the

-state of discipline to which you have

-brought your company, and on the commonsenseness,

-to coin a word, of their

-training. Alarm posts are practised in the

-same way as on outpost. In many corps

-it is a standing order that when in camp or

-bivouac, on manœuvre as well as on service,

-men are to fall in on their alarm posts

-once a day, the usual times being at retreat

-or on arrival in camp (F.S.R., 48<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span>

-(2)), and this is done whether in Brigade

-(F.S.R., 47 (2)) or not. If such is the order

-in your battalion, adhere to it within your

-company when detached, if not, do it

-off your own bat. It does not fatigue the

-men and ensures attention being paid on

-all occasions to this important duty.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XVI">EXERCISE XVI.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Hasty Expedients.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>I.T., 93 (iii.), directs the training of the

-section to include rough and ready expedients

-so as to form a fighting front in

-any direction. This training is of great

-value, both from a disciplinary point of

-view, as it makes men quick to move on an

-order, and also from the point of view of

-<em>moral</em>, as men accustomed to get sudden

-and unexpected orders given under

-imaginary circumstances will be more

-likely to keep cool, when such orders are

-necessitated by the stress of actual battle,

-than men who have always been trained

-in a deliberate fashion.</p>

-

-<p>Such sudden orders must in general

-mean one of two things, either that the

-enemy has got you, or you have got him,

-“on the hop,” if I may introduce an expression

-from the cricket field, and that

-there is every chance of the bowler, whoever

-he is, being badly scored off, unless

-he treats the batsman to something more

-difficult than the expensive half-volley.

-If you are fortunately able to find the

-enemy at a disadvantage, you will act<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>

-against him by rifle fire alone; but, on the

-other hand, you may find yourself caught

-in a bad situation, by either artillery or

-rifle fire, or possibly by cavalry, who

-mean to use the steel. It follows then, in

-practising expedients, based, as they

-should be, on some possible situation, that

-you should make the central idea either

-offensive, as if attempting to bring your

-men into a position to get the best results

-from their fire, or defensive, as if to

-escape, or mitigate shell fire or rifle fire,

-to which you are subjected under adverse

-conditions.</p>

-

-<p>Against artillery fire from ranges or in

-positions at which you cannot reply effectively

-with rifle fire, your action at first,

-at all events, must be purely defensive,

-i.e., all you can do, will be to escape

-being overwhelmed by the shell fire, and

-even at effective rifle range, the shields of

-modern field guns, enable them to engage

-infantry on very equal terms, so long as

-the infantry is in front, or not far on a

-flank, of the line of guns.</p>

-

-<p>In the days of muzzle-loaders, it was

-the cavalry who possessed the power of

-suddenly annihilating infantry, when

-caught unprepared to withstand their

-charge. The magazine rifle has reduced

-this danger, but the quick-firing cannon

-has now equal, if not greater, powers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>

-dealing out swift destruction to any infantry

-that it finds exposed in close

-formation, if only the range be known.

-At least once in the Russo-Japanese War,

-and again in the Turko-Bulgarian war, if

-we may believe the somewhat ill-authenticated

-reports yet to hand, have artillery

-wiped out of existence in a few moments

-several hundred unfortunate infantrymen,

-who were caught in the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rafâle</i>

-fired at a range either ascertained previously,

-or got at the moment by good luck

-or good judgment. The contingency of

-being thus caught by artillery is evidently

-one that should be prepared for by infantry,

-as was the forming of squares in the old

-days, when a cavalry charge was an ever

-present peril. In this case of artillery fire,

-the conditions and the object desired are

-practically always the same—the infantry

-is in close order of some sort, and wishes to

-break up into a congeries of small groups,

-so as to isolate the effect of the burst of

-each shrapnel. The matter of rifle fire is

-different, as there are any number of ways

-in which you may seek either to escape the

-results of the enemy’s fire or attempt to

-use your own, and this is the proper field

-in which to practise expedients.</p>

-

-<p>Whenever you intend to carry out some

-such movement to meet a supposed situation,

-you must let the men know exactly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span>

-what you are picturing, so that they also

-may understand what is needed. The

-essence of these practices is that they

-should be performed without time for deliberate

-thought—the men must learn to

-think and act quickly. The most satisfactory

-way is to be yourself mounted, as you

-can then get the whole company to hear

-you at once, whereas, if on foot, the men

-who are farthest from you often lose the

-first part of what you say; you then have

-to repeat it, and the thing loses its character

-of surprise for the rest, who have

-already heard it once. Give out the

-situation in a loud voice, and in as few

-words as possible, then try and give the

-very order you think you would give, if

-the situation was a real one on service;

-use your own imagination, in figuring what

-you would say, and how you would say it.

-To call attention, it seems legitimate to use

-your whistle, as on service the men would

-have some warning that things were about

-to happen, either by the arrival of shell or

-bullets, the sight of the enemy, or by the

-signal of their own scouts. In giving the

-situation, if you are receiving fire, give out

-what kind of fire it is, the enemy’s position,

-if it is allowable to suppose it known, or

-if you are going to be on the offensive, give

-out where the enemy is, and what he is

-doing, and how you learn this, i.e., by your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span>

-scouts, or by first-hand observation. For

-example, while the company is marching in

-fours along a road, you see, in imagination,

-two shells burst simultaneously near by,

-and about two hundred yards from each

-other, and you wisely deduce that the

-enemy is ranging on your company. Blow

-your whistle and give out “Artillery fire

-is opening on the company, from such and

-such a direction—open out to columns of

-sections.” If you have taught your men

-what to do to escape artillery fire, they will

-open out at the double into columns of

-platoons, at not less than fifty yards interval,

-measuring roughly at right angles to the

-direction of the supposed fire (I.T.,

-118 (3)).</p>

-

-<p>In practising this opening out under

-artillery fire, which, as I have said, is the

-one specific hasty manœuvre performed

-under conditions nearly always similar, it is

-inexpedient to lay down any fixed rules for

-the positions to be taken up by the

-platoons. It sounds simple to say that the

-platoons of the leading half-company go to

-the right, and those of the rear half to the

-left, but when men are marching at ease,

-and shells begin bursting round them unexpectedly,

-I do not think there will

-be time for anyone to see which half-company

-is leading. The main thing

-is to get the platoons instantly away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span>

-from the road on which the enemy has laid

-his guns, and from each other. Direct

-platoon commanders to lead their men at

-the double in any direction away from the

-platoon in front, except, of course,

-towards the rear. In theory, of course,

-this might result in all four making

-out towards one flank, but, even so,

-this is better than having any deliberative

-halts on the road, and in practice the

-platoons in rear can see which way those in

-front are heading, and wheel to go to the

-other flank. There is no advantage to be

-had from getting the men in the ranks into

-extended order, as the shrapnel scatter the

-whole width of their bursting zone in an

-impartial manner, nor is it any use to seek

-such slight cover as gives only a screen

-from view, unless with a view to getting

-away from the shell-swept locality without

-attracting notice. Platoon commanders

-should, of course, make for any cover that

-is sufficiently steep on the rear side to

-shelter them from the downward dropping

-shrapnel bullets. If there is no cover, the

-best thing after getting out into the line

-of platoons separated by fully fifty yards

-intervals, is to move rapidly forward. If

-cover exists with open ground round it, the

-men may be got away by “dribbling” man

-by man, in the hope that the enemy may

-not spot the movement, and continue or

-resume his shell practice, to defeat it.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p>

-

-<p>As regards expedients against rifle fire, I

-will only suggest a few, and leave you to

-invent others suited to the nature of the

-ground you have got to exercise on.</p>

-

-<div class="blockquot">

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    1. The company in close order is surprised

-    by a heavy rifle fire; there

-    is cover near by sufficient to hold

-    the whole company crowded together.

-    Order the men to get

-    into the cover helter skelter, and

-    then advance or retire, by the successive

-    movement of platoons or

-    sections, who take extended order

-    at their best speed as they emerge

-    from shelter. If facilities exist,

-    tell one or two platoons to reply

-    to the fire, from the cover, till

-    their own turn comes to move, by

-    which time the first lots that went

-    out should have got into position

-    to open fire.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    2. The company in close order is again

-    surprised by rifle fire, but there is

-    no cover near to act as a base.

-    Get the company quickly into extended

-    order, and let men reply

-    to the fire as soon as they have

-    extended, using studiously slow

-    fire.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    3. The company or platoons in extended

-    order have to change front

-    to meet an attack from a flank.

-    As in the book, call on them to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>

-    line a hedge or ditch, facing so as

-    to fire in the new direction.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    4. Coming through a gap in a hedge

-    or wall, either in advance or retreat,

-    scattering off right and left,

-    so as to get out of the way of fire

-    concentrated on the gap.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    5. The scouts from a position some

-    distance from the company report

-    a body of the enemy unaware

-    of their presence and exposed

-    to fire. Bring the company

-    quickly up to the scouts’ position,

-    halt, load, and adjust sights under

-    cover and just short of the firing

-    position, and on your whistle the

-    men advance at once to the edge

-    of the fire position and surprise

-    the enemy by a simultaneous fire

-    from all the rifles.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    6. Taking up quickly an all-round defensive

-    position; the platoons or

-    sections go off and find the best

-    positions in different directions

-    which you merely indicate

-    roughly.</p>

-

-

-<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">

-    7. Hastily organised attacks, to dislodge

-    an enemy unexpectedly

-    found in occupation of a position,

-    also taking up action as flank and

-    rearguards under fire.</p>

-</div>

-

-

-

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XVII">EXERCISE XVII.<br>

-<span class="smcap">Night Operation Training.</span></h2>

-</div>

-

-<p>I.T., 113, gives some instructions as to

-how men are to be taught to march and

-to use their ears and eyes at night, while

-F.S.R., chapter ix., goes into the subject

-at length. These operations are

-divided into night marches, night advances,

-and night attacks. The men of a

-company will not be fit to take a useful

-part in night tactical exercises either in

-company or in battalion, unless they have

-had some elementary training as laid down

-in “Infantry Training,” and have also been

-practised in the two indispensable duties of

-maintaining connection (F.S.R., 129 (4))

-and in reconnaissance (F.S.R., 130 (1)).

-Night patrolling and the duties of night

-sentries have been dealt with under outposts,

-and I will not say anything more

-about them here. The rest of the

-elementary training contained in “Infantry

-Training” requires no explanation,

-and you can practise your men

-in it in small parties. There remains

-the maintenance of connection,

-and I have found that training for this is

-best done at first by daylight. It is very

-simple, and after one or two daylight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span>

-lessons the men will work quite well by

-night, but to begin straight off under darkness

-will only lead to waste of time, as

-mistakes cannot easily be corrected, nor

-the working of a system made plain.

-The company should parade as strong as

-possible in this exercise, as, with only a

-few files on parade, the necessity of maintaining

-connection, and the difficulty of

-doing so, are not so obvious as when a

-fairly large body of men has to be handled

-without making a noise. Connection has

-to be maintained within the company itself,

-and also with the other companies in front

-or rear, if in column of route, or on the

-right and left, if deployed. In order to

-practise this connection with other companies,

-represent the front and rear, or flank

-section commanders of the supposed adjacent

-companies by a man for each company,

-who should move where those

-section commanders would be, i.e., in

-fours, at the head or tail of the directing

-flank, in line, on the flanks of the front

-rank. Use these dummies as the recipients

-of all orders and signals passed along, so

-that your company may get the habit of

-keeping touch with the others before it

-works with the battalion.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>I. Connecting Files.</em></h3>

-

-<p>The only sure way of keeping connection

-between bodies of troops moving in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>

-separate parties is by connecting files, who

-keep within sight of each other and so can

-seldom be at more than twenty yards distance

-apart. These files must be taught to

-pass commands with exactitude, and never

-to open their mouths otherwise, i.e., they

-must never speculate between themselves

-“Are they advancing?” or so forth, or talk

-at all, because the next file may hear some

-word of their talk and mistake it for an

-order. When connecting files are needed

-they must take up their places without its

-being necessary to tell them off loudly, and

-when no longer needed they must close

-into company in silence and in good order.</p>

-

-<p>Form the company into fours, turned to

-a flank as in column of route: tell the

-dummy section commander of the preceding

-company to march off; string the company

-out after him, the men marching off

-in files at about ten paces between each

-file without further command after the first

-one has gone, each as it moves off touching

-the next to follow, to give it notice. When

-they are all strung out, let the rear dummy

-section commander follow. Then pass

-orders up the line; use only the form given

-in I.T., 96 (3). To make sure that such

-verbal orders have reached the intended

-recipient, the only way, though a slow one,

-is to require him to send back a report that

-he has taken the action required. Thus, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span>

-message from the rear to the leading portion

-to halt would be answered from the

-leading portion by a report passed down

-the line to the commander “The leading

-portion, or, etc., has halted.” Let your first

-order be to halt, passed from the dummy

-company in rear up to that in front “From

-Colonel A. to all companies—halt.” On receiving

-the order one man of each file

-halts on his ground and turns to the rear,

-the other goes forward to the next file as

-quickly as he can without noise, delivers

-the order, and returns to his former place,

-when he halts and faces the other way

-from his comrade. Thus, on the completion

-of the order to halt, one man of each

-file will be facing each way. Bayonets

-will usually be fixed in night operations,

-and it is important, especially in Rifle Battalions,

-to accustom men to carry the rifle

-on the right shoulder, with the hand round

-the small of the butt and never at the trail,

-otherwise there is much danger of someone

-getting a stab as well as an order.</p>

-

-<p>After the halt, get on the move again by

-passing up the word to advance, and practise

-any other likely orders:—“Go fast in

-front,” “Go slow in front,” “The rear cannot

-keep up,” and so on. Follow the orders

-up the line and see that men do not tamper

-with the form of the order en route, and

-that they speak in a whisper when giving<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span>

-it over. Section and platoon commanders

-must be told all orders as they pass, see that

-their units conform, and look after the

-maintenance of the distance between files.</p>

-

-<p>Next practise lateral communication, the

-four platoons in one line in close order,

-with company intervals between each,

-representing the leading platoons of

-four companies drawn up in line of

-columns of platoons at deploying intervals

-and ready for a night advance.

-Lateral connecting files need to be

-closer than when following each other,

-so put out connecting files to the flanks in a

-similar way to what was done before, but

-at six, or eight yards interval. Then

-move, halt, and deploy the supposed

-column by means of these files, dressing

-and interval being kept up by the files moving

-up or stepping short, and closing on

-or inclining from any named company of

-direction without specific orders.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>II. Marching and Formations.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Form up the company and get it into

-fours as if in column of route, dummy company

-section commanders as before. Practise

-marching off from the halt, and halting,

-passing the word from the front or rear

-company along the men on the flanks of

-the fours. As the order comes along,

-the flank men of the fours nudge or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span>

-shove the other men in their respective

-fours, and whisper to the flank men in the

-four in front or behind. There is seldom

-any need to speak, as a push or pull is

-enough. The platoon commanders get

-the word from the flank men of

-the sections of fours, and from one

-another as well, as they are to follow

-the order along their own platoons,

-and go forward or back to the commander

-of the next platoon to whom they must repeat

-it, and then resume their proper

-places. The platoon commander of the

-leading, or rear, platoon is responsible for

-passing the word to the nearest platoon

-commander of the next company. The

-company officers must arrange also to hear

-all orders, and should have fixed positions,

-known to all, which they will only quit temporarily.

-In marching off from the halt,

-the rear portion of the company should

-step out well, as soon as the order reaches

-them, so as to avoid straggling, while the

-leading fours preserve a uniform pace. In

-halting in battalion, the leading fours

-should close up on the company in front,

-and continue to do so, till it is seen that it

-has finished closing up; there is always

-bound to be a good deal of straggling at

-first owing to the method of giving orders.

-When this system is in good working order,

-move and halt the company on your own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span>

-audibly whispered word of command, the

-platoon commanders repeating it, the system

-of communication being kept up as

-before, but the men moving at once on the

-word; this will give a fairly simultaneous

-action throughout the company while ensuring

-against loss of touch.</p>

-

-<p>On the same lines, practise forming line

-from column of platoons, mass, and column

-of platoons from column of fours, and

-marching in line, paying attention throughout

-to dressing and the covering of files in

-line.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>III. Night Assault.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Choose a position as objective, and form

-the company, in line or in column of

-platoons, about three hundred yards from it,

-with scouts about eighty yards in front of

-the company (F.S.R., 137 (4)). This is the

-formation which would usually be adopted

-at the position of deployment. When the

-scouts have got about one hundred yards

-from the position, or up to a line which

-they would recognise in the dark as being

-in close proximity to it, they should halt,

-and wait for the arrival of the company.

-The whole then move silently forward towards

-the position till you give the word

-or signal for assault, when all charge.

-Practise this stealthy advance right on to

-the position, as if the enemy were not alert,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span>

-and also make the charge from some distance,

-as would be done if the enemy

-opened fire, which is recognised to be what

-will most often happen. After the assault

-the men should be rallied by the non-commissioned

-officers taking all men within

-their reach, and forming them into extemporised

-sections ready to be reformed into

-platoons and to begin entrenching.</p>

-

-<p>If by chance you get material, you may

-introduce refinements, in the way of wire-cutting

-men with each section, sand

-bags with each man, and bags stuffed

-with straw carried ready to throw on to

-abatis or to fill up trenches, to be carried

-in a fixed place in the company.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>IV. Night Entrenching.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Practise marching with arms and tools,

-and taking up a position to be entrenched,

-with especial regard to avoidance of noise.

-When entrenching by night, the trenches

-cannot be chosen to give a field of fire

-unless it has been possible to obtain access

-to the locality by day, and mark them in

-advance; failing this the company commander,

-as soon as the position is reached,

-must send patrols, and go himself, to

-ascertain that no commanding ground, at

-least in the immediate vicinity, has been

-left unoccupied, and, at the first light, all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span>

-other such points within effective range as

-it is possible to hold, should be secured

-and entrenched, without orders from

-higher commanders. A full illustration

-of this, however, can only be done by

-parading at night.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>V. Search Work.</em></h3>

-

-<p>Practise the company in going off, as if

-detached from the column to get touch with

-other troops, or to find a gate or bridge by

-which some obstacle, wall, canal, etc.,

-met with, can be passed. The company

-moves off dropping connecting files to

-keep touch with the halted column, the

-files halt at their distances, and pass word

-if the company has achieved its mission,

-and close on the company when the column

-comes up, but not before, else the column

-will be left out of touch; or, if the need

-has passed and the company is recalled

-to the column, the connecting files again

-remain at their posts till the company is

-gathered back on them.</p>

-

-

-<h3><em>VI. Surprises.</em></h3>

-

-<p>When only a few men are on parade,

-advanced education, combined with

-some amusement, may be got by experimenting

-in the best ways of laying out

-obnoxious persons, such as hostile patrols,

-who have to be rushed in silence (F.S.R.,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span>

-138 (5)). Before beginning a stalk, the

-quarry should be kept under observation

-to see which way he looks when halted,

-and any other idiosyncrasies. The assailant

-should creep up to him either on his

-flank, or from behind, moving one foot at

-a time, and bending down, though not on

-all fours. If the sentry looks his way,

-he must stay absolutely motionless, till he

-again looks away. My informant on this

-matter was a friend of a successful rifle

-thief in Upper India.</p>

-

-<p>After putting the company through the

-above daylight course, you should, of

-course, put theory into practice and do

-some real night work whenever you get

-the chance, putting out a skeleton enemy

-or some observers to tell you how much

-noise you make, and follow out the full

-instructions as to orders, watchwords,

-etc., given in F.S.R., 138 and 139. Test

-your men as to their ability to see in the

-dark; some men can see much more than

-others; spot these men and tell them off

-as “Night Scouts.” Even if they are not

-otherwise qualified as scouts, they are

-most useful in guiding the company over

-rough ground.</p>

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-<div class="chapter">

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p>

-

-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SCHEME_OF_A_COMPANY">A SCHEME OF A COMPANY

-TRAINING.</h2>

-</div>

-

-

-<p>I give below, as an example of the application

-of the foregoing exercises, a

-scheme of company training which I

-actually carried out. This was in the days

-before platoons, so I have altered the

-scheme to show what I should have done

-had the company organisation been

-what it now is. I was given from

-Monday in one week to Saturday the next

-week to march out into camp, about 10

-miles, and get back, i.e., two days of

-march, and ten halted working days. I

-had thirty-five rounds per man of ball

-cartridge available for field practice

-musketry, and a sufficiency of blank for

-the requirements of skeleton enemy and

-for use with the men in one or two of

-the exercises. My men were Regulars,

-and during the previous furlough season

-I had grounded them piecemeal in field

-work.</p>

-

-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p>

-

-

-

-

-<table class="autotable">

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bt bb br"> DAY.</td>

-<td class="tdrx bt bb br"></td>

-<td class="tdlx bt bb br">Forenoon Work.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bt bb">Afternoon Work.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">1</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Monday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">March out to camp. March discipline and work of connecting files.

-Advanced guard. Sanitation. Water piquet and sanitary patrols. Pitched a perimeter camp as

-for savage warfare. Trenched tents against rain, and made a shelter trench round camp. Alarm posts.</td>

-<td class="tdrx bb"></td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">2</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Tuesday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Individual advance in extended order. Retirement by pairs.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Improved and deepened camp entrenchments, made loop-holes, night rests, and obstacles.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">3</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>Wednesday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon and Section in attack as part of Company.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Field practice Musketry:—Individual advance in extended order. 7 rounds ball per man.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">4</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Thursday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon in independent attack.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Field practice Musketry:—Section in independent attack, 7 rounds ball per man.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">5</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Friday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon in retirement.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Preliminary training for Company attack. Fire discipline and control.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">6</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Saturday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack with the battalion.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Prepared target positions and markers butts for snapshooting.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">7</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span>Monday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack with Battalion.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Snapshooting, 7 rounds per man.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">8</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Tuesday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack acting alone.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Snapshooting, 7 rounds per man.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">9</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Wednesday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Outposts.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Company in attack, 7 rounds ball.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">10</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Thursday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Defence.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Company in retirement.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx bb br">11</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Friday</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb br">Night attack. Parade at 2.30 a.m.</td>

-<td class="tdlx bb">Hasty expedients.</td>

-</tr>

-<tr>

-<td class="tdrx br">12</td>

-<td class="tdlx br">Saturday</td>

-<td class="tdlx br">March back to quarters.</td>

-<td class="tdrx"></td>

-</tr>

-</table>

-

-

-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">

-

-

-<div class="transnote">

-

-<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>

-<ul>

-

-<li>Catalog page Changed Miscellaneous Tactica to: Tactical</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_62">62</a> Changed close and re-form to: reform</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_63">63</a> Changed expect either a counterattack to: counter-attack</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_67">67</a> Changed this exercise, though to: through</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_76">76</a> Added period after: left on the position</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_124">124</a> Changed trenches or make loopholes to: loop-holes</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_125">125</a> Changed the line of loopholes to: loop-holes</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_136">136</a> Changed: (I.T, 156 (5)) to: (I.T., 156 (5))</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_182">182</a> Added comma after: entrenchments, made loop-holes</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_183">183</a> Added period after: 7 rounds ball per man</li>

-<li>  pg <a href="#Page_184">184</a> Added period after: Friday Night attack</li>

-</ul>

-

-</div>

-

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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      The Training of an Infantry Company | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
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+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 69943 ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 65%">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover">
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h1>
+THE TRAINING<br>
+
+<span class="fs60">OF AN</span><br>
+
+INFANTRY COMPANY.</h1>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+</div>
+
+<div class="pageborder">
+<p class="center fs150"><b>CATECHISM ON FIELD TRAINING</b></p>
+
+<p class="center">(<b>INFANTRY</b>).</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A series of Questions and Answers on
+all subjects of field training, extracted
+from the latest official TRAINING
+MANUALS, together with miscellaneous
+information, practical exercises
+and examples progressively arranged.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+<em>Revised and brought up to date by</em><br>
+<span class="fs130 wsp"><b>COL. H. O’DONNELL, p.s.c.</b></span><br>
+<span class="fs80 wsp">(WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT).<br>
+<em>SIXTH EDITION.</em></span></p>
+
+<hr class="r65">
+
+<p class="center">CONTENTS.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Elementary—General Principles of Attack
+and Defence—Miscellaneous Tactical
+Operations—Warfare in uncivilised Countries—Protection
+on the Line of March—Protection
+when at Rest—Methods of
+obtaining Information—Quarters, Camps,
+and Bivouacs—Field Engineering—Diary
+of Training.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>Fully illustrated with 30 pages of Plates and Diagrams.</em></p>
+
+<hr class="r35">
+
+<p class="center"><b>One of the numerous Press Opinions.</b></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“The book is most comprehensive, for every
+branch of the soldier’s life is touched upon, and
+every situation or emergency seems to be anticipated.
+Colonel O’Donnell’s publication is quite
+a military encyclopædia.”—<cite>Empress</cite>, Calcutta.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center"><b>PRICE 3/- NET.</b></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center wsp"><em>From the Printers and Publishers</em>,<br>
+GALE &amp; POLDEN LTD.,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Wellington Works, Aldershot</span>,<br>
+And at London and Portsmouth.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center wsp">
+<span class="fs150"><b><em>The</em> TRAINING</b></span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs80">OF AN</span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="smcap fs150"><b>Infantry Company</b></span><br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs80"><em>By</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs130">Major <span class="smcap">E. Kirkpatrick</span>, I.A.</span><br>
+<br>
+<br>
+—————:O:—————
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="smcap fs120">2nd Edition.</span><br>
+<br></p>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<p class="center wsp"><br>
+<em>London</em>: <span class="smcap">Gale &amp; Polden, Ltd.</span>,<br>
+<br>
+2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.<br>
+<br>
+Nelson House, PORTSMOUTH &amp;<br>
+Wellington Works, ALDERSHOT.<br>
+Obtainable from all Booksellers.<br>
+<br></p>
+
+<hr class="r90">
+
+<p class="center fs130 wsp">
+<em>TWO SHILLINGS &amp; SIXPENCE</em> (<em>Net</em>)<br>
+
+<span class="fs80">(<em>Copyright under Act of 1911.</em>)</span><br>
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Aldershot</span>:<br>
+<br>
+PRINTED BY GALE &amp; POLDEN, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Wellington Works</span>.<br>
+<br></p>
+<hr class="r5">
+<p class="center"><span style="margin-left: -1em;">1914</span></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>This booklet has not been written for
+the use and benefit of officers and non-commissioned
+officers of long experience
+and proved skill in the profession of
+training men for battle. To such as
+these it may only provide an object of
+criticism, for in the course of years spent
+in turning recruits into trained soldiers
+they will have formulated to themselves,
+and adopted, some system of training
+which they found productive of the best
+results under their own guidance. But
+there are many at present, and at a future
+time, should certain circumstances arise
+in the life of the nation, there may be very
+many more who may not have such stores
+of experience to draw on, and yet may
+be faced with the problem of rapidly
+converting an untrained or only partially
+trained body of men into a force capable
+of acting successfully in real war, both
+in attack and defence against trained and
+disciplined troops. Again, it is written,
+not for officers commanding battalions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span>
+nor for officers of cavalry and artillery,
+but only for officers commanding companies
+or other similar units of infantry,
+though it may, perhaps, be of use in
+training mounted troops for dismounted
+action.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, while the pipes of peace are
+still smoking, it is hoped it may be of
+some use to officers and non-commissioned
+officers when the time comes to prepare
+schemes of company training and put
+them into execution.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+E. K.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><em>September, 1913.</em></p>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<p class="center">PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.</p>
+
+<p>Since the above was written, the issue of
+new or amended Manuals of Training has
+necessitated a revision of the book, which
+is now presented in a form agreeable to
+the four-company organisation.</p>
+
+<p>The Empire is now confronted by those
+circumstances to which allusion was made
+in the Preface.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+E. K.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><em>September, 1914.</em></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdr"><span class="fs80">PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">List of Abbreviations</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Introductory Remarks—</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr" style="width:13%">I.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Intention of the Book</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Making the Best of their Companies to Train the Modern Man for the Modern Battle</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Standard of Training assumed to have already been acquired and its application to further Exercises</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Ground for Training—Its Use and Influence—Palliation of the Lack of a Training Ground</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Company Organisation—Moral and the Personality of the Commander</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Discipline—Moral and Means of Supervision</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Organisation by Files and its Effect on Moral—Cohesion</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Method of Training</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">As to Scouts and Working Dress</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr style="height:40px">
+<td class="tdc" colspan="3"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</span>EXERCISES</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Individual Advance in Extended Order</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Retirement by Pairs</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Individual Training in Use of Fire and Fire Discipline</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Assault</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Attack</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Retirement</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Independent Attack</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Platoon as Advanced and Flank Guard</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Preliminary for the Attack by the Company in Battalion</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">X.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack with the Battalion under Artillery Fire</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack with the Battalion under Rifle Fire</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack Acting Alone</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Retirement</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Outposts</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Defence</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Hasty Expedients</td>
+<td class="tdr"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</span><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Night Operations</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+<td class="tdc">————</td>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">A Scheme of Company Training</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center fs120">REFERENCES <span class="fs80">AND</span> ABBREVIATIONS.</p>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" style="width:20%">I.T., 128 (3)</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Infantry Training, 1914, Section 128, para. 3.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">F.S.R.</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Field Service Regulations, Part I. Operations, 1909 (Reprint 1912).</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">T. &amp; M.R.</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Training and Manœuvre Regulations, 1913.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">M.F.E.</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Manual of Field Engineering, 1911.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_FEW_PRESS_OPINIONS">A FEW PRESS OPINIONS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<p class="center">“UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.”</p>
+
+<p>Major E. Kirkpatrick is the author of a small book on
+“The Training of an Infantry Company.” There have
+been so many books and pamphlets of this kind—short
+cuts to knowledge—that one is apt to regard each fresh
+one with suspicion and even with aversion, but Major
+Kirkpatrick has much that is helpful to say, he says it
+well, and he shows how much good work may be done
+even in the training of the emasculated companies such
+as our military system so often leaves us. His instructions
+cover a wide field, and there must be few company
+officers who will not be grateful to the author for many
+valuable hints.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">“UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION OF INDIA.”</p>
+
+<p>There are few junior officers of infantry who will not
+benefit by a study of this book. The thorough system of
+training elaborated in the seventeen exercises, which
+form the major portion of the book, is worthy of the
+attention of Regular as well as Territorial Officers.</p>
+
+<p>These elementary exercises deal with the essentials in
+the war training of the Infantry soldier, from the work of
+the individual in advance and retirement, and of the
+section in action and on protection duties, to the training
+of the company in attack and defence, and outpost.</p>
+
+<p>As an example of a system of training illustrating the
+necessity of attention to detail in the early instruction of
+the soldier, this series of exercises is valuable, and their
+value is increased by the constant reference to training
+manuals. The author wisely recommends the study of
+all the official books referred to as he recognises that his
+exercises and comments are only of value in so far as they
+illustrate and explain the principles laid down in training
+manuals.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center fs150"><b>THE TRAINING</b></p>
+
+<p class="center fs80">OF AN</p>
+
+<p class="center fs150"><b>INFANTRY COMPANY.</b></p>
+
+
+<hr class="r35">
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTORY_REMARKS">INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.</h2>
+
+<p>The authorised handbooks of training
+rightly confine themselves to broad principles,
+and do not attempt to give
+detailed examples of their application,
+the idea being that officers should study
+these regulations and apply the principles
+by the light of local conditions and their
+own experience. Infantry Training and
+the Field Service Regulations are, however,
+very pregnant little books, containing,
+as they do, a summary of the whole
+of Modern Tactics, as far as they concern
+infantry and the combined action of all
+arms. Time and thought are necessary,
+if the principles contained in them are to
+be translated into such intelligent action
+that the men trained on the lines laid
+down may be capable of doing their duty
+in real warfare, without first undergoing
+a bitter and costly schooling of useless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span>
+casualties or, perhaps, even of defeat.
+But if an officer is called on to achieve this
+result, being himself without much previous
+experience in training, he will find
+himself faced with a task of great difficulty,
+and, with the best intentions, he
+may waste precious time, as well as his
+own and his men’s patience and energy,
+in doing parades and exercises, which are
+either not indispensable, or of minor
+importance for the main object. As an
+extreme example, it would be better, in
+a hastily raised corps, to combine the
+disciplinary training of obedience to the
+word of command, with instruction in the
+use of their arms, by practice in smart
+work in aiming and firing, than merely
+to study precision in “sloping” and
+“presenting arms,” which look well,
+but do not immediately affect fighting
+efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>For these reasons, it has occurred to
+me that I might do some of my brother
+officers <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in esse</i> or <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in posse</i> a service by
+setting out certain elementary exercises in
+training infantry soldiers, which I have
+found of value in bringing them up to a
+standard of battle training sufficiently
+high to need only battalion training and
+a baptism of fire to turn them into steady
+and reliable troops. It is not contended
+that these few examples are anything but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span>
+concrete instances of the application of
+the principles of the Training Manuals.
+They are intended, as has been stated,
+merely for those who are short of time
+and experience, and, therefore, references
+to the manuals are given when the exercise
+illustrates some particular section of those
+works, and it is recommended that
+officers who intend to use these examples
+should look up and read the sections
+referred to before going on to the parade.</p>
+
+<p>Though this book is not meant for
+officers commanding battalions, I have
+one word to say to them, and it is this,
+that if they wish to have an efficient
+battalion they must let the company
+officers have proper opportunities of training
+their companies, apart from the time
+of company training, when the whole
+company is struck off duty. If there are
+six parades a week, let three or four of
+them be company parades, ordered and
+carried out by the company commanders;
+the balance will be quite enough to secure
+combination between the companies in
+battalion. On company parades, the
+battalion commander should supervise,
+but never interfere, unless things are
+being manifestly mismanaged. (See
+T. &amp; M.R., 2 (2 and 3)). The days
+of the one man battalion are gone
+for ever. The company is the thing that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>
+matters; a good battalion can only be
+composed of well-trained companies. It
+is the work of the battalion commander
+to propound the general lines of training
+and to use the companies to the best
+advantage in combination, but the training
+of the individual soldier must be in
+the hands of the man who is to lead him
+in war.</p>
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p>On ordinary parades, the captain of
+an infantry company is seldom able to
+get together more than a fraction of his
+men. The calls on the company for men
+for duties and odd jobs, leave and furlough,
+and, in the Territorial Force, the
+private occupations of the men, allow of
+only a few being assembled on any one
+parade. This being so, there is a temptation—sometimes
+yielded to by officers
+who have not much experience, to say to
+themselves: “This is rot; what can I do
+without any men?” Such a question is
+the result of confusing the individual
+instruction of the men with the tactical
+practice of the leader in handling his
+company as a whole. The answer too
+often takes the form of an hour’s close
+order drill or something similar, which
+may do some good, but not nearly as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span>
+much as if the officer stoutly made up his
+mind to make the best of a bad job and
+took out those few men and did some
+practical training in field operations. The
+fewer men there are on parade, the more
+individual attention will the company
+commander be able to give them. He will
+be able to look at each man’s work more
+carefully, talk to the men and get to
+know their characters as soldiers, spot
+who are likely to make good non-commissioned
+officers, and coach them far more
+than if the whole company were on hand
+at once. So do not turn up your nose at
+a company only twenty strong, but make
+up a scheme of exercises to be gone
+through, and, since the men who are not
+on parade to-day will be so to-morrow,
+arrange to do the same exercise on two,
+or, if needed, three, consecutive days, so
+as to catch all, or, at least, most of the
+men, and your non-commissioned officers,
+who are not usually so drawn on for off-parade
+duties, will become well acquainted
+with each exercise, learn what
+to do and how to run things, and so
+become both a help to you as instructors,
+and themselves gain authority and power
+of command from the knowledge of their
+own competency.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite likely that these exercises and
+the explanations given, may seem to some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>
+readers to be absurdly simple and needlessly
+long-winded, while there is also a
+good deal of repetition. To this I will
+make early reply that they are written for
+officers who are not too proud to accept
+other people’s advice in training a company
+of young soldiers of the stamp
+which would be forthcoming if some
+cause<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> or other tempted or constrained into
+military service that great proportion of
+our male population who are at present
+quite ignorant of a soldier’s work, and
+who, from apathy, or a hundred other
+causes, do not join the Territorial Force.
+Such men probably have never in their
+lives given a thought to soldiering. The
+majority of them are town born and bred,
+and have passed most of their lives among
+bricks and mortar. If they have ever
+looked carefully at the large or small
+features of a bit of country, it has been
+from an industrial, sporting, or, perhaps,
+sentimental, but never from a tactical,
+point of view. They have everything to
+learn in making use of ground for fighting.
+Their ideas of using modern arms
+are equally crude; the primitive fighting
+instinct will be uppermost in their minds,
+and would express itself in an incontinent
+desire to get to close quarters with their
+enemy, when bayonet, butt or hand grips<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>
+would seem the proper way to settle the
+matter. A very laudable desire it is—this
+of wanting to close in—and one to
+be encouraged by every means, but however
+brave troops may be, they cannot in
+general indulge their desire to attain
+close quarters and the resulting facilities
+of fighting by the light of their natural
+instincts unless they have first been successful
+in the fire fight—the strife of the
+arms of artifice—which is waged by bullet
+and shell at distances which Nature never
+contemplated.</p>
+
+<p>It is the artificiality of the fire fight
+which makes the task of turning town-bred
+men into skilful soldiers such a
+difficult and lengthy process. They must
+be led to look at ground in relation to its
+capabilities of increasing the effectiveness
+of their own fire and also of diminishing
+the result of that of the enemy, i.e., they
+must learn to select good fire positions
+and good cover. The problem of finding
+the latter for himself against a civilized
+foe begins, for the individual soldier, as
+soon as the enemy’s rifle fire becomes
+effective and compels the use by his side
+of extended order; this is held to be on
+open ground about fourteen hundred
+yards from the enemy’s infantry (I.T.,
+118 (4)). Prior to this the responsibility
+for cover rests with his leaders, as he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>
+will then be in some close formation. Fire
+positions he must choose for himself as
+soon as his section commander ceases
+to be able to indicate his wishes, or
+to secure combined action by the whole
+unit. This will probably happen at
+about six hundred yards from the enemy,
+when individual fire is expected to
+replace controlled fire by sections. These
+two aspects of fighting—the use of
+ground, and the use of the rifle as a
+far-reaching weapon of almost absolute
+precision, if truly sighted and aimed—are
+foreign to our instincts, and the
+average man has to be trained till he is
+able to override his instinct and fight an
+artificial war, so as to work his way to
+charging distance. Some men need less
+training than others; a stalker in a deer
+forest is an adept in the use of cover, and
+in general, country-bred men should be
+easier to train than town-bred, but the
+majority of our men being the latter, we
+must lay ourselves out to teach them from
+the beginning this business of the fire
+fight, since success in this is usually
+necessary before the assault can succeed
+(I.T., 121 (7)). This can only
+be done by training them in extended
+order and putting them through various
+exercises chosen for the purpose. Any
+exercise which does not in some way tend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>
+to fit men for battle is mere waste of
+time; aimless perambulations of an extended
+line fall under this category, but
+are quite often to be seen on parade
+grounds. No amount of smartness in
+close order drill will compensate for a
+deficiency of field training.</p>
+
+
+<h3>III.</h3>
+
+<p>The exercises which I have drawn up,
+simple though they are, are of the nature
+of “Instructional Operations,” as defined
+by T. &amp; M.R., 40 (12), and it is presupposed
+that the men have received, or
+are in course of receiving, sufficient instruction
+in the use of the rifle (musketry
+in all its branches), and of the bayonet
+(bayonet fighting), in drill in close order,
+and the drill grounding of extended
+order work, including signals (I.T.,
+90-96). We are then to consider ourselves
+to be at the stage in which the soldier is
+to be taught to work over broken country
+as directed in the latter part of para. 90,
+above quoted. But do not think the
+lessons learned at musketry instruction are
+to be forgotten and left behind by the
+men when they begin to work in extended
+order across country. Demand
+from your men that the rifle shall be
+deadly, and, by unceasing supervision,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>
+breed a habit among them of aiming and
+firing in extended order, whether with
+or without blank cartridge, with the same
+exactitude as when firing their course of
+musketry on the range. Take the high
+standard—a hundred men’s lives in one
+man’s bandolier, instead of a hundred
+bandoliers for one man’s life. The higher
+standard of the two is at least possible,
+though not common, but why not try and
+work towards it, so that when bullets are
+flying within decisive range of the enemy,
+it will be your men’s fire, that is the
+deadly close-hitting kind, that makes
+afraid, and not the haphazard jet of
+bullets whose inefficacy lets unhurt
+familiarity breed tolerant contempt?</p>
+
+<p>In the same way, when men are in close
+order at any time during a field parade,
+keep up the same smartness, and quick
+obedience to orders which are exacted in
+close order drills, in order that the men
+may become truly disciplined, and not
+merely so in appearance, so when they
+come under fire without being extended,
+as may happen in the early and distant
+stages of a fight, they will, as a matter
+of course, submit themselves to their
+commander’s wishes, and ignore their own
+inclinations, which, just at the first experience,
+even with very brave men, might
+be for an immediate and independent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>
+rush in some direction—perhaps forward,
+perhaps in another direction—they will
+be “in hand,” and free of the liability
+of raw troops to suffer from sudden panic
+or to become a mob, full of fight, perhaps,
+but still a mob, and as such, a
+force which cannot be controlled or used
+in furtherance of any general plan.</p>
+
+
+<h3>IV.</h3>
+
+<p>The want of a suitable and accessible
+bit of ground on which to train our men
+is one of the chief difficulties we have to
+meet in the United Kingdom, and, of
+course, it is greatest in the case of town
+corps, varying with the size of towns,
+while in large cities ground is not to be
+had at all, save at a distance of several
+miles from the men’s dwelling places.
+Unfortunately, there is little doubt that
+the possession or lack of suitable training
+grounds has a great effect on the readiness,
+or otherwise, of troops to give a
+good account of themselves when they
+come under fire for the first time in their
+lives. The lack of it takes away reality
+from the work of the men in the ranks
+and cramps the initiative of their officers,
+who are given no opportunity to exercise
+their wits in figuring out practical situations
+which might occur on service.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p>
+
+<p>I can give no recipe for obtaining the
+use of ground, but from what I have just
+said I hope it is clear that the officer commanding
+a battalion or company should
+use every blandishment or art of which
+he is capable to get the use of a stretch
+of ground, and also, if it is at a distance,
+and the attendance of the men at parades
+voluntary, he should try to provide facilities
+for getting them to and from the
+ground. The worst bit of country is
+better than the barrack square.</p>
+
+<p>The ideal ground is that which gives
+conditions suited to each phase of the
+training, the principal requirements being
+fire positions and cover, and these should
+occur so as to provide illustrations of
+the use to be made of them in individual
+training, and in the collective training of
+sections, platoons, and the larger units.
+Thus, for training individual men, good
+ground would be that with an irregular
+surface, giving many places twenty to
+fifty yards apart, which each man could
+use in firing and taking cover. The
+usual seaside golf course of hummocks,
+furze bushes, and occasional watercourses,
+is good to teach individual men over—I
+say teach, for we must not imagine that
+an enemy will be so kind as to leave easy
+ground like that in his front, if he can
+help it. For section or platoon training,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>
+the surface should be similar, so that the
+individuals should still be called on to
+look out for their own halting places, but,
+in addition, there should be a certain
+number of small features, hillocks, banks,
+and so on, one to four hundred yards
+apart, which will serve as fire positions
+and cover for the whole unit, and provide
+the commanders with successive
+objectives, to which it will be their duty
+to bring their men in good order, and
+without needless exposure to the enemy’s
+fire. When the company is training
+together, the ground should be similar,
+but of greater extent, both broader and
+larger, so that sections and platoons may
+be practised in supporting each other,
+some being halted in these fire positions,
+and covering by their fire the movements
+of the others who are in process of gaining
+fresh vantage points. And so on for
+larger units and the combined action of
+all arms; good ground for early instruction
+is that whose features, from their
+nature and distance from each other, lend
+themselves to illustrate conditions under
+which the power of each unit and arm
+may be most profitably employed in conjunction
+with others. Troops trained over
+ground that gives the above advantages
+will acquire an eye for country. A knowledge
+of the uses to be made of ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>
+will be common to all ranks, so that when
+they find themselves fighting on bad
+ground, which does not give much cover
+or good fire positions, they will be the
+more apt to search for such cover and fire
+positions as are obtainable, while troops
+trained on flat and open ground would be
+much slower in making the best of a bad
+job. We are not concerned with anything
+more than a company; therefore, get for
+your own use, if you can manage it—failing
+help from higher powers—a bit of
+ground of some sort, golf course, common,
+city park, or what not. It need not be
+very extensive. Even if it gives only three
+or four positions suitable for occupation
+by a section working in conjunction with
+another, say, six hundred by three
+hundred yards, it will give room for useful
+instruction; but, of course, a larger
+extent is preferable, as giving room for
+more extended and varied exercises. If
+your training ground is of limited extent,
+it should, nevertheless, if possible, have
+a wide field of view on all sides beyond
+its own confines, and leave you the right
+to send a few men to take positions on the
+adjoining country, even if not allowed to
+manœuvre about it, so that when carrying
+out your exercises you may be able to use
+men with blank cartridge to act as a skeleton
+enemy, when such is needed. But if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>
+you are not allowed to send men on
+to the neighbouring ground, the wide field
+of view will still enable you to indicate
+certain distant positions as <em>supposed</em> to
+be held by the enemy. By this means you
+will be able to use the whole area of your
+permissible ground to represent a bit of
+the battlefield, and escape having to
+place the supposed enemy absurdly close
+to your manœuvring troops, e.g., at the
+edge of the training ground, or in some
+other position which makes heavy calls on
+the imagination. Britishers are not
+imaginative. Lastly, if all else fails, and
+you have nowhere to go except the flat
+parade ground, or even the drill hall,
+which in large towns is often very spacious,
+do not, I beg you, become discouraged
+and throw up all effort to get
+your men ready for field work. Do the
+exercises on the flat, limiting the extent of
+movements, if there is little room, and
+use flags or anything else to represent fire
+positions for sections and platoons, and let
+the men kneel or lie down between
+advances, if there is no cover. A great
+deal may be done in this way to lay a
+good foundation for extended order
+work. Your men will know the mechanism
+of it, and you will save much time when
+you do manage to have them out on a
+proper training ground. I.T., 107 (2), requires<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>
+company commanders, in preparing
+their schemes of training, to have regard
+to the ground at their disposal; do so,
+therefore, even if the ground aforesaid is
+only a parade ground, and make the most
+of it; it is better than sitting still and
+either doing nothing, or only a weary
+round of company drill in close order.
+Of course, you must let the men know
+what you are driving at, or they will get
+bored and lose interest.</p>
+
+
+<h3>V.</h3>
+
+<p>Having got a company of men and
+ground to train them on, the first step is
+to organise that company for its battle
+training. A company is organised into
+four platoons, each under a subaltern, with
+a sergeant as his second-in-command
+(platoon sergeant). Each platoon has
+four sections, and the sixteen sections
+of the company are numbered one
+to sixteen. The men of each of
+the above units remain permanently in
+that unit. <em>If possible</em>, maintain this
+organisation on duties and fatigues,
+though this is often a counsel of perfection,
+but quarter the men together, and
+insist on the maintenance of the organisation,
+<em>without deviation</em>, on parades. Have
+lists made up of the men of each platoon
+and section, and let men who so wish,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>
+belong to the same unit. Once these lists
+are made up, see to it by means of the
+section commanders that these men fall in
+on parade together in the place in the
+company where their section is standing,
+no matter how few there are; if there are
+but two men of one section on parade, they
+should fall in as front and rear rank men
+of one file. Avoid disseminating the
+men of a platoon or section among other
+units in order to raise the latter to a sizeable
+strength. Instead of this: supposing
+you have three weak platoons and
+one strong one on parade; of the four
+sections of one of the weak platoons, send
+two to each of the other two weak platoons.
+This will give you three platoons of, perhaps,
+unequal strength, but sufficient for
+work—and this without taking the responsibility
+of section commanders off their
+shoulders, and the cohesion of each
+unit is preserved. Some further suggestions
+on the subject of organisation will be put
+forward when speaking of <em>moral</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The officer who aspires to develop whatever
+capabilities his men possess of
+becoming individually and collectively
+formidable in battle, must pay attention
+to much more than mere physical considerations.
+Napoleon’s dictum, that the
+moral is to the physical as three to one is
+early dinned into the ears of the officer of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>
+Regulars, but may stand repetition in
+pages meant for the perusal of others.
+No officer can expect to get the most out
+of his men unless he directs his attention
+to the study of the psychical side of the
+training. There are two fields in which
+the study must be pursued. One is the
+officer’s own personality, the other that of
+his non-commissioned officers and men.
+T. &amp; M.R., 8, deals with the former, and
+should be read and pondered over.</p>
+
+<p>In battle good men have sometimes
+achieved victory in spite of the shortcomings
+of their officers, but good officers,
+as well as men, are necessary for consistent
+success in the series of battles
+which make a campaign. Now, good
+officers, given time for training, will infallibly
+produce good men, provided the
+latter are of the average physique and
+courage. Therefore, study thyself, and
+try to see what you lack, in order to become
+a good officer. Cultivate your skill
+in handling your men by reading any
+books you can get; there are, unfortunately,
+not very many that deal with the
+work of such small units as companies
+or even single battalions. Go out
+into the country, or, if you have
+not time, recall to yourself some bit of
+country you know, and import an enemy
+into the landscape. Perhaps a few riflemen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>
+are holding ground on the flank of a
+road along which your battalion wants
+to march, but cannot, without undue loss,
+until these riflemen are driven off; and
+your commanding officer tells you to do
+the driving. In imagination, or on the
+ground, decide what position you would
+hold, if you were the enemy, in order to
+make yourself as nasty as possible—though
+having no hope of being reinforced—to
+the battalion trying to come
+along the road. Then settle in your mind
+what you, as commanding your company,
+would do to get rid of the annoyance.
+Be quite clear, what would you do? Go
+at them bald-headed? There are times
+and enemies when this is the best way;
+you would have to be fairly close, and
+the enemy not shooting very straight, and
+rather careful of his skin; or will you
+march a long way round till the enemy
+sees you are getting behind him, and so
+manœuvre him out? Then your battalion
+will be a long time waiting. Or will you
+look at the ground and find, let us suppose,
+a spot to which you will send a
+section or platoon to open a fire on the
+enemy, while another works its way to a
+point you have noted from which fire can be
+brought to sweep crossways a little knoll,
+or some such supposititious feature which
+seems to form the enemy’s left flank, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>
+to be occupied by ten or twelve men, and
+which gives command over the rest of his
+position? Then, while the second lot is on
+its way, you plan to lead the remainder a
+little way round, under cover, in order to
+get to fairly close range of the knoll, so
+that when the second party opens fire on it,
+and its defenders are hampered both by
+this fire and by that of those you first
+posted, you may surprise them by an
+outburst of fire from your reserve, and
+either drive them off their perch by
+cross-fire from three directions, or, if they
+do not shift, run in at them with the
+bayonet, trusting to get across the intervening
+space at the cost of a few casualties,
+when your superior numbers at that
+point should ensure your success even if
+they actually await the bayonet. Learn
+to consider quickly how many ways there
+are of doing such a job as the above, and
+to decide quickly and rationally which is
+the best.</p>
+
+<p>These schemes, involving only a company
+or two, will not be presented for your solution
+by your battalion commander; you
+must set them yourself, and their solution,
+and the thinking necessary thereto are the
+best methods an officer can get of training
+himself without having his men on the
+ground. In your mind’s eye, put your
+company into every situation you can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>
+think of, and get it out again, and you
+will have acquired an enormous reserve of
+capacity for acting quickly and rightly
+when your men and your enemy are both
+on the ground. But beware of dealing in
+too short distances, or you may produce
+unreal pictures of war. Do not imagine
+manœuvres at four hundred yards from the
+enemy when every man exposed would be
+hit in a few minutes. The clearness and
+decision of thought you acquire will be
+reflected in the orders you give. Your
+men will give you their confidence when
+they see, as they are quick to do, that you
+know your job. There is nothing more
+disheartening for a subordinate, be he
+private or colonel, than to feel he is under
+control of a duffer, whose mistakes he will
+have to correct. This feeling saps discipline,
+and quickly destroys the fighting
+value of a body of men. In peace training,
+the men become sulky at being
+“bothered about,” lose interest in their
+work, and wish themselves done with
+parade. In war, their personal characters
+usurp the control of their actions, and they
+become a mob in uniform.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>But in addition to possessing the confidence
+of the men in your tactical ability,
+you should seek all other means to increase
+your influence over them. Gain their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>
+respect in other ways, by honesty of purpose,
+by example, tact, devotion to duty,
+and so on. Gain their goodwill by watching
+over their individual and collective
+interests, though in this you must play to
+the gallery sufficiently to let them identify
+you as the source of benefits received.
+Keep an even temper, and do not show
+anger without good cause. Personal attachment
+to their officer shows itself most
+when men’s powers are taxed by hardship,
+fatigue, and danger; it is then a great
+auxiliary in maintaining discipline among
+the mass.</p>
+
+
+<h3>VI.</h3>
+
+<p>As regards the <em>moral</em> of the men,
+I.T., 1 (4 to 10) must be referred to.
+You <em>must</em> introduce discipline—the habit
+of subordinating personal inclination to
+the orders of the superior promptly and
+without cavil. If your men are raw, you
+have to go slow just at first till they all
+know what is expected of them. Let
+them understand that orders are not given
+haphazard, but are invariably based on
+some good reason, which, being so, there
+is no need for reasons to be always stated,
+nor for recipients of orders to feel unhappy
+for want of them. If you can induce a
+feeling among the men that slackness on
+parade, slowness in obeying orders, and so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>
+on, are bad form, and tend to disgrace the
+company, you will do well, and this good
+spirit will enable you to enforce discipline
+without having recourse to punishment, if
+you are vested with the power of inflicting
+it.</p>
+
+<p>I have already said that when in close
+order during tactical exercises, you should
+maintain discipline in the ranks. I now
+go further and say that you should maintain
+it when the men are extended or
+detached from the company singly or in
+small groups. Evidently the discipline
+here needed is something more than mere
+mechanical obedience. What it is, is to
+be found in T. &amp; M.R., 39 (4), and F.S.R. 12
+(13), and I.T., 116 and 117. Make the
+men understand that when they are extended
+they must obey their unit commander’s
+orders and signals as to fire and
+movement at once, and without hesitation,
+and must be always on the look-out
+for them. Allow no talking, except what
+relates to the business in hand, such as
+passing of orders or information, results
+of fire, and so on. Hold the men responsible
+that if they are out of reach of the
+control of their leader, it is their duty to
+carry out the spirit of the orders under
+which they set out. To bring their
+responsibility home to them, you must
+make a point of calling men occasionally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>
+to give an account of what they did when
+detached, and why they did it, so that they
+may pause for a moment if they are of the
+sort that take advantage of opportunity
+to sit behind a hedge and smoke a
+cigarette when they ought to be up and
+doing.</p>
+
+<p>Here you will naturally say that this is
+all very well, but how is one to look after
+men scattered here and there over several
+hundred yards of rough country? Here
+come in the non-commissioned officers, of
+whom, so far, no mention has been made,
+and also your subaltern officers. Since
+success in battle will depend largely on the
+efficiency of fire unit commanders, and the
+normal fire unit is the section (I.T., 6 (4)),
+it is evident that the section commander is
+a very responsible person, and much must
+be expected from him.</p>
+
+<p>Your subalterns and platoon sergeants
+you must use as your delegates in supervising
+and leading the platoons to which
+they belong, except when they are needed
+to act specifically as platoon commanders,
+keeping themselves constantly on the
+move among the men, looking at the details
+of the work, sighting of rifles, aiming,
+use of cover, choice of lines of movement,
+not lying down themselves nor participating
+in the operation as combatants. When you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>
+wish to give them practice in setting exercises
+themselves, turn the whole company
+over to one of them and act yourself as
+critic, or act as subaltern under his orders.
+This is one means of supervision.</p>
+
+<p>The next is your non-commissioned
+officers. They are in direct command,
+and you must hold them responsible for
+their sections, but when their units
+are acting in conjunction with others, it
+is evident they cannot act both as commanders
+and instructors unless certain
+concessions are made, for if the non-commissioned
+officers as well as the men of a
+section were to act as they would have to
+do under real fire, each non-commissioned
+officer might be able only to supervise a
+man or two on his right and left, the rest
+being too far off. Therefore, at the beginning
+of an exercise, you should tell the
+non-commissioned officers whether, in
+addition to giving executive commands,
+they are to be at liberty to move about
+freely and act as instructors also. Needless
+to say, in instructional exercises, and
+until the men are quite seasoned, you
+should let them do this, but, on the other
+hand, in exercises meant to illustrate
+actual conflict and the limitations imposed
+by the presence of an enemy, they should
+pay attention to those limitations so that
+they, as well as the men, may be prepared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>
+to endure the disabilities imposed by Service
+conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Next comes yourself. Once you have
+given your subordinates your orders for
+any exercise, leave them to carry it
+through, and make yourself as ubiquitous
+as may be in supervision. Keep criticism
+for the end, and interference only
+for the prevention of absurdities. To
+make yourself ubiquitous, the best way
+is to use your horse, and make
+the noble animal do the running about
+with you on his back. You can then get
+through about six times what you can on
+your own feet, by cantering from one
+section to another, and you get a better
+view of the whole performance, but you
+must remember when correcting anything
+the men are doing that you are mounted,
+while they are probably kneeling or lying,
+and much that you see is invisible to them.
+Equip yourself with a pair of field glasses,
+and also with a megaphone, which latter
+should be about fourteen inches long, and
+carried by a strap over the shoulder, the
+strap punched so as to be capable of being
+made long or buckled up close under the
+arm, according as you need to use the
+megaphone, or wish to get it out of your
+way. Use your glasses to look at what
+sections and individual men in them are
+doing. They will reveal to you small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>
+mistakes that escape notice at some
+distance with the unaided eye. The megaphone
+saves you a lot of small excursions
+to get to earshot of men, and also a lot of
+shouting at a distance, which is fatiguing,
+and is apt to lead to exacerbation of
+tempers, both of the shouter and the
+listener. Moreover, it enables you to hear
+as well as speak from a distance. This is
+done simply by holding it aimed at the
+other man with your ear instead of your
+mouth at the mouthpiece. Use your
+whistle to call attention to orders or
+signals, carry it in your hand, not in your
+pocket, and put a loop in the cord and
+pass the loop over your middle finger, or
+you will be always dropping it. Instead
+of a cane, carry a small semaphore flag,
+and give your signals with it. This saves
+a good deal of arm-waving, and tends to
+smarten up movement, as it is more easily
+seen than the arm. By bringing all these
+aids into your service, you will find that
+you can make your influence felt, although
+the sections are separated by the greatest
+distances which they are ever likely to be
+called on to take up in battle.</p>
+
+
+<h3>VII.</h3>
+
+<p>Besides discipline, there are certain
+other moral influences which give strength<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>
+to an Army. These are indicated
+in I.T., 1 (4 and 5). The two mighty
+forces of religion and patriotism are
+not treated of here, as they have their
+roots not in any system of training,
+but in the upbringing of the youth
+of the nation, but there is one force
+which you, as a humble commander, can
+call into play, and that is shame—the
+dread of losing the respect of oneself and
+of one’s comrades. During peace training
+you may make men dread the public
+shame of misbehaviour by the aid of those
+means of supervision which I have suggested,
+but in war the power to supervise
+is greatly curtailed, and it is very desirable
+to find something to replace it, and, at the
+same time, to supplement a too absolute
+reliance on the stoutness of men’s hearts,
+for this may prove a broken reed when
+the troops are largely composed of unseasoned
+soldiers.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>To a certain extent, the organisation of
+the company into permanent sections provides
+us with the substitute we desire, as
+the men of sections are likely to be
+cognisant of how their comrades behave
+when out of view of the rest of
+the company as long as the whole
+of the men of the section are in
+view of each other; but this will not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>
+always be the case: for example, in wood
+fighting or in house fighting, both of
+which would assuredly occur if our men
+have to fight in Europe. In such fighting
+everything comes down to the pushfulness
+of the individual soldiers, for even sections
+will lose their leaders. Therefore let us
+carry the principle of the company
+organisation logically one step further, and
+make the men of a file as they fall in on
+parade in the section act in conjunction for
+the remainder of that parade. This
+arrangement is recognised in the last edition
+of the Musketry Regulations, and has,
+at various times, been adopted in former
+drill books of our Army, and has given
+excellent results, while, if the present
+book does not prescribe it, at least
+it countenances it (I.T., 123 (12)), and
+I strongly recommend your introducing
+it into your company. It is likely
+to produce emulation in the fire fight
+among men whose hearts are in the
+right place, and in the assault it must produce
+the advantages of combination, for
+two men coming on with the bayonet in
+conjunction are far more likely to do
+someone an injury than if they each came
+on independently, since in the latter case
+a cool and skilful antagonist might dispose
+of one and then the other, even as the
+Japanese are said to have stepped aside<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>
+when charged by the Russians, who, running
+forward blindly and head down, fell
+an easy prey to their alert little enemies,
+and were bayoneted in succession as they
+arrived. The proof of this pudding is the
+eating thereof, and if your company ever
+happens to be alongside a company told
+off daily into haphazard sections, as
+is sometimes done, in spite of rules,
+you will then see the difference, even
+if it is only at manœuvres. In close
+order they may still look alike, but let
+them be extended in rough country, and
+you will see that yours is the blade of
+steel; the particles of its metal are coherent;
+it will bend, but not break. The
+other is of wrought iron, polished on the
+surface but of brittle material, and sure to
+fly to pieces in any rough usage. By this
+file organisation you will produce in the
+men in the ranks the highest degree of
+cohesion—the habit of regulating their
+own actions in accordance with the
+actions and needs of others in furtherance
+of one general aim.</p>
+
+<p>Having secured this cohesion among the
+men, you have still to produce it within
+the company as between platoons and
+sections. For cohesion is the coping stone
+of the edifice of efficiency, and rests on a
+basis of discipline, moral and training.
+It makes possible the application of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>
+the principle of mutual support which
+is indispensable in the attack (F.S.R.,
+105 (4)), and it enables retirements
+and defensive action to be carried out
+without disorganisation, and with the
+minimum of loss. Whenever sections
+act together, see to it that the non-commissioned
+officers keep an eye on the
+movements of the others, and question
+them as to the extent their orders to their
+sections should be influenced by the needs
+and movements of the others. By this
+means they will be induced to check the
+inclination to play only for their own
+hands, and to remember always that their
+unit is part of a combination which can
+best attain success by acting accordingly.</p>
+
+
+<h3>VIII.</h3>
+
+<p>Training is the preparation of officers
+and men for the duties which they will
+carry out in war. These duties consist in
+the application of the principles contained
+in the training manuals, and it is your
+business to provide concrete examples.
+But in these days of long range arms combats
+take a very long time, and you cannot
+expect in a parade of perhaps one or at
+most two hours, and with a limited extent
+of ground, to carry out all the varied
+phases of an operation which, in warfare,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>
+would take anything from six to eighteen
+hours to complete, and would extend over
+perhaps five or six miles of country, even
+if we limit ourselves to the extreme ranges
+of heavy artillery, and take no account of
+movements not within the range of possible
+fire. Therefore, in your training, you
+must be analytical, choosing for one
+parade such phase or phases as you have
+time and ground for, and doing the others
+later on. When your company knows all it
+can be taught thus piecemeal, it will be
+early enough to try to get time and ground
+to perform continuous operations.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>For instance, infantry in the attack will
+usually have to go through three phases:
+first, the advance to fire positions; second,
+the fire fight (I.T., 121 (6)); and,
+third, the assault, which latter must
+be divided into the charge and the steps
+which follow it according as it is successful
+or not. You will have to train for
+these three phases. The first, against an
+enemy armed with guns and rifles, would
+consist in opening out from column of
+route into little columns—sections or
+platoons—and moving forward in this
+formation, the main object being to
+escape being smashed to pieces by his
+artillery fire before being able to do him
+any damage (I.T., 118 (3)). Later, you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>
+would come under his rifle fire, and your
+little columns must scatter out into lines
+of men in extended order (I.T., 118 (5)).
+These movements seem, and are, very easy,
+but still they must be practised in peace
+if they are to be done coolly and without
+confusion in time of war when the first
+intimation of the necessity for opening out
+may be the shriek and crash of what will be
+to most of the men the first shrapnel
+they have ever seen, and withal aimed
+at themselves. This phase requires the
+presence of all four platoons of the company,
+and so may be kept over till the men
+have been trained in the phase which it
+precedes, namely, that of the fire fight.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The fire fight begins when the attacking
+infantry have got as far forward as they
+can without having to reply to the enemy’s
+fire, and it is quite distinct from the preceding
+phase of passive endurance. Success
+in the fire fight is an absolute necessity
+for a successful assault. Possibly your
+enemy has prepared your success before
+war broke out by abstaining from training
+his men in musketry, but even if his shooting
+is inferior, the fire fight will call into
+play all the qualities and skill of which
+your men are possessed, both individually
+and collectively. Accordingly you should
+practise them in the fire fight from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>
+opening of their fire up to the assault, first
+individually and then collectively.</p>
+
+<p>The assault can be dissected into the
+fixing of bayonets with as little cessation
+of fire as possible, the charge itself, followed,
+according as it is held to have been
+successful or not, by the rallying of the
+troops, pursuit of the enemy by fire and
+strengthening of the captured position, or
+the withdrawal or such mitigation of the
+results of failure as may fairly be attempted.
+Thus, by considering the attack
+as made up of phases as above, it is, I
+think, possible and instructive to practise
+each one of them separately, on a short
+parade, and on limited ground, by placing
+the men in the order in which they would
+be at beginning of any one phase, and
+carrying on from there.</p>
+
+<p>Before beginning any exercise, call your
+non-commissioned officers out to the front,
+and explain to them and to the men, in
+very full detail, what the exercise is intended
+to be, what points particularly
+require attention, how you want it done,
+and the sequence of events, if it involves
+combined action between the different
+units; whether the company is supposed
+to be acting by itself or as part of the
+battalion, and, if the latter, whether your
+side are having the support of artillery fire
+or not, where the enemy is, and what he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>
+is, i.e., is he infantry only, or has he also
+cavalry and guns, what he is supposed to
+be doing, attacking, defending, retiring,
+marching, or what. Deal with all such
+points before you start, otherwise you will
+find your non-commissioned officers and
+men filling in the blanks each according to
+his own bent of imagination, and everyone
+in consequence playing at a different game.
+To be thus able to define the scope and
+arrangements of the exercise, you must
+have it clearly planned out in all detail in
+your head. This you should do if possible
+the day before the parade, so that you will
+have the thing well thought out, and events
+marshalled in logical sequence.</p>
+
+<p>At all exercises, if possible, have the
+enemy represented by a skeleton force, as
+directed by T. &amp; M.R., 48, a few actual
+men with blank cartridge, and a red range
+flag or two to roughly define the enemy’s
+position. Use for this purpose old soldiers,
+if you have them, or, at least, men
+who have already performed the exercise
+you mean to do, and it is better to take
+one or two men from each platoon than
+to send off a whole section, and so
+break up the company organisation. Six
+or eight men are quite enough to form any
+skeleton enemy that is needed for a company
+to manœuvre against. You must
+give the skeleton enemy definite orders as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>
+to what they are to represent, where they
+are to go, and what to do and not to do.
+If they are given at all a free hand, especially
+if under the enterprising British
+subaltern, they are very apt to indulge in
+far-reaching manœuvres, and subject you
+to sudden raids and onslaughts which upset
+your scheme for the parade, and leave
+you no enemy at the very point you wished
+to have him. If you cannot arrange for a
+skeleton enemy, at least never fail to indicate
+some position as supposed to be held
+by an enemy. If your exercise ground is
+limited in extent, fix the enemy’s position
+outside it, regardless of whether you have,
+or have not, licence to traverse the intervening
+space, so as to avoid carrying out
+your exercise within impossibly close range
+of the enemy. In default of a skeleton
+enemy to provide you with a target, tell
+your men to aim at any members of the
+public who are about the enemy’s position.
+This is better than snapping at inanimate
+objects, as it gives more interest and so
+keeps up careful aiming. As regards the
+general method of training, follow commonsense
+and the manuals, and work from
+individual up to collective, bearing in mind
+always that collective work is built up of
+the work of the individuals who throughout
+have to be kept up to the collar by the
+various arts which I have touched on. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>
+less of the iron hand that is shown the
+better.</p>
+
+
+<h3>IX.</h3>
+
+<p>I make no mention of scouts, as they are
+specialists. They must be selected after
+you have got to know all the men of your
+company and their capabilities. Their
+training as scouts cannot be carried out by
+you personally at the same time that you
+are training the company. To be really of
+use, it will be a whole-time job for one
+officer, and you will either have to turn
+them over to one of the subalterns, or go
+with them yourself, preferably the former,
+if the subaltern is capable. When they
+are trained and fall in on parade as scouts
+in their sections, it is a good plan to have
+places permanently reserved for them as
+third files from the left of sections (the
+blank file’s place) so that they can leave the
+ranks without disturbing the formation for
+forming fours.</p>
+
+<p>As regards dress one thing is quite
+certain, and that is that with only
+one suit of uniform men cannot appear
+clean and smart off duty in it, and yet use
+it for field work with all the lying down
+and knockabout wear involved. In time
+of national danger, appearances will go to
+the wall, and men will do their work at the
+expense of the fit of their one and only suit
+of uniform.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> A cause now exists, and the men have come out.</p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_I">EXERCISE I.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Individual Advance in Extended Order.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The exercise portrays what men will
+have to do when the rifle fire of the enemy
+becomes effective, and necessitates extension
+of the small columns which are used
+to dodge his shell fire (I.T., 118 (3)). This
+will be somewhere over one thousand yards
+from the enemy, and perhaps fourteen hundred
+may be taken as a maximum. From
+the point at which extension from the small
+columns is made up till the time of the
+assault, a line of men in extended order is
+the suitable formation, unless there is some
+covered way leading forward which can be
+traversed in file or other formation. Once
+the advance has begun it should be
+carried through as quickly as possible
+without exhausting the men too much, and
+fire should not be opened until it is absolutely
+necessary to neutralise that of the
+enemy, firstly, because it lessens the speed
+of the advance and so increases the time
+during which the attackers are exposed to
+the enemy’s fire; secondly, because once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>
+men start firing it is more difficult to lead
+them forward; and, thirdly, because it uses
+up cartridges whose value and difficulty of
+replacement increases at every yard
+nearer the enemy’s position.</p>
+
+<p>The exercise is then to train men to gain
+ground to the front with the minimum of
+exposure to the enemy’s fire, and as quickly
+as may be, firstly, without firing, and,
+secondly, while firing themselves, but in
+the latter case speed must be subordinated
+to the development of a fire of sufficient
+accuracy and volume to largely neutralise
+that of the enemy, for at this stage of the
+battle advances under fire will only be
+possible if it is inaccurate; and the only
+certain means of causing it to be inaccurate
+is by disturbing the enemy’s nerves and
+aim by bringing to bear on him the fire
+both of supporting troops and of the firing
+line itself (I.T., 118 (6)).</p>
+
+<p>The regulations do not encourage the
+opening of fire by units less than two
+platoons at ranges over one thousand yards
+as the results do not compensate for the
+delay. Under one thousand and up to six
+hundred it is desired that fire should
+be controlled and directed, i.e., the
+amount, and the target should be specified
+by commanders (I.T., 116). Under
+six hundred yards it is recognised<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>
+that individual fire gives good results,
+and, moreover, control becomes almost
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Divide your exercise accordingly. First,
+teach merely the advance without firing,
+letting the men know that they are not to
+fire, as a rule, without orders under six hundred
+yards, and then let them advance
+firing at each halt behind cover, choosing
+their own target and times of firing as they
+would do in the stage of “close fire,” i.e.,
+six or perhaps eight hundred yards up to
+assaulting distance, which latter is about
+two hundred yards from the enemy’s line of
+defences.</p>
+
+<p>This parade is one that can be done with
+very few men present, but it is necessary
+to form them up into sections with a large
+proportion of non-commissioned officers.
+Keep the men in their proper sections, but,
+if necessary, join two or three together, so
+as to form sections with three or four non-commissioned
+officers to each. Thus, if you
+form four sections, they should each be in
+reality a boiling down of the platoons. In
+future exercises I will also suppose that you
+thus concentrate your men, keeping the
+members of each section together, and
+form them into sections of size suitable to
+the work of the day, and no further allusion
+will be made to this.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p>
+
+<p>Before taking the men on to the exercise
+ground, you should choose a point on it
+from which you intend to start your advance.
+Some fourteen hundred or less
+yards from this choose a position for your
+skeleton enemy, who will consist of three
+or four old soldiers with forty rounds of
+blank each. If men are not available, put
+up a few red range flags. Whichever are
+used, put them into some position that an
+enemy might reasonably occupy; do not
+simply dump them down on to the ground.
+The skeleton enemy must be told to show
+up occasionally, and to open a slow but
+regular fire as soon as they see your men
+advancing, but only to keep it up as long as
+your men show themselves in making their
+advance. A complete cessation of fire will
+denote that your men are making such good
+use of cover as to be invisible to the
+enemy. Let your men also know that
+these instructions have been given, and
+that such an advance is the ideal to be
+sought for, provided always that it is not
+absurdly slow. If neither men nor flags are
+available you must make believe and point
+out a supposed position at a supposed
+distance. I have already pointed out the
+advantages of having a skeleton enemy to
+work against.</p>
+
+<p>In front of your starting point, and about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>
+four hundred yards from it, decide on some
+point at which you will let the men halt
+after they have made their way across the
+intervening space. Here I will refer you to
+the diagram. The line AA´ is your starting
+point, CC´ the enemy’s position. Your
+exercise consists in showing individual men
+how to gain ground from AA´ as far as
+BB´, distant about four hundred yards
+from AA´, with the minimum of exposure
+to the enemy’s aimed fire. Draw up the sections,
+supposing there are two, on the line
+AA´, fifty to one hundred yards apart, and
+let the men sit down facing away from
+CC´ and, if possible, under cover, so that
+they may not see how their comrades
+negotiate the course. Space the available
+non-commissioned officers of each section
+along the course from A to B and A´ to
+B´, with orders to supervise and criticise
+the advance of each man within the limits
+of their beats. Allow a belt of twenty to
+thirty yards broad from A to B and from
+A´ up to B´, within which men must seek
+their cover. This belt is made broad here
+to afford instruction, but when the men
+work together in their sections, it will be
+much narrower, as they will then be extended
+at intervals of five or six paces only.
+Start off one man at a time from each section
+to cross from AA´ to BB´, to move as
+if under fire from the enemy in rushes from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>
+one cover to another. As soon as a man
+reaches BB´ he may fall out and watch the
+movements of the remainder. Do not send
+off a fresh man until the preceding one has
+nearly reached BB´, so that your non-commissioned
+officers may have good opportunity
+to look at each man as he goes. As
+for yourself, be active in supervising both
+sections, using your horse if you have one.</p>
+
+<p class="center bold p2">DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. &amp; II.</p>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>CC´ = Enemy’s position about 1400<sup>X</sup> from AA´. Enemy<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">being represented by men with blank cartridge</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">or flags.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_b_044" style="max-width: 39.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_b_044.jpg" alt="DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. &amp; II.">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>AA´ = Starting points 1400 yards from enemy’s
+position.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Men start from AA´ to cross to BB´</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">without exposing themselves to the</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">enemy at CC.´</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Crosses indicate cover, and the chain</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">dotted lines routes by which men</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">may advance.</span></p>
+
+<p>AA´ to BB´ is about 400<sup>X</sup></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following are points to be attended
+to:—Before leaving their cover, men must
+decide where their next halting place is to
+be, and make for it quickly, and with
+decision. There must be no emerging into
+the open, and then looking about for a bit
+of cover to go for. The length of each
+rush should not be enough to let the enemy
+have time for deliberate aim—fifty yards or
+so is quite the limit for this. If there is
+no cover the men must lie down flat between
+each rush. Occasionally it is
+advisable to make a long rush from one
+good position to another at sprinting
+pace without stopping at all (I.T., 121
+(12)), so this should be practised sometimes,
+the non-commissioned officers at that
+part of the beat being ordered to tell the
+men what is needed. Once a man has decided
+on his next halting place, and is in
+wind, he should leave his cover with a
+jump. The slow uprising of a figure is
+sure to draw the enemy’s attention, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>make his fire more accurate than it would
+be if no intimation were given him. Similarly,
+on reaching cover, men should fall
+down quickly, and not lower themselves
+slowly to earth.</p>
+
+<p>Insist on a careful choice of cover, a very
+small depression or elevation, even six
+inches, is enough to give cover from view,
+and therefore helps in escaping aimed fire,
+but in peace time men will not take trouble
+over apparently trifling things like this unless
+it is rubbed into them by close supervision.
+Noticeable objects should be
+avoided as the enemy may have taken their
+range, and they help him to define a point
+on which to concentrate fire. If a man
+makes mistakes and shows indecision at
+any part of the course, call him back to the
+last cover he left, and let him start again
+from there after pointing out what he has
+done wrong.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>II. The advance combined with individual
+fire.</em></h3>
+
+<p>The second part of the exercise is done
+in the same way as the first, the men advancing
+and taking cover as before, but
+now using their rifles. They have to be
+taught to use the cover to advantage, both
+as a protection and as an aid to their shooting,
+and to take pains in searching for a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>
+good target, and in their sighting, aiming
+and firing. For purposes of instruction, six
+hundred yards is rather a short range to
+open fire at, and I recommend your making
+a start at eight hundred or so, i.e., two hundred
+yards beyond BB´ towards the enemy,
+working up to four hundred. This necessitates
+judging distance at beyond the practically
+point-blank ranges of the Lee-Enfield
+rifle, and makes the men use their
+eyes keenly to spot the enemy, while it
+avoids a certain amount of unreality which
+is apt to attach to instructional movements
+carried on in front of a skeleton enemy at
+the deadly short ranges under three hundred
+yards.</p>
+
+<p>Points which should be considered
+are:—</p>
+
+<p>To fire from the right and lower edge of
+any cover, not over the top.</p>
+
+<p>Make the men keep a count of the number
+of times they snap over the course (i.e.,
+cartridges used), and report to the non-commissioned
+officer at the finish of their
+course.</p>
+
+<p>Let the men do their own judging distance,
+and let non-commissioned officers
+drop at once on any man who either fails
+to do so, or forgets, as they often do, to
+adjust the backsight.</p>
+
+<p>Cultivate a habit among the men of looking
+about for different targets, not firing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>
+only straight in front of themselves, but on
+their right and left, so that when they come
+to fire collectively they may feel nothing
+new in being told to open the enfilade fire
+recommended by I.T., 116 (11), and also
+get the custom of watching for the enemy
+all along his front.</p>
+
+<p>These two exercises of advancing with
+and without firing are the groundwork of
+the fighting efficiency of the soldier in the
+attack, and will be found to call for every
+natural and acquired qualification the individual
+possesses. Good shooting, quick
+judgment, activity, wind, and everything
+else are needed if the work is done with
+full observance of the conditions which
+would exist under fire. Put the men through
+exercises of this sort several times, and,
+if possible, on different ground, till they
+acquire quickness in choosing cover and
+the arts that make an expert fighter. Confidence
+in themselves will come with the
+skill they acquire, and with confidence
+comes decision of mind, which is really
+more important than bodily efficiency. If
+you have time, a useful rider to this exercise
+is to work the men by pairs, as is recommended
+in the Musketry Regulations
+for the observation of fire, and so introduce
+them early to the use of the file organisation
+which I have advised you to adopt.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_II">EXERCISE II.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Retirement by Pairs.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>A sound provision against panic among
+young troops is to accustom them to regard
+a retirement as all in the day’s work, and
+not as an exceptional undertaking which
+their anxiety may invest with possibilities
+of disaster. The essence of successful retirement
+in face of an enemy lies in the
+continuous opposition, or appearance of it,
+offered to the enemy by one portion of the
+troops, while others draw off to take post
+to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost
+portion. I.T., 137, gives the idea in
+few words. It does not mention individual
+training in this, but it is useful to put men
+through the movements, both to cultivate
+cohesion in the ranks, and as a tactical
+exercise. It may happen in war that an
+extended line has to give ground when
+engaged with the enemy, and this under so
+heavy a fire as to make movement except
+over short distances impossible without
+great loss. Such a withdrawal would mean
+that the troops are in a very tight corner,
+and would test them very highly, but that
+is another matter. It may happen, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>
+should be prepared for. A withdrawal
+under these conditions might perhaps be
+carried out by the alternate movement of
+men in files covered by the fire of the
+others, until such a distance from the
+enemy had been obtained as to allow sections
+or companies to take up the
+alteration. Up to that distance it will be
+simply a reversal of what was done in
+Exercise I., but worked by files—a front
+rank man and his rear rank man, one
+going back a short distance, and the other
+firing to cover the movement. Again, men
+on patrol or otherwise detached may have
+to retire to avoid capture, or for many other
+reasons, when they might not be under
+close and heavy fire, but still would be
+under the necessity of preventing the
+enemy closing in on them or surrounding
+them. In this case, the length of each
+withdrawal would be much longer than in
+the former case; one man would fire while
+the other made off perhaps two or three
+hundred yards at his best speed. Train
+for both contingencies; it can be done in
+one and the same parade. Skeleton enemy
+as usual. For the withdrawal under
+heavy fire, let the sections sit down and
+fall out at BB´ (Diagram I.), and put out
+the non-commissioned officers between BA
+and B´ A´ as before. Call out the men by
+files, tell them to work back to A and A´,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>
+one firing, the other retiring. As a rule they
+should retire past each other before halting.
+The same points must be observed as in
+Exercise No. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, and the quicker they are
+in movement the better, but they must be
+taught to go in quick time also when so
+ordered (I.T., 137 (4)).</p>
+
+<p>For the retirement of a file as on patrol,
+do exactly the same, but you should work
+over six hundred yards of ground or so to
+correct any tendency to import the short
+rush into this exercise, which would be out
+of place, and also to let men have more
+practice in looking for suitable fire positions
+from which they can both fire on the
+enemy, <em>and from which they can get away
+when their turn comes</em>, a point they often
+neglect at first. The different nature of
+the two exercises must be made quite
+clear.</p>
+
+<p>At this exercise you should bring before
+your men the need of using all sorts of
+<em>ruses</em> in a retirement, the use of rapid fire
+just before withdrawing, the sham withdrawal
+acted by ceasing fire, and retiring
+a few yards, but only to halt and re-open
+fire after a few seconds if the enemy has
+been tempted to expose himself, thinking
+the coast clear, the real withdrawal effected
+so carefully that the enemy is not sure
+whether you are there still or not, and so
+on; and make them put their own ideas of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>
+these plans into action and tell them if they
+are doing what is feasible on service or
+not. Bar all “manœuvre slimness,” i.e.,
+anything that could not be done on service.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_III">EXERCISE III.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Individual Training in use of Fire
+and Fire Discipline.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Early lessons in fire discipline can be
+given in single rank on the parade ground,
+but the open country and extended order
+are wanted for training men to the fullest
+extent under service conditions. Only in
+the open country can be got the variety
+of targets, ranges and the visual training
+which are necessary for a complete education.
+Men must be taught, and taught
+again, that the taking up of extended
+order, and movement over all sorts of
+ground, in no way mean that they are
+to pass at once beyond the control of
+their unit leaders, or that it is optional to
+continue to take any sort of pains with
+their shooting just because their non-commissioned
+officers cannot stand over them,
+but have to shout orders from a distance.</p>
+
+<p>This exercise consists in advancing
+and retiring in extended order with fire
+and the use of cover when halted; but to
+allow for more prolonged shooting practice
+and closer supervision than are possible
+when carrying out an attack or retirement<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>
+as on service, the halts are longer
+and movements should at first be made
+in quick time.</p>
+
+<p>Put out your skeleton enemy on a good
+broad front, so as to allow room for
+change of targets, and do not have them
+all in one straight line, so that each target
+shall call for a change of sighting. Let
+the sections work independently of each
+other under their section commanders,
+who, with the other non-commissioned
+officers, will have to act both as commanders
+and instructors. Bring the
+sections up to about twelve hundred yards
+from the enemy; get them into a line with
+intervals between them, i.e., spaces
+measuring from the flank of one to the
+flank of the other, sufficient to admit of
+each section being extended to two or
+three paces between men without its flank
+men coming too close to those of other
+sections, e.g., with two sections of eight
+file, i.e., sixteen men each; you must
+leave room for half of each to extend to
+two paces towards the other, and keep a
+fair interval; that is, from the centre of
+each of the above sections of eight men
+in each rank you want 8 ÷ 2 (half the
+number in the front rank) × 2 (two ranks)
+× 2 (two paces extension) = 16 paces for
+the line extended and an interval of, say,
+30 yards, which gives 46 yards between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>
+each section centre to centre. Now, let
+the section commanders order the men to
+extend, lie down, take cover and open
+fire. The unit commander, the non-commissioned
+officer in charge of the section, is
+to name the target and distance and also
+the rate of fire, rapid or slow, at all distances
+over six hundred yards from the
+enemy (I.T., 116 (5)), unless it is desired
+on occasion to train men to do this for
+themselves. After fire has been delivered,
+direct section commanders to proceed
+with the exercise, giving orders for advancing,
+halting and firing, the advance
+to be made from cover to cover as in
+Exercise No. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, but in quick time. Yourself
+supervise in chief, and tell section
+commanders when you want to give
+orders as to the firing or movement, and
+let them give the executive commands,
+after which you and they should pass
+along the lines and scrutinise each man’s
+actions in carrying out the orders, questioning
+them, and repealing hints you
+may have given when telling them the
+object and methods of the practice, if
+they appear not to be giving them effect.
+The value of the practice depends on the
+orders you give as to the firing and the
+following are suggested:—</p>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) Switching the fire of all the rifles
+on to different parts of the enemy’s position,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>
+sometimes straight in front, <em>but
+quite as often</em> at his extreme flanks. This
+is to introduce the use of enfilade fire
+(I.T., 116 (11)) and the habit of giving support
+by fire to other units (F.S.R., 105 (4)),
+by concentrating the fire on to particular
+targets.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) Distributing the fire laterally along
+the whole or a part of the enemy’s front
+(I.T., 116 (10)). This may be done by
+giving the section a particular extent of the
+enemy’s front, e.g., “from the dry tree to
+the gate in the hedge.” The section commander
+then allots those of the enemy,
+who can be viewed within his bit of front
+to individual men, or preferably files of
+men, who are to treat them as their especial
+charge and keep on firing at them
+till otherwise ordered, or till the enemy
+shifts. Of course, if there is not enough
+of the skeleton enemy to give each file in
+the section a live antagonist (and there
+won’t be on your parades), the commander
+must indicate bits of cover
+which individual men of the enemy might
+be expected to use and tell his men to fire
+at these spots. This is a most important
+practice, and needs a good deal of attention
+and application before the men get
+really quick at it. It means, of course,
+that on service you will make it your
+business to allow as few of the enemy’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>
+riflemen as possible to be free of the distraction
+of having some bullets landing
+about them, to upset their nerves and aim.
+Unless some plan is adopted to do this
+all along his line, it is all too probable
+your men will be exposed to some accurate
+fire from rifles held in steady hands,
+and even one rifle so held has, to my
+knowledge, caused a loss of eleven men
+in as many minutes. This lateral distribution
+is rather difficult, but it is easy,
+compared with the concomitant task of
+spotting where the men of the enemy are
+hidden, if they really try to hide, at anything
+but the shortest fighting ranges.
+The only remedy for this is for each private
+to carry field glasses of sorts; you
+will not get them from Government, but
+if any of your men are keen enough to
+go in for spotting a hidden enemy for
+themselves with glasses and would bring
+their own to parade, forbid them not, but
+encourage it. I have been told that in some
+of the yeomanry corps in the South
+African war nearly every trooper raised
+somehow and somewhere a pair of glasses—some
+were mother o’ pearl and silver-mounted,
+but did the spotting all right
+in spite of that.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>c</em>) Passing orders and changing targets.
+Under heavy fire non-commissioned
+officers will not be able to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>
+move along the line, and orders must
+be passed either by word of mouth
+or by written messages passed from hand to
+hand; the former is apt to be slow, and the
+orders garbled en route unless practised
+beforehand; the latter is not very practical
+as men in action are too busy to read bits
+of paper or trouble themselves to see that
+they are passed on (I.T., 119 (4)). To
+practise the verbal method while the men
+are engaged in firing at any particular
+target, give orders to one man in a low
+tone (you would have to speak loud if ball
+cartridge were being used) to fire at some
+other target, and to pass the word. The
+man then tells his neighbours on each side,
+and yourself and a non-commissioned
+officer then follow the order each way, and
+when a man varies it admonish him to repeat
+just what he got from the last speaker,
+no more and no less. In a little time the
+men will become exact in taking and passing
+messages. This method should be confined
+to directions about firing; orders for
+movement should invariably be given by
+commanders by word themselves or signal,
+and men should not be allowed to repeat
+these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on
+service, as a signal may be seen and acted
+on by someone for whom it was not intended.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>d</em>) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>
+or bits of cover, let fire be directed at
+civilians who are moving about in the field
+of view. Call on some individual man by
+name to choose some such target, and tell
+him he has to pass the word to the rest of
+his squad what target he has chosen and
+to fire at it. This gives practice in target
+definition, i.e., describing its position so
+that other men can know just where to look
+for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid
+of noticeable objects to do this quickly,
+but it is important, as the difficulty of locating
+a well-concealed enemy with smokeless
+powder requires that every pair of eyes in
+the ranks should be engaged in the search
+till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen
+are seen, and the information given to
+everyone in the firing line. Until this is
+done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise
+aimed by unaimed fire, a pretty hopeless
+task. Hence train your men to use
+their eyes for seeing and their tongues for
+description.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>e</em>) Accustoming the men to judge distance,
+and use their backsights without
+orders. Judging distance for the men as a
+formal practice is confined to ranges under
+800 yards, but it does no harm to let them
+judge greater ranges. Let the unit commanders
+define targets to be fired at, omitting
+to state the range, and let the men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>
+judge it for themselves and fire. Walk up
+the line and see that no man forgets to
+adjust his backsight for the distance he
+estimates. If possible, have the correct
+ranges taken previously with a range
+finder, and let the men know what they are
+after they have aimed. Each change of
+target gives the men a useful lesson in
+judging distance.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>f</em>) Having put the men through all
+sorts of paces in the way of firing while
+advancing and retiring, in quick time do
+the same thing again, but with the movements
+in double time, and, in addition,
+carry out the increases and decreases of the
+extension, inclines and changes of direction
+given in I.T., 93, throughout insisting
+on the same steadiness in firing as
+when in quick time. All this will at first
+probably get the men “rattled,” and the
+benefit of it is that after some of it they
+will get over being “rattled,” and will not
+let hurried orders or speed of movement
+interfere with deliberation and steadiness
+in shooting.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_IV">EXERCISE IV.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Assault.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Exercise III. can suitably be wound up
+by a practice in delivering an assault, as
+this does not take long, and the moral
+may be pointed that all fire training is
+only a preparation for a successful
+assault. The fixing of bayonets before
+assault commonly leads to a complete
+cessation of fire in the firing line. This
+is quite wrong, as such complete cessation
+of fire by the firing line must largely surrender
+for the time being that superiority
+of fire which facilitates the delivery
+of the assault (I.T., 121 (7)), for it
+gives the enemy a chance to take aim
+again. Supporting fire by artillery or
+infantry not in the firing line cannot be
+relied on when the firing line has reached
+assaulting distance. Therefore, do not
+have a simultaneous fixing of bayonets,
+but let one-half fix while the other fires,
+and the best arrangement is evidently one
+that ensures a fire being kept up along
+the whole front and not in patches. The
+system I have found most satisfactory is
+to fix bayonets by ranks, the front rank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>
+fixing while the rear rank continues firing,
+and then the rear rank fixing while the
+front rank fires. It may be done by odd
+and even files, or other ways, but, the
+company being organised in files, the
+same men are usually in the front and
+rear rank, and there is no difficulty in
+their remembering which they are. The
+important thing is to adhere to one
+system once it is adopted, and have it
+well understood by all. It does not
+matter much if a few men fix bayonets
+out of turn, so long as the fire is merely
+diminished and not stopped during the
+time bayonets are being fixed. In the
+charge, the men should work by their
+files, i.e., the two men of each file should
+act together and run at the same objective.
+The meaning of this is that in actual
+conflict two men would go together for
+the same individual enemy, and between
+the two of them they would be pretty sure
+to bring him to an untimely end, if the
+enemy really waited for the steel, and
+with less chance of his doing damage than
+if the combat took place man-to-man;
+thereafter they could turn their attentions
+to some other person.</p>
+
+<p>For the practice choose and indicate
+any position for assault; work sections
+up to about two hundred yards
+from it, and then order rapid fire and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>
+bayonets to be fixed. As soon as all
+are ready, order the charge to be sounded.
+(I.T., 124). When the men hear the
+bugle they must at once jump from their
+cover and go straight and hard at the
+position; there must be no waiting by individuals
+to fire a last shot or two. The
+rush should be made suddenly and
+swiftly, so that the enemy has no time to
+see what is happening before the men are
+well on their way at him. When the
+position is reached, pass right through it
+and well beyond it, to escape hostile gunfire
+(I.T., 124 (5)), and then order the
+“Halt,” when the men may lie down
+under cover and open a pursuing fire.
+Walk along the line and see, with the
+help of non-commissioned officers, whether
+men of each file are together; if so, it will
+be proof that they have obeyed the directions
+to keep together during the charge.
+Allow a minute or two of the pursuing
+fire, then let section or platoon commanders
+sound their whistles, close and
+reform their sections under cover. On
+the whistle-sound (a succession of short
+blasts), men rise and double to where
+the commander is, resume their places,
+and lie down. This re-organisation
+is very important for you as company
+commander, for by it you get your
+men formed up quickly into platoons<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>
+and ready to be closed into company or to
+take fresh orders in the minimum of time.
+The usual thing seen is that after the
+assault the ground is covered with a mixture
+of men of all companies staring
+about, and apparently thinking the show
+at an end, whereas on service this is the
+very time you may expect either a counter-attack
+by infantry or a burst of artillery
+fire directed on the lost position.</p>
+
+<p>To repeat the orders of the assault:
+“Rapid Fire; Fix Bayonets; Charge;
+Halt and Take Cover; Commence Fire;
+Rally and Close Under Cover,” and be
+ready for further happenings.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_V">EXERCISE V.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in the
+Attack.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having trained the individual men in the
+work needed of them, the next step is to
+make use of that individual skill to the best
+effect in combination under orders of a
+commander. The section is the lowest unit
+recognised for <em>training</em> (I.T., 107), and
+it also is the normal unit used in firing
+(I.T., 6 (4)). When the company is advancing
+in the attack, or retiring, its sections
+and platoons will often be widely
+separated from each other, and the company
+commander cannot look after each
+one in detail, so that the platoon
+commanders, and under them the section
+commanders, must be fully competent
+to lead their men without supervision,
+in accordance with the general
+intention given them before the company
+opened out. So the training of men
+in combination must be accompanied by
+the training of your section and platoon
+commanders.</p>
+
+<p>The duties of fire unit commanders are
+laid down in I.T., 116 (5), and those of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>
+section commanders in I.T., 116 and 123
+(10). Before you proceed with this
+exercise have up these non-commissioned
+officers and devote ten minutes to an exposition
+of what is contained in the above
+paragraphs. Dilate on them, and show
+how neglect of those duties hampers the
+company commanders. At the same time,
+desire them to maintain among the men
+during sectional exercises the standard of
+individual training which was obtained in
+the preliminary exercises. Unless they
+do so the men will soon cease to apply what
+they then learnt, and so forget it in battle
+until the occurrence of casualties impresses
+its value afresh in their minds. Also
+give them the gist of what follows as to the
+advance and description of fire phases.</p>
+
+<p>The exercise gives commanders the
+opportunity of doing what they will
+have to do when the company is attacking
+or retiring, but without their having to keep
+an eye on the movements of the other
+platoons. The men should now be extended
+at full intervals as on service, five or six
+yards apart, this being held to be the most
+that is needed. Put out the skeleton
+enemy in groups, one group as objective
+of attack for each section or platoon on
+parade, and the groups sufficiently apart to
+prevent them interfering with each other
+when extended as above, for they are to act<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>
+independently. Take up the advance as if
+at fourteen hundred from the enemy, when
+his rifle fire on open ground would compel
+you to change from small columns of sections
+or platoons into the line of extended
+men (I.T., 118 (5)). The advance up to
+assaulting distance, from fourteen hundred
+yards, consists (I.T., 121 (7)), in the first
+place, of an advance to fire positions. Now
+Musketry Regulations lay down that fire
+by less than two platoons is of little effect
+over one thousand yards, so do not
+encourage commanders to open fire till
+one thousand yards at least, and use the
+space fourteen hundred to one thousand
+yards for instruction in getting their
+sections or platoons forward as quickly,
+and with as little exposure, as possible.
+Secondly, the advance consists
+of a fire fight combined with further
+advances up to the assaulting position. In
+this fire fight controlled collective fire is
+better than individual fire (I.T., 116 (7)
+(iii)), so up to six hundred yards let firing
+take place, only on the specific orders of
+commanders, who accordingly are to name
+the targets and ranges. In this phase
+therefore make them choose forward fire
+positions and work their units forward,
+using controlled collective fire at the same
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Under six hundred yards it is apparently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>
+held best to accept the inevitable and allow
+individual fire, the unit commanders being
+still responsible for getting their men forward
+up to the position of assault—about
+two hundred yards from the enemy. Still
+at this close range unit commanders should
+do what they can to direct the fire, and
+especially they should see that men fire
+slowly and carefully. In general the rate
+of firing or snapping is far too fast, and
+pouches would be empty long before the
+assaulting position would be reached.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the great importance of training
+the sections, it is advisable to let them
+do this exercise, through both the phases
+below, separately from each other, and not
+in platoon. When they know all about it,
+let them work in platoon.</p>
+
+<p>Having drawn up your sections in line
+at fourteen hundred yards, order the section
+commanders to extend and move on,
+and signal the skeleton enemy to open fire.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>First Phase: Fourteen to One Thousand
+Yards, Gaining Ground Without Firing.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Practise the section commanders in all
+ways of getting their sections forward
+without undue exposure or delay, by
+rushes of the whole section, man-by-man
+from one and both flanks and
+by files, together, and any other way<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span>
+that suggests itself. Stand over the
+section commanders in turn and tell
+them to advance the section by one
+method and then by another, and ask them
+which seems most suitable for various conditions
+of fire and ground (I.T., 118
+(4)). The advance should be steady
+and determined. Before starting the
+advance from one position to another,
+section commanders are to decide and
+<em>must tell the men</em> to what point they mean
+the next advance to be made (I.T., 108
+(2)), in the same way as individual men
+were taught to mark their next halting
+places.</p>
+
+<p>Attention must be paid to the way in
+which advances are inaugurated. Rushes
+must be sudden and simultaneous
+(I.T., 92 (5)). The men have been
+trained to leave their cover quickly.
+The unit commander must give his
+directions for the next move without
+getting up (if himself lying) and
+tell the men to be prepared; when
+all are ready, he and the men must
+jump up together and rush at once on the
+word or signal. The object of this, of
+course, is to avoid a concentrated fire being
+directed on the unit commander, and,
+perhaps, the two or three men nearest him,
+if they get up before the others, which
+would make it likely that some of them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>
+would be hit immediately, while the rest
+of the unit looked for a new leader, and so
+no advance take place; whereas if everyone
+gets on the move together a casualty
+or two will not bring the whole to a standstill.
+Of course, commanders should lead
+the way, but they must get in front by
+sprinting the first few yards.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Second Phase: One thousand to Six Hundred
+Yards (Collective Fire) and Six
+Hundred to Two Hundred Yards (Individual
+Fire).</em></h3>
+
+<p>As soon as a section begins to fire, it
+becomes possible for it to practise the
+lessons in the use of fire which were learnt
+in Exercise III., such as concentration and
+distribution of fire. From one position the
+commander must choose his next fire position,
+and work his section up to it in whatever
+way is most suitable. On flat and
+open ground this position may simply
+be the halting place of the next rush,
+thirty or forty paces to the front, but
+it is more instructive and practical to
+have positions far enough from each other,
+say one hundred and fifty or two hundred
+yards, to necessitate the advancing section
+making several successive rushes and using
+various devices to gain ground without
+attracting the enemy’s attention. Practise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>
+sections in all ways of advancing from one
+position to another, as was done before
+firing began, and encourage the use of
+covered ways. This exercise, if properly
+done, represents what the section
+would have to do in battle. For the purpose
+of instruction, the unit commanders
+should be allowed to move about as instructors,
+but when all ranks have been
+through the exercise and know what is
+needed, you should practise it under service
+conditions, and tell unit commanders
+to behave as if under fire; this is important,
+as it lets all see how much will be
+asked of the individual man under fire,
+and how difficult it is to exercise any wide
+control.</p>
+
+<p>For the same reason you must in this
+exercise begin the practice of ordering
+casualties of leaders, and carry it on
+through the whole of the rest of the training.
+Order section commanders to
+be casualties, and let the next senior
+man carry on, then order that man
+to become a casualty, and let the next one
+take command. Collect these casualties
+with you and let them go round with you,
+and have for a time the onlooker’s view
+of the game. Do not stint in ordering
+them, but let every man be ready to take
+up command. This readiness to assume
+command and to carry on the advance in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>
+spite of the absence of leaders is most valuable
+in battle and on parade for training,
+keeps men’s attention fixed on the business,
+and helps to counteract disorder when
+companies and sections get mixed up in
+reinforcement in battalion attack.</p>
+
+<p>Under six hundred yards let the men
+use individual fire, choosing their own
+targets; at this time try to get them into
+the way of looking for the targets which
+most require to be shot at at the moment—they
+must be always looking along the
+enemy’s line, and must not acquire the
+paralysing habit of only seeing straight in
+front of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Call on unit commanders to keep in
+view the question of expenditure of ammunition.
+It is no good ordering men to
+snap-fire 200 times in the course of an
+advance when they would only have 100
+rounds in their pouches on service, and no
+means of getting more; when blank is
+being used they should see that the ammunition
+of casualties is collected and
+redistributed.</p>
+
+<p>At some time in the course of this exercise
+the section must be practised in improving
+cover as if under fire, i.e., working
+lying down. The nature of the work
+depends on what tools you have, but it
+should be attempted if possible. Order
+the section to do it when halted together<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>
+in some fire position. At first they will
+shape badly and expose themselves a lot,
+but if you have time for practice they get
+into the way of digging in very quickly.
+If there are stones pile up “schanzes.”
+Attention should be paid to concealment
+of the cover, so as not to make it a target
+for the whole countryside, and it must give
+cover from fire or view, or both; one often
+sees men making molehills which show up
+their position without being capable of
+stopping a bullet. Better not make them
+at all than that way.</p>
+
+<p>Wind up the advance occasionally by an
+assault, as it is a mistake to let the idea
+take hold that the fire fight is the end of
+all things. This, I think, is the reason
+that the word “skirmishing” has disappeared
+from the book of training, as it
+connoted an indecisive action, whereas the
+whole spirit of the present training is that
+it shall be directed to the delivery of an
+assault and the ousting of the enemy from
+his position. Scouts are the only people
+who may have to skirmish in the former
+accepted meaning of the word, and they
+only do so until the firing line joins them,
+or they withdraw after reconnoitring.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>In Platoon.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Next work the sections together in
+their platoons on similar lines. Practise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>
+again all ways of gaining ground; by
+rushes of the whole platoon, or if one or
+more sections, man by man, and so on, as
+taught to the section. Fire should be
+directed by the platoon commander, and
+controlled by the section commander.
+Teach the lateral distribution of fire along
+a given front among the four sections of
+the platoon. Teach also the principle of
+covering fire, one section being sent to
+make its way with every use of cover to a
+forward fire position, while the remainder
+continue firing. The first section, on
+arrival at the new fire position, opens fire,
+and the others follow in due course, one
+section only being dumb while the movement
+is in progress. If there is a choice of
+good lines of advance it is better that
+sections should not follow each other on
+one line, as the enemy may have noticed
+the move and be waiting for them.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VI">EXERCISE VI.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in
+Retirement.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>For the general principles of retirements
+see I.T., 137. The platoon, when working
+with the company, will take its turn at
+being the rearmost portion of the troops,
+and will have the difficult task of getting
+away while in touch with the enemy, but
+its retirement will be covered by the fire
+of other portions of the company. On
+the other hand, if a platoon or section finds
+itself beyond support from other troops, as
+might happen often enough, it will have
+to act itself as a rearguard and retire by
+alternate parts.</p>
+
+<p>In both cases great advantage is gained
+if the position held can be vacated so
+stealthily that the enemy shall not be
+aware of its having been vacated till the
+defenders are well on their way to the rear.
+For this reason it will be worth while to
+accustom the men to employ, when practicable,
+a procedure used in mountain
+warfare, withdrawing the bulk of men
+first and leaving only a few quick-footed
+men to keep up appearances and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span>
+fire as long as possible and then retiring
+them at speed. Also all men must be
+taught to grovel backwards on their
+stomachs from the crest of their fire position
+till sufficiently under cover, if there is
+cover, to stand up without being seen, after
+which they rise and make off.</p>
+
+<p>Send out the skeleton enemy with instructions
+to follow up the retirement
+slowly, and not to close in on the sections,
+as it is easy and tempting to do this when
+there are no bullets in the rifles.</p>
+
+<h3>(<em>a</em>) <em>As a Section or Platoon Acting with the
+Company.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Do the practice first by sections and then
+in platoon. Draw up the unit on a fire position
+about eight hundred yards from the
+enemy, the men in extended order, lying
+down, and open fire on the enemy. Tell
+the commander to choose his next halting
+place and retire his unit on it,
+which he should do on the lines before
+indicated. The halting places should be
+chosen as far apart as two to four hundred
+yards; short retirements merely prolong
+the time exposure to fire and should not be
+used unless the enemy are very close or the
+fire very heavy. Once the men are clear
+of the position, they should move as fast
+as they can, trusting to escape casualties,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>
+by speed, the alteration of range, and the
+fire of the few men left on the position.
+As a rule, carry out all retirements at the
+double, so that the men shall not be confused
+by the hasty movement. As soon
+as the first party has reached the new
+position, the fringe of men left on the
+old one should creep back and go as
+hard as they can to rejoin their
+section or platoon, and they should be
+taught to judge the time of going for
+themselves, so as not to “let in” the section
+or themselves, by going too early or
+staying too late. Repeat the movement to
+one or two further positions. It is a
+strenuous practice and makes demands on
+the men’s limbs, wind, and willingness,
+but the rearguard is the post of honour
+and danger. Order casualties of leaders
+from time to time, and let the men be
+called to move in quick time sometimes,
+which they would have to do if there were
+signs of unsteadiness.</p>
+
+<h3>(<em>b</em>) <em>As a Section or Platoon Acting Alone.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Act on the same lines as before, but let
+the commander run the show, which he
+should be able to do, after having done it
+under supervision. One party (a file or two
+in the case of a section, or one or
+two sections in that of a platoon) gets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>
+back to a fire position and opens fire to
+cover the retirement of the other. In
+general, it is better that both parties
+should not fall back on one and the same
+fire position; on the contrary, if they act
+on a wide front in ordinary country—say,
+three hundred yards apart—their fire is
+equally effective, but the enemy is broken
+up, and the danger of their being outflanked
+or surrounded is less. For the
+same reason it is good practice, if the platoon
+is strong, to send out groups of four
+or five men still further on the flanks, and
+a group to precede the whole on the line
+of retirement by six hundred yards or so,
+in order to occupy positions and deny them
+to the enemy, and after one or two turns
+of this exercise tell the skeleton enemy to
+follow on harder and try to work round
+the flanks. In this part also continue to
+order casualties of leaders.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VII">EXERCISE VII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in
+Independent Attack.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is very important to secure the intelligent
+co-operation of section and platoon
+commanders in the operations in which
+their company or battalion is taking part.
+I have read that in the Russo-Japanese
+War the result of one of the battles—I
+think at Penlin, 31st July—turned on
+the action of an infantry section who
+gained a footing on the extreme flank of
+the Russian line, and drove off the defenders
+in the immediate vicinity, opened
+a way for the advance of the greater
+numbers, and led to the outflanking and
+retreat of the whole Russian force. If you
+give your unit commanders some chances of
+carrying out attacks, acting as if unsupported
+by other troops, they will find
+themselves faced with the same problems
+which confront commanders of larger
+bodies in the attack, and they will be
+more likely, when acting in combination,
+to look beyond just the limits of their own
+commands; they will be led to comprehend
+the object of operations and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>
+difficulties in the way, and will become
+quick to seize any opportunity to further
+the general plan without waiting for
+orders. It is true that so small a body as a
+section would seldom be formally told to
+attack an objective single-handed, but there
+are often occasions on service when a
+platoon might have to carry out an attack
+on a small scale, as when a few of the
+enemy’s riflemen are making themselves
+unpleasant, while not in sufficient force to
+do more than “snipe,” or to require the
+diversion against them of a whole company.
+Though a section as now constituted is a
+very small unit to work with, I think no
+excuse is needed for performing the attack
+with the smallest unit, having in view the
+excellent training it forms for non-commissioned
+officers and men. However, for
+this practice, it is advisable to form sections
+somewhat above the usual strength, by
+joining two together, so as to give at least
+eighteen rifles in the whole. After having
+put the sections through the exercise, you
+will, of course, let the platoon commanders
+carry out the attack with their platoons.</p>
+
+<p>Put out a skeleton enemy of three or
+four men for each platoon or section, or
+one only for all to attack in turn, and
+post this enemy in some commanding
+place, with a good field of view and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>
+fire so that if possible the unit shall
+have twelve to eight hundred yards to
+manœuvre over before coming to close
+quarters. As an example, give out the
+supposition that this enemy are a cavalry
+patrol of the enemy, who have dismounted
+and are using their rifles on the
+company as it is on the move from somewhere
+to somewhere else. The section or
+platoon is ordered to drive them off, neutralise
+their fire, or hold them in check, in case
+they should be the forerunners of a greater
+number. The enemy should begin to fire
+on a signal from you (with your flag),
+which you should give as you tell off
+the commander for the duty. If the
+other units are to attack the same
+enemy in turn, you should halt them
+under cover or turn them to the rear, so
+as not to see too much of the method the
+first lot choose to carry out their job.</p>
+
+<p>The method of the attack will depend
+on the nature of the ground—what suits
+one case may not suit another, and there
+may be two or three courses open in
+attacking any one position. The commander
+should accordingly look well
+at the ground before deciding how he will
+carry out the attack, but there are certain
+principles common to attacks, great or
+small, which he should put into practice.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>
+He should secure himself from interruption
+on his flanks and rear, and he should
+provide a supporting fire to distract the
+enemy and cover the advance of his main
+force. He cannot make large detachments
+or indulge in wide patrolling, nor
+would such small bodies as platoons be sent
+off to attack if such were advisable; but,
+at least he can post a file or two
+on some high ground, or, failing that,
+on one flank out of decisive range of the
+enemy, i.e., about eight hundred yards
+from him, with orders to keep up a steady
+fire until his advance masks their fire.
+This will prevent, or at least give warning
+of, an attempt to cut in on the rear.
+He may also send a file perhaps two or
+three hundred yards to either flank, to
+move parallel with his advance and prevent
+his being enfiladed at short range,
+if the enemy should be tactless enough
+to avail himself of a chance of meeting
+the advance by a counter-attack. Until
+he sees pretty well what he has in front
+of him, he should divide his party
+into two, sending one to engage the
+enemy and keeping the other as a
+reserve to support the first by fire if they
+get into difficulties, and to be available
+to carry on the attack after the other has
+got the enemy well busy, either by reinforcing
+it directly, or, better still, by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>
+continuing the advance along a fresh line
+leading to some position from which the
+enemy can be finally turned out, either
+by fire or by a charge, the first half
+joining in and advancing as soon as the
+enemy has turned his attention to the
+new attack. Both parties should keep
+scouts or a patrol of some sort out in front
+of them until the foreground is proved
+not to contain any hidden body of the
+enemy, or until the opening of fire by
+their own side makes it necessary for the
+scouts to merge into the firing line. I
+have seen on service a half-company go
+off to take post as a piquet on a long
+ridge; it neglected the above precautions,
+beyond having some scouts in front.
+There were four or five of the enemy on
+the ridge, and they waited till the scouts
+were close, shot some down and drove
+the others to cover, and then turned their
+fire on to the half-company, who were
+also driven to ground, and, as there was
+little cover, they were tied up till set free
+by some more infantry, who had to be
+specially sent off to move along the ridge.
+Had the half-company moved in two
+portions, the first would have contained
+this weak enemy, and the rear party
+could easily have circled round and got
+on to the ridge farther along, which would
+at once have caused the enemy to clear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>
+out. See F.S.R., I., <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, as to the results
+of the violation of the principles of leading
+troops, and as therein directed, impress
+the principles taught on the minds
+of your non-commissioned officers, who
+are commanders, albeit only of platoons
+and sections.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VIII">EXERCISE VIII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Platoon as an Advanced Guard
+and as a Flank Guard.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) When the company is on the march,
+it should always be preceded by an advanced
+guard—either a party of scouts,
+or, more usually, by one of the platoons.
+After the advanced guard comes in contact
+with the enemy its further action
+becomes either an attack to drive off the
+enemy, or a defence to delay his advancing,
+according to his strength and
+tactics; so I propose here merely to indicate
+suitable formations of march in
+ordinary, i.e., non-mountainous country,
+so that the platoons may be practised in
+taking them up without delay on being
+told off for the duty. The exercise takes
+little time, and can be done on the same
+parade as the flank guard exercise.</p>
+
+<p>An advanced guard may come under
+Are at any moment, and to provide
+against surprise (F.S.R., 64), its leading
+portions may move in extended order.
+The duties are given in F.S.R., 68, and
+apply quite completely to so small a body
+as a platoon. The platoon should be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>
+divided into a vanguard and a main guard.
+For the vanguard, a common plan is
+simply to extend a section on either side of
+the road, but I prefer to divide the section
+into three patrols, or more if strength permits,
+who work along in a general line—one
+to search the road and its immediate
+vicinity, and one on each side. The
+nature of the country regulates the
+breadth of ground the centre patrol can
+search from the road, and the distance to
+which the others are sent out on each side.
+The other sections follow as main guard,
+not so close as to be at once mixed up
+with the vanguard if fire is opened on the
+latter, nor so far as to be unable to support
+it quickly with fire. The advanced
+guard is responsible for keeping touch
+with the main body (the company)
+(F.S.R., 64 (4)), but the company commander
+should satisfy himself that this
+is being done. If view is restricted, the
+main guard must drop a connecting
+file to keep connection. This file must
+march with their beards on their shoulders,
+to see what the company is doing, and
+let the commander know, and also
+to signal to the company, if the platoon
+has had to halt. If the country is open,
+the commander should still tell off
+a file for this duty, who will march with
+the platoon, but be continually on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>
+look-out to the rear. The platoon
+commander ought, of course, to keep a
+watch himself, but may have other things
+to attend to, and it is well to take precautions
+against the platoon either getting
+too far in front or letting the company
+get too close to it, by marching on while
+the platoon is investigating some suspicious
+locality.</p>
+
+
+<h3>(<em>b</em>) <em>The Platoon as a Flank Guard.</em></h3>
+
+<p>A platoon may sometimes be used as a
+flank guard, as when a small convoy is
+on the march with only a company or two
+as escort. Flank guards are dismissed in
+a few words in F.S.R., 70. It is worth
+while to practise them once or twice to
+avoid delay in taking up the formation
+when the march is being started, or in improvising
+a method of fighting off the
+enemy if he attacks.</p>
+
+<p>Represent the convoy or whatever it is
+by a man with a red flag to move along
+the road; the platoon is then to move along
+parallel to the road, and far enough off
+to afford protection from effective rifle
+fire, i.e., at least eight hundred yards in
+open country. The skeleton enemy should
+be instructed to keep about the same distance
+again on the flank beyond the
+platoon, and to move along parallel with it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>
+without closing in, opening fire on an
+agreed signal.</p>
+
+<p>The march formation should be on the
+same principles as those for the advanced
+guard. The platoon should move in two
+bodies, and patrols or scouts should precede
+it, both in the direction of the march
+and towards the flank which is being
+guarded. It is important to keep touch
+with the main body by connecting files at
+all times, otherwise if the road changes
+direction out of view of the flank guard
+it may separate them too far or bring
+them too close to the company.</p>
+
+<p>The method of fighting merely to hold
+off the enemy resembles that used by a
+rear guard for the same purpose, i.e., fire
+and movement by alternate portions.
+When the enemy opens fire on your signal,
+the patrol on the flank either falls back,
+or the platoon reinforces it. The patrol
+in the line of advance should still continue
+to precede the movements of the
+platoon in that direction, and should be
+told to conform to its movement. The
+platoon replies to the enemy’s fire as soon
+as possible and begins the lateral fight—one
+half is sent, if possible under cover,
+to take up a fire position farther along the
+direction of the line of march, preceded
+by the patrol, which, to some extent,
+secures it from surprise from that direction.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>
+As soon as the leading party has
+found a fire position and opens its fire,
+the other follows it, and either halts
+alongside it, so allowing it to go off to a
+new position, or continues its movement
+beyond it and takes up a third position to
+cover the further movements. The latter
+method is the quicker, as it saves the time
+of replacing men of the first party in
+their fire position by those of the second.
+The exercise need not be prolonged, as a
+few of these lateral movements are quite
+sufficient illustration to enable the men in
+future to take up their duty quickly.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_IX">EXERCISE IX.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Preliminary for the Attack by the
+Company in Battalion.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>A company attacking as part of the
+battalion is sure to find the men of different
+platoons mixed up in the course of the
+attack with those of other platoons, both of
+that company and of others. Before
+practising the attack, accompanied with
+this mixture of platoons, it is advisable
+to train them and their non-commissioned
+officers for their duties without
+allowing any mixing up. This may be
+done by bringing all the platoons of the
+company up into one line, and then
+extending each on its own ground. The
+result is that each platoon may be taken
+to represent the leading platoon of four
+companies told off to furnish the firing
+line and supports (I.T., 122). The four
+platoons form thus the firing line, the
+other three supposititious platoons of each
+company being in support. This formation
+would be taken up when the enemy’s
+rifle fire began to be effective, i.e., at or
+under fourteen hundred yards. Within
+this distance the firing line has to press<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>
+on through the zones in which it uses collective
+and individual fire up to assaulting
+distance, being reinforced as needed,
+firstly by the supports, and finally at the
+time of the assault by all or part of the
+local reserve, which, in this case, would
+be composed of the four companies of the
+battalion not detailed to furnish the firing
+line and supports.</p>
+
+<p>Put out a skeleton enemy with orders to
+remain in one position, and fire slowly,
+but continuously. Draw up the four
+platoons, or as many as are present of the
+company at fourteen hundred yards or
+so from the enemy, in one line and at
+sufficient intervals to allow of their extending
+to five paces, <em>plus</em> some space
+between flanks of sections after extension,
+to allow plenty of choice of lines of advance.
+Indicate to each platoon a part of
+the enemy’s position which it is to regard
+as its final objective of assault (I.T.,
+121 (3)). Have the men extended to five
+paces, and carry out the attack right
+through on the lines of Exercise V., and
+finish with an assault and rally after it.
+Each company would have an officer with
+its platoon in the firing line to direct the fire.
+If fire is opened between fourteen hundred
+and one thousand yards, it will not
+be effective against ordinary targets unless
+the whole four platoons direct their fire<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>
+on the same target. Under one thousand
+yards fire should be controlled by section
+commanders and directed by platoon commanders.</p>
+
+<p>Practise concentration of the fire of the
+four platoons on one part of the enemy’s
+line and lateral distribution of fire <em>within
+the limits of that part</em>. Give each platoon
+a fraction of this fraction of the enemy’s
+frontage to deal with, and let the platoon
+commander again tell off his sections to fire
+at various marks inside <em>his</em> limits. Again
+switch the fire of all four platoons on to
+some other particular bit of the enemy’s
+position, as done in previous exercises.</p>
+
+<p>To do this you must introduce and work
+with thoroughness a system of inter-communication
+(I.T., 119), but it should be
+one approved and adopted by your
+battalion commander, otherwise each company
+of the battalion may be found using
+a different one. It is to be understood
+that orders as to the direction of fire in
+no way interfere with the gaining of
+ground to the front, a platoon firing at
+one object ceases fire in order to advance,
+but resumes its fire on the same object
+when it again halts.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as section fire is opened,
+encourage mutual support, some part of the
+line firing while others advance, and make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>
+section commanders continue to observe
+this principle.</p>
+
+<p>At some one parade for this exercise
+halt the whole line during the attack and
+practise entrenching under fire, the men
+working lying down (I.T., 121 (13)).
+Thereafter resume the advance.</p>
+
+<p>Move about yourself and let your section
+commanders do so also, and check
+any slovenly work on the part of the men
+in using, quitting, or getting into cover,
+and in the use of their rifles and judging
+distance if, as should often be done, it
+is left to them to estimate how far they
+are from the target of the moment.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_X">EXERCISE X.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack with the
+Battalion under Artillery Fire.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the battalion is moving forward
+to attack, and before the enemy’s rifle fire
+is more than a distant and future danger,
+that of his artillery becomes an imminent
+and formidable menace as soon as the
+limits of its range are crossed, because of
+the suddenness with which it is capable
+of dealing destruction. Whether his
+artillery actually opens on the battalion
+is another matter. If the battalion shows
+up as a tempting target in column of route
+or mass, he most certainly will fire
+on it, but if it is skilfully led it may
+possibly escape his notice altogether; at
+the same time, it is hardly likely that it
+can move from five thousand to fourteen
+hundred yards from the enemy’s infantry
+without giving some indications of its
+movement, and the probability is, that at
+some part of the advance it will find
+itself the recipient of the enemy’s attention.
+To escape the effect of this fire,
+the battalion and the company will have
+to break up into small shallow columns<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>
+such as platoons or sections at least 50
+yards from each other laterally (I.T.,
+118) and two hundred yards from
+front to rear; in fact, a lot of little
+groups of men sufficiently apart to
+prevent the burst of one shell covering
+more than one group. The advance
+in this order constitutes the first phase of
+the infantry attack. The company must
+be practised in getting into this formation,
+and moving in it so as to avoid confusion
+in action, and also to let non-commissioned
+officers and men understand
+that this formation does not free them
+from the control of their commander.</p>
+
+<p>At manœuvres and exercises the adoption
+of this formation is sometimes
+burked on various pretexts, of which the
+most heinous is to say that the results of
+artillery fire are overrated, and the risk
+run in keeping in closed formation is more
+than compensated for by the comfort of
+the men, maintenance of control and
+saving of time. This theory I fancy had
+its origin in the South African War,
+where the Boer artillery was skilful but
+exiguous, if judged by European standards.
+I have not been under shell fire
+myself, but I have seen the results of it
+on a column of about two hundred men
+who came along a watercourse two
+thousand yards or so from the guns, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span>
+something resembling a march formation.
+The guns had the range, and the enemy
+left about fifty dead in that watercourse
+in a few minutes, so personally I am
+going to open out my company and trust
+to my peace training of it to keep it in
+hand and get it along fast enough to be
+on the spot when wanted.</p>
+
+<p>I need hardly give details how to practise
+this. The point is, to get the
+company opened out quickly and without
+confusion, and this is to be done by telling
+your platoon commanders what you
+want and where they are to go, and not
+by any drill. Platoons may further split
+up into columns of sections. Leave it to
+your platoon commanders to have the sections
+moved apart to intervals of fifty yards.
+If the enemy’s artillery is straight in front,
+a diamond formation seems suitable—a
+platoon at each angle—the length of the
+diagonal front to rear being over two hundred
+yards and side to side over one hundred;
+or the platoons may simply follow
+each other at two hundred yards distance,
+though this is not a very handy arrangement.
+But, subject to keeping the distances
+large enough, it is not the formation
+that matters, but the way it is taken up,
+and I will leave it at that.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of this phase of endurance
+of the enemy’s artillery fire the company<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span>
+comes under rifle fire and has to take to
+extended order, and on service it would
+perhaps have to do this and plunge into
+the attack without the platoons closing in
+from the scattered formation in which
+they have so far moved. But for the
+first few times you should close up at
+fourteen hundred yards and start from
+there, so as to tell the men what is next
+to be done when they come under rifle
+fire, and in any case the size of your exercise
+ground would probably necessitate
+your doing the two phases over more or
+less the same bit of ground.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XI">EXERCISE XI.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack with the
+Battalion, under Rifle Fire.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The immediate objects of the fire fight
+within effective rifle range are to produce
+a fire sufficiently heavy to overcome
+the fire of the defence, and to reach
+a position from which the assault can be
+delivered (I.T., 121 (5 and 6)). In theory,
+then, the desideratum is to get so many
+men up to about two hundred yards from
+the enemy that they form a line practically
+shoulder to shoulder, in order that
+their fire may be at least as heavy as that
+of the enemy, if the latter are also in one
+continuous line, and in default of circumstances
+admitting of effective covering
+fire being maintained from positions in
+rear or on a flank. On this supposition it
+is frequently argued that a battalion and
+its companies, when advancing to the
+attack, should do so on a front not
+greater than that which the battalion
+would occupy if it were in single rank, but
+this does not really follow. The nature
+of the ground may be such that to attempt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>
+to build up a shoulder-to-shoulder firing
+line all along the enemy’s position within
+charging distance, may be merely to send
+men to useless destruction by exposing
+them on fire-swept spaces, where they are
+sure to be knocked over before they can do
+any good. On the other hand, there may
+be other points where men may be massed
+so as to give not only a firing line of
+maximum density, but also a supporting
+force both to replace casualties and to
+carry out the assault. These are the points
+which it is of importance to gain and
+hold in strength sufficient to carry out the
+object of the attack—the assault. It is
+the duty of the battalion commander to
+give each of his firing line companies
+some such point as their objective, and to
+define the frontage and direction of
+their attack. It is similarly the duty
+of the commander of a firing line
+company to give each of his sections
+an objective within the limits assigned to
+his company (I.T., 122 (4) and 123 (3-)).
+The problem for solution is, how to get to
+those points, and so it does not appear to
+matter much what frontage the battalion
+and its companies occupy when they start
+off for the attack at the fourteen hundred
+yards limit of effective rifle fire, provided
+of course, they do not encroach on the
+frontage of other units. Indeed, an attack<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>
+which starts on a wide base and concentrates
+only in its later stages seems
+much more likely than one which starts
+from base equal to a single rank frontage
+to keep the enemy uncertain of its
+objective, and to be able to bring oblique
+or enfilade fire to bear on portions of his
+line. Therefore, when practising the company
+in attack, do not be bound by cast
+iron rules as to the breadth of the zone of
+ground within which you are to bring
+your company from fourteen hundred
+yards up to the charging position. Four
+platoons following one straight behind the
+other, at two hundred yards distance,
+make a very unwieldy procession, and, in
+general, I would advise you to use something
+in the nature of a diamond formation
+at first, the three platoons in rear
+making their own way forward till they
+reinforce the leading portion which finally
+consists of the whole company.</p>
+
+<p>Put out the skeleton enemy on a front
+of, roughly, what your company will
+occupy in single rank, and let the position,
+if possible, have within it two, or at
+most, three points, which you can assign
+as objectives to the platoon commanders.
+You must consider this position as having
+been assigned to you as objective by your
+battalion commander, the ground on the
+right and left of it being the prey of other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>
+companies, and not the object of your
+assault, though it should, nevertheless,
+frequently be the object of your <em>fire</em>
+during the advance.</p>
+
+<p>Draw up the company at about fourteen
+hundred yards from the enemy. Tell
+the platoon commanders the relative positions
+the platoons are to take up when the
+advance begins, roughly the distances
+between them (I.T., 123 (7)), the direction
+of the attack, if the enemy’s position is not
+quite clearly to be seen, the frontage on
+which the company is free to manœuvre,
+and the points which the sections are to
+regard as their objectives; the details
+contained in I.T., 123 and 124, may
+also be enumerated if the commanders
+are not experienced. As regards these
+details, I recommend that scouts be
+formed not in a line of men extended
+at wide intervals, but as a line
+of patrols of four or six men each, and
+you or a subaltern should halt them early
+in the attack and tell them to send back
+word that they are held up by fire, or
+that they have defined the enemy’s position;
+on this the nearest platoon reinforces
+them, and the process of building up the
+firing line begins from that point. As
+regards inter-communication, use connecting
+files and semaphore signalling to join
+up the various parts and make real use of
+them, but avoid sham messages.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p>
+
+<p>As soon as the object and manner of
+the attack have been detailed to all, tell
+the platoon commanders to move off their
+platoons to their positions and extend them
+ready to advance, and the scouts to get
+off in front. Five paces is the least extension
+to ensure that a bullet aimed at
+one man may miss him with a fair chance
+of not hitting his neighbour. Do not let
+the scouts go too far away, because at
+this time of getting to grips with the
+enemy, their usefulness, when acting with
+their companies is mainly limited to
+guarding against ambush at close range,
+and as ground scouts to prevent the company
+coming against some unseen obstacle,
+barbed wire, donga, canal, or what not.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as all are in position, the company
+may be considered as being in the
+formation in which it would have arrived
+at the point where, in addition to the
+enemy’s artillery fire, it comes under
+heavy and fairly accurate rifle fire. Give
+the signal to advance, and let the platoon
+commanders begin to work their platoons
+forward, using what covered ways they
+can find. After a little of this, have the
+scouts halted and reinforce them by one
+platoon, order fire to be opened, bearing
+in mind that one platoon’s fire is probably
+useless at over one thousand yards from
+the enemy, but if your company is in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>
+diamond formation the platoons on each
+flank will probably be able to fire, and
+with favourable ground, e.g., a knoll, or
+bluff somewhere on the line of advance,
+the rear platoon also will be able to fire
+over the heads of the firing line. There
+is no danger in this if the men hold their
+rifles straight, and it would assuredly
+be done in war. I have myself seen it,
+and the chances of an accident are minimised
+by practice in peace. During this
+early opening of fire use every effort to
+keep the fire from being merely a make-believe,
+i.e., send word round by your
+connecting files or semaphore to fire at
+certain targets, and see that section commanders
+direct their fire accordingly.
+In battle the information as to which part
+of the enemy’s position seemed most to
+demand attention would, of course, reach
+you from those of your side who were
+suffering fire coming from that part of the
+position, and the result of your passing
+the word to fire at it as above would be
+that a shower of bullets would come dropping
+all round it, to the upsetting of the
+aim of the hostile marksmen. Under
+cover of this fire your firing line may be
+allowed to gain a little ground, platoons
+moving alternately so as to avoid a cessation
+of fire. Thereafter continue to gain
+ground, and gradually reinforce the firing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>
+line till all your supports are absorbed
+and the whole company is in the firing
+line. When this has taken place the line
+will consist of a mixture of men of
+different sections and platoons. Avoid
+unreal movements in attempting to keep
+the men of each unit together in reinforcing
+and recognise that admixture is
+unavoidable. (I.T., 93 (11) and 123
+(9)). The organising of the resultant
+disorder is one of the essential
+objects of training for the attack. Make
+your section commanders call on the
+men to right and left of them, if
+they are nearer them than any other unit
+commander, to act under their orders.
+Thus: “Private A to Private J under my
+orders.” Have this done constantly till
+it becomes a matter of course. The men
+of files can always hang together, but
+prove that this is being done by asking
+men where their file mates are. Get this
+system started as soon as reinforcement is
+begun, and keep it in full swing throughout.
+Once it is started, these extemporized
+fire units must apply the principles
+learnt by the intact sections and squads in
+Exercise IX., i.e., supporting fire by part
+to cover movement of the others, control
+and distribution of fire, etc., and so work
+on up to assaulting distance and deliver
+an assault. After this, let section and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>
+platoon commanders reform their men
+and units as quickly as possible, and
+then reform the company under your
+own orders. At subsequent parades
+introduce casualties among the section and
+platoon commanders, and let the senior
+privates in each of the mixed up fire units
+step into their places and carry on the
+attack without halt or confusion.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XII">EXERCISE XII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack Acting
+Alone.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>On service a company may often have
+to attack some post of the enemy without
+having the support of either artillery or
+infantry, and exercises framed to illustrate
+these conditions are very useful in
+developing the initiative of all ranks. In
+paragraph V. of the preamble I gave an
+example, and I think, if you will peruse
+it again, you will see what sort of thing
+you should arrange for the exercise. At
+inspections one sometimes sees a company
+sent off by itself to carry out such an
+attack, and the method often adopted is
+to tell off the company into the firing line
+and supports, and, perhaps, a reserve.
+The whole then go straight for the object
+and perform a sort of travesty of what
+the company does when acting as part of
+a battalion. By this time I trust you will
+be quick to perceive that this is just what
+it ought not to do. As an isolated force
+it has to do much more than simply to
+form a firing line and bring off an assault.
+It must secure its flanks, have a real<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>
+reserve, employ a flank as well as a
+frontal attack, provide for its own withdrawal
+if worsted, be prepared to deal
+with a counter-attack, and observe all
+the principles laid down in I.T., 121.
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mutatis mutandis</i>, your reserve may consist
+of only a platoon, your flank
+guards a file or two of men, your
+flank attacks a section or platoon with
+a subaltern accompanying it, and so
+on, but the precautions must be taken
+and the principles put into practice,
+or your attack would run risk of failure.
+You would do it all on service; therefore,
+do it all in peace. Carry out such exercises,
+carefully planned, and with observance
+of service conditions, and I am quite
+sure you will see what a great deal there
+is to be done in this direction before you
+feel yourself and your company quite
+competent to undertake a similar task in
+the field. That first exercise against a
+skeleton enemy will be the forerunner
+of many others. Your criticism of the
+action of your non-commissioned officers
+must be carefully considered, as there are
+usually several justifiable ways of doing
+a thing, and it should always be constructive
+and not merely destructive (T. &amp; M.R.,
+2 (2)).</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XIII">EXERCISE XIII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Retirement.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The men have been practised in retirement
+in pairs in Exercise II., and the sections
+and platoons have also learned their
+part in Exercise VI. It remains to train the
+company for this duty, which it might have
+to do either as acting as rearguard to
+the battalion, whether the latter was, or
+was not, in conjunction with other troops,
+or as if effecting its withdrawal when
+isolated. In both cases the procedure and
+distribution are pretty much alike. In the
+former case, the company, if it gets into
+difficulties, <em>may</em> be able to get help from
+the rest of the force, but in the latter it
+will not be able to do so, and the commander
+should be especially careful to have
+in hand some portion of his company which
+he can use to extricate any detachment
+which gets “tied up.” On the other hand,
+it is very desirable that the main body
+should not be called on to reinforce the
+rearguard when the company is not acting
+alone. So that in both cases you should be
+prepared to meet eventualities from your
+own resources. Again, a rearguard is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span>
+bound to have the majority of its force in
+action in order to hold back the enemy
+and present an appearance of force, so that
+it is not always possible to set apart a
+portion of so small a body as a company to
+act solely as reserve, and to remain continuously
+outside the actual combat. The
+solution of the difficulty seems to lie in
+an intelligent application of the principles
+of rearguard fighting given in F.S.R., 71 to
+73, and the early but timeous withdrawal
+from the fighting line of a portion of the
+company who move back to a position in
+rear from which they can cover the withdrawal
+of the remainder, but are still available
+to be thrown into the fight, if it is
+necessary to inaugurate some sort of a
+counter attack to give portions heavily
+engaged a chance to break away from close
+grips. It is important in this exercise to
+teach non-commissioned officers and men
+to be ready to adopt quickly any method
+of withdrawal that may be ordered, because
+the nature of the ground must
+determine the way in which a withdrawal
+can best be effected, and the nature of the
+ground may vary every few hundred yards.
+Therefore I merely suggest some ways of
+practising retirements, and during the
+course of the exercise you should change
+from one to another, and also encourage
+commanders to act on their own initiative,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>
+when, as will probably happen, your system
+of inter-communication fails to act with
+sufficient speed and accuracy. I.T., 137,
+gives general rules as to the action of platoons
+and sections, and the standard set up
+in Exercises II. and VI. should be adhered
+to. Send out the skeleton enemy with
+orders to follow up the retirement, but not
+to close in under six hundred yards.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) Get the whole company deployed
+into one line of platoons, with intervals between
+them, occupying a wide front, four
+to eight hundred yards, the men at five or
+more paces extension. This may seem too
+wide a front, but, after all, the intervals
+between the platoons are only two hundred
+and forty yards, and an enemy trying to
+break straight through the line would be
+under fire at one hundred and twenty yards
+or less, while a wide front is the best
+precaution against having your flanks
+turned and your retreat intercepted.</p>
+
+<p>Send back a platoon from one of the
+flanks to take up quickly a position in rear
+clear away from the firing line; three hundred
+to six hundred yards is not too much;
+let it open fire, and let the remainder of the
+firing line work back by retirement of
+alternate sections, each running back thirty
+or forty yards, beginning this movement
+from the flank from which the first platoon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>
+went, the platoon on the other flank holding
+on and only giving ground when the two
+centre platoons have got well on their way
+to the line on which the first platoon is
+halted. This is a slow retirement, but
+gives a maximum of continuous fire and
+the flanks are strong.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) With the whole company extended in
+one line, and no intervals between platoons.
+Retire by short rushes of alternate sections;
+the rushes must be quite short, twenty
+yards at most, so that the sections that have
+retired can fire through the intervals of the
+rear portion of the line the instant that it
+begins to retire. This is meant for use
+after an unsuccessful assault, and only on
+flat ground.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>c</em>) With the company extended in one
+line, but with intervals between the
+platoons. Order the flank platoons to
+retire and take post to cover the withdrawal
+of the two centre platoons, who
+remain in position till the flank platoons
+are ready to open fire. Watch how the
+platoon commanders handle their platoons;
+they should do so artfully, as taught
+in Exercise VI.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>d</em>) Retire by half-companies, two platoons
+together, using your subalterns as
+half-company commanders, and putting the
+onus of finding suitable covering positions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>
+on them, merely telling them to cover each
+other’s retirement.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>e</em>) With the company all holding one
+position, leave the scouts or picked men to
+cover the retirement by rapid fire, and
+withdraw the remainder at full speed, then
+cover the retirement of the scouts by the
+fire of the whole from a position in rear.
+Watch that the scouts creep back from
+their cover without letting the enemy know
+they are going; and of this screen of scouts
+the flank men ought usually to be the last
+to go in order to make the enemy believe
+that the position is still occupied.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XIV">EXERCISE XIV.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Outposts.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+<p>The general rules for outposts and the
+part played by an outpost company are to
+be found in I.T., 147 to 157, and it is necessary
+accordingly to train for those duties in
+peace. Let us begin from the beginning,
+and see what infantry outposts are and
+what they have to do. A line of infantry
+outposts will very often have to be taken up
+after a day’s fighting, or in close proximity
+to the enemy before a battle. The commander
+of an outpost battalion will be
+told by the staff to take up with his battalion
+a certain length of the front, say,
+from Farm A to Hill B, inclusive—perhaps
+a mile or even two in extent. He
+cannot possibly have time to ride all along
+the front and fix places for piquets and
+sentries. Instead of this, he looks at the
+ground and comes to the conclusion that
+it will require, say, all his four companies
+in the outpost line. He divides up his
+front into four parts, and gives each of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>
+his companies one part. It is his duty to
+see that the eight companies form along
+the line that combines the best facilities
+for defence and reconnaissance to the
+front. Accordingly, he tells the captain
+of A Company to take from Farm A to,
+say, the wood X, inclusive, the captain of
+B Company from the wood X, exclusive,
+to, say, the stream ML, inclusive, and so
+along. The captains of companies then
+have to go off and take up their frontages.
+As beforesaid, infantry outposts must
+expect to take up their line close to the
+enemy, and often when dusk is falling.
+This gives you your clue as to how it
+should be done. You must march your
+company in fighting formation, so as not
+to be ambushed—a screen of scouts
+or other covering troops in front and
+on the flanks, a party, section, or platoon
+ready to succour the covering party, and
+hold up the enemy, and a reserve ready
+to act under your orders, either for attack
+or defence. Your movement and the
+taking up of your line should be unseen by
+the enemy; therefore, move carefully
+under cover both from distant and close
+positions, from which you may be seen.
+The line must be taken up quickly. The
+main thing is to get it occupied; therefore,
+it is a mistake to halt the company
+while you plod round the whole of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>
+front and plan just where each piquet and
+sentry will be. Instead, take a good look
+at the line as you march and decide what
+are the essential points to be held for
+defence and as observation points. As
+soon as your scouts have made good the
+ground a little in front of those points,
+send off what you think are necessary,
+sections or platoons, to seize these
+points, and act as piquets till you go
+round and adjust details. Thus your
+company will occupy the line in rough-and-ready
+fashion as quickly as they can
+advance. When the company breaks up
+to go to the piquet posts, go with any one
+of the piquets which is to be on one flank
+and settle the exact position of the piquet
+with reference to the line you intend to
+hold as your line of resistance, and any
+other details which you think the piquet
+commander should attend to, such as what
+localities should be patrolled, and estimate
+the number of men required. Any surplus
+sections should accompany you from this
+piquet, and you and they then go along the
+line to the other piquets which you arrange
+similarly, using the surplus to reinforce
+those piquets that need them, and if at the
+end you have still a surplus of men you
+may either form them as a support in rear
+or dismiss them to remain with their own
+platoons. For purposes of messing on service
+the latter is convenient, but, tactically,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>
+a support is often needed, in which case the
+men’s comfort must take second place.</p>
+
+<p>You must make a clear distinction
+between day and night outposts, though
+you practise the latter by daylight. Infantry
+outposts by day and until the
+enemy advances, are firstly patrols and
+look-out men, whose business is to look
+for any movement on the part of the
+enemy, and to prevent his seeing their
+own side’s doings, and to report what
+they see of the enemy’s, and, secondly,
+a line of piquets who occupy the line decided
+on as the line of resistance, and who
+may fall out and rest while things are
+quiet, with supports and sometimes a
+reserve behind them. The patrols are
+active agents in getting information in
+front of the outpost line, and they
+will mostly consist of mounted troops
+except in close country or thick weather.
+The look-out sentries are passive obstacles
+to the enemy’s patrols or scouts
+penetrating the line; the piquets are the
+reserve of force ready to be called into
+action when needed. But a line suitable
+for observation and resistance by day is
+seldom suitable by night also. Fighting
+by day is done by shooting, and rough
+ground affording cover is likely to be
+chosen for the advance of the attackers.
+By night, however, the attack will be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span>
+made with the bayonet, and the attacker
+will avoid broken country, which will
+confuse and delay his advance. Choose
+your outpost line accordingly. By day
+seek for a good field of fire, mutually
+supporting positions, and good facilities
+for observation, and strengthen the position
+you mean to fight on. By night
+close the likely ways by which an enemy
+may advance by putting piquets on them
+in strengthened positions with obstacles
+prepared in front, and patrols lying out
+on intervening ground to intercept scouts.
+Thus, in an undulating hedge-covered
+country with many roads, by day your
+piquets would be behind the crests of the
+undulations, sentries only on the look-out,
+and patrols scouting in front. By night
+your piquets would be on the roads, which
+they would block with barbed wire or
+abattis of cut hedge stuff, and your patrols
+in the fields between and lying out along
+the road in front at some place where they
+could watch anything passing, and get
+back to the piquet line without running
+risks of being shot by their own side. We
+will see below what training is required
+for non-commissioned officers and men in
+their duties on piquet, patrol and sentry.
+When you have trained them in these
+duties, take up an outpost line as a tactical
+exercise with your company, acting as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span>
+an outpost company by day, and then as
+by night, and if you have scouts send
+them out to act as an enemy’s patrol in
+front to see how much of the operation
+of taking up the line is visible to them;
+then, after a certain hour, let them try
+to make their way through the line unseen.
+They must not work round the flanks as
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ex hypothesi</i>; these are held by other outpost
+companies; finally, let them start
+sniping the outposts as if ushering in an
+attack, and let your piquets take up the
+line of resistance, your patrols falling
+back on the firing beginning.</p>
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><em>The Training of Men and Platoons in
+Outpost Duties.</em></p>
+
+<p>An outpost company will more often
+consist of two or more small piquets of
+one or more platoons with a support, than
+simply of one large piquet with its support,
+so that when you come to train the whole
+company, as above, in taking up a part
+of an outpost line, the performance of the
+work will depend largely on the ability
+of your platoon and section commanders
+to direct the men in their duties.
+Unless they are capable of doing this,
+time will be wasted as you will be occupied
+with one portion of the line while<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>
+the rest are doing nothing and awaiting
+your arrival, for in this class of work the
+instructor must remain for some time with
+each piquet while the men are being put
+through the various duties, and cannot
+supervise concurrently at all points.
+Therefore, it is best, before taking the
+men out for instruction, to give a day or
+two solely to the instruction of subalterns
+and non-commissioned officers. When
+they have got a knowledge of what is
+required, have the men out, divide them
+into piquets under subalterns and section
+commanders, who will put them through
+the duties, and the work will go on on
+proper lines, and you will be free to go
+round and supervise each in turn.</p>
+
+<p>You will have four subalterns, sixteen
+section commanders, and other non-commissioned
+officers, a total of twenty rifles
+or so, but if you are short of non-commissioned
+officers, have out enough privates to
+give you sixteen or twenty rifles. Form
+them up as a piquet and make the supposition
+that it has just received its orders to
+break off from the company and go to a
+certain point in the outpost line and take
+up its duties there.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Day Piquets.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Indicate some such point as a day piquet
+position at a reasonable distance from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span>
+where the piquet is when you give it its
+orders, and let the senior non-commissioned
+officer march it there, as on service,
+the point chosen being, if possible, such a
+one as would be occupied on service.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) This advance to the piquet is the
+first duty. In spite of the company covering
+troops being supposed to be somewhere
+in advance, the piquet on its march should
+be protected by a small patrol (F.S.R.,
+64 (1)). In taking up the position, it
+must not let the enemy see it; that is,
+neither the men nor their commander
+should show themselves. Very often the
+men are kept under cover, but the commander
+wanders about fixing places for
+sentries in full view of everyone. He
+should lie down and peep over the crest
+or whatever it is while making his plans.</p>
+
+<p>Having arrived at the piquet position,
+indicate a position on the right and on
+the left where other piquets are supposed
+to be and proceed with:—</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) Duties of outpost sentries.—These
+are given in I.T., 152. Post as many
+groups as will use up the whole
+strength in places which would need
+watching on service; if there are not
+enough such places near by, then merely
+for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two
+or more groups close together. A
+group consists of one or two men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>
+on duty, and their reliefs, who lie
+down near them. These groups are relieved
+every eight or twelve hours. Let
+it be understood that the position of their
+own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of
+these groups and of patrols, and it is a
+good plan to show the position by a flag.
+The sentries must see without being seen,
+know where other groups are, where their
+own and other piquets are, be told to
+challenge and halt anyone approaching as
+in I.T., 152 (3), and what to do if
+attacked. Let them do this to you personally,
+as if you were someone not belonging
+to the troops, and impress on
+them that they must be careful to teach
+it to their men so that <em>no stranger may
+ever be allowed to get close</em> to a group,
+and to shoot if he does not halt. Neglect
+of this simple rule has led to many mishaps
+in all armies. Concealment is not
+easy, but must be got somehow—by
+artifice, if the ground is unfavourable.
+After putting all through “sentry go”
+close to the groups and teach them:—</p>
+
+<p>(<em>c</em>) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and
+156. Patrols are not meant for fighting,
+but to get information or watch dangerous
+places. But they may have to fight
+to avoid capture, and they do no good
+by walking blindly into an ambush.
+To bring back information or news that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span>
+the enemy are coming on, it is evidently
+essential that whatever happens to the rest
+of the party, one man at least should
+always be able to escape, and to avoid
+ambush the patrol should move in a formation
+which will prevent a surprise overwhelming
+the whole party. In short, one
+portion must scout, and the other be prepared
+to cover their movement and help
+them to get away, if possible, but in any
+case to get away itself and carry news of
+the enemy. But patrols must be limited
+in strength, or they will not be able to
+escape notice, and must make up for their
+weakness by cunning and stealthiness of
+movement.</p>
+
+<p>For patrolling by day, tell off the whole
+strength into patrols of four or six men,
+one of whom will command in each patrol.
+Let each take up the formation it would
+usually adopt; that is, one or two files in
+advance, followed by the rest at a distance
+sufficient to prevent the surprise of the
+whole by one and the same opening of
+fire. Teach the method advocated for
+movement across country, i.e., a careful but
+rapid advance from one cover to another,
+also how to approach suspicious localities.
+The leading file halts and looks
+for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile
+the rear file comes nearly up to
+it; the leading file then moves forward<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span>
+while the rear file lies down with
+rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire
+at once to cover the others if the enemy
+shows himself. If the locality to be
+searched can be outflanked, the leading
+files should move round one or both flanks
+before closing in on it. If it is one that
+cannot be outflanked, as, for instance, a
+straight edge of a large wood, they should
+approach it under cover, creeping up a
+hedgerow perhaps, and so get inside. If
+there is no cover they may try some ruse
+to draw the enemy’s fire before getting
+too close, halting as if they had seen
+something, shading the eyes with the
+hand, pointing and then starting to run
+back as if alarmed, which might lead the
+enemy to open fire to prevent their escape.
+But it is rather hard to get men to do
+this play-acting unless there is a real force
+of “Blue” or “Red” enemy against
+them. The commander of the patrol,
+when approaching any place, should tell
+his men what they are to do if it is seen
+to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still
+and watch, or retire. If the latter, he
+should fix some place in rear where the
+patrol could rally after getting out of
+harm’s way.</p>
+
+<p>Show them how to look over a ridge,
+wall, or hedge, without attracting notice,
+taking off their headdress and raising the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>
+head slowly, keeping the rest of the body
+carefully under cover, and also to move
+unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges
+or roadside trees, and covering up any
+polished metal work of their uniform; to
+lie up on any place that commands a good
+view, and look long and carefully all over
+the country to catch sight of anything.
+Finally to report what they see, and to
+do this at once, if there is need, by sending
+one, or better, if the patrol can spare
+them, two men back to the piquet with a
+<em>written</em> report, the rest still remaining in
+observation. Without having an actual
+force opposing you, you can only do this
+exercise with some appearance of reality
+by giving out verbal situations to the
+patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that
+wood which an enemy may be holding.”
+On this the patrol would get into formation
+and move forward. Then, when
+approaching the wood, “You have seen
+small parties of the enemy beyond the
+wood both on its right and left, and they
+are perhaps in the wood also; try and get
+into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or,
+if not, “show what you would do to draw
+their fire before getting close.” Then
+“the wood is held by the enemy, withdraw
+your patrol if you can.” As the
+patrol attempts to retire “a heavy fire is
+opened on you as you retire, showing that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>
+there is at least a company in the wood,
+your first duty is to send news of this
+to your piquet—how and whom would you
+send, and how would you frame your
+message?”</p>
+
+<p>(<em>d</em>) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon
+and take it to the place where the piquet
+is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position
+has at once to strengthen the position
+against attack, and this without waiting
+for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are
+here only training the non-commissioned
+officers in their duties we will not ask them
+actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes
+and entanglements; indeed, this, as one
+may term it, executive work, has its proper
+place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind,
+then, that we are dealing with a day outpost,
+ask or show the platoon how to
+strengthen the position. Bring out a few
+picks and let them spitlock on the ground
+the lines of any trenches that might be
+needed, paying great attention to the siting
+of the trench so that fire could be brought
+over all the ground in front. Let them
+indicate with exactness where and how
+they would improve and adapt existing
+cover. Great regard need not be had to
+the number of men in the piquet, as outposts,
+if attacked, should make as much
+show of force as possible, and it does good
+and not harm if there are alternative loop-holes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>
+facing in different directions; also
+accommodation must be provided for
+the support. The commander should
+look for ground outside the outpost
+line from which enfilade rifle or artillery
+fire might be brought to bear on
+him, and mark how he would protect
+his men from it by traverses, breaking the
+line of loop-holes into short lengths, keeping
+under lee of existing cover and so on.
+The strengthening of the piquet must be
+done with the aid of common-sense. It will
+seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit
+of trench all in one piece and hope the
+enemy will be good enough to come and
+knock his head against it. Cover may be
+made or adapted in several separate
+groups, if this is needed, so as to make it
+possible to bring fire to bear on any part
+of the ground in front. The piquet must
+be prepared to make as brave a show as
+possible, therefore the commander, while
+strengthening the point near which his
+piquet is to rest, must decide what he will
+do if attacked. Probably there will be
+within the limits of his piquet’s frontage
+one or two other points which might be
+useful for defence, and he must not expect
+attack just from one direction. With
+regard to such alternative positions he
+should settle when and how he will use
+them, and whether he can afford time and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>
+men to strengthen them, and, last but
+not least, whether he will be able to get
+men from one to the other if the enemy
+does develop a strong attack. If he can
+do all these he will have added immensely
+to his power of defence, provided he
+handles his men skilfully, as he will be
+able to hold one position till the enemy
+thinks he has defined its location, then
+dodge to another, while they will go
+on firing at the old one, and so make his
+piquet appear many times stronger than it
+is. Concealment of the defence is very
+important, and the non-commissioned
+officers should be reminded that this must
+be attended to. They may forget it as
+there is no actual digging.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>e</em>) Duties in Piquet.—The position of
+the piquet and alternative defence positions
+having been fixed, and trenches or other
+defences marked out on the position, and
+on the alternative positions if any, assemble
+the platoon at the piquet and show the
+non-commissioned officers how to tell off
+reliefs and other duties. Each group furnished
+by the piquet consists of
+three to eight men, and mounts one or two
+men as sentry, as the circumstances of the
+post require (I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry,
+single or double, being relieved in turn by
+the others of the group. The whole group
+is under command of the senior soldier or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span>
+a non-commissioned officer. The men
+who are to form the reliefs of the groups
+stay with the piquet, which usually is composed
+solely of the reliefs of groups and
+patrols. Extra men who have no specific
+duties are not advisable unless the position
+is very exposed. Suppose your group
+sentries are single, and the groups of three
+men each, and relieved every eight hours,
+then for every group posted and in position
+there will be six men in the piquet resting
+and waiting their turn, each group thus
+needing a total of nine men—three out, six
+in. Patrols start from the piquet or support,
+as the commander of the company
+directs, and the piquet commander may
+send them out on his own initiative, if he
+thinks it needful. As they are practically
+all on duty as long as they are out, a turn
+of four hours is enough for them, or, rather,
+a third of the daylight time. Take your
+patrols from this piquet to be four strong,
+there will be for each patrol eight men in
+the piquet and four out on patrol, a total
+of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.</p>
+
+<p>In telling off a piquet on the above conditions
+of relief, and before dismissing the
+men to rest, the commander must pay attention
+to two main points. Firstly, he
+must tell off the reliefs, and give each relief
+a place to rest in. Men on outpost
+are usually tired and need all the rest they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>
+can get, especially if they are up all night.
+Therefore reliefs should be kept together
+and rest in one place, so that the commander
+can find them at once without
+stirring up the others to see who’s who.
+Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm
+posts, which they are to occupy in case of
+attack—each relief and each man of it
+should be given a position on the entrenchment
+which he is to hold. To ensure that
+they will do this at once and without confusion
+they should be made to go to these
+places and occupy them before being dismissed.
+There will then be no needless
+running about with consequent casualties
+if fire, either of artillery or infantry, suddenly
+opens.</p>
+
+<p>Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned
+officers and others) in your instructional
+piquet give out that it is to furnish—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent">1 Sentry over the piquet.<br>
+2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.<br>
+2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The sentry over the piquet alone being
+actually posted, the two groups and two
+patrols being supposed to be out in front,
+as this part of the lesson is only concerned
+with the inside work of the piquet, and
+you have already shown them this work on
+sentry and patrol. As your strength is not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span>
+sufficient you must make a further supposition,
+and make believe that for the
+reliefs of the groups one of your rifles represents
+three, and for those of the patrols
+one rifle represents two. Appoint one of
+the non-commissioned officers in turn as
+commander, and let him tell off accordingly.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent">3 Rifles for piquet sentry, one of whom he actually mounts.<br>
+1 Rifle (representing three) as second relief, No. 1 group.<br>
+1 Rifle (representing three) as third relief, No. 1 group.<br>
+2 Rifles (representing two each) for second relief, No. 1 patrol.<br>
+2 Rifles (representing two each) for third relief, No. 1 patrol.<br>
+<span style="padding-left: .8em">And a similar number for No. 2  patrol and No. 2 group.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having told off these reliefs the commander
+should then tell them where they
+are to have their resting places and where
+their posts are in case of alarm. At this
+time also he would give out any special
+orders which concern the piquet. Then
+without dismissing the men he should
+order them to go to their resting places,
+and as soon as they are there order them
+to occupy their alarm posts, which should
+be done in double time, the men lying
+down on the places that have been marked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span>
+out for entrenchment or improvement of
+existing cover. Make this falling in on
+alarm posts a standing order in the company.
+After this has been done, and each
+man knows exactly what he has to do on
+the alarm, the men should be dismissed to
+their resting places, which, as before said,
+should be separate for each relief and apart
+from each other. After being dismissed,
+the men would on service be allowed to
+make themselves as comfortable as possible.
+Other duties of the piquet commander
+are:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (1) The opening of communication with piquets in right and left and the support.</p>
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (2) The fixing of places for purposes of nature.</p>
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (3) The arrangements for getting up food to his men if they have not their rations with them.</p>
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (4) Keeping his piquet in a state of readiness; besides keeping accoutrements on, the men
+should have their rifles at their sides when resting, and take them with them wherever they
+go. There should be no such thing as piling arms on outpost.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h3><em>Night Piquets.</em></h3>
+
+<p>In the dark the bullet is a fool unless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>
+fired at close quarters. No practicable
+amount of shooting, even at only a
+hundred yards distance, will dislodge determined
+men posted under cover, and a
+serious attack must be made with the
+bayonet or by shooting within the distance
+at which a man may be distinguished—ten
+yards or so. F.S.R., 138 (2), lays
+down for the British Army that the
+bayonet only is to be used in night attacks,
+and we may assume that any civilized
+army we may have to meet will pursue
+similar tactics. Aerial reconnaissance may
+nowadays allow an enemy to locate the
+position held by the main body of his
+opponent, in spite of its being covered by
+outposts, but such reconnaissance does not
+admit of any hope of a successful night
+attack being made on that main body by
+eluding or passing through the outposts,
+because the surface of the ground cannot
+be sufficiently searched from above to discover
+the small obstacles which must be
+avoided or known if the advance of a
+large body of men is to be carried out at
+night. So we may take it that now, as
+formerly, any large attack will fall first
+on the outposts, supposing, as we must,
+that these are placed so as to hold or
+watch all possible lines of advance. In
+addition to this, outposts must expect isolated
+attacks made against one or two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span>
+points held by them which the enemy
+desires to gain possession of. The duties
+of outposts by night are, then, to hold
+and defend the outpost line in sufficient
+strength to prevent any large body of the
+enemy breaking through, or getting a
+footing in some tactically important position
+on the line, and also to prevent the
+enemy’s scouts from getting through and
+making observations, and, lastly, but of
+most importance, to get news of the enemy
+both as a means of forestalling any
+attack, and for the use of the force commander
+in framing his plans. Bringing
+the matter down to the level of a piquet
+of an outpost company, it seems to resolve
+itself into night patrolling and night
+defence of a position. As before pointed
+out, enclosed country allows of piquets
+closing the lines of advance by which
+large bodies can only hope to move undiscovered,
+while intervening ground can be
+searched by patrols. On the other hand,
+open country leaves the front vulnerable
+everywhere, and calls for a greater number
+of piquets and closer patrolling than
+are needed by day.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, elementary instruction in
+these duties must be carried out by daylight
+to allow of supervision; so now
+assemble your platoon of non-commissioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span>
+officers and give out that you are going to
+practise night work. Choose some place
+for your night piquet, realistic as may be,
+a bridge, a cutting, or anything else that
+constitutes a defile or otherwise blocks a
+likely line of advance from the enemy’s
+direction. Also choose, and point out to
+the platoon, positions where the adjoining
+piquets on the right and left would be.
+Give out the following instructions to the
+non-commissioned officers:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (1) Piquets must take up their night
+    positions when it is getting dusk,
+    the strengthening of the piquet
+    and construction of obstacles
+    being done in advance, secretly if
+    possible, and towards evening the
+    working party should withdraw
+    and leave the intended night position
+    empty till it is time to move
+    into it, further work being completed
+    by twilight.</p>
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (2) The provision of obstacles is
+    more necessary than entrenchment,
+    as securing the piquet from
+    being rushed while completing
+    the latter.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (3) Men must rest on their alarm
+    posts, and bayonets may have to
+    be kept fixed by all, if there is
+    a possibility of a sudden attack
+    (I.T., 151 (7)), to ensure instant
+    readiness.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (4) All piquets must stand to arms
+    one hour before light and remain
+    ready for action till the patrols
+    have found that there is no sign
+    of an immediate attack. When
+    relief takes place in the morning,
+    night outposts will not return to
+    camp till the patrols report all
+    clear.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>After this, let the non-commissioned
+officer in command withdraw the piquet
+from its day position and march it to the
+night position. On arrival ask the non-commissioned
+officers in turn where they
+would place the piquet exactly and where
+they would put their obstacles. Obstacles
+for a night piquet should be under close
+fire, i.e., ten or twenty paces, but, in
+addition, booby traps and alarms may be
+placed further in front. Barbed wire is
+the best of all obstacles. The actual
+defensive measures to be taken do not
+differ from those taken for the defence of
+any position not on outpost.</p>
+
+<p>The position of the piquet and obstacles
+being decided on, let the non-commissioned
+officers mark on the ground the
+actual work they would undertake, having
+regard to the time available, which you
+should tell them, and, on the same lines<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span>
+as for the day piquet, let them as commanders
+in turn divide the men into reliefs
+of sentries and patrols, tell them off
+to their alarm posts, and order them to
+occupy them once as if on alarm.</p>
+
+<p>A piquet by night, no matter how well
+entrenched, has a very limited field of
+action. Even with most carefully arranged
+night rests for the men’s rifles its fire effect
+is small except at close ranges, and to resist
+attack by relatively larger bodies it
+must in general keep behind its defences.
+Hence a well organised scheme of patrols
+is necessary to supplement the passive opposition
+which the piquet can offer. The
+patrols are charged with the duty of bringing
+news of any advance of the enemy to
+attack, and, if he is close enough, of spying
+out his movements on and within his outpost
+line, of preventing his patrols or scouts
+penetrating their own line, of watching any
+localities which are of particular importance
+and unoccupied by piquets, such, for
+example, as villages beyond the outpost
+line which the enemy might try to occupy
+by night, and, lastly, of keeping up communication
+between the various bodies of
+the outposts. The strength of patrols is
+limited by the necessity of their being able
+to do this work without making a noise,
+and a strength of three to eight men is
+advised. A patrol performs its duty of observation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>
+either by going from point to
+point, or by watching one particular place,
+when it is called a “standing patrol.” If a
+piquet posts any group sentries by night,
+away from the piquet, such groups have
+just the same work as standing patrols,
+except that they may be ordered to maintain
+their position in case of attack as
+they are near support, whereas patrols
+would fall back as soon as they had made
+sure the enemy was advancing, and possibly,
+if in accordance with their instructions,
+after treating him to a short burst of
+rapid fire. An ordinary patrol will also
+have to halt and listen perhaps for long
+periods, and so becomes for the nonce a
+standing patrol.</p>
+
+<p>Form up the platoon at the piquet position,
+and let the commander tell it off into
+three patrols to practise this duty, disregarding
+reliefs, all three to be sent out at
+the same time in different directions, one
+man in each to be commander. Before
+they start off, tell them the following, which
+piquet commanders must see to:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (1) If there is no countersign published
+    for the force, piquet commanders
+    must arrange either a
+    word or a sign by which men may
+    know their own side in the dark.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (2) Patrols going out are to tell the
+    nearest sentry which way they are
+    going (I.T., 156 (5)).</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (3) For patrols a code of signals<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>
+    should be arranged, e.g., a hiss or
+    half-whistle, to call attention,
+    answered by the same to show
+    that the man called has heard it,
+    followed by the signal, whatever
+    it is:—a double hiss for “come up
+    to me,” a click of the tongue for
+    “retire,” but anything will do provided
+    it cannot be clearly heard
+    much further off than the listeners
+    for whom it is intended, and is
+    neither a very common nor a very
+    uncommon sound.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (4) The piquet commander must tell
+    patrols how long they are to stay
+    out and any places he thinks must
+    be visited, in addition to what they
+    themselves may find advisable, on
+    closer acquaintance with the ground.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>A suitable formation for a night patrol
+of six men would be four in the advanced
+party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the
+rear party or two. The reason for the
+stronger party being ahead is, firstly, that
+fighting at night begins with suddenness
+and ends rapidly, while reinforcement of
+one party by another is slow and uncertain,
+and, secondly, to ensure that some
+part of the patrol may have a good chance
+of getting away with news, whatever happens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span>
+to the rest: Bayonets should be fixed
+and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the
+right hand holding the small of the butt so
+as to come to the charge at once, and not
+to have any chance of a rifle falling on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>Tell patrol commanders to get their
+patrols into formation and practise movement
+in silence along a road and on
+ordinary road. If along a road, let them
+move on each side of it, off the metal on
+the roadside grass or dust, and under trees
+or close to the hedge or wall. On ordinary
+country the ball of the foot should be put
+down first as if to feel the surface, before
+putting the full weight of the body on the
+advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle,
+<em>à la</em> “boy scout,” is invaluable in moving
+over unexplored ground, as by it the real
+nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet
+can be made out, and awkward spills
+thereby avoided. The movement of
+patrols under these conditions will be very
+slow over any but quite level ground. As
+the patrols move let them practise the code
+of signals, halting, advancing, coming up
+into one line, etc., also the keeping up of
+communication by one file moving back and
+forward between the two parts of the
+patrol. They should practise also breaking
+up and scattering as if attacked by
+overwhelming numbers, each individual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>
+getting away as quickly and quietly as
+possible, and the whole rallying again at
+some place in rear. The patrol commander
+as he goes out must fix these rallying
+places, usually one is enough over the
+whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be
+<em>outside</em> the outpost line. Have the patrols
+moved so that on their beats they may
+meet each other once or twice, and use the
+sign to reply when challenge is made. As
+a second practice, direct one of the meeting
+patrols to consider itself hostile, and
+let the commander of the other patrol
+excogitate how he would deal with men
+who did not stand fast on being told to
+halt and could not give the countersign.</p>
+
+<p>Next tell the patrols to get into position
+to watch various localities, a farm steading,
+a ravine, or such like, as they would have to
+do for limited periods as patrols reconnoitring
+on their beats, or for the whole
+night as standing patrols. One of the best
+ways in which patrols can fulfil their office
+is by halting and listening with ears near
+the ground for sounds of human movement.
+There is no rule for thus lying up except
+that they must not get caught themselves.
+A couple of men should be left quite clear
+of the patrol to get away if the others
+strike trouble, and the commander of the
+patrol should have word passed to these
+two from time to time that all is well with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span>
+the rest, or they may wait in their place
+while the others have been quietly
+downed.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, let patrols return to the piquet,
+and learn how to approach without getting
+themselves fired on, or causing useless
+alarm. A good way is for two of the patrol
+to advance a few steps at a time when near
+the piquet, halting and quietly code-signalling
+the piquet sentry till they get His attention
+and warn him that the patrol wants
+to come in.</p>
+
+<p>It has taken longer to write about outposts
+than it may take you to put your men
+through them, and I have purposely been
+discursive because a knowledge of what is
+needed from outposts is more important
+than any set exercise, and also because
+this duty is the one which newly raised
+troops are most likely to perform negligently,
+and at the same time the one which,
+if neglected, allows the enemy to bring raw
+troops to quick demoralisation. I have also
+purposely written as if unlimited ground
+were available, and, speaking generally, I
+think it is. You can, and should, practise
+your piqueting and patrolling on the
+ordinary countryside, with its main and
+bye-roads, paths, fields, and hedges. The
+practice of outposts when piquets are not
+entrenched, causes no damage, so that
+leave to move over the fields should not be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span>
+hard to get, but even if it cannot be got,
+the principal and most important work of
+patrolling and watching all roads and paths,
+will be done on the ground on which they
+would be done on service. If fighting ever
+takes place in Britain, which Heaven forefend,
+outpost lines will be along the ordinary
+country and not on Salisbury Plain, so
+do not go into wild and desolate places
+for your outposts, but take the ordinary
+country round where you are.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XV">EXERCISE XV.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Defence.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The subject of defence is treated of in
+F.S.R., 107-110, I.T., 125-135, and in
+Chapter VII., M.F.E., 1911. The duties
+required of the company commander and
+his subordinates are briefly defined by I.T.,
+132, to be similar to those they carry out in
+the attack. The whole spirit of the regulations
+is that the active Defence is merely a
+means to an end, viz., the ultimate assumption
+of the offensive, which may be carried
+out either by the same troops which have
+acted on the defensive or by fresh troops
+detailed for the purpose. In both cases
+the troops that have acted on the defensive
+must be ready to become the aggressors.
+Therefore, in training your men, you
+should keep this constantly in view and
+conserve a spirit of aggressive mobility.
+Men must not be allowed to think that
+once a position has been taken up and
+entrenched it is to be their location till
+fighting ceases; on the contrary, they
+should be encouraged to look for opportunities
+while still on the defensive,
+to occupy alternative positions which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>
+will make the task of the attacking
+enemy more difficult. Quickness
+in seizing and strengthening a position
+must be combined with mobility in
+leaving it to take up and strengthen a
+new one. Of course, the time available
+regulates the work that can be undertaken
+(M.F.E., VII. (2)); deep trenches and
+concealed head cover cannot be made with
+an enemy pressing in to assault, but the
+first requirement is the ability to choose
+positions that give a good field of fire
+and to strengthen them as thoroughly as
+the time available and the proximity of
+the enemy admit.</p>
+
+<p>In dealing with a company, the onus of
+choosing what localities it is tactically
+necessary to occupy and strengthen rests
+with the company commander, subject to
+the orders of his battalion commander.
+In the same way as on outpost, you will
+be given a bit of ground to defend, either
+acting with the battalion or as an isolated
+company, and the rest will be on your
+head. I do not propose to deliver a
+treatise on the tactical occupation of
+ground, but instead I will ask you to procure
+and read two books. The first is
+“The Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” by
+Backsight Forethought (W. Clowes and
+Sons), the second is “A Staff Officer’s
+Scrap Book,” by Sir Ian Hamilton<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>
+(Edward Arnold). They are both most
+readable books, and are quite free of
+soporific effects. The first is small, and
+deals with the efforts of a half-company,
+under Lieutenant B. F., to defend a drift
+over a South African river. In the second
+the author takes you along with him
+through the Russo-Japanese War, of which
+he was a privileged spectator, and in your
+journeyings you look on at victories and
+defeats in the making, while the causes
+that led to them, great and small, are set
+forth, along with many shrewd comments
+on human nature and how it translates
+itself in the day of battle. Every fight
+bears its own lesson of what to do and
+what not to do in defence, and this told
+in no pedantic strain, but with the saving
+grace of humour, to mitigate the darker
+side of human carnage. Read them both,
+get to yourself the wisdom and understanding
+with which they are filled, and
+you will know how to take up a position
+for defence.</p>
+
+<p>Having educated yourself to choose the
+points of a defensive position that must
+be occupied if the position is to be effectively
+held, you have still to train your
+men to the work of defending them, and
+they must learn to be able to do without
+the help of a supervising officer, as will
+often be the case on service.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span></p>
+
+<p>Daylight defence is almost entirely a
+matter of fire, the immediate object being
+to make it impossible for the enemy to come
+to close quarters. Platoon and section commanders
+then must be able to dispose their
+men with this in view to the best advantage
+within the limits of the ground
+allotted to their units, and the men must
+be able to site their trenches or whatever
+form of cover has to be constructed so
+as to use their rifles to the best effect. It
+is no good to teach men to dig trenches
+and make loop-holes unless they know the
+proper places for them. (M.F.E., 18 (7)).</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, practice in digging
+and the use of tools is very necessary for
+men who are not accustomed to such work.
+The hands of the untrained man blister
+and his muscles tire under the unusual
+effort, while he expends much energy with
+results small in comparison with what he
+can accomplish once he has learnt to use
+his strength well. Moreover, a certain
+amount of technical skill is required in
+making any but the most simple cover.</p>
+
+<p>To practise the execution of work, you
+<em>must</em> have ground which you are at liberty
+to turn up, as well as some materials for
+loop-holes and obstacles. These may not
+be obtainable at any and every parade,
+but you can give practice in the selection
+and siting of trenches on any bit of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>
+country without causing damage, the men
+merely spitlocking or marking with stones
+or anything else the position of the
+trenches on the surface of the ground, and
+describing what they propose doing.</p>
+
+<p>I would, therefore, advise that you
+make your training consist of two parts,
+firstly the siting of trenches and the planning
+by unit commanders and men of
+defensive work, the choice and occupation
+of alternative positions, and the assumption
+of the offensive from the defensive,
+all this without actually breaking ground,
+and, secondly, ground and tools being
+then available, the performance of a course
+of making real cover and obstacles.</p>
+
+<p>But the first part cannot be carried out
+unless the men have a knowledge of what
+trenches, loop-holes and so on are like,
+and the objects with which they are made.
+In a company of raw recruits taken from
+the populace at large, there will be plenty
+who have no ideas on the subject at all.
+You must then precede your exercises either
+by a short lecture, materials for which you
+will find in plenty in the “Defence of
+Duffer’s Drift,” and the manuals of training,
+or, better than a lecture, by showing
+them specimens of entrenchments made by
+regular troops. The main points to insist
+on are the securing of a field of fire, the
+necessity of concealment of the defences,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span>
+the importance of head cover as a help to
+the delivery of an accurate fire by letting
+men keep the enemy in view without showing
+up themselves, the avoidance of enfilade
+fire by making traverses, or by taking
+advantage of intervening high ground,
+the provision of cover from downward
+shell fire by making the trenches deep and
+steep enough to let men stand close up
+to the edges, and, in the case of isolated
+posts and points held as pivots of a position,
+the necessity of preparing an all-round
+defence so that these pivots will be
+able to continue fighting whatever happens
+on the intervening ground. The course
+of work actually performed for the second
+part should include digging all kinds of
+trenches, by which the men will learn to
+use their tools to the best advantage, and
+their hands and muscles will become
+hardened, the use of the excavated earth
+to form parapets and parados (cover from
+fire from the rear of the trench; forty
+inches of earth are needed to keep out a
+bullet), the drainage of trenches, the making
+of traverses against enfilade fire, the
+making of loop-holes and head-cover with
+the aid of all sorts of materials, sand
+bags, brushwood and heather, straw and
+twigs, stones and bricks (which must be
+covered with earth to deaden the effects
+of splinters), packing boards, and so on,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span>
+the concealment of trenches and loop-holes
+so as to be invisible to the enemy (this is
+of great importance), the masking of loop-holes
+when not in use to prevent light
+showing through, the making of dummy
+trenches and loop-holes to draw the
+enemy’s fire away, the improvement of
+existing cover, such as loop-holing walls
+and the use of hedges with or without
+ditches, making sangars, if stones are
+available, the making of obstacles of
+barbed and plain wire, and measuring and
+marking of ranges round a position, which
+should be done by some means not obvious
+to the enemy, and clearing the field of
+fire. It will seldom be practicable to
+obtain subjects for practical demonstration
+of some of the latter in peace time;
+people will object to their walls being
+experimented on or their shrubberies laid
+low, and so even here a description of the
+method will have to be substituted for
+actual performance. For night defence
+the construction of night rests for rifles is
+needed. The best I know is a packing
+case, filled with earth, with the front and
+rear edges notched to hold the rifle stock.
+The magazine is laid hard up against the
+outside of the rear edge and the notches,
+front or rear, slowly deepened with a penknife
+till the sights bear on the target;
+afterwards earth is banked up outside the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span>
+box and head-cover made above. The
+foregoing may seem a formidable list, but
+they are things that will undoubtedly be
+required as soon as you get on shooting
+terms with an enemy; while if you exhaust
+this list and feel the want of further
+occupation, the Engineering Manual will
+supply you with further subjects for your
+activities.</p>
+
+<p>Pending your getting facilities of
+ground, tools, and materials to execute
+work, you can proceed with the first part
+of training outlined above. If your non-commissioned
+officers have not had experience,
+take them out as an instructional
+section in the same way as when teaching
+outpost work, and put them through the
+exercises which follow. But if they are
+already fairly competent, take the men
+on parade, forming them, if possible, into
+not less than two sections.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Instruction in Siting Trenches.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Choose any position on undulating
+ground, form the men in extended order
+in one line in rear of it, and order them
+to move up, and mark where each would
+place his trench in order to fire on an
+enemy advancing from the front. In
+doing this it should be an invariable rule
+that men must lie down, bring the rifle into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span>
+the firing position, look along the sights,
+and move forward or back till they see that
+they have got the best position to sweep the
+ground in their immediate front (see
+M.F.E., 31 (3)). Dead ground close to
+the trench gives the enemy a place in which
+to collect and organise an assault. Take
+the men in the same way on to other positions
+and repeat the lesson till they all
+understand that the <em>first thing to be done
+is this aiming with the rifle to secure a
+good field of fire</em>. At first halt them
+close to what you see is the best line, and
+afterwards halt them thirty or forty yards
+from it, and then give the order to choose
+sites. For instance, halt them on the top
+of a convex slope and let them find out
+that the best place to bring fire on to flat
+ground at its base is somewhere on the
+enemy’s side of the convexity, for if the
+trench were made on the top of the slope
+the ground immediately in front would be
+hidden by the convexity. The section
+commanders must help the men in choosing
+sites.</p>
+
+<p>After the men have fixed and marked
+the proposed sites, let them lay down their
+rifles three paces in rear and kneel or lie
+down at the rear edge of the site as if
+waiting to commence work while you and
+section and platoon commanders go round
+and examine the line. Ask details from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span>
+the men—how high they would make the
+parapet, how thick it should be, how they
+would make head-cover, how they would
+conceal the work, and so on.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Traverses and broken lines of Trenches.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Repeat the exercise as above, but this
+time have the men in sections or small
+groups, and the trenches made not in one
+line, but in short lengths, separated by
+traverses. You will have to explain the
+construction and use of these to prevent
+enfilade fire (if not from long range), and
+to localise shell bursts. Again, have lines
+of trenches mapped out in short lengths
+on an irregular front, some a little forward,
+some a little back, with the earth
+at each end, banked up on the flanks with
+the same object (M.F.E., 33).</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Short Trenches for Two Men.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Bring the men extended to six or eight
+paces on to a position, and let the men of
+each file close to two paces from each
+other. Each file is then to choose and
+mark a site for a short trench to hold both
+of them, or, as it would formerly have
+been called, a rifle pit, marking where
+they would make loop-holes to fire both
+to the front, and obliquely towards the
+right and left, so as to rake the ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span>
+in front of the line of the other men’s pits.
+This arrangement is not officially recognised,
+and it does not give the closest
+possible firing line, but it is an excellent
+way of making men think for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When the men have got their bearings
+in the matter of taking up a line for entrenchment,
+make them get into the way
+of changing from defence into attack.
+Take up a position as before, and as soon
+as the trenches are marked out, indicate a
+position at some distance as an objective
+for attack and start an advance against
+it, as done in the attack practices, forming
+a firing line rapidly of some named
+platoons and the support of the others. A
+skeleton enemy kept hidden till needed
+adds much to the realism.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Defence of Pivots (M.F.E., 50 (3), and
+I.T., 129).</em></h3>
+
+<p>Find a position in which there are some
+points separated from each other which
+command the ground between, and also
+form such pivots for defence of the position
+as are described in the paras.
+above. According to the nature of
+the ground, such pivots might be, for
+platoons, as much as four hundred yards
+apart, i.e., attackers coming between them
+would be under fire at not more than two
+hundred yards. Send a platoon under a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span>
+commander to each pivot, and let him
+plan and mark out his defensive measures,
+which must include:—</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    1. An arrangement for all-round defence,
+    so that the pivot may be
+    self-contained and capable of
+    continuing the fight, although
+    others may have been captured.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    2. The siting accordingly of trenches
+    and loop-holes to fire all round
+    and especially to sweep the front
+    and rear of adjoining pivots.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    3. The adaptation of existing cover to
+    save labour.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    4. The provision of protection against
+    enfilade and reverse fire, and the
+    <em>recognition of distant localities</em>
+    from which such fire, whether of
+    artillery or rifle, might be
+    brought to bear on the post.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    5. The marking of ranges in each
+    direction.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    6. The provision of obstacles.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    7. Any feasible scheme for alternative
+    positions which his men could
+    reach and occupy under fire.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    8. The concealment of the defences,
+    provision of dummy trenches,
+    and loop-holes and any other
+    shifts.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    9. The telling off and posting of
+    look-out men and fixing and
+    occupying of alarm posts when
+    work has been completed.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    10. Drainage and sanitation.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span>
+
+<p>The concealment of defences from aerial
+reconnaissance will, perhaps, soon claim
+more attention than it gets at present.</p>
+
+<p>Practise an attack after defence, starting
+off one platoon under your own orders
+to “go for” an indicated enemy, and
+sending word either by messenger or by
+semaphore to the others, either to join
+you and form a firing line, or to move out
+in support, but, if the latter, do not fail
+to finally call them up to reinforce the
+firing line; counter-attacks must usually
+be made with a relatively strong firing
+line and small support.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>The Company in Defence Acting Alone.</em></h3>
+
+<p>When you have put non-commissioned
+officers and men through the preceding
+course, plan some scheme on the lines of
+the defence of Duffer’s Drift, to deal with
+a company isolated and beyond reach of
+immediate reinforcement. Any bridge
+over a railway line, a group of buildings
+supposed to contain stores, or a ford or
+bridge over a river, will provide you with
+an object to defend. Choose a line of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>
+defence round it and determine what are
+the essential pivots to be held. To do
+this, so as to furnish an instructive lesson,
+it will usually be necessary for you to
+pay a visit to the place by yourself and
+formulate your proposed defence before
+bringing the company on to the ground.
+Pay great attention to crossing and supporting
+fire from the pivots, and look at
+the surrounding country with a view to
+meeting attack from any direction, for
+in this case the company, as well as the
+pivots in its line of defence, must be self-contained.
+Also have regard to the certainty
+that you will have artillery fire
+against you, to which you will not be able
+to reply, and in consequence your proposed
+defences must include deep trenches
+or recesses to shelter the men from shell.
+Your defences will take the form of a
+chain of isolated groups about the point
+to be defended and separated from each
+other by possibly several hundred yards.
+It is no use simply to go and sit inside a
+group of buildings which the guns would
+knock about your ears and against which
+the enemy can concentrate. The better
+plan is to break up his attack and hide
+your weakness by occupying well-strengthened
+pivots, behind whose protection you
+may have some freedom of movement, and
+so be able, if the weakness or rashness of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span>
+the enemy gives opportunity, to inaugurate
+local counter-attacks. These, if successful
+in inflicting a sharp and sudden loss,
+will make him hesitate to deliver a decisive
+attack till he has found out all about
+you. With one company you cannot
+expect to achieve decisive results against
+any considerable body of the enemy, but
+must be content with keeping him in play
+for as long a time as possible, and an
+attitude of active bluff is the best means
+of doing so.</p>
+
+<p>When you have got your plans completed,
+take out the company as strong as
+possible and complete in its proper platoons
+and sections—if there are too few
+men let one man count for two or three.
+Send off platoons to occupy and plan the
+defence of the pivots as done when practising
+it before. Do the same scheme
+on two separate occasions. The first time
+do not send out a skeleton enemy, so that
+the men may have time to look round, but
+for the second time send out some scouts
+under a subaltern, and let the platoons fall
+out on their positions with patrols out in
+front. Fix a certain hour by which you
+expect the arrangements to be all ready,
+and arrange for the enemy to advance at
+that time, and open fire on the patrols if
+they are met. When the patrols have
+fallen back the enemy closes in and starts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>
+sniping at the position. Then bring off a
+counter-attack, withdrawing some men for
+the purpose from pivots that are not
+threatened, and coming in on the flank of
+the attackers. In theory, of course, you
+should have a support or reserve available
+for this, but it does no harm to move men
+out of their trenches with the object of
+assuming the offensive, while the men learn
+the essential part of their work by all being
+employed on the perimeter.</p>
+
+<p>Have out the company yet a third time
+on the same or a similar scheme, pivots
+and skeleton enemy as before. On this
+occasion, if the scheme is the same, change
+round the platoons to different pivots from
+what they occupied before, and when the
+arrangements for defence have been
+settled, leave only sentries and their groups
+on the pivots as look-outs, but have patrols
+in front. Form the remainder of the men
+into a support in some central position, and
+tell them off to occupy as alarm posts the
+pivots from which they were withdrawn.
+When the skeleton enemy attacks, reinforce
+the threatened part of the line by the
+men of the units told off for its defence,
+and with part, or even the whole of the
+rest, make a counter-attack.</p>
+
+<p>It is very desirable, though unfortunately
+not often possible, to perform these last
+three practices on ground where you are at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>
+liberty to dig, and with an enemy of three
+or four companies instead of a few snipers.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Night Defence.</em></h3>
+
+<p>A night attack may be delivered as a
+sequence to fighting by daylight, in the
+course of which the enemy has established
+himself sufficiently close to the defences
+held by his opponent to see clearly the way
+to reach the point against which he intends
+to lead his force. Or he may deliver an
+attack without previous fighting, hoping to
+get the better of the defenders by surprise,
+and basing his plans solely on the
+results of reconnaissance. In the latter
+case the attack must be preceded by a
+night advance, long or short, according as
+the defenders’ outposts and their patrols
+have succeeded in keeping the hostile
+troops at a distance or not, unless, indeed,
+the troops or their scouts or spies have not
+been in touch at all during the day in
+which case an attack would not be a wise
+proceeding, because the needful information
+about the ground and your forces
+is lacking. Such attacks as require a night
+advance as a preliminary are likely to be
+made either over open ground or along
+roads, for the difficulties and delays occasioned
+by moving troops over broken
+ground which is not thoroughly known are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span>
+very great. But in the first case, when
+fighting has been going on by day, and the
+two forces are in close contact at nightfall,
+separated perhaps by only a few hundred
+yards, the presence of broken ground
+in front of the defences is no guarantee
+that the enemy may not consider an attack
+by night to have a reasonable chance of
+succeeding against any of the points which
+he has been trying to carry by daylight.
+It follows then that in preparing a position
+for defence the pivots must be ready to
+withstand attack by night as well as by
+day, and also that roads or paths leading
+into the position from the surrounding
+country should be held and defended by
+night, in spite of their being innocuous by
+daylight owing to being swept effectively
+by fire from the adjacent pivots. It will
+be admitted, I think, that fire by night is
+ineffectual unless at very short ranges, or
+when delivered by men of extraordinary
+skill such as the up-country Boer and the
+American backwoods-men were pictured
+to be. A European enemy will seek to
+bring off his attack with the bayonet. The
+defenders will try to foil this attack, firstly,
+by the use of fire at the close range, which
+allows it to be effective, and, secondly, by
+the use of the bayonet. This plainly
+translates itself into obstacles to keep the
+enemy under fire, obstacles to hamper him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span>
+when at bayonet distance, and night rests
+to help the accuracy of the fire in certain
+desired directions. I have told you one
+good form of night rest, and there are
+several others, but all require some material
+if they are to be even approximately accurate.
+Failing material of any sort, tie
+white rags round the muzzles of the men’s
+rifles if you can get them. After a week
+in the field your men will have nothing that
+is not very dirty, but in a civilised country
+some member of the population may perhaps
+be found ready to oblige a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Working still on your daylight scheme
+show your non-commissioned officers and
+men how to make night obstacles in addition
+to those meant for daylight defence,
+which latter may be any distance up to one
+hundred yards in front of the trenches.
+The night obstacles, on the other hand,
+should be quite close, the fire obstacles as
+close as ten yards, the bayonet obstacles,
+say a narrow ditch and a wire, close under
+the trenches so as to make a man stumble
+when trying to reach the defender with his
+bayonet. Make or plan these arrangements
+round the pivots, and then practise
+blocking and defending paths or roads by
+the same methods as for pivots, but with
+this variation, that a parapet which can
+only be used for defence at night may be
+as high as you consider needful without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>
+paying regard to its invisibility, while
+those to be used by day are kept as low as
+possible. In a practical exercise the men
+to hold these night posts would have to be
+furnished either from your support or by
+thinning some of the pivots.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the most carefully arranged trenches
+and obstacles will be of no value unless the
+men occupy them in time to avail themselves
+of their advantages. Time sufficient
+to allow of this, must be got by
+patrolling in front as for outposts, by making
+automatic alarms in front of the obstacles
+(M.F.E., 55 (12)), by having alert
+sentries on the defence line, and by having
+a good and well understood arrangement
+of alarm posts by which each man shall be
+ready to occupy at once, in silence, and
+without confusion, the place which has
+been assigned to him. Patrolling has been
+dealt with under “Outposts,” the alertness
+of your sentries will depend largely on the
+state of discipline to which you have
+brought your company, and on the commonsenseness,
+to coin a word, of their
+training. Alarm posts are practised in the
+same way as on outpost. In many corps
+it is a standing order that when in camp or
+bivouac, on manœuvre as well as on service,
+men are to fall in on their alarm posts
+once a day, the usual times being at retreat
+or on arrival in camp (F.S.R., 48<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span>
+(2)), and this is done whether in Brigade
+(F.S.R., 47 (2)) or not. If such is the order
+in your battalion, adhere to it within your
+company when detached, if not, do it
+off your own bat. It does not fatigue the
+men and ensures attention being paid on
+all occasions to this important duty.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XVI">EXERCISE XVI.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Hasty Expedients.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>I.T., 93 (iii.), directs the training of the
+section to include rough and ready expedients
+so as to form a fighting front in
+any direction. This training is of great
+value, both from a disciplinary point of
+view, as it makes men quick to move on an
+order, and also from the point of view of
+<em>moral</em>, as men accustomed to get sudden
+and unexpected orders given under
+imaginary circumstances will be more
+likely to keep cool, when such orders are
+necessitated by the stress of actual battle,
+than men who have always been trained
+in a deliberate fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Such sudden orders must in general
+mean one of two things, either that the
+enemy has got you, or you have got him,
+“on the hop,” if I may introduce an expression
+from the cricket field, and that
+there is every chance of the bowler, whoever
+he is, being badly scored off, unless
+he treats the batsman to something more
+difficult than the expensive half-volley.
+If you are fortunately able to find the
+enemy at a disadvantage, you will act<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>
+against him by rifle fire alone; but, on the
+other hand, you may find yourself caught
+in a bad situation, by either artillery or
+rifle fire, or possibly by cavalry, who
+mean to use the steel. It follows then, in
+practising expedients, based, as they
+should be, on some possible situation, that
+you should make the central idea either
+offensive, as if attempting to bring your
+men into a position to get the best results
+from their fire, or defensive, as if to
+escape, or mitigate shell fire or rifle fire,
+to which you are subjected under adverse
+conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Against artillery fire from ranges or in
+positions at which you cannot reply effectively
+with rifle fire, your action at first,
+at all events, must be purely defensive,
+i.e., all you can do, will be to escape
+being overwhelmed by the shell fire, and
+even at effective rifle range, the shields of
+modern field guns, enable them to engage
+infantry on very equal terms, so long as
+the infantry is in front, or not far on a
+flank, of the line of guns.</p>
+
+<p>In the days of muzzle-loaders, it was
+the cavalry who possessed the power of
+suddenly annihilating infantry, when
+caught unprepared to withstand their
+charge. The magazine rifle has reduced
+this danger, but the quick-firing cannon
+has now equal, if not greater, powers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>
+dealing out swift destruction to any infantry
+that it finds exposed in close
+formation, if only the range be known.
+At least once in the Russo-Japanese War,
+and again in the Turko-Bulgarian war, if
+we may believe the somewhat ill-authenticated
+reports yet to hand, have artillery
+wiped out of existence in a few moments
+several hundred unfortunate infantrymen,
+who were caught in the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rafâle</i>
+fired at a range either ascertained previously,
+or got at the moment by good luck
+or good judgment. The contingency of
+being thus caught by artillery is evidently
+one that should be prepared for by infantry,
+as was the forming of squares in the old
+days, when a cavalry charge was an ever
+present peril. In this case of artillery fire,
+the conditions and the object desired are
+practically always the same—the infantry
+is in close order of some sort, and wishes to
+break up into a congeries of small groups,
+so as to isolate the effect of the burst of
+each shrapnel. The matter of rifle fire is
+different, as there are any number of ways
+in which you may seek either to escape the
+results of the enemy’s fire or attempt to
+use your own, and this is the proper field
+in which to practise expedients.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever you intend to carry out some
+such movement to meet a supposed situation,
+you must let the men know exactly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span>
+what you are picturing, so that they also
+may understand what is needed. The
+essence of these practices is that they
+should be performed without time for deliberate
+thought—the men must learn to
+think and act quickly. The most satisfactory
+way is to be yourself mounted, as you
+can then get the whole company to hear
+you at once, whereas, if on foot, the men
+who are farthest from you often lose the
+first part of what you say; you then have
+to repeat it, and the thing loses its character
+of surprise for the rest, who have
+already heard it once. Give out the
+situation in a loud voice, and in as few
+words as possible, then try and give the
+very order you think you would give, if
+the situation was a real one on service;
+use your own imagination, in figuring what
+you would say, and how you would say it.
+To call attention, it seems legitimate to use
+your whistle, as on service the men would
+have some warning that things were about
+to happen, either by the arrival of shell or
+bullets, the sight of the enemy, or by the
+signal of their own scouts. In giving the
+situation, if you are receiving fire, give out
+what kind of fire it is, the enemy’s position,
+if it is allowable to suppose it known, or
+if you are going to be on the offensive, give
+out where the enemy is, and what he is
+doing, and how you learn this, i.e., by your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span>
+scouts, or by first-hand observation. For
+example, while the company is marching in
+fours along a road, you see, in imagination,
+two shells burst simultaneously near by,
+and about two hundred yards from each
+other, and you wisely deduce that the
+enemy is ranging on your company. Blow
+your whistle and give out “Artillery fire
+is opening on the company, from such and
+such a direction—open out to columns of
+sections.” If you have taught your men
+what to do to escape artillery fire, they will
+open out at the double into columns of
+platoons, at not less than fifty yards interval,
+measuring roughly at right angles to the
+direction of the supposed fire (I.T.,
+118 (3)).</p>
+
+<p>In practising this opening out under
+artillery fire, which, as I have said, is the
+one specific hasty manœuvre performed
+under conditions nearly always similar, it is
+inexpedient to lay down any fixed rules for
+the positions to be taken up by the
+platoons. It sounds simple to say that the
+platoons of the leading half-company go to
+the right, and those of the rear half to the
+left, but when men are marching at ease,
+and shells begin bursting round them unexpectedly,
+I do not think there will
+be time for anyone to see which half-company
+is leading. The main thing
+is to get the platoons instantly away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span>
+from the road on which the enemy has laid
+his guns, and from each other. Direct
+platoon commanders to lead their men at
+the double in any direction away from the
+platoon in front, except, of course,
+towards the rear. In theory, of course,
+this might result in all four making
+out towards one flank, but, even so,
+this is better than having any deliberative
+halts on the road, and in practice the
+platoons in rear can see which way those in
+front are heading, and wheel to go to the
+other flank. There is no advantage to be
+had from getting the men in the ranks into
+extended order, as the shrapnel scatter the
+whole width of their bursting zone in an
+impartial manner, nor is it any use to seek
+such slight cover as gives only a screen
+from view, unless with a view to getting
+away from the shell-swept locality without
+attracting notice. Platoon commanders
+should, of course, make for any cover that
+is sufficiently steep on the rear side to
+shelter them from the downward dropping
+shrapnel bullets. If there is no cover, the
+best thing after getting out into the line
+of platoons separated by fully fifty yards
+intervals, is to move rapidly forward. If
+cover exists with open ground round it, the
+men may be got away by “dribbling” man
+by man, in the hope that the enemy may
+not spot the movement, and continue or
+resume his shell practice, to defeat it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p>
+
+<p>As regards expedients against rifle fire, I
+will only suggest a few, and leave you to
+invent others suited to the nature of the
+ground you have got to exercise on.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    1. The company in close order is surprised
+    by a heavy rifle fire; there
+    is cover near by sufficient to hold
+    the whole company crowded together.
+    Order the men to get
+    into the cover helter skelter, and
+    then advance or retire, by the successive
+    movement of platoons or
+    sections, who take extended order
+    at their best speed as they emerge
+    from shelter. If facilities exist,
+    tell one or two platoons to reply
+    to the fire, from the cover, till
+    their own turn comes to move, by
+    which time the first lots that went
+    out should have got into position
+    to open fire.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    2. The company in close order is again
+    surprised by rifle fire, but there is
+    no cover near to act as a base.
+    Get the company quickly into extended
+    order, and let men reply
+    to the fire as soon as they have
+    extended, using studiously slow
+    fire.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    3. The company or platoons in extended
+    order have to change front
+    to meet an attack from a flank.
+    As in the book, call on them to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>
+    line a hedge or ditch, facing so as
+    to fire in the new direction.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    4. Coming through a gap in a hedge
+    or wall, either in advance or retreat,
+    scattering off right and left,
+    so as to get out of the way of fire
+    concentrated on the gap.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    5. The scouts from a position some
+    distance from the company report
+    a body of the enemy unaware
+    of their presence and exposed
+    to fire. Bring the company
+    quickly up to the scouts’ position,
+    halt, load, and adjust sights under
+    cover and just short of the firing
+    position, and on your whistle the
+    men advance at once to the edge
+    of the fire position and surprise
+    the enemy by a simultaneous fire
+    from all the rifles.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    6. Taking up quickly an all-round defensive
+    position; the platoons or
+    sections go off and find the best
+    positions in different directions
+    which you merely indicate
+    roughly.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    7. Hastily organised attacks, to dislodge
+    an enemy unexpectedly
+    found in occupation of a position,
+    also taking up action as flank and
+    rearguards under fire.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XVII">EXERCISE XVII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Night Operation Training.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>I.T., 113, gives some instructions as to
+how men are to be taught to march and
+to use their ears and eyes at night, while
+F.S.R., chapter ix., goes into the subject
+at length. These operations are
+divided into night marches, night advances,
+and night attacks. The men of a
+company will not be fit to take a useful
+part in night tactical exercises either in
+company or in battalion, unless they have
+had some elementary training as laid down
+in “Infantry Training,” and have also been
+practised in the two indispensable duties of
+maintaining connection (F.S.R., 129 (4))
+and in reconnaissance (F.S.R., 130 (1)).
+Night patrolling and the duties of night
+sentries have been dealt with under outposts,
+and I will not say anything more
+about them here. The rest of the
+elementary training contained in “Infantry
+Training” requires no explanation,
+and you can practise your men
+in it in small parties. There remains
+the maintenance of connection,
+and I have found that training for this is
+best done at first by daylight. It is very
+simple, and after one or two daylight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span>
+lessons the men will work quite well by
+night, but to begin straight off under darkness
+will only lead to waste of time, as
+mistakes cannot easily be corrected, nor
+the working of a system made plain.
+The company should parade as strong as
+possible in this exercise, as, with only a
+few files on parade, the necessity of maintaining
+connection, and the difficulty of
+doing so, are not so obvious as when a
+fairly large body of men has to be handled
+without making a noise. Connection has
+to be maintained within the company itself,
+and also with the other companies in front
+or rear, if in column of route, or on the
+right and left, if deployed. In order to
+practise this connection with other companies,
+represent the front and rear, or flank
+section commanders of the supposed adjacent
+companies by a man for each company,
+who should move where those
+section commanders would be, i.e., in
+fours, at the head or tail of the directing
+flank, in line, on the flanks of the front
+rank. Use these dummies as the recipients
+of all orders and signals passed along, so
+that your company may get the habit of
+keeping touch with the others before it
+works with the battalion.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>I. Connecting Files.</em></h3>
+
+<p>The only sure way of keeping connection
+between bodies of troops moving in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>
+separate parties is by connecting files, who
+keep within sight of each other and so can
+seldom be at more than twenty yards distance
+apart. These files must be taught to
+pass commands with exactitude, and never
+to open their mouths otherwise, i.e., they
+must never speculate between themselves
+“Are they advancing?” or so forth, or talk
+at all, because the next file may hear some
+word of their talk and mistake it for an
+order. When connecting files are needed
+they must take up their places without its
+being necessary to tell them off loudly, and
+when no longer needed they must close
+into company in silence and in good order.</p>
+
+<p>Form the company into fours, turned to
+a flank as in column of route: tell the
+dummy section commander of the preceding
+company to march off; string the company
+out after him, the men marching off
+in files at about ten paces between each
+file without further command after the first
+one has gone, each as it moves off touching
+the next to follow, to give it notice. When
+they are all strung out, let the rear dummy
+section commander follow. Then pass
+orders up the line; use only the form given
+in I.T., 96 (3). To make sure that such
+verbal orders have reached the intended
+recipient, the only way, though a slow one,
+is to require him to send back a report that
+he has taken the action required. Thus, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span>
+message from the rear to the leading portion
+to halt would be answered from the
+leading portion by a report passed down
+the line to the commander “The leading
+portion, or, etc., has halted.” Let your first
+order be to halt, passed from the dummy
+company in rear up to that in front “From
+Colonel A. to all companies—halt.” On receiving
+the order one man of each file
+halts on his ground and turns to the rear,
+the other goes forward to the next file as
+quickly as he can without noise, delivers
+the order, and returns to his former place,
+when he halts and faces the other way
+from his comrade. Thus, on the completion
+of the order to halt, one man of each
+file will be facing each way. Bayonets
+will usually be fixed in night operations,
+and it is important, especially in Rifle Battalions,
+to accustom men to carry the rifle
+on the right shoulder, with the hand round
+the small of the butt and never at the trail,
+otherwise there is much danger of someone
+getting a stab as well as an order.</p>
+
+<p>After the halt, get on the move again by
+passing up the word to advance, and practise
+any other likely orders:—“Go fast in
+front,” “Go slow in front,” “The rear cannot
+keep up,” and so on. Follow the orders
+up the line and see that men do not tamper
+with the form of the order en route, and
+that they speak in a whisper when giving<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span>
+it over. Section and platoon commanders
+must be told all orders as they pass, see that
+their units conform, and look after the
+maintenance of the distance between files.</p>
+
+<p>Next practise lateral communication, the
+four platoons in one line in close order,
+with company intervals between each,
+representing the leading platoons of
+four companies drawn up in line of
+columns of platoons at deploying intervals
+and ready for a night advance.
+Lateral connecting files need to be
+closer than when following each other,
+so put out connecting files to the flanks in a
+similar way to what was done before, but
+at six, or eight yards interval. Then
+move, halt, and deploy the supposed
+column by means of these files, dressing
+and interval being kept up by the files moving
+up or stepping short, and closing on
+or inclining from any named company of
+direction without specific orders.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>II. Marching and Formations.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Form up the company and get it into
+fours as if in column of route, dummy company
+section commanders as before. Practise
+marching off from the halt, and halting,
+passing the word from the front or rear
+company along the men on the flanks of
+the fours. As the order comes along,
+the flank men of the fours nudge or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span>
+shove the other men in their respective
+fours, and whisper to the flank men in the
+four in front or behind. There is seldom
+any need to speak, as a push or pull is
+enough. The platoon commanders get
+the word from the flank men of
+the sections of fours, and from one
+another as well, as they are to follow
+the order along their own platoons,
+and go forward or back to the commander
+of the next platoon to whom they must repeat
+it, and then resume their proper
+places. The platoon commander of the
+leading, or rear, platoon is responsible for
+passing the word to the nearest platoon
+commander of the next company. The
+company officers must arrange also to hear
+all orders, and should have fixed positions,
+known to all, which they will only quit temporarily.
+In marching off from the halt,
+the rear portion of the company should
+step out well, as soon as the order reaches
+them, so as to avoid straggling, while the
+leading fours preserve a uniform pace. In
+halting in battalion, the leading fours
+should close up on the company in front,
+and continue to do so, till it is seen that it
+has finished closing up; there is always
+bound to be a good deal of straggling at
+first owing to the method of giving orders.
+When this system is in good working order,
+move and halt the company on your own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span>
+audibly whispered word of command, the
+platoon commanders repeating it, the system
+of communication being kept up as
+before, but the men moving at once on the
+word; this will give a fairly simultaneous
+action throughout the company while ensuring
+against loss of touch.</p>
+
+<p>On the same lines, practise forming line
+from column of platoons, mass, and column
+of platoons from column of fours, and
+marching in line, paying attention throughout
+to dressing and the covering of files in
+line.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>III. Night Assault.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Choose a position as objective, and form
+the company, in line or in column of
+platoons, about three hundred yards from it,
+with scouts about eighty yards in front of
+the company (F.S.R., 137 (4)). This is the
+formation which would usually be adopted
+at the position of deployment. When the
+scouts have got about one hundred yards
+from the position, or up to a line which
+they would recognise in the dark as being
+in close proximity to it, they should halt,
+and wait for the arrival of the company.
+The whole then move silently forward towards
+the position till you give the word
+or signal for assault, when all charge.
+Practise this stealthy advance right on to
+the position, as if the enemy were not alert,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span>
+and also make the charge from some distance,
+as would be done if the enemy
+opened fire, which is recognised to be what
+will most often happen. After the assault
+the men should be rallied by the non-commissioned
+officers taking all men within
+their reach, and forming them into extemporised
+sections ready to be reformed into
+platoons and to begin entrenching.</p>
+
+<p>If by chance you get material, you may
+introduce refinements, in the way of wire-cutting
+men with each section, sand
+bags with each man, and bags stuffed
+with straw carried ready to throw on to
+abatis or to fill up trenches, to be carried
+in a fixed place in the company.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>IV. Night Entrenching.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Practise marching with arms and tools,
+and taking up a position to be entrenched,
+with especial regard to avoidance of noise.
+When entrenching by night, the trenches
+cannot be chosen to give a field of fire
+unless it has been possible to obtain access
+to the locality by day, and mark them in
+advance; failing this the company commander,
+as soon as the position is reached,
+must send patrols, and go himself, to
+ascertain that no commanding ground, at
+least in the immediate vicinity, has been
+left unoccupied, and, at the first light, all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span>
+other such points within effective range as
+it is possible to hold, should be secured
+and entrenched, without orders from
+higher commanders. A full illustration
+of this, however, can only be done by
+parading at night.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>V. Search Work.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Practise the company in going off, as if
+detached from the column to get touch with
+other troops, or to find a gate or bridge by
+which some obstacle, wall, canal, etc.,
+met with, can be passed. The company
+moves off dropping connecting files to
+keep touch with the halted column, the
+files halt at their distances, and pass word
+if the company has achieved its mission,
+and close on the company when the column
+comes up, but not before, else the column
+will be left out of touch; or, if the need
+has passed and the company is recalled
+to the column, the connecting files again
+remain at their posts till the company is
+gathered back on them.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>VI. Surprises.</em></h3>
+
+<p>When only a few men are on parade,
+advanced education, combined with
+some amusement, may be got by experimenting
+in the best ways of laying out
+obnoxious persons, such as hostile patrols,
+who have to be rushed in silence (F.S.R.,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span>
+138 (5)). Before beginning a stalk, the
+quarry should be kept under observation
+to see which way he looks when halted,
+and any other idiosyncrasies. The assailant
+should creep up to him either on his
+flank, or from behind, moving one foot at
+a time, and bending down, though not on
+all fours. If the sentry looks his way,
+he must stay absolutely motionless, till he
+again looks away. My informant on this
+matter was a friend of a successful rifle
+thief in Upper India.</p>
+
+<p>After putting the company through the
+above daylight course, you should, of
+course, put theory into practice and do
+some real night work whenever you get
+the chance, putting out a skeleton enemy
+or some observers to tell you how much
+noise you make, and follow out the full
+instructions as to orders, watchwords,
+etc., given in F.S.R., 138 and 139. Test
+your men as to their ability to see in the
+dark; some men can see much more than
+others; spot these men and tell them off
+as “Night Scouts.” Even if they are not
+otherwise qualified as scouts, they are
+most useful in guiding the company over
+rough ground.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SCHEME_OF_A_COMPANY">A SCHEME OF A COMPANY
+TRAINING.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I give below, as an example of the application
+of the foregoing exercises, a
+scheme of company training which I
+actually carried out. This was in the days
+before platoons, so I have altered the
+scheme to show what I should have done
+had the company organisation been
+what it now is. I was given from
+Monday in one week to Saturday the next
+week to march out into camp, about 10
+miles, and get back, i.e., two days of
+march, and ten halted working days. I
+had thirty-five rounds per man of ball
+cartridge available for field practice
+musketry, and a sufficiency of blank for
+the requirements of skeleton enemy and
+for use with the men in one or two of
+the exercises. My men were Regulars,
+and during the previous furlough season
+I had grounded them piecemeal in field
+work.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bt bb br"> DAY.</td>
+<td class="tdrx bt bb br"></td>
+<td class="tdlx bt bb br">Forenoon Work.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bt bb">Afternoon Work.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">1</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Monday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">March out to camp. March discipline and work of connecting files.
+Advanced guard. Sanitation. Water piquet and sanitary patrols. Pitched a perimeter camp as
+for savage warfare. Trenched tents against rain, and made a shelter trench round camp. Alarm posts.</td>
+<td class="tdrx bb"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">2</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Tuesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Individual advance in extended order. Retirement by pairs.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Improved and deepened camp entrenchments, made loop-holes, night rests, and obstacles.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">3</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>Wednesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon and Section in attack as part of Company.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Field practice Musketry:—Individual advance in extended order. 7 rounds ball per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">4</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Thursday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon in independent attack.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Field practice Musketry:—Section in independent attack, 7 rounds ball per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">5</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Friday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon in retirement.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Preliminary training for Company attack. Fire discipline and control.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">6</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Saturday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack with the battalion.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Prepared target positions and markers butts for snapshooting.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">7</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span>Monday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack with Battalion.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Snapshooting, 7 rounds per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">8</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Tuesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack acting alone.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Snapshooting, 7 rounds per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">9</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Wednesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Outposts.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Company in attack, 7 rounds ball.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">10</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Thursday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Defence.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Company in retirement.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">11</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Friday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Night attack. Parade at 2.30 a.m.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Hasty expedients.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx br">12</td>
+<td class="tdlx br">Saturday</td>
+<td class="tdlx br">March back to quarters.</td>
+<td class="tdrx"></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+
+<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
+<ul>
+
+<li>Catalog page Changed Miscellaneous Tactica to: Tactical</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_62">62</a> Changed close and re-form to: reform</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_63">63</a> Changed expect either a counterattack to: counter-attack</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_67">67</a> Changed this exercise, though to: through</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_76">76</a> Added period after: left on the position</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_124">124</a> Changed trenches or make loopholes to: loop-holes</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_125">125</a> Changed the line of loopholes to: loop-holes</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_136">136</a> Changed: (I.T, 156 (5)) to: (I.T., 156 (5))</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_182">182</a> Added comma after: entrenchments, made loop-holes</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_183">183</a> Added period after: 7 rounds ball per man</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_184">184</a> Added period after: Friday Night attack</li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 69943 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The training of an infantry company,
+by Edward Kirkpatrick
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The training of an infantry company
+
+Author: Edward Kirkpatrick
+
+Release Date: February 3, 2023 [eBook #69943]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Brian Coe, Bob Taylor and the Online Distributed
+             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+             produced from images generously made available by The
+             Internet Archive)
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINING OF AN INFANTRY
+COMPANY ***
+
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Note
+  Italic text displayed as: _italic_
+  Bold text displayed as: =bold=
+
+
+
+
+                            THE TRAINING
+
+                                OF AN
+
+                          INFANTRY COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+                     =CATECHISM ON FIELD TRAINING=
+
+                             (=INFANTRY=).
+
+
+A series of Questions and Answers on all subjects of field training,
+extracted from the latest official TRAINING MANUALS, together
+with miscellaneous information, practical exercises and examples
+progressively arranged.
+
+                 _Revised and brought up to date by_
+
+                     =COL. H. O’DONNELL, p.s.c.=
+                     (WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT).
+                          _SIXTH EDITION._
+
+
+                              CONTENTS.
+
+Elementary—General Principles of Attack and Defence—Miscellaneous
+Tactical Operations—Warfare in uncivilised Countries—Protection
+on the Line of March—Protection when at Rest—Methods of obtaining
+Information—Quarters, Camps, and Bivouacs—Field Engineering—Diary of
+Training.
+
+      _Fully illustrated with 30 pages of Plates and Diagrams._
+
+
+                 =One of the numerous Press Opinions.=
+
+  “The book is most comprehensive, for every branch of the soldier’s
+  life is touched upon, and every situation or emergency seems to be
+  anticipated. Colonel O’Donnell’s publication is quite a military
+  encyclopædia.”—_Empress_, Calcutta.
+
+
+                           =PRICE 3/- NET.=
+
+                _From the Printers and Publishers_,
+                        GALE & POLDEN LTD.,
+                    WELLINGTON WORKS, ALDERSHOT,
+                    And at London and Portsmouth.
+
+
+
+
+                          = _The_ TRAINING=
+
+                                OF AN
+
+                          =INFANTRY COMPANY=
+
+
+                                _By_
+
+                     Major E. KIRKPATRICK, I.A.
+
+                            —————:O:—————
+
+
+                            2ND EDITION.
+
+
+                   _London_: GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,
+
+                2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
+
+                     Nelson House, PORTSMOUTH &
+                    Wellington Works, ALDERSHOT.
+                  Obtainable from all Booksellers.
+
+                 _TWO SHILLINGS & SIXPENCE_ (_Net_)
+
+                  (_Copyright under Act of 1911._)
+
+
+
+
+                             ALDERSHOT:
+
+                   PRINTED BY GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,
+                          WELLINGTON WORKS.
+
+                                1914
+
+
+
+
+                               PREFACE
+
+
+This booklet has not been written for the use and benefit of officers
+and non-commissioned officers of long experience and proved skill
+in the profession of training men for battle. To such as these it
+may only provide an object of criticism, for in the course of years
+spent in turning recruits into trained soldiers they will have
+formulated to themselves, and adopted, some system of training which
+they found productive of the best results under their own guidance.
+But there are many at present, and at a future time, should certain
+circumstances arise in the life of the nation, there may be very many
+more who may not have such stores of experience to draw on, and yet
+may be faced with the problem of rapidly converting an untrained or
+only partially trained body of men into a force capable of acting
+successfully in real war, both in attack and defence against trained
+and disciplined troops. Again, it is written, not for officers
+commanding battalions, nor for officers of cavalry and artillery,
+but only for officers commanding companies or other similar units
+of infantry, though it may, perhaps, be of use in training mounted
+troops for dismounted action.
+
+Meantime, while the pipes of peace are still smoking, it is hoped it
+may be of some use to officers and non-commissioned officers when the
+time comes to prepare schemes of company training and put them into
+execution.
+
+                                                                E. K.
+
+  _September, 1913._
+
+
+                     PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
+
+Since the above was written, the issue of new or amended Manuals
+of Training has necessitated a revision of the book, which is now
+presented in a form agreeable to the four-company organisation.
+
+The Empire is now confronted by those circumstances to which allusion
+was made in the Preface.
+
+                                                                E. K.
+
+  _September, 1914._
+
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS                                            ix
+
+  INTRODUCTORY REMARKS—
+
+       I.—The Intention of the Book                                 1
+
+      II.—Making the Best of their Companies
+            to Train the Modern
+            Man for the Modern Battle                               4
+
+     III.—The Standard of Training
+            assumed to have already
+            been acquired and its application
+            to further Exercises                                    9
+
+      IV.—Ground for Training—Its Use
+            and Influence—Palliation of
+            the Lack of a Training
+            Ground                                                 11
+
+       V.—Company Organisation—Moral
+            and the Personality
+            of the Commander                                       16
+
+      VI.—Discipline—Moral and Means
+            of Supervision                                         22
+
+     VII.—Organisation by Files and its
+            Effect on Moral—Cohesion                               27
+
+    VIII.—Method of Training                                       31
+
+      IX.—As to Scouts and Working
+            Dress                                                  37
+
+
+                              EXERCISES
+
+       I.—Individual Advance in Extended
+            Order                                                  38
+
+      II.—Retirement by Pairs                                      48
+
+     III.—Individual Training in Use of
+            Fire and Fire Discipline                               52
+
+      IV.—The Assault                                              60
+
+       V.—The Section and Platoon in
+            Attack                                                 64
+
+      VI.—The Section and Platoon in
+            Retirement                                             74
+
+     VII.—The Section and Platoon in
+            Independent Attack                                     78
+
+    VIII.—The Platoon as Advanced and
+            Flank Guard                                            84
+
+      IX.—Preliminary for the Attack by
+            the Company in Battalion                               89
+
+       X.—The Company in Attack with
+            the Battalion under Artillery
+            Fire                                                   93
+
+      XI.—The Company in Attack with
+            the Battalion under Rifle
+            Fire                                                   97
+
+     XII.—The Company in Attack Acting
+            Alone                                                 105
+
+    XIII.—The Company in Retirement                               107
+
+     XIV.—Outposts                                                112
+
+      XV.—Defence                                                 142
+
+     XVI.—Hasty Expedients                                        163
+
+    XVII.—Night Operations                                        171
+
+                                ————
+
+  A SCHEME OF COMPANY TRAINING                                    181
+
+
+  REFERENCES AND ABBREVIATIONS.
+
+  I.T., 128 (3)    =    Infantry Training, 1914,
+                          Section 128, para. 3.
+
+  F.S.R.           =    Field Service Regulations,
+                          Part I. Operations, 1909
+                          (Reprint 1912).
+
+  T. & M.R.        =    Training and Manœuvre
+                          Regulations, 1913.
+
+  M.F.E.           =    Manual of Field Engineering,
+                          1911.
+
+
+
+
+                        A FEW PRESS OPINIONS.
+
+
+                     “UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.”
+
+Major E. Kirkpatrick is the author of a small book on “The Training
+of an Infantry Company.” There have been so many books and pamphlets
+of this kind—short cuts to knowledge—that one is apt to regard
+each fresh one with suspicion and even with aversion, but Major
+Kirkpatrick has much that is helpful to say, he says it well, and
+he shows how much good work may be done even in the training of the
+emasculated companies such as our military system so often leaves us.
+His instructions cover a wide field, and there must be few company
+officers who will not be grateful to the author for many valuable
+hints.
+
+
+               “UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION OF INDIA.”
+
+There are few junior officers of infantry who will not benefit by a
+study of this book. The thorough system of training elaborated in the
+seventeen exercises, which form the major portion of the book, is
+worthy of the attention of Regular as well as Territorial Officers.
+
+These elementary exercises deal with the essentials in the war
+training of the Infantry soldier, from the work of the individual
+in advance and retirement, and of the section in action and on
+protection duties, to the training of the company in attack and
+defence, and outpost.
+
+As an example of a system of training illustrating the necessity of
+attention to detail in the early instruction of the soldier, this
+series of exercises is valuable, and their value is increased by the
+constant reference to training manuals. The author wisely recommends
+the study of all the official books referred to as he recognises
+that his exercises and comments are only of value in so far as they
+illustrate and explain the principles laid down in training manuals.
+
+
+
+
+                            THE TRAINING
+
+                                OF AN
+
+                          INFANTRY COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+                        INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
+
+
+The authorised handbooks of training rightly confine themselves to
+broad principles, and do not attempt to give detailed examples of
+their application, the idea being that officers should study these
+regulations and apply the principles by the light of local conditions
+and their own experience. Infantry Training and the Field Service
+Regulations are, however, very pregnant little books, containing,
+as they do, a summary of the whole of Modern Tactics, as far as
+they concern infantry and the combined action of all arms. Time
+and thought are necessary, if the principles contained in them are
+to be translated into such intelligent action that the men trained
+on the lines laid down may be capable of doing their duty in real
+warfare, without first undergoing a bitter and costly schooling of
+useless casualties or, perhaps, even of defeat. But if an officer
+is called on to achieve this result, being himself without much
+previous experience in training, he will find himself faced with a
+task of great difficulty, and, with the best intentions, he may waste
+precious time, as well as his own and his men’s patience and energy,
+in doing parades and exercises, which are either not indispensable,
+or of minor importance for the main object. As an extreme example,
+it would be better, in a hastily raised corps, to combine the
+disciplinary training of obedience to the word of command, with
+instruction in the use of their arms, by practice in smart work in
+aiming and firing, than merely to study precision in “sloping” and
+“presenting arms,” which look well, but do not immediately affect
+fighting efficiency.
+
+For these reasons, it has occurred to me that I might do some of my
+brother officers _in esse_ or _in posse_ a service by setting out
+certain elementary exercises in training infantry soldiers, which
+I have found of value in bringing them up to a standard of battle
+training sufficiently high to need only battalion training and a
+baptism of fire to turn them into steady and reliable troops. It is
+not contended that these few examples are anything but concrete
+instances of the application of the principles of the Training
+Manuals. They are intended, as has been stated, merely for those
+who are short of time and experience, and, therefore, references to
+the manuals are given when the exercise illustrates some particular
+section of those works, and it is recommended that officers who
+intend to use these examples should look up and read the sections
+referred to before going on to the parade.
+
+Though this book is not meant for officers commanding battalions,
+I have one word to say to them, and it is this, that if they wish
+to have an efficient battalion they must let the company officers
+have proper opportunities of training their companies, apart from
+the time of company training, when the whole company is struck off
+duty. If there are six parades a week, let three or four of them be
+company parades, ordered and carried out by the company commanders;
+the balance will be quite enough to secure combination between the
+companies in battalion. On company parades, the battalion commander
+should supervise, but never interfere, unless things are being
+manifestly mismanaged. (See T. & M.R., 2 (2 and 3)). The days of
+the one man battalion are gone for ever. The company is the thing
+that matters; a good battalion can only be composed of well-trained
+companies. It is the work of the battalion commander to propound
+the general lines of training and to use the companies to the best
+advantage in combination, but the training of the individual soldier
+must be in the hands of the man who is to lead him in war.
+
+
+                                 II.
+
+On ordinary parades, the captain of an infantry company is seldom
+able to get together more than a fraction of his men. The calls on
+the company for men for duties and odd jobs, leave and furlough,
+and, in the Territorial Force, the private occupations of the men,
+allow of only a few being assembled on any one parade. This being
+so, there is a temptation—sometimes yielded to by officers who have
+not much experience, to say to themselves: “This is rot; what can
+I do without any men?” Such a question is the result of confusing
+the individual instruction of the men with the tactical practice of
+the leader in handling his company as a whole. The answer too often
+takes the form of an hour’s close order drill or something similar,
+which may do some good, but not nearly as much as if the officer
+stoutly made up his mind to make the best of a bad job and took out
+those few men and did some practical training in field operations.
+The fewer men there are on parade, the more individual attention
+will the company commander be able to give them. He will be able
+to look at each man’s work more carefully, talk to the men and get
+to know their characters as soldiers, spot who are likely to make
+good non-commissioned officers, and coach them far more than if the
+whole company were on hand at once. So do not turn up your nose at a
+company only twenty strong, but make up a scheme of exercises to be
+gone through, and, since the men who are not on parade to-day will be
+so to-morrow, arrange to do the same exercise on two, or, if needed,
+three, consecutive days, so as to catch all, or, at least, most of
+the men, and your non-commissioned officers, who are not usually so
+drawn on for off-parade duties, will become well acquainted with each
+exercise, learn what to do and how to run things, and so become both
+a help to you as instructors, and themselves gain authority and power
+of command from the knowledge of their own competency.
+
+It is quite likely that these exercises and the explanations given,
+may seem to some readers to be absurdly simple and needlessly
+long-winded, while there is also a good deal of repetition. To this
+I will make early reply that they are written for officers who are
+not too proud to accept other people’s advice in training a company
+of young soldiers of the stamp which would be forthcoming if some
+cause[1] or other tempted or constrained into military service that
+great proportion of our male population who are at present quite
+ignorant of a soldier’s work, and who, from apathy, or a hundred
+other causes, do not join the Territorial Force. Such men probably
+have never in their lives given a thought to soldiering. The majority
+of them are town born and bred, and have passed most of their lives
+among bricks and mortar. If they have ever looked carefully at the
+large or small features of a bit of country, it has been from an
+industrial, sporting, or, perhaps, sentimental, but never from a
+tactical, point of view. They have everything to learn in making use
+of ground for fighting. Their ideas of using modern arms are equally
+crude; the primitive fighting instinct will be uppermost in their
+minds, and would express itself in an incontinent desire to get to
+close quarters with their enemy, when bayonet, butt or hand grips
+would seem the proper way to settle the matter. A very laudable
+desire it is—this of wanting to close in—and one to be encouraged by
+every means, but however brave troops may be, they cannot in general
+indulge their desire to attain close quarters and the resulting
+facilities of fighting by the light of their natural instincts unless
+they have first been successful in the fire fight—the strife of the
+arms of artifice—which is waged by bullet and shell at distances
+which Nature never contemplated.
+
+It is the artificiality of the fire fight which makes the task of
+turning town-bred men into skilful soldiers such a difficult and
+lengthy process. They must be led to look at ground in relation to
+its capabilities of increasing the effectiveness of their own fire
+and also of diminishing the result of that of the enemy, i.e., they
+must learn to select good fire positions and good cover. The problem
+of finding the latter for himself against a civilized foe begins, for
+the individual soldier, as soon as the enemy’s rifle fire becomes
+effective and compels the use by his side of extended order; this
+is held to be on open ground about fourteen hundred yards from the
+enemy’s infantry (I.T., 118 (4)). Prior to this the responsibility
+for cover rests with his leaders, as he will then be in some close
+formation. Fire positions he must choose for himself as soon as
+his section commander ceases to be able to indicate his wishes, or
+to secure combined action by the whole unit. This will probably
+happen at about six hundred yards from the enemy, when individual
+fire is expected to replace controlled fire by sections. These two
+aspects of fighting—the use of ground, and the use of the rifle as a
+far-reaching weapon of almost absolute precision, if truly sighted
+and aimed—are foreign to our instincts, and the average man has to
+be trained till he is able to override his instinct and fight an
+artificial war, so as to work his way to charging distance. Some men
+need less training than others; a stalker in a deer forest is an
+adept in the use of cover, and in general, country-bred men should
+be easier to train than town-bred, but the majority of our men
+being the latter, we must lay ourselves out to teach them from the
+beginning this business of the fire fight, since success in this is
+usually necessary before the assault can succeed (I.T., 121 (7)).
+This can only be done by training them in extended order and putting
+them through various exercises chosen for the purpose. Any exercise
+which does not in some way tend to fit men for battle is mere waste
+of time; aimless perambulations of an extended line fall under this
+category, but are quite often to be seen on parade grounds. No amount
+of smartness in close order drill will compensate for a deficiency of
+field training.
+
+
+                                III.
+
+The exercises which I have drawn up, simple though they are, are of
+the nature of “Instructional Operations,” as defined by T. & M.R.,
+40 (12), and it is presupposed that the men have received, or are
+in course of receiving, sufficient instruction in the use of the
+rifle (musketry in all its branches), and of the bayonet (bayonet
+fighting), in drill in close order, and the drill grounding of
+extended order work, including signals (I.T., 90-96). We are then to
+consider ourselves to be at the stage in which the soldier is to be
+taught to work over broken country as directed in the latter part
+of para. 90, above quoted. But do not think the lessons learned at
+musketry instruction are to be forgotten and left behind by the men
+when they begin to work in extended order across country. Demand
+from your men that the rifle shall be deadly, and, by unceasing
+supervision, breed a habit among them of aiming and firing in
+extended order, whether with or without blank cartridge, with the
+same exactitude as when firing their course of musketry on the range.
+Take the high standard—a hundred men’s lives in one man’s bandolier,
+instead of a hundred bandoliers for one man’s life. The higher
+standard of the two is at least possible, though not common, but why
+not try and work towards it, so that when bullets are flying within
+decisive range of the enemy, it will be your men’s fire, that is the
+deadly close-hitting kind, that makes afraid, and not the haphazard
+jet of bullets whose inefficacy lets unhurt familiarity breed
+tolerant contempt?
+
+In the same way, when men are in close order at any time during a
+field parade, keep up the same smartness, and quick obedience to
+orders which are exacted in close order drills, in order that the
+men may become truly disciplined, and not merely so in appearance,
+so when they come under fire without being extended, as may happen
+in the early and distant stages of a fight, they will, as a matter
+of course, submit themselves to their commander’s wishes, and ignore
+their own inclinations, which, just at the first experience, even
+with very brave men, might be for an immediate and independent rush
+in some direction—perhaps forward, perhaps in another direction—they
+will be “in hand,” and free of the liability of raw troops to suffer
+from sudden panic or to become a mob, full of fight, perhaps, but
+still a mob, and as such, a force which cannot be controlled or used
+in furtherance of any general plan.
+
+
+                                 IV.
+
+The want of a suitable and accessible bit of ground on which to train
+our men is one of the chief difficulties we have to meet in the
+United Kingdom, and, of course, it is greatest in the case of town
+corps, varying with the size of towns, while in large cities ground
+is not to be had at all, save at a distance of several miles from the
+men’s dwelling places. Unfortunately, there is little doubt that the
+possession or lack of suitable training grounds has a great effect
+on the readiness, or otherwise, of troops to give a good account of
+themselves when they come under fire for the first time in their
+lives. The lack of it takes away reality from the work of the men
+in the ranks and cramps the initiative of their officers, who are
+given no opportunity to exercise their wits in figuring out practical
+situations which might occur on service.
+
+I can give no recipe for obtaining the use of ground, but from what
+I have just said I hope it is clear that the officer commanding a
+battalion or company should use every blandishment or art of which he
+is capable to get the use of a stretch of ground, and also, if it is
+at a distance, and the attendance of the men at parades voluntary,
+he should try to provide facilities for getting them to and from the
+ground. The worst bit of country is better than the barrack square.
+
+The ideal ground is that which gives conditions suited to each phase
+of the training, the principal requirements being fire positions
+and cover, and these should occur so as to provide illustrations
+of the use to be made of them in individual training, and in the
+collective training of sections, platoons, and the larger units.
+Thus, for training individual men, good ground would be that with
+an irregular surface, giving many places twenty to fifty yards
+apart, which each man could use in firing and taking cover. The
+usual seaside golf course of hummocks, furze bushes, and occasional
+watercourses, is good to teach individual men over—I say teach,
+for we must not imagine that an enemy will be so kind as to leave
+easy ground like that in his front, if he can help it. For section
+or platoon training, the surface should be similar, so that the
+individuals should still be called on to look out for their own
+halting places, but, in addition, there should be a certain number
+of small features, hillocks, banks, and so on, one to four hundred
+yards apart, which will serve as fire positions and cover for the
+whole unit, and provide the commanders with successive objectives,
+to which it will be their duty to bring their men in good order,
+and without needless exposure to the enemy’s fire. When the company
+is training together, the ground should be similar, but of greater
+extent, both broader and larger, so that sections and platoons may be
+practised in supporting each other, some being halted in these fire
+positions, and covering by their fire the movements of the others who
+are in process of gaining fresh vantage points. And so on for larger
+units and the combined action of all arms; good ground for early
+instruction is that whose features, from their nature and distance
+from each other, lend themselves to illustrate conditions under which
+the power of each unit and arm may be most profitably employed in
+conjunction with others. Troops trained over ground that gives the
+above advantages will acquire an eye for country. A knowledge of the
+uses to be made of ground will be common to all ranks, so that when
+they find themselves fighting on bad ground, which does not give much
+cover or good fire positions, they will be the more apt to search for
+such cover and fire positions as are obtainable, while troops trained
+on flat and open ground would be much slower in making the best of
+a bad job. We are not concerned with anything more than a company;
+therefore, get for your own use, if you can manage it—failing help
+from higher powers—a bit of ground of some sort, golf course, common,
+city park, or what not. It need not be very extensive. Even if it
+gives only three or four positions suitable for occupation by a
+section working in conjunction with another, say, six hundred by
+three hundred yards, it will give room for useful instruction; but,
+of course, a larger extent is preferable, as giving room for more
+extended and varied exercises. If your training ground is of limited
+extent, it should, nevertheless, if possible, have a wide field of
+view on all sides beyond its own confines, and leave you the right
+to send a few men to take positions on the adjoining country, even
+if not allowed to manœuvre about it, so that when carrying out your
+exercises you may be able to use men with blank cartridge to act as
+a skeleton enemy, when such is needed. But if you are not allowed
+to send men on to the neighbouring ground, the wide field of view
+will still enable you to indicate certain distant positions as
+_supposed_ to be held by the enemy. By this means you will be able
+to use the whole area of your permissible ground to represent a bit
+of the battlefield, and escape having to place the supposed enemy
+absurdly close to your manœuvring troops, e.g., at the edge of the
+training ground, or in some other position which makes heavy calls
+on the imagination. Britishers are not imaginative. Lastly, if all
+else fails, and you have nowhere to go except the flat parade ground,
+or even the drill hall, which in large towns is often very spacious,
+do not, I beg you, become discouraged and throw up all effort to get
+your men ready for field work. Do the exercises on the flat, limiting
+the extent of movements, if there is little room, and use flags or
+anything else to represent fire positions for sections and platoons,
+and let the men kneel or lie down between advances, if there is no
+cover. A great deal may be done in this way to lay a good foundation
+for extended order work. Your men will know the mechanism of it, and
+you will save much time when you do manage to have them out on a
+proper training ground. I.T., 107 (2), requires company commanders,
+in preparing their schemes of training, to have regard to the ground
+at their disposal; do so, therefore, even if the ground aforesaid
+is only a parade ground, and make the most of it; it is better than
+sitting still and either doing nothing, or only a weary round of
+company drill in close order. Of course, you must let the men know
+what you are driving at, or they will get bored and lose interest.
+
+
+                                 V.
+
+Having got a company of men and ground to train them on, the first
+step is to organise that company for its battle training. A company
+is organised into four platoons, each under a subaltern, with a
+sergeant as his second-in-command (platoon sergeant). Each platoon
+has four sections, and the sixteen sections of the company are
+numbered one to sixteen. The men of each of the above units remain
+permanently in that unit. _If possible_, maintain this organisation
+on duties and fatigues, though this is often a counsel of perfection,
+but quarter the men together, and insist on the maintenance of the
+organisation, _without deviation_, on parades. Have lists made up of
+the men of each platoon and section, and let men who so wish, belong
+to the same unit. Once these lists are made up, see to it by means of
+the section commanders that these men fall in on parade together in
+the place in the company where their section is standing, no matter
+how few there are; if there are but two men of one section on parade,
+they should fall in as front and rear rank men of one file. Avoid
+disseminating the men of a platoon or section among other units in
+order to raise the latter to a sizeable strength. Instead of this:
+supposing you have three weak platoons and one strong one on parade;
+of the four sections of one of the weak platoons, send two to each of
+the other two weak platoons. This will give you three platoons of,
+perhaps, unequal strength, but sufficient for work—and this without
+taking the responsibility of section commanders off their shoulders,
+and the cohesion of each unit is preserved. Some further suggestions
+on the subject of organisation will be put forward when speaking of
+_moral_.
+
+The officer who aspires to develop whatever capabilities his men
+possess of becoming individually and collectively formidable
+in battle, must pay attention to much more than mere physical
+considerations. Napoleon’s dictum, that the moral is to the physical
+as three to one is early dinned into the ears of the officer of
+Regulars, but may stand repetition in pages meant for the perusal
+of others. No officer can expect to get the most out of his men
+unless he directs his attention to the study of the psychical side
+of the training. There are two fields in which the study must be
+pursued. One is the officer’s own personality, the other that of
+his non-commissioned officers and men. T. & M.R., 8, deals with the
+former, and should be read and pondered over.
+
+In battle good men have sometimes achieved victory in spite of the
+shortcomings of their officers, but good officers, as well as men,
+are necessary for consistent success in the series of battles which
+make a campaign. Now, good officers, given time for training, will
+infallibly produce good men, provided the latter are of the average
+physique and courage. Therefore, study thyself, and try to see
+what you lack, in order to become a good officer. Cultivate your
+skill in handling your men by reading any books you can get; there
+are, unfortunately, not very many that deal with the work of such
+small units as companies or even single battalions. Go out into the
+country, or, if you have not time, recall to yourself some bit of
+country you know, and import an enemy into the landscape. Perhaps a
+few riflemen are holding ground on the flank of a road along which
+your battalion wants to march, but cannot, without undue loss, until
+these riflemen are driven off; and your commanding officer tells
+you to do the driving. In imagination, or on the ground, decide
+what position you would hold, if you were the enemy, in order to
+make yourself as nasty as possible—though having no hope of being
+reinforced—to the battalion trying to come along the road. Then
+settle in your mind what you, as commanding your company, would do to
+get rid of the annoyance. Be quite clear, what would you do? Go at
+them bald-headed? There are times and enemies when this is the best
+way; you would have to be fairly close, and the enemy not shooting
+very straight, and rather careful of his skin; or will you march a
+long way round till the enemy sees you are getting behind him, and so
+manœuvre him out? Then your battalion will be a long time waiting.
+Or will you look at the ground and find, let us suppose, a spot to
+which you will send a section or platoon to open a fire on the enemy,
+while another works its way to a point you have noted from which
+fire can be brought to sweep crossways a little knoll, or some such
+supposititious feature which seems to form the enemy’s left flank,
+and to be occupied by ten or twelve men, and which gives command
+over the rest of his position? Then, while the second lot is on its
+way, you plan to lead the remainder a little way round, under cover,
+in order to get to fairly close range of the knoll, so that when the
+second party opens fire on it, and its defenders are hampered both
+by this fire and by that of those you first posted, you may surprise
+them by an outburst of fire from your reserve, and either drive
+them off their perch by cross-fire from three directions, or, if
+they do not shift, run in at them with the bayonet, trusting to get
+across the intervening space at the cost of a few casualties, when
+your superior numbers at that point should ensure your success even
+if they actually await the bayonet. Learn to consider quickly how
+many ways there are of doing such a job as the above, and to decide
+quickly and rationally which is the best.
+
+These schemes, involving only a company or two, will not be presented
+for your solution by your battalion commander; you must set them
+yourself, and their solution, and the thinking necessary thereto
+are the best methods an officer can get of training himself without
+having his men on the ground. In your mind’s eye, put your company
+into every situation you can think of, and get it out again, and you
+will have acquired an enormous reserve of capacity for acting quickly
+and rightly when your men and your enemy are both on the ground. But
+beware of dealing in too short distances, or you may produce unreal
+pictures of war. Do not imagine manœuvres at four hundred yards from
+the enemy when every man exposed would be hit in a few minutes. The
+clearness and decision of thought you acquire will be reflected in
+the orders you give. Your men will give you their confidence when
+they see, as they are quick to do, that you know your job. There
+is nothing more disheartening for a subordinate, be he private or
+colonel, than to feel he is under control of a duffer, whose mistakes
+he will have to correct. This feeling saps discipline, and quickly
+destroys the fighting value of a body of men. In peace training, the
+men become sulky at being “bothered about,” lose interest in their
+work, and wish themselves done with parade. In war, their personal
+characters usurp the control of their actions, and they become a mob
+in uniform.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But in addition to possessing the confidence of the men in your
+tactical ability, you should seek all other means to increase your
+influence over them. Gain their respect in other ways, by honesty
+of purpose, by example, tact, devotion to duty, and so on. Gain
+their goodwill by watching over their individual and collective
+interests, though in this you must play to the gallery sufficiently
+to let them identify you as the source of benefits received. Keep
+an even temper, and do not show anger without good cause. Personal
+attachment to their officer shows itself most when men’s powers are
+taxed by hardship, fatigue, and danger; it is then a great auxiliary
+in maintaining discipline among the mass.
+
+
+                                 VI.
+
+As regards the _moral_ of the men, I.T., 1 (4 to 10) must be referred
+to. You _must_ introduce discipline—the habit of subordinating
+personal inclination to the orders of the superior promptly and
+without cavil. If your men are raw, you have to go slow just at first
+till they all know what is expected of them. Let them understand that
+orders are not given haphazard, but are invariably based on some good
+reason, which, being so, there is no need for reasons to be always
+stated, nor for recipients of orders to feel unhappy for want of
+them. If you can induce a feeling among the men that slackness on
+parade, slowness in obeying orders, and so on, are bad form, and
+tend to disgrace the company, you will do well, and this good spirit
+will enable you to enforce discipline without having recourse to
+punishment, if you are vested with the power of inflicting it.
+
+I have already said that when in close order during tactical
+exercises, you should maintain discipline in the ranks. I now go
+further and say that you should maintain it when the men are extended
+or detached from the company singly or in small groups. Evidently
+the discipline here needed is something more than mere mechanical
+obedience. What it is, is to be found in T. & M.R., 39 (4), and
+F.S.R. 12 (13), and I.T., 116 and 117. Make the men understand that
+when they are extended they must obey their unit commander’s orders
+and signals as to fire and movement at once, and without hesitation,
+and must be always on the look-out for them. Allow no talking, except
+what relates to the business in hand, such as passing of orders or
+information, results of fire, and so on. Hold the men responsible
+that if they are out of reach of the control of their leader, it is
+their duty to carry out the spirit of the orders under which they
+set out. To bring their responsibility home to them, you must make a
+point of calling men occasionally to give an account of what they
+did when detached, and why they did it, so that they may pause for a
+moment if they are of the sort that take advantage of opportunity to
+sit behind a hedge and smoke a cigarette when they ought to be up and
+doing.
+
+Here you will naturally say that this is all very well, but how is
+one to look after men scattered here and there over several hundred
+yards of rough country? Here come in the non-commissioned officers,
+of whom, so far, no mention has been made, and also your subaltern
+officers. Since success in battle will depend largely on the
+efficiency of fire unit commanders, and the normal fire unit is the
+section (I.T., 6 (4)), it is evident that the section commander is a
+very responsible person, and much must be expected from him.
+
+Your subalterns and platoon sergeants you must use as your delegates
+in supervising and leading the platoons to which they belong, except
+when they are needed to act specifically as platoon commanders,
+keeping themselves constantly on the move among the men, looking
+at the details of the work, sighting of rifles, aiming, use of
+cover, choice of lines of movement, not lying down themselves nor
+participating in the operation as combatants. When you wish to give
+them practice in setting exercises themselves, turn the whole company
+over to one of them and act yourself as critic, or act as subaltern
+under his orders. This is one means of supervision.
+
+The next is your non-commissioned officers. They are in direct
+command, and you must hold them responsible for their sections,
+but when their units are acting in conjunction with others, it is
+evident they cannot act both as commanders and instructors unless
+certain concessions are made, for if the non-commissioned officers
+as well as the men of a section were to act as they would have to do
+under real fire, each non-commissioned officer might be able only to
+supervise a man or two on his right and left, the rest being too far
+off. Therefore, at the beginning of an exercise, you should tell the
+non-commissioned officers whether, in addition to giving executive
+commands, they are to be at liberty to move about freely and act as
+instructors also. Needless to say, in instructional exercises, and
+until the men are quite seasoned, you should let them do this, but,
+on the other hand, in exercises meant to illustrate actual conflict
+and the limitations imposed by the presence of an enemy, they should
+pay attention to those limitations so that they, as well as the
+men, may be prepared to endure the disabilities imposed by Service
+conditions.
+
+Next comes yourself. Once you have given your subordinates your
+orders for any exercise, leave them to carry it through, and make
+yourself as ubiquitous as may be in supervision. Keep criticism for
+the end, and interference only for the prevention of absurdities. To
+make yourself ubiquitous, the best way is to use your horse, and make
+the noble animal do the running about with you on his back. You can
+then get through about six times what you can on your own feet, by
+cantering from one section to another, and you get a better view of
+the whole performance, but you must remember when correcting anything
+the men are doing that you are mounted, while they are probably
+kneeling or lying, and much that you see is invisible to them. Equip
+yourself with a pair of field glasses, and also with a megaphone,
+which latter should be about fourteen inches long, and carried by a
+strap over the shoulder, the strap punched so as to be capable of
+being made long or buckled up close under the arm, according as you
+need to use the megaphone, or wish to get it out of your way. Use
+your glasses to look at what sections and individual men in them are
+doing. They will reveal to you small mistakes that escape notice at
+some distance with the unaided eye. The megaphone saves you a lot of
+small excursions to get to earshot of men, and also a lot of shouting
+at a distance, which is fatiguing, and is apt to lead to exacerbation
+of tempers, both of the shouter and the listener. Moreover, it
+enables you to hear as well as speak from a distance. This is done
+simply by holding it aimed at the other man with your ear instead of
+your mouth at the mouthpiece. Use your whistle to call attention to
+orders or signals, carry it in your hand, not in your pocket, and
+put a loop in the cord and pass the loop over your middle finger,
+or you will be always dropping it. Instead of a cane, carry a small
+semaphore flag, and give your signals with it. This saves a good deal
+of arm-waving, and tends to smarten up movement, as it is more easily
+seen than the arm. By bringing all these aids into your service,
+you will find that you can make your influence felt, although the
+sections are separated by the greatest distances which they are ever
+likely to be called on to take up in battle.
+
+
+                                VII.
+
+Besides discipline, there are certain other moral influences which
+give strength to an Army. These are indicated in I.T., 1 (4 and 5).
+The two mighty forces of religion and patriotism are not treated
+of here, as they have their roots not in any system of training,
+but in the upbringing of the youth of the nation, but there is one
+force which you, as a humble commander, can call into play, and that
+is shame—the dread of losing the respect of oneself and of one’s
+comrades. During peace training you may make men dread the public
+shame of misbehaviour by the aid of those means of supervision which
+I have suggested, but in war the power to supervise is greatly
+curtailed, and it is very desirable to find something to replace it,
+and, at the same time, to supplement a too absolute reliance on the
+stoutness of men’s hearts, for this may prove a broken reed when the
+troops are largely composed of unseasoned soldiers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To a certain extent, the organisation of the company into permanent
+sections provides us with the substitute we desire, as the men of
+sections are likely to be cognisant of how their comrades behave
+when out of view of the rest of the company as long as the whole
+of the men of the section are in view of each other; but this will
+not always be the case: for example, in wood fighting or in house
+fighting, both of which would assuredly occur if our men have to
+fight in Europe. In such fighting everything comes down to the
+pushfulness of the individual soldiers, for even sections will lose
+their leaders. Therefore let us carry the principle of the company
+organisation logically one step further, and make the men of a file
+as they fall in on parade in the section act in conjunction for the
+remainder of that parade. This arrangement is recognised in the last
+edition of the Musketry Regulations, and has, at various times, been
+adopted in former drill books of our Army, and has given excellent
+results, while, if the present book does not prescribe it, at least
+it countenances it (I.T., 123 (12)), and I strongly recommend your
+introducing it into your company. It is likely to produce emulation
+in the fire fight among men whose hearts are in the right place, and
+in the assault it must produce the advantages of combination, for two
+men coming on with the bayonet in conjunction are far more likely to
+do someone an injury than if they each came on independently, since
+in the latter case a cool and skilful antagonist might dispose of one
+and then the other, even as the Japanese are said to have stepped
+aside when charged by the Russians, who, running forward blindly and
+head down, fell an easy prey to their alert little enemies, and were
+bayoneted in succession as they arrived. The proof of this pudding is
+the eating thereof, and if your company ever happens to be alongside
+a company told off daily into haphazard sections, as is sometimes
+done, in spite of rules, you will then see the difference, even if it
+is only at manœuvres. In close order they may still look alike, but
+let them be extended in rough country, and you will see that yours
+is the blade of steel; the particles of its metal are coherent; it
+will bend, but not break. The other is of wrought iron, polished on
+the surface but of brittle material, and sure to fly to pieces in any
+rough usage. By this file organisation you will produce in the men
+in the ranks the highest degree of cohesion—the habit of regulating
+their own actions in accordance with the actions and needs of others
+in furtherance of one general aim.
+
+Having secured this cohesion among the men, you have still to
+produce it within the company as between platoons and sections.
+For cohesion is the coping stone of the edifice of efficiency,
+and rests on a basis of discipline, moral and training. It makes
+possible the application of the principle of mutual support
+which is indispensable in the attack (F.S.R., 105 (4)), and it
+enables retirements and defensive action to be carried out without
+disorganisation, and with the minimum of loss. Whenever sections act
+together, see to it that the non-commissioned officers keep an eye
+on the movements of the others, and question them as to the extent
+their orders to their sections should be influenced by the needs and
+movements of the others. By this means they will be induced to check
+the inclination to play only for their own hands, and to remember
+always that their unit is part of a combination which can best attain
+success by acting accordingly.
+
+
+                                VIII.
+
+Training is the preparation of officers and men for the duties which
+they will carry out in war. These duties consist in the application
+of the principles contained in the training manuals, and it is your
+business to provide concrete examples. But in these days of long
+range arms combats take a very long time, and you cannot expect in
+a parade of perhaps one or at most two hours, and with a limited
+extent of ground, to carry out all the varied phases of an operation
+which, in warfare, would take anything from six to eighteen hours to
+complete, and would extend over perhaps five or six miles of country,
+even if we limit ourselves to the extreme ranges of heavy artillery,
+and take no account of movements not within the range of possible
+fire. Therefore, in your training, you must be analytical, choosing
+for one parade such phase or phases as you have time and ground for,
+and doing the others later on. When your company knows all it can be
+taught thus piecemeal, it will be early enough to try to get time and
+ground to perform continuous operations.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For instance, infantry in the attack will usually have to go through
+three phases: first, the advance to fire positions; second, the fire
+fight (I.T., 121 (6)); and, third, the assault, which latter must be
+divided into the charge and the steps which follow it according as it
+is successful or not. You will have to train for these three phases.
+The first, against an enemy armed with guns and rifles, would consist
+in opening out from column of route into little columns—sections or
+platoons—and moving forward in this formation, the main object being
+to escape being smashed to pieces by his artillery fire before being
+able to do him any damage (I.T., 118 (3)). Later, you would come
+under his rifle fire, and your little columns must scatter out into
+lines of men in extended order (I.T., 118 (5)). These movements seem,
+and are, very easy, but still they must be practised in peace if they
+are to be done coolly and without confusion in time of war when the
+first intimation of the necessity for opening out may be the shriek
+and crash of what will be to most of the men the first shrapnel they
+have ever seen, and withal aimed at themselves. This phase requires
+the presence of all four platoons of the company, and so may be kept
+over till the men have been trained in the phase which it precedes,
+namely, that of the fire fight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The fire fight begins when the attacking infantry have got as far
+forward as they can without having to reply to the enemy’s fire, and
+it is quite distinct from the preceding phase of passive endurance.
+Success in the fire fight is an absolute necessity for a successful
+assault. Possibly your enemy has prepared your success before war
+broke out by abstaining from training his men in musketry, but even
+if his shooting is inferior, the fire fight will call into play
+all the qualities and skill of which your men are possessed, both
+individually and collectively. Accordingly you should practise them
+in the fire fight from the opening of their fire up to the assault,
+first individually and then collectively.
+
+The assault can be dissected into the fixing of bayonets with
+as little cessation of fire as possible, the charge itself,
+followed, according as it is held to have been successful or not,
+by the rallying of the troops, pursuit of the enemy by fire and
+strengthening of the captured position, or the withdrawal or such
+mitigation of the results of failure as may fairly be attempted.
+Thus, by considering the attack as made up of phases as above, it
+is, I think, possible and instructive to practise each one of them
+separately, on a short parade, and on limited ground, by placing
+the men in the order in which they would be at beginning of any one
+phase, and carrying on from there.
+
+Before beginning any exercise, call your non-commissioned officers
+out to the front, and explain to them and to the men, in very full
+detail, what the exercise is intended to be, what points particularly
+require attention, how you want it done, and the sequence of events,
+if it involves combined action between the different units; whether
+the company is supposed to be acting by itself or as part of the
+battalion, and, if the latter, whether your side are having the
+support of artillery fire or not, where the enemy is, and what he
+is, i.e., is he infantry only, or has he also cavalry and guns, what
+he is supposed to be doing, attacking, defending, retiring, marching,
+or what. Deal with all such points before you start, otherwise you
+will find your non-commissioned officers and men filling in the
+blanks each according to his own bent of imagination, and everyone
+in consequence playing at a different game. To be thus able to
+define the scope and arrangements of the exercise, you must have it
+clearly planned out in all detail in your head. This you should do if
+possible the day before the parade, so that you will have the thing
+well thought out, and events marshalled in logical sequence.
+
+At all exercises, if possible, have the enemy represented by a
+skeleton force, as directed by T. & M.R., 48, a few actual men with
+blank cartridge, and a red range flag or two to roughly define the
+enemy’s position. Use for this purpose old soldiers, if you have
+them, or, at least, men who have already performed the exercise
+you mean to do, and it is better to take one or two men from each
+platoon than to send off a whole section, and so break up the company
+organisation. Six or eight men are quite enough to form any skeleton
+enemy that is needed for a company to manœuvre against. You must give
+the skeleton enemy definite orders as to what they are to represent,
+where they are to go, and what to do and not to do. If they are given
+at all a free hand, especially if under the enterprising British
+subaltern, they are very apt to indulge in far-reaching manœuvres,
+and subject you to sudden raids and onslaughts which upset your
+scheme for the parade, and leave you no enemy at the very point you
+wished to have him. If you cannot arrange for a skeleton enemy, at
+least never fail to indicate some position as supposed to be held
+by an enemy. If your exercise ground is limited in extent, fix the
+enemy’s position outside it, regardless of whether you have, or
+have not, licence to traverse the intervening space, so as to avoid
+carrying out your exercise within impossibly close range of the
+enemy. In default of a skeleton enemy to provide you with a target,
+tell your men to aim at any members of the public who are about the
+enemy’s position. This is better than snapping at inanimate objects,
+as it gives more interest and so keeps up careful aiming. As regards
+the general method of training, follow commonsense and the manuals,
+and work from individual up to collective, bearing in mind always
+that collective work is built up of the work of the individuals who
+throughout have to be kept up to the collar by the various arts which
+I have touched on. The less of the iron hand that is shown the
+better.
+
+
+                                 IX.
+
+I make no mention of scouts, as they are specialists. They must be
+selected after you have got to know all the men of your company and
+their capabilities. Their training as scouts cannot be carried out by
+you personally at the same time that you are training the company.
+To be really of use, it will be a whole-time job for one officer,
+and you will either have to turn them over to one of the subalterns,
+or go with them yourself, preferably the former, if the subaltern
+is capable. When they are trained and fall in on parade as scouts
+in their sections, it is a good plan to have places permanently
+reserved for them as third files from the left of sections (the blank
+file’s place) so that they can leave the ranks without disturbing the
+formation for forming fours.
+
+As regards dress one thing is quite certain, and that is that with
+only one suit of uniform men cannot appear clean and smart off duty
+in it, and yet use it for field work with all the lying down and
+knockabout wear involved. In time of national danger, appearances
+will go to the wall, and men will do their work at the expense of the
+fit of their one and only suit of uniform.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] A cause now exists, and the men have come out.
+
+
+
+
+                             EXERCISE I.
+
+                INDIVIDUAL ADVANCE IN EXTENDED ORDER.
+
+
+The exercise portrays what men will have to do when the rifle fire
+of the enemy becomes effective, and necessitates extension of the
+small columns which are used to dodge his shell fire (I.T., 118 (3)).
+This will be somewhere over one thousand yards from the enemy, and
+perhaps fourteen hundred may be taken as a maximum. From the point
+at which extension from the small columns is made up till the time
+of the assault, a line of men in extended order is the suitable
+formation, unless there is some covered way leading forward which
+can be traversed in file or other formation. Once the advance has
+begun it should be carried through as quickly as possible without
+exhausting the men too much, and fire should not be opened until it
+is absolutely necessary to neutralise that of the enemy, firstly,
+because it lessens the speed of the advance and so increases the time
+during which the attackers are exposed to the enemy’s fire; secondly,
+because once men start firing it is more difficult to lead them
+forward; and, thirdly, because it uses up cartridges whose value and
+difficulty of replacement increases at every yard nearer the enemy’s
+position.
+
+The exercise is then to train men to gain ground to the front with
+the minimum of exposure to the enemy’s fire, and as quickly as may
+be, firstly, without firing, and, secondly, while firing themselves,
+but in the latter case speed must be subordinated to the development
+of a fire of sufficient accuracy and volume to largely neutralise
+that of the enemy, for at this stage of the battle advances under
+fire will only be possible if it is inaccurate; and the only certain
+means of causing it to be inaccurate is by disturbing the enemy’s
+nerves and aim by bringing to bear on him the fire both of supporting
+troops and of the firing line itself (I.T., 118 (6)).
+
+The regulations do not encourage the opening of fire by units less
+than two platoons at ranges over one thousand yards as the results
+do not compensate for the delay. Under one thousand and up to six
+hundred it is desired that fire should be controlled and directed,
+i.e., the amount, and the target should be specified by commanders
+(I.T., 116). Under six hundred yards it is recognised that
+individual fire gives good results, and, moreover, control becomes
+almost impossible.
+
+Divide your exercise accordingly. First, teach merely the advance
+without firing, letting the men know that they are not to fire, as
+a rule, without orders under six hundred yards, and then let them
+advance firing at each halt behind cover, choosing their own target
+and times of firing as they would do in the stage of “close fire,”
+i.e., six or perhaps eight hundred yards up to assaulting distance,
+which latter is about two hundred yards from the enemy’s line of
+defences.
+
+This parade is one that can be done with very few men present, but it
+is necessary to form them up into sections with a large proportion
+of non-commissioned officers. Keep the men in their proper sections,
+but, if necessary, join two or three together, so as to form sections
+with three or four non-commissioned officers to each. Thus, if you
+form four sections, they should each be in reality a boiling down of
+the platoons. In future exercises I will also suppose that you thus
+concentrate your men, keeping the members of each section together,
+and form them into sections of size suitable to the work of the day,
+and no further allusion will be made to this.
+
+Before taking the men on to the exercise ground, you should choose
+a point on it from which you intend to start your advance. Some
+fourteen hundred or less yards from this choose a position for your
+skeleton enemy, who will consist of three or four old soldiers with
+forty rounds of blank each. If men are not available, put up a few
+red range flags. Whichever are used, put them into some position that
+an enemy might reasonably occupy; do not simply dump them down on to
+the ground. The skeleton enemy must be told to show up occasionally,
+and to open a slow but regular fire as soon as they see your men
+advancing, but only to keep it up as long as your men show themselves
+in making their advance. A complete cessation of fire will denote
+that your men are making such good use of cover as to be invisible
+to the enemy. Let your men also know that these instructions have
+been given, and that such an advance is the ideal to be sought for,
+provided always that it is not absurdly slow. If neither men nor
+flags are available you must make believe and point out a supposed
+position at a supposed distance. I have already pointed out the
+advantages of having a skeleton enemy to work against.
+
+In front of your starting point, and about four hundred yards from
+it, decide on some point at which you will let the men halt after
+they have made their way across the intervening space. Here I will
+refer you to the diagram. The line AA´ is your starting point, CC´
+the enemy’s position. Your exercise consists in showing individual
+men how to gain ground from AA´ as far as BB´, distant about four
+hundred yards from AA´, with the minimum of exposure to the enemy’s
+aimed fire. Draw up the sections, supposing there are two, on the
+line AA´, fifty to one hundred yards apart, and let the men sit down
+facing away from CC´ and, if possible, under cover, so that they may
+not see how their comrades negotiate the course. Space the available
+non-commissioned officers of each section along the course from A to
+B and A´ to B´, with orders to supervise and criticise the advance
+of each man within the limits of their beats. Allow a belt of twenty
+to thirty yards broad from A to B and from A´ up to B´, within which
+men must seek their cover. This belt is made broad here to afford
+instruction, but when the men work together in their sections, it
+will be much narrower, as they will then be extended at intervals of
+five or six paces only. Start off one man at a time from each section
+to cross from AA´ to BB´, to move as if under fire from the enemy in
+rushes from one cover to another. As soon as a man reaches BB´ he
+may fall out and watch the movements of the remainder. Do not send
+off a fresh man until the preceding one has nearly reached BB´, so
+that your non-commissioned officers may have good opportunity to look
+at each man as he goes. As for yourself, be active in supervising
+both sections, using your horse if you have one.
+
+          DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. & II. [Illustration:
+
+  CC´ = Enemy’s position about 1400^X from AA´. Enemy being
+  represented by men with blank cartridge or flags.
+
+  AA´ = Starting points 1400 yards from enemy’s position.
+
+  Men start from AA´ to cross to BB´ without exposing themselves to
+  the enemy at CC.´
+
+  Crosses indicate cover, and the chain dotted lines routes by which
+  men may advance.
+
+AA´ to BB´ is about 400^X]
+
+The following are points to be attended to:—Before leaving their
+cover, men must decide where their next halting place is to be, and
+make for it quickly, and with decision. There must be no emerging
+into the open, and then looking about for a bit of cover to go
+for. The length of each rush should not be enough to let the enemy
+have time for deliberate aim—fifty yards or so is quite the limit
+for this. If there is no cover the men must lie down flat between
+each rush. Occasionally it is advisable to make a long rush from
+one good position to another at sprinting pace without stopping at
+all (I.T., 121 (12)), so this should be practised sometimes, the
+non-commissioned officers at that part of the beat being ordered
+to tell the men what is needed. Once a man has decided on his next
+halting place, and is in wind, he should leave his cover with a jump.
+The slow uprising of a figure is sure to draw the enemy’s attention,
+and make his fire more accurate than it would be if no intimation
+were given him. Similarly, on reaching cover, men should fall down
+quickly, and not lower themselves slowly to earth.
+
+Insist on a careful choice of cover, a very small depression or
+elevation, even six inches, is enough to give cover from view, and
+therefore helps in escaping aimed fire, but in peace time men will
+not take trouble over apparently trifling things like this unless it
+is rubbed into them by close supervision. Noticeable objects should
+be avoided as the enemy may have taken their range, and they help
+him to define a point on which to concentrate fire. If a man makes
+mistakes and shows indecision at any part of the course, call him
+back to the last cover he left, and let him start again from there
+after pointing out what he has done wrong.
+
+
+          _II. The advance combined with individual fire._
+
+The second part of the exercise is done in the same way as the first,
+the men advancing and taking cover as before, but now using their
+rifles. They have to be taught to use the cover to advantage, both
+as a protection and as an aid to their shooting, and to take pains
+in searching for a good target, and in their sighting, aiming and
+firing. For purposes of instruction, six hundred yards is rather a
+short range to open fire at, and I recommend your making a start at
+eight hundred or so, i.e., two hundred yards beyond BB´ towards the
+enemy, working up to four hundred. This necessitates judging distance
+at beyond the practically point-blank ranges of the Lee-Enfield
+rifle, and makes the men use their eyes keenly to spot the enemy,
+while it avoids a certain amount of unreality which is apt to attach
+to instructional movements carried on in front of a skeleton enemy at
+the deadly short ranges under three hundred yards.
+
+Points which should be considered are:—
+
+To fire from the right and lower edge of any cover, not over the top.
+
+Make the men keep a count of the number of times they snap over the
+course (i.e., cartridges used), and report to the non-commissioned
+officer at the finish of their course.
+
+Let the men do their own judging distance, and let non-commissioned
+officers drop at once on any man who either fails to do so, or
+forgets, as they often do, to adjust the backsight.
+
+Cultivate a habit among the men of looking about for different
+targets, not firing only straight in front of themselves, but on
+their right and left, so that when they come to fire collectively
+they may feel nothing new in being told to open the enfilade fire
+recommended by I.T., 116 (11), and also get the custom of watching
+for the enemy all along his front.
+
+These two exercises of advancing with and without firing are
+the groundwork of the fighting efficiency of the soldier in the
+attack, and will be found to call for every natural and acquired
+qualification the individual possesses. Good shooting, quick
+judgment, activity, wind, and everything else are needed if the
+work is done with full observance of the conditions which would
+exist under fire. Put the men through exercises of this sort several
+times, and, if possible, on different ground, till they acquire
+quickness in choosing cover and the arts that make an expert fighter.
+Confidence in themselves will come with the skill they acquire,
+and with confidence comes decision of mind, which is really more
+important than bodily efficiency. If you have time, a useful rider to
+this exercise is to work the men by pairs, as is recommended in the
+Musketry Regulations for the observation of fire, and so introduce
+them early to the use of the file organisation which I have advised
+you to adopt.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE II.
+
+                        RETIREMENT BY PAIRS.
+
+
+A sound provision against panic among young troops is to accustom
+them to regard a retirement as all in the day’s work, and not as
+an exceptional undertaking which their anxiety may invest with
+possibilities of disaster. The essence of successful retirement in
+face of an enemy lies in the continuous opposition, or appearance
+of it, offered to the enemy by one portion of the troops, while
+others draw off to take post to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost
+portion. I.T., 137, gives the idea in few words. It does not mention
+individual training in this, but it is useful to put men through the
+movements, both to cultivate cohesion in the ranks, and as a tactical
+exercise. It may happen in war that an extended line has to give
+ground when engaged with the enemy, and this under so heavy a fire as
+to make movement except over short distances impossible without great
+loss. Such a withdrawal would mean that the troops are in a very
+tight corner, and would test them very highly, but that is another
+matter. It may happen, and should be prepared for. A withdrawal
+under these conditions might perhaps be carried out by the alternate
+movement of men in files covered by the fire of the others, until
+such a distance from the enemy had been obtained as to allow sections
+or companies to take up the alteration. Up to that distance it will
+be simply a reversal of what was done in Exercise I., but worked by
+files—a front rank man and his rear rank man, one going back a short
+distance, and the other firing to cover the movement. Again, men on
+patrol or otherwise detached may have to retire to avoid capture, or
+for many other reasons, when they might not be under close and heavy
+fire, but still would be under the necessity of preventing the enemy
+closing in on them or surrounding them. In this case, the length
+of each withdrawal would be much longer than in the former case;
+one man would fire while the other made off perhaps two or three
+hundred yards at his best speed. Train for both contingencies; it
+can be done in one and the same parade. Skeleton enemy as usual. For
+the withdrawal under heavy fire, let the sections sit down and fall
+out at BB´ (Diagram I.), and put out the non-commissioned officers
+between BA and B´ A´ as before. Call out the men by files, tell them
+to work back to A and A´, one firing, the other retiring. As a rule
+they should retire past each other before halting. The same points
+must be observed as in Exercise No. I, and the quicker they are in
+movement the better, but they must be taught to go in quick time also
+when so ordered (I.T., 137 (4)).
+
+For the retirement of a file as on patrol, do exactly the same, but
+you should work over six hundred yards of ground or so to correct any
+tendency to import the short rush into this exercise, which would
+be out of place, and also to let men have more practice in looking
+for suitable fire positions from which they can both fire on the
+enemy, _and from which they can get away when their turn comes_, a
+point they often neglect at first. The different nature of the two
+exercises must be made quite clear.
+
+At this exercise you should bring before your men the need of using
+all sorts of _ruses_ in a retirement, the use of rapid fire just
+before withdrawing, the sham withdrawal acted by ceasing fire, and
+retiring a few yards, but only to halt and re-open fire after a few
+seconds if the enemy has been tempted to expose himself, thinking the
+coast clear, the real withdrawal effected so carefully that the enemy
+is not sure whether you are there still or not, and so on; and make
+them put their own ideas of these plans into action and tell them if
+they are doing what is feasible on service or not. Bar all “manœuvre
+slimness,” i.e., anything that could not be done on service.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE III.
+
+       INDIVIDUAL TRAINING IN USE OF FIRE AND FIRE DISCIPLINE.
+
+
+Early lessons in fire discipline can be given in single rank on the
+parade ground, but the open country and extended order are wanted for
+training men to the fullest extent under service conditions. Only
+in the open country can be got the variety of targets, ranges and
+the visual training which are necessary for a complete education.
+Men must be taught, and taught again, that the taking up of extended
+order, and movement over all sorts of ground, in no way mean that
+they are to pass at once beyond the control of their unit leaders, or
+that it is optional to continue to take any sort of pains with their
+shooting just because their non-commissioned officers cannot stand
+over them, but have to shout orders from a distance.
+
+This exercise consists in advancing and retiring in extended order
+with fire and the use of cover when halted; but to allow for more
+prolonged shooting practice and closer supervision than are possible
+when carrying out an attack or retirement as on service, the halts
+are longer and movements should at first be made in quick time.
+
+Put out your skeleton enemy on a good broad front, so as to allow
+room for change of targets, and do not have them all in one straight
+line, so that each target shall call for a change of sighting. Let
+the sections work independently of each other under their section
+commanders, who, with the other non-commissioned officers, will have
+to act both as commanders and instructors. Bring the sections up to
+about twelve hundred yards from the enemy; get them into a line with
+intervals between them, i.e., spaces measuring from the flank of one
+to the flank of the other, sufficient to admit of each section being
+extended to two or three paces between men without its flank men
+coming too close to those of other sections, e.g., with two sections
+of eight file, i.e., sixteen men each; you must leave room for half
+of each to extend to two paces towards the other, and keep a fair
+interval; that is, from the centre of each of the above sections of
+eight men in each rank you want 8 ÷ 2 (half the number in the front
+rank) × 2 (two ranks) × 2 (two paces extension) = 16 paces for the
+line extended and an interval of, say, 30 yards, which gives 46
+yards between each section centre to centre. Now, let the section
+commanders order the men to extend, lie down, take cover and open
+fire. The unit commander, the non-commissioned officer in charge of
+the section, is to name the target and distance and also the rate of
+fire, rapid or slow, at all distances over six hundred yards from
+the enemy (I.T., 116 (5)), unless it is desired on occasion to train
+men to do this for themselves. After fire has been delivered, direct
+section commanders to proceed with the exercise, giving orders for
+advancing, halting and firing, the advance to be made from cover to
+cover as in Exercise No. I, but in quick time. Yourself supervise in
+chief, and tell section commanders when you want to give orders as
+to the firing or movement, and let them give the executive commands,
+after which you and they should pass along the lines and scrutinise
+each man’s actions in carrying out the orders, questioning them, and
+repealing hints you may have given when telling them the object and
+methods of the practice, if they appear not to be giving them effect.
+The value of the practice depends on the orders you give as to the
+firing and the following are suggested:—
+
+(_a_) Switching the fire of all the rifles on to different parts
+of the enemy’s position, sometimes straight in front, _but quite
+as often_ at his extreme flanks. This is to introduce the use of
+enfilade fire (I.T., 116 (11)) and the habit of giving support by
+fire to other units (F.S.R., 105 (4)), by concentrating the fire on
+to particular targets.
+
+(_b_) Distributing the fire laterally along the whole or a part
+of the enemy’s front (I.T., 116 (10)). This may be done by giving
+the section a particular extent of the enemy’s front, e.g., “from
+the dry tree to the gate in the hedge.” The section commander
+then allots those of the enemy, who can be viewed within his bit
+of front to individual men, or preferably files of men, who are
+to treat them as their especial charge and keep on firing at them
+till otherwise ordered, or till the enemy shifts. Of course, if
+there is not enough of the skeleton enemy to give each file in the
+section a live antagonist (and there won’t be on your parades), the
+commander must indicate bits of cover which individual men of the
+enemy might be expected to use and tell his men to fire at these
+spots. This is a most important practice, and needs a good deal of
+attention and application before the men get really quick at it. It
+means, of course, that on service you will make it your business
+to allow as few of the enemy’s riflemen as possible to be free of
+the distraction of having some bullets landing about them, to upset
+their nerves and aim. Unless some plan is adopted to do this all
+along his line, it is all too probable your men will be exposed to
+some accurate fire from rifles held in steady hands, and even one
+rifle so held has, to my knowledge, caused a loss of eleven men in
+as many minutes. This lateral distribution is rather difficult, but
+it is easy, compared with the concomitant task of spotting where the
+men of the enemy are hidden, if they really try to hide, at anything
+but the shortest fighting ranges. The only remedy for this is for
+each private to carry field glasses of sorts; you will not get them
+from Government, but if any of your men are keen enough to go in
+for spotting a hidden enemy for themselves with glasses and would
+bring their own to parade, forbid them not, but encourage it. I have
+been told that in some of the yeomanry corps in the South African
+war nearly every trooper raised somehow and somewhere a pair of
+glasses—some were mother o’ pearl and silver-mounted, but did the
+spotting all right in spite of that.
+
+(_c_) Passing orders and changing targets. Under heavy fire
+non-commissioned officers will not be able to move along the line,
+and orders must be passed either by word of mouth or by written
+messages passed from hand to hand; the former is apt to be slow,
+and the orders garbled en route unless practised beforehand; the
+latter is not very practical as men in action are too busy to read
+bits of paper or trouble themselves to see that they are passed on
+(I.T., 119 (4)). To practise the verbal method while the men are
+engaged in firing at any particular target, give orders to one man
+in a low tone (you would have to speak loud if ball cartridge were
+being used) to fire at some other target, and to pass the word.
+The man then tells his neighbours on each side, and yourself and a
+non-commissioned officer then follow the order each way, and when a
+man varies it admonish him to repeat just what he got from the last
+speaker, no more and no less. In a little time the men will become
+exact in taking and passing messages. This method should be confined
+to directions about firing; orders for movement should invariably
+be given by commanders by word themselves or signal, and men should
+not be allowed to repeat these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on
+service, as a signal may be seen and acted on by someone for whom it
+was not intended.
+
+(_d_) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy or bits of cover, let
+fire be directed at civilians who are moving about in the field of
+view. Call on some individual man by name to choose some such target,
+and tell him he has to pass the word to the rest of his squad what
+target he has chosen and to fire at it. This gives practice in target
+definition, i.e., describing its position so that other men can know
+just where to look for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid of
+noticeable objects to do this quickly, but it is important, as the
+difficulty of locating a well-concealed enemy with smokeless powder
+requires that every pair of eyes in the ranks should be engaged in
+the search till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen are seen,
+and the information given to everyone in the firing line. Until this
+is done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise aimed by unaimed
+fire, a pretty hopeless task. Hence train your men to use their eyes
+for seeing and their tongues for description.
+
+(_e_) Accustoming the men to judge distance, and use their backsights
+without orders. Judging distance for the men as a formal practice is
+confined to ranges under 800 yards, but it does no harm to let them
+judge greater ranges. Let the unit commanders define targets to be
+fired at, omitting to state the range, and let the men judge it for
+themselves and fire. Walk up the line and see that no man forgets to
+adjust his backsight for the distance he estimates. If possible, have
+the correct ranges taken previously with a range finder, and let the
+men know what they are after they have aimed. Each change of target
+gives the men a useful lesson in judging distance.
+
+(_f_) Having put the men through all sorts of paces in the way of
+firing while advancing and retiring, in quick time do the same thing
+again, but with the movements in double time, and, in addition,
+carry out the increases and decreases of the extension, inclines and
+changes of direction given in I.T., 93, throughout insisting on the
+same steadiness in firing as when in quick time. All this will at
+first probably get the men “rattled,” and the benefit of it is that
+after some of it they will get over being “rattled,” and will not let
+hurried orders or speed of movement interfere with deliberation and
+steadiness in shooting.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE IV.
+
+                            THE ASSAULT.
+
+
+Exercise III. can suitably be wound up by a practice in delivering
+an assault, as this does not take long, and the moral may be pointed
+that all fire training is only a preparation for a successful
+assault. The fixing of bayonets before assault commonly leads to
+a complete cessation of fire in the firing line. This is quite
+wrong, as such complete cessation of fire by the firing line must
+largely surrender for the time being that superiority of fire which
+facilitates the delivery of the assault (I.T., 121 (7)), for it gives
+the enemy a chance to take aim again. Supporting fire by artillery
+or infantry not in the firing line cannot be relied on when the
+firing line has reached assaulting distance. Therefore, do not have a
+simultaneous fixing of bayonets, but let one-half fix while the other
+fires, and the best arrangement is evidently one that ensures a fire
+being kept up along the whole front and not in patches. The system I
+have found most satisfactory is to fix bayonets by ranks, the front
+rank fixing while the rear rank continues firing, and then the rear
+rank fixing while the front rank fires. It may be done by odd and
+even files, or other ways, but, the company being organised in files,
+the same men are usually in the front and rear rank, and there is no
+difficulty in their remembering which they are. The important thing
+is to adhere to one system once it is adopted, and have it well
+understood by all. It does not matter much if a few men fix bayonets
+out of turn, so long as the fire is merely diminished and not stopped
+during the time bayonets are being fixed. In the charge, the men
+should work by their files, i.e., the two men of each file should act
+together and run at the same objective. The meaning of this is that
+in actual conflict two men would go together for the same individual
+enemy, and between the two of them they would be pretty sure to bring
+him to an untimely end, if the enemy really waited for the steel, and
+with less chance of his doing damage than if the combat took place
+man-to-man; thereafter they could turn their attentions to some other
+person.
+
+For the practice choose and indicate any position for assault; work
+sections up to about two hundred yards from it, and then order rapid
+fire and bayonets to be fixed. As soon as all are ready, order the
+charge to be sounded. (I.T., 124). When the men hear the bugle they
+must at once jump from their cover and go straight and hard at the
+position; there must be no waiting by individuals to fire a last shot
+or two. The rush should be made suddenly and swiftly, so that the
+enemy has no time to see what is happening before the men are well on
+their way at him. When the position is reached, pass right through
+it and well beyond it, to escape hostile gunfire (I.T., 124 (5)),
+and then order the “Halt,” when the men may lie down under cover and
+open a pursuing fire. Walk along the line and see, with the help of
+non-commissioned officers, whether men of each file are together; if
+so, it will be proof that they have obeyed the directions to keep
+together during the charge. Allow a minute or two of the pursuing
+fire, then let section or platoon commanders sound their whistles,
+close and reform their sections under cover. On the whistle-sound
+(a succession of short blasts), men rise and double to where the
+commander is, resume their places, and lie down. This re-organisation
+is very important for you as company commander, for by it you get
+your men formed up quickly into platoons and ready to be closed
+into company or to take fresh orders in the minimum of time. The
+usual thing seen is that after the assault the ground is covered
+with a mixture of men of all companies staring about, and apparently
+thinking the show at an end, whereas on service this is the very time
+you may expect either a counter-attack by infantry or a burst of
+artillery fire directed on the lost position.
+
+To repeat the orders of the assault: “Rapid Fire; Fix Bayonets;
+Charge; Halt and Take Cover; Commence Fire; Rally and Close Under
+Cover,” and be ready for further happenings.
+
+
+
+
+                             EXERCISE V.
+
+               THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN THE ATTACK.
+
+
+Having trained the individual men in the work needed of them, the
+next step is to make use of that individual skill to the best effect
+in combination under orders of a commander. The section is the
+lowest unit recognised for _training_ (I.T., 107), and it also is
+the normal unit used in firing (I.T., 6 (4)). When the company is
+advancing in the attack, or retiring, its sections and platoons will
+often be widely separated from each other, and the company commander
+cannot look after each one in detail, so that the platoon commanders,
+and under them the section commanders, must be fully competent to
+lead their men without supervision, in accordance with the general
+intention given them before the company opened out. So the training
+of men in combination must be accompanied by the training of your
+section and platoon commanders.
+
+The duties of fire unit commanders are laid down in I.T., 116 (5),
+and those of section commanders in I.T., 116 and 123 (10). Before
+you proceed with this exercise have up these non-commissioned
+officers and devote ten minutes to an exposition of what is contained
+in the above paragraphs. Dilate on them, and show how neglect of
+those duties hampers the company commanders. At the same time,
+desire them to maintain among the men during sectional exercises the
+standard of individual training which was obtained in the preliminary
+exercises. Unless they do so the men will soon cease to apply what
+they then learnt, and so forget it in battle until the occurrence of
+casualties impresses its value afresh in their minds. Also give them
+the gist of what follows as to the advance and description of fire
+phases.
+
+The exercise gives commanders the opportunity of doing what they
+will have to do when the company is attacking or retiring, but
+without their having to keep an eye on the movements of the other
+platoons. The men should now be extended at full intervals as on
+service, five or six yards apart, this being held to be the most
+that is needed. Put out the skeleton enemy in groups, one group as
+objective of attack for each section or platoon on parade, and the
+groups sufficiently apart to prevent them interfering with each other
+when extended as above, for they are to act independently. Take up
+the advance as if at fourteen hundred from the enemy, when his rifle
+fire on open ground would compel you to change from small columns
+of sections or platoons into the line of extended men (I.T., 118
+(5)). The advance up to assaulting distance, from fourteen hundred
+yards, consists (I.T., 121 (7)), in the first place, of an advance
+to fire positions. Now Musketry Regulations lay down that fire by
+less than two platoons is of little effect over one thousand yards,
+so do not encourage commanders to open fire till one thousand yards
+at least, and use the space fourteen hundred to one thousand yards
+for instruction in getting their sections or platoons forward as
+quickly, and with as little exposure, as possible. Secondly, the
+advance consists of a fire fight combined with further advances up
+to the assaulting position. In this fire fight controlled collective
+fire is better than individual fire (I.T., 116 (7) (iii)), so up to
+six hundred yards let firing take place, only on the specific orders
+of commanders, who accordingly are to name the targets and ranges. In
+this phase therefore make them choose forward fire positions and work
+their units forward, using controlled collective fire at the same
+time.
+
+Under six hundred yards it is apparently held best to accept the
+inevitable and allow individual fire, the unit commanders being still
+responsible for getting their men forward up to the position of
+assault—about two hundred yards from the enemy. Still at this close
+range unit commanders should do what they can to direct the fire, and
+especially they should see that men fire slowly and carefully. In
+general the rate of firing or snapping is far too fast, and pouches
+would be empty long before the assaulting position would be reached.
+
+Owing to the great importance of training the sections, it is
+advisable to let them do this exercise, through both the phases
+below, separately from each other, and not in platoon. When they know
+all about it, let them work in platoon.
+
+Having drawn up your sections in line at fourteen hundred yards,
+order the section commanders to extend and move on, and signal the
+skeleton enemy to open fire.
+
+
+_First Phase: Fourteen to One Thousand Yards, Gaining Ground Without
+                              Firing._
+
+Practise the section commanders in all ways of getting their sections
+forward without undue exposure or delay, by rushes of the whole
+section, man-by-man from one and both flanks and by files, together,
+and any other way that suggests itself. Stand over the section
+commanders in turn and tell them to advance the section by one method
+and then by another, and ask them which seems most suitable for
+various conditions of fire and ground (I.T., 118 (4)). The advance
+should be steady and determined. Before starting the advance from one
+position to another, section commanders are to decide and _must tell
+the men_ to what point they mean the next advance to be made (I.T.,
+108 (2)), in the same way as individual men were taught to mark their
+next halting places.
+
+Attention must be paid to the way in which advances are inaugurated.
+Rushes must be sudden and simultaneous (I.T., 92 (5)). The men have
+been trained to leave their cover quickly. The unit commander must
+give his directions for the next move without getting up (if himself
+lying) and tell the men to be prepared; when all are ready, he and
+the men must jump up together and rush at once on the word or signal.
+The object of this, of course, is to avoid a concentrated fire being
+directed on the unit commander, and, perhaps, the two or three men
+nearest him, if they get up before the others, which would make it
+likely that some of them would be hit immediately, while the rest
+of the unit looked for a new leader, and so no advance take place;
+whereas if everyone gets on the move together a casualty or two will
+not bring the whole to a standstill. Of course, commanders should
+lead the way, but they must get in front by sprinting the first few
+yards.
+
+
+ _Second Phase: One thousand to Six Hundred Yards (Collective Fire)
+      and Six Hundred to Two Hundred Yards (Individual Fire)._
+
+As soon as a section begins to fire, it becomes possible for it to
+practise the lessons in the use of fire which were learnt in Exercise
+III., such as concentration and distribution of fire. From one
+position the commander must choose his next fire position, and work
+his section up to it in whatever way is most suitable. On flat and
+open ground this position may simply be the halting place of the next
+rush, thirty or forty paces to the front, but it is more instructive
+and practical to have positions far enough from each other, say one
+hundred and fifty or two hundred yards, to necessitate the advancing
+section making several successive rushes and using various devices
+to gain ground without attracting the enemy’s attention. Practise
+sections in all ways of advancing from one position to another,
+as was done before firing began, and encourage the use of covered
+ways. This exercise, if properly done, represents what the section
+would have to do in battle. For the purpose of instruction, the unit
+commanders should be allowed to move about as instructors, but when
+all ranks have been through the exercise and know what is needed, you
+should practise it under service conditions, and tell unit commanders
+to behave as if under fire; this is important, as it lets all see
+how much will be asked of the individual man under fire, and how
+difficult it is to exercise any wide control.
+
+For the same reason you must in this exercise begin the practice of
+ordering casualties of leaders, and carry it on through the whole of
+the rest of the training. Order section commanders to be casualties,
+and let the next senior man carry on, then order that man to become
+a casualty, and let the next one take command. Collect these
+casualties with you and let them go round with you, and have for a
+time the onlooker’s view of the game. Do not stint in ordering them,
+but let every man be ready to take up command. This readiness to
+assume command and to carry on the advance in spite of the absence
+of leaders is most valuable in battle and on parade for training,
+keeps men’s attention fixed on the business, and helps to counteract
+disorder when companies and sections get mixed up in reinforcement in
+battalion attack.
+
+Under six hundred yards let the men use individual fire, choosing
+their own targets; at this time try to get them into the way of
+looking for the targets which most require to be shot at at the
+moment—they must be always looking along the enemy’s line, and must
+not acquire the paralysing habit of only seeing straight in front of
+themselves.
+
+Call on unit commanders to keep in view the question of expenditure
+of ammunition. It is no good ordering men to snap-fire 200 times in
+the course of an advance when they would only have 100 rounds in
+their pouches on service, and no means of getting more; when blank
+is being used they should see that the ammunition of casualties is
+collected and redistributed.
+
+At some time in the course of this exercise the section must be
+practised in improving cover as if under fire, i.e., working lying
+down. The nature of the work depends on what tools you have, but it
+should be attempted if possible. Order the section to do it when
+halted together in some fire position. At first they will shape
+badly and expose themselves a lot, but if you have time for practice
+they get into the way of digging in very quickly. If there are stones
+pile up “schanzes.” Attention should be paid to concealment of the
+cover, so as not to make it a target for the whole countryside, and
+it must give cover from fire or view, or both; one often sees men
+making molehills which show up their position without being capable
+of stopping a bullet. Better not make them at all than that way.
+
+Wind up the advance occasionally by an assault, as it is a mistake
+to let the idea take hold that the fire fight is the end of all
+things. This, I think, is the reason that the word “skirmishing” has
+disappeared from the book of training, as it connoted an indecisive
+action, whereas the whole spirit of the present training is that it
+shall be directed to the delivery of an assault and the ousting of
+the enemy from his position. Scouts are the only people who may have
+to skirmish in the former accepted meaning of the word, and they
+only do so until the firing line joins them, or they withdraw after
+reconnoitring.
+
+
+                            _In Platoon._
+
+Next work the sections together in their platoons on similar lines.
+Practise again all ways of gaining ground; by rushes of the whole
+platoon, or if one or more sections, man by man, and so on, as taught
+to the section. Fire should be directed by the platoon commander, and
+controlled by the section commander. Teach the lateral distribution
+of fire along a given front among the four sections of the platoon.
+Teach also the principle of covering fire, one section being sent
+to make its way with every use of cover to a forward fire position,
+while the remainder continue firing. The first section, on arrival
+at the new fire position, opens fire, and the others follow in
+due course, one section only being dumb while the movement is in
+progress. If there is a choice of good lines of advance it is better
+that sections should not follow each other on one line, as the enemy
+may have noticed the move and be waiting for them.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE VI.
+
+               THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN RETIREMENT.
+
+
+For the general principles of retirements see I.T., 137. The platoon,
+when working with the company, will take its turn at being the
+rearmost portion of the troops, and will have the difficult task of
+getting away while in touch with the enemy, but its retirement will
+be covered by the fire of other portions of the company. On the other
+hand, if a platoon or section finds itself beyond support from other
+troops, as might happen often enough, it will have to act itself as a
+rearguard and retire by alternate parts.
+
+In both cases great advantage is gained if the position held can be
+vacated so stealthily that the enemy shall not be aware of its having
+been vacated till the defenders are well on their way to the rear.
+For this reason it will be worth while to accustom the men to employ,
+when practicable, a procedure used in mountain warfare, withdrawing
+the bulk of men first and leaving only a few quick-footed men to keep
+up appearances and fire as long as possible and then retiring them
+at speed. Also all men must be taught to grovel backwards on their
+stomachs from the crest of their fire position till sufficiently
+under cover, if there is cover, to stand up without being seen, after
+which they rise and make off.
+
+Send out the skeleton enemy with instructions to follow up the
+retirement slowly, and not to close in on the sections, as it is easy
+and tempting to do this when there are no bullets in the rifles.
+
+      (_a_) _As a Section or Platoon Acting with the Company._
+
+Do the practice first by sections and then in platoon. Draw up the
+unit on a fire position about eight hundred yards from the enemy, the
+men in extended order, lying down, and open fire on the enemy. Tell
+the commander to choose his next halting place and retire his unit
+on it, which he should do on the lines before indicated. The halting
+places should be chosen as far apart as two to four hundred yards;
+short retirements merely prolong the time exposure to fire and should
+not be used unless the enemy are very close or the fire very heavy.
+Once the men are clear of the position, they should move as fast as
+they can, trusting to escape casualties, by speed, the alteration
+of range, and the fire of the few men left on the position. As a
+rule, carry out all retirements at the double, so that the men shall
+not be confused by the hasty movement. As soon as the first party
+has reached the new position, the fringe of men left on the old one
+should creep back and go as hard as they can to rejoin their section
+or platoon, and they should be taught to judge the time of going for
+themselves, so as not to “let in” the section or themselves, by going
+too early or staying too late. Repeat the movement to one or two
+further positions. It is a strenuous practice and makes demands on
+the men’s limbs, wind, and willingness, but the rearguard is the post
+of honour and danger. Order casualties of leaders from time to time,
+and let the men be called to move in quick time sometimes, which they
+would have to do if there were signs of unsteadiness.
+
+            (_b_) _As a Section or Platoon Acting Alone._
+
+Act on the same lines as before, but let the commander run the
+show, which he should be able to do, after having done it under
+supervision. One party (a file or two in the case of a section,
+or one or two sections in that of a platoon) gets back to a fire
+position and opens fire to cover the retirement of the other. In
+general, it is better that both parties should not fall back on one
+and the same fire position; on the contrary, if they act on a wide
+front in ordinary country—say, three hundred yards apart—their fire
+is equally effective, but the enemy is broken up, and the danger of
+their being outflanked or surrounded is less. For the same reason it
+is good practice, if the platoon is strong, to send out groups of
+four or five men still further on the flanks, and a group to precede
+the whole on the line of retirement by six hundred yards or so, in
+order to occupy positions and deny them to the enemy, and after one
+or two turns of this exercise tell the skeleton enemy to follow on
+harder and try to work round the flanks. In this part also continue
+to order casualties of leaders.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE VII.
+
+           THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN INDEPENDENT ATTACK.
+
+
+It is very important to secure the intelligent co-operation of
+section and platoon commanders in the operations in which their
+company or battalion is taking part. I have read that in the
+Russo-Japanese War the result of one of the battles—I think at
+Penlin, 31st July—turned on the action of an infantry section who
+gained a footing on the extreme flank of the Russian line, and
+drove off the defenders in the immediate vicinity, opened a way for
+the advance of the greater numbers, and led to the outflanking and
+retreat of the whole Russian force. If you give your unit commanders
+some chances of carrying out attacks, acting as if unsupported by
+other troops, they will find themselves faced with the same problems
+which confront commanders of larger bodies in the attack, and they
+will be more likely, when acting in combination, to look beyond just
+the limits of their own commands; they will be led to comprehend
+the object of operations and the difficulties in the way, and
+will become quick to seize any opportunity to further the general
+plan without waiting for orders. It is true that so small a body
+as a section would seldom be formally told to attack an objective
+single-handed, but there are often occasions on service when a
+platoon might have to carry out an attack on a small scale, as when a
+few of the enemy’s riflemen are making themselves unpleasant, while
+not in sufficient force to do more than “snipe,” or to require the
+diversion against them of a whole company. Though a section as now
+constituted is a very small unit to work with, I think no excuse is
+needed for performing the attack with the smallest unit, having in
+view the excellent training it forms for non-commissioned officers
+and men. However, for this practice, it is advisable to form sections
+somewhat above the usual strength, by joining two together, so as
+to give at least eighteen rifles in the whole. After having put the
+sections through the exercise, you will, of course, let the platoon
+commanders carry out the attack with their platoons.
+
+Put out a skeleton enemy of three or four men for each platoon or
+section, or one only for all to attack in turn, and post this enemy
+in some commanding place, with a good field of view and fire so
+that if possible the unit shall have twelve to eight hundred yards
+to manœuvre over before coming to close quarters. As an example,
+give out the supposition that this enemy are a cavalry patrol of the
+enemy, who have dismounted and are using their rifles on the company
+as it is on the move from somewhere to somewhere else. The section or
+platoon is ordered to drive them off, neutralise their fire, or hold
+them in check, in case they should be the forerunners of a greater
+number. The enemy should begin to fire on a signal from you (with
+your flag), which you should give as you tell off the commander for
+the duty. If the other units are to attack the same enemy in turn,
+you should halt them under cover or turn them to the rear, so as not
+to see too much of the method the first lot choose to carry out their
+job.
+
+The method of the attack will depend on the nature of the ground—what
+suits one case may not suit another, and there may be two or three
+courses open in attacking any one position. The commander should
+accordingly look well at the ground before deciding how he will carry
+out the attack, but there are certain principles common to attacks,
+great or small, which he should put into practice. He should secure
+himself from interruption on his flanks and rear, and he should
+provide a supporting fire to distract the enemy and cover the advance
+of his main force. He cannot make large detachments or indulge in
+wide patrolling, nor would such small bodies as platoons be sent
+off to attack if such were advisable; but, at least he can post a
+file or two on some high ground, or, failing that, on one flank out
+of decisive range of the enemy, i.e., about eight hundred yards
+from him, with orders to keep up a steady fire until his advance
+masks their fire. This will prevent, or at least give warning of,
+an attempt to cut in on the rear. He may also send a file perhaps
+two or three hundred yards to either flank, to move parallel with
+his advance and prevent his being enfiladed at short range, if the
+enemy should be tactless enough to avail himself of a chance of
+meeting the advance by a counter-attack. Until he sees pretty well
+what he has in front of him, he should divide his party into two,
+sending one to engage the enemy and keeping the other as a reserve to
+support the first by fire if they get into difficulties, and to be
+available to carry on the attack after the other has got the enemy
+well busy, either by reinforcing it directly, or, better still, by
+continuing the advance along a fresh line leading to some position
+from which the enemy can be finally turned out, either by fire or
+by a charge, the first half joining in and advancing as soon as the
+enemy has turned his attention to the new attack. Both parties should
+keep scouts or a patrol of some sort out in front of them until the
+foreground is proved not to contain any hidden body of the enemy,
+or until the opening of fire by their own side makes it necessary
+for the scouts to merge into the firing line. I have seen on service
+a half-company go off to take post as a piquet on a long ridge; it
+neglected the above precautions, beyond having some scouts in front.
+There were four or five of the enemy on the ridge, and they waited
+till the scouts were close, shot some down and drove the others to
+cover, and then turned their fire on to the half-company, who were
+also driven to ground, and, as there was little cover, they were
+tied up till set free by some more infantry, who had to be specially
+sent off to move along the ridge. Had the half-company moved in two
+portions, the first would have contained this weak enemy, and the
+rear party could easily have circled round and got on to the ridge
+farther along, which would at once have caused the enemy to clear
+out. See F.S.R., I., I, as to the results of the violation of the
+principles of leading troops, and as therein directed, impress the
+principles taught on the minds of your non-commissioned officers, who
+are commanders, albeit only of platoons and sections.
+
+
+
+
+                           EXERCISE VIII.
+
+       THE PLATOON AS AN ADVANCED GUARD AND AS A FLANK GUARD.
+
+
+(_a_) When the company is on the march, it should always be preceded
+by an advanced guard—either a party of scouts, or, more usually, by
+one of the platoons. After the advanced guard comes in contact with
+the enemy its further action becomes either an attack to drive off
+the enemy, or a defence to delay his advancing, according to his
+strength and tactics; so I propose here merely to indicate suitable
+formations of march in ordinary, i.e., non-mountainous country, so
+that the platoons may be practised in taking them up without delay on
+being told off for the duty. The exercise takes little time, and can
+be done on the same parade as the flank guard exercise.
+
+An advanced guard may come under Are at any moment, and to provide
+against surprise (F.S.R., 64), its leading portions may move in
+extended order. The duties are given in F.S.R., 68, and apply quite
+completely to so small a body as a platoon. The platoon should be
+divided into a vanguard and a main guard. For the vanguard, a common
+plan is simply to extend a section on either side of the road, but I
+prefer to divide the section into three patrols, or more if strength
+permits, who work along in a general line—one to search the road
+and its immediate vicinity, and one on each side. The nature of the
+country regulates the breadth of ground the centre patrol can search
+from the road, and the distance to which the others are sent out on
+each side. The other sections follow as main guard, not so close as
+to be at once mixed up with the vanguard if fire is opened on the
+latter, nor so far as to be unable to support it quickly with fire.
+The advanced guard is responsible for keeping touch with the main
+body (the company) (F.S.R., 64 (4)), but the company commander should
+satisfy himself that this is being done. If view is restricted, the
+main guard must drop a connecting file to keep connection. This file
+must march with their beards on their shoulders, to see what the
+company is doing, and let the commander know, and also to signal
+to the company, if the platoon has had to halt. If the country is
+open, the commander should still tell off a file for this duty, who
+will march with the platoon, but be continually on the look-out to
+the rear. The platoon commander ought, of course, to keep a watch
+himself, but may have other things to attend to, and it is well to
+take precautions against the platoon either getting too far in front
+or letting the company get too close to it, by marching on while the
+platoon is investigating some suspicious locality.
+
+
+                (_b_) _The Platoon as a Flank Guard._
+
+A platoon may sometimes be used as a flank guard, as when a small
+convoy is on the march with only a company or two as escort. Flank
+guards are dismissed in a few words in F.S.R., 70. It is worth while
+to practise them once or twice to avoid delay in taking up the
+formation when the march is being started, or in improvising a method
+of fighting off the enemy if he attacks.
+
+Represent the convoy or whatever it is by a man with a red flag to
+move along the road; the platoon is then to move along parallel to
+the road, and far enough off to afford protection from effective
+rifle fire, i.e., at least eight hundred yards in open country. The
+skeleton enemy should be instructed to keep about the same distance
+again on the flank beyond the platoon, and to move along parallel
+with it without closing in, opening fire on an agreed signal.
+
+The march formation should be on the same principles as those for the
+advanced guard. The platoon should move in two bodies, and patrols
+or scouts should precede it, both in the direction of the march and
+towards the flank which is being guarded. It is important to keep
+touch with the main body by connecting files at all times, otherwise
+if the road changes direction out of view of the flank guard it may
+separate them too far or bring them too close to the company.
+
+The method of fighting merely to hold off the enemy resembles that
+used by a rear guard for the same purpose, i.e., fire and movement
+by alternate portions. When the enemy opens fire on your signal, the
+patrol on the flank either falls back, or the platoon reinforces it.
+The patrol in the line of advance should still continue to precede
+the movements of the platoon in that direction, and should be told to
+conform to its movement. The platoon replies to the enemy’s fire as
+soon as possible and begins the lateral fight—one half is sent, if
+possible under cover, to take up a fire position farther along the
+direction of the line of march, preceded by the patrol, which, to
+some extent, secures it from surprise from that direction. As soon
+as the leading party has found a fire position and opens its fire,
+the other follows it, and either halts alongside it, so allowing it
+to go off to a new position, or continues its movement beyond it
+and takes up a third position to cover the further movements. The
+latter method is the quicker, as it saves the time of replacing men
+of the first party in their fire position by those of the second. The
+exercise need not be prolonged, as a few of these lateral movements
+are quite sufficient illustration to enable the men in future to take
+up their duty quickly.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE IX.
+
+       PRELIMINARY FOR THE ATTACK BY THE COMPANY IN BATTALION.
+
+
+A company attacking as part of the battalion is sure to find the
+men of different platoons mixed up in the course of the attack with
+those of other platoons, both of that company and of others. Before
+practising the attack, accompanied with this mixture of platoons,
+it is advisable to train them and their non-commissioned officers
+for their duties without allowing any mixing up. This may be done by
+bringing all the platoons of the company up into one line, and then
+extending each on its own ground. The result is that each platoon
+may be taken to represent the leading platoon of four companies told
+off to furnish the firing line and supports (I.T., 122). The four
+platoons form thus the firing line, the other three supposititious
+platoons of each company being in support. This formation would be
+taken up when the enemy’s rifle fire began to be effective, i.e.,
+at or under fourteen hundred yards. Within this distance the firing
+line has to press on through the zones in which it uses collective
+and individual fire up to assaulting distance, being reinforced as
+needed, firstly by the supports, and finally at the time of the
+assault by all or part of the local reserve, which, in this case,
+would be composed of the four companies of the battalion not detailed
+to furnish the firing line and supports.
+
+Put out a skeleton enemy with orders to remain in one position, and
+fire slowly, but continuously. Draw up the four platoons, or as many
+as are present of the company at fourteen hundred yards or so from
+the enemy, in one line and at sufficient intervals to allow of their
+extending to five paces, _plus_ some space between flanks of sections
+after extension, to allow plenty of choice of lines of advance.
+Indicate to each platoon a part of the enemy’s position which it is
+to regard as its final objective of assault (I.T., 121 (3)). Have the
+men extended to five paces, and carry out the attack right through on
+the lines of Exercise V., and finish with an assault and rally after
+it. Each company would have an officer with its platoon in the firing
+line to direct the fire. If fire is opened between fourteen hundred
+and one thousand yards, it will not be effective against ordinary
+targets unless the whole four platoons direct their fire on the same
+target. Under one thousand yards fire should be controlled by section
+commanders and directed by platoon commanders.
+
+Practise concentration of the fire of the four platoons on one part
+of the enemy’s line and lateral distribution of fire _within the
+limits of that part_. Give each platoon a fraction of this fraction
+of the enemy’s frontage to deal with, and let the platoon commander
+again tell off his sections to fire at various marks inside _his_
+limits. Again switch the fire of all four platoons on to some other
+particular bit of the enemy’s position, as done in previous exercises.
+
+To do this you must introduce and work with thoroughness a system of
+inter-communication (I.T., 119), but it should be one approved and
+adopted by your battalion commander, otherwise each company of the
+battalion may be found using a different one. It is to be understood
+that orders as to the direction of fire in no way interfere with the
+gaining of ground to the front, a platoon firing at one object ceases
+fire in order to advance, but resumes its fire on the same object
+when it again halts.
+
+As soon as section fire is opened, encourage mutual support, some
+part of the line firing while others advance, and make section
+commanders continue to observe this principle.
+
+At some one parade for this exercise halt the whole line during the
+attack and practise entrenching under fire, the men working lying
+down (I.T., 121 (13)). Thereafter resume the advance.
+
+Move about yourself and let your section commanders do so also, and
+check any slovenly work on the part of the men in using, quitting,
+or getting into cover, and in the use of their rifles and judging
+distance if, as should often be done, it is left to them to estimate
+how far they are from the target of the moment.
+
+
+
+
+                             EXERCISE X.
+
+   THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION UNDER ARTILLERY FIRE.
+
+
+When the battalion is moving forward to attack, and before the
+enemy’s rifle fire is more than a distant and future danger, that of
+his artillery becomes an imminent and formidable menace as soon as
+the limits of its range are crossed, because of the suddenness with
+which it is capable of dealing destruction. Whether his artillery
+actually opens on the battalion is another matter. If the battalion
+shows up as a tempting target in column of route or mass, he most
+certainly will fire on it, but if it is skilfully led it may possibly
+escape his notice altogether; at the same time, it is hardly likely
+that it can move from five thousand to fourteen hundred yards from
+the enemy’s infantry without giving some indications of its movement,
+and the probability is, that at some part of the advance it will
+find itself the recipient of the enemy’s attention. To escape the
+effect of this fire, the battalion and the company will have to
+break up into small shallow columns such as platoons or sections at
+least 50 yards from each other laterally (I.T., 118) and two hundred
+yards from front to rear; in fact, a lot of little groups of men
+sufficiently apart to prevent the burst of one shell covering more
+than one group. The advance in this order constitutes the first phase
+of the infantry attack. The company must be practised in getting into
+this formation, and moving in it so as to avoid confusion in action,
+and also to let non-commissioned officers and men understand that
+this formation does not free them from the control of their commander.
+
+At manœuvres and exercises the adoption of this formation is
+sometimes burked on various pretexts, of which the most heinous is to
+say that the results of artillery fire are overrated, and the risk
+run in keeping in closed formation is more than compensated for by
+the comfort of the men, maintenance of control and saving of time.
+This theory I fancy had its origin in the South African War, where
+the Boer artillery was skilful but exiguous, if judged by European
+standards. I have not been under shell fire myself, but I have seen
+the results of it on a column of about two hundred men who came along
+a watercourse two thousand yards or so from the guns, in something
+resembling a march formation. The guns had the range, and the enemy
+left about fifty dead in that watercourse in a few minutes, so
+personally I am going to open out my company and trust to my peace
+training of it to keep it in hand and get it along fast enough to be
+on the spot when wanted.
+
+I need hardly give details how to practise this. The point is, to get
+the company opened out quickly and without confusion, and this is to
+be done by telling your platoon commanders what you want and where
+they are to go, and not by any drill. Platoons may further split up
+into columns of sections. Leave it to your platoon commanders to have
+the sections moved apart to intervals of fifty yards. If the enemy’s
+artillery is straight in front, a diamond formation seems suitable—a
+platoon at each angle—the length of the diagonal front to rear being
+over two hundred yards and side to side over one hundred; or the
+platoons may simply follow each other at two hundred yards distance,
+though this is not a very handy arrangement. But, subject to keeping
+the distances large enough, it is not the formation that matters, but
+the way it is taken up, and I will leave it at that.
+
+At the end of this phase of endurance of the enemy’s artillery fire
+the company comes under rifle fire and has to take to extended
+order, and on service it would perhaps have to do this and plunge
+into the attack without the platoons closing in from the scattered
+formation in which they have so far moved. But for the first few
+times you should close up at fourteen hundred yards and start from
+there, so as to tell the men what is next to be done when they come
+under rifle fire, and in any case the size of your exercise ground
+would probably necessitate your doing the two phases over more or
+less the same bit of ground.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XI.
+
+     THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION, UNDER RIFLE FIRE.
+
+
+The immediate objects of the fire fight within effective rifle range
+are to produce a fire sufficiently heavy to overcome the fire of
+the defence, and to reach a position from which the assault can be
+delivered (I.T., 121 (5 and 6)). In theory, then, the desideratum
+is to get so many men up to about two hundred yards from the enemy
+that they form a line practically shoulder to shoulder, in order
+that their fire may be at least as heavy as that of the enemy,
+if the latter are also in one continuous line, and in default of
+circumstances admitting of effective covering fire being maintained
+from positions in rear or on a flank. On this supposition it is
+frequently argued that a battalion and its companies, when advancing
+to the attack, should do so on a front not greater than that which
+the battalion would occupy if it were in single rank, but this does
+not really follow. The nature of the ground may be such that to
+attempt to build up a shoulder-to-shoulder firing line all along
+the enemy’s position within charging distance, may be merely to send
+men to useless destruction by exposing them on fire-swept spaces,
+where they are sure to be knocked over before they can do any good.
+On the other hand, there may be other points where men may be massed
+so as to give not only a firing line of maximum density, but also
+a supporting force both to replace casualties and to carry out the
+assault. These are the points which it is of importance to gain and
+hold in strength sufficient to carry out the object of the attack—the
+assault. It is the duty of the battalion commander to give each of
+his firing line companies some such point as their objective, and to
+define the frontage and direction of their attack. It is similarly
+the duty of the commander of a firing line company to give each of
+his sections an objective within the limits assigned to his company
+(I.T., 122 (4) and 123 (3-)). The problem for solution is, how to
+get to those points, and so it does not appear to matter much what
+frontage the battalion and its companies occupy when they start off
+for the attack at the fourteen hundred yards limit of effective
+rifle fire, provided of course, they do not encroach on the frontage
+of other units. Indeed, an attack which starts on a wide base and
+concentrates only in its later stages seems much more likely than one
+which starts from base equal to a single rank frontage to keep the
+enemy uncertain of its objective, and to be able to bring oblique
+or enfilade fire to bear on portions of his line. Therefore, when
+practising the company in attack, do not be bound by cast iron rules
+as to the breadth of the zone of ground within which you are to
+bring your company from fourteen hundred yards up to the charging
+position. Four platoons following one straight behind the other, at
+two hundred yards distance, make a very unwieldy procession, and,
+in general, I would advise you to use something in the nature of a
+diamond formation at first, the three platoons in rear making their
+own way forward till they reinforce the leading portion which finally
+consists of the whole company.
+
+Put out the skeleton enemy on a front of, roughly, what your company
+will occupy in single rank, and let the position, if possible, have
+within it two, or at most, three points, which you can assign as
+objectives to the platoon commanders. You must consider this position
+as having been assigned to you as objective by your battalion
+commander, the ground on the right and left of it being the prey
+of other companies, and not the object of your assault, though it
+should, nevertheless, frequently be the object of your _fire_ during
+the advance.
+
+Draw up the company at about fourteen hundred yards from the enemy.
+Tell the platoon commanders the relative positions the platoons are
+to take up when the advance begins, roughly the distances between
+them (I.T., 123 (7)), the direction of the attack, if the enemy’s
+position is not quite clearly to be seen, the frontage on which the
+company is free to manœuvre, and the points which the sections are to
+regard as their objectives; the details contained in I.T., 123 and
+124, may also be enumerated if the commanders are not experienced.
+As regards these details, I recommend that scouts be formed not in a
+line of men extended at wide intervals, but as a line of patrols of
+four or six men each, and you or a subaltern should halt them early
+in the attack and tell them to send back word that they are held up
+by fire, or that they have defined the enemy’s position; on this the
+nearest platoon reinforces them, and the process of building up the
+firing line begins from that point. As regards inter-communication,
+use connecting files and semaphore signalling to join up the various
+parts and make real use of them, but avoid sham messages.
+
+As soon as the object and manner of the attack have been detailed to
+all, tell the platoon commanders to move off their platoons to their
+positions and extend them ready to advance, and the scouts to get off
+in front. Five paces is the least extension to ensure that a bullet
+aimed at one man may miss him with a fair chance of not hitting his
+neighbour. Do not let the scouts go too far away, because at this
+time of getting to grips with the enemy, their usefulness, when
+acting with their companies is mainly limited to guarding against
+ambush at close range, and as ground scouts to prevent the company
+coming against some unseen obstacle, barbed wire, donga, canal, or
+what not.
+
+As soon as all are in position, the company may be considered as
+being in the formation in which it would have arrived at the point
+where, in addition to the enemy’s artillery fire, it comes under
+heavy and fairly accurate rifle fire. Give the signal to advance,
+and let the platoon commanders begin to work their platoons forward,
+using what covered ways they can find. After a little of this, have
+the scouts halted and reinforce them by one platoon, order fire to be
+opened, bearing in mind that one platoon’s fire is probably useless
+at over one thousand yards from the enemy, but if your company is in
+the diamond formation the platoons on each flank will probably be
+able to fire, and with favourable ground, e.g., a knoll, or bluff
+somewhere on the line of advance, the rear platoon also will be able
+to fire over the heads of the firing line. There is no danger in this
+if the men hold their rifles straight, and it would assuredly be done
+in war. I have myself seen it, and the chances of an accident are
+minimised by practice in peace. During this early opening of fire
+use every effort to keep the fire from being merely a make-believe,
+i.e., send word round by your connecting files or semaphore to fire
+at certain targets, and see that section commanders direct their
+fire accordingly. In battle the information as to which part of the
+enemy’s position seemed most to demand attention would, of course,
+reach you from those of your side who were suffering fire coming from
+that part of the position, and the result of your passing the word
+to fire at it as above would be that a shower of bullets would come
+dropping all round it, to the upsetting of the aim of the hostile
+marksmen. Under cover of this fire your firing line may be allowed to
+gain a little ground, platoons moving alternately so as to avoid a
+cessation of fire. Thereafter continue to gain ground, and gradually
+reinforce the firing line till all your supports are absorbed and
+the whole company is in the firing line. When this has taken place
+the line will consist of a mixture of men of different sections
+and platoons. Avoid unreal movements in attempting to keep the men
+of each unit together in reinforcing and recognise that admixture
+is unavoidable. (I.T., 93 (11) and 123 (9)). The organising of the
+resultant disorder is one of the essential objects of training for
+the attack. Make your section commanders call on the men to right and
+left of them, if they are nearer them than any other unit commander,
+to act under their orders. Thus: “Private A to Private J under my
+orders.” Have this done constantly till it becomes a matter of
+course. The men of files can always hang together, but prove that
+this is being done by asking men where their file mates are. Get this
+system started as soon as reinforcement is begun, and keep it in full
+swing throughout. Once it is started, these extemporized fire units
+must apply the principles learnt by the intact sections and squads
+in Exercise IX., i.e., supporting fire by part to cover movement of
+the others, control and distribution of fire, etc., and so work on
+up to assaulting distance and deliver an assault. After this, let
+section and platoon commanders reform their men and units as quickly
+as possible, and then reform the company under your own orders. At
+subsequent parades introduce casualties among the section and platoon
+commanders, and let the senior privates in each of the mixed up fire
+units step into their places and carry on the attack without halt or
+confusion.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XII.
+
+                 THE COMPANY IN ATTACK ACTING ALONE.
+
+
+On service a company may often have to attack some post of the
+enemy without having the support of either artillery or infantry,
+and exercises framed to illustrate these conditions are very useful
+in developing the initiative of all ranks. In paragraph V. of the
+preamble I gave an example, and I think, if you will peruse it again,
+you will see what sort of thing you should arrange for the exercise.
+At inspections one sometimes sees a company sent off by itself to
+carry out such an attack, and the method often adopted is to tell
+off the company into the firing line and supports, and, perhaps, a
+reserve. The whole then go straight for the object and perform a
+sort of travesty of what the company does when acting as part of a
+battalion. By this time I trust you will be quick to perceive that
+this is just what it ought not to do. As an isolated force it has
+to do much more than simply to form a firing line and bring off an
+assault. It must secure its flanks, have a real reserve, employ a
+flank as well as a frontal attack, provide for its own withdrawal
+if worsted, be prepared to deal with a counter-attack, and observe
+all the principles laid down in I.T., 121. _Mutatis mutandis_, your
+reserve may consist of only a platoon, your flank guards a file or
+two of men, your flank attacks a section or platoon with a subaltern
+accompanying it, and so on, but the precautions must be taken and
+the principles put into practice, or your attack would run risk
+of failure. You would do it all on service; therefore, do it all
+in peace. Carry out such exercises, carefully planned, and with
+observance of service conditions, and I am quite sure you will see
+what a great deal there is to be done in this direction before you
+feel yourself and your company quite competent to undertake a similar
+task in the field. That first exercise against a skeleton enemy will
+be the forerunner of many others. Your criticism of the action of
+your non-commissioned officers must be carefully considered, as there
+are usually several justifiable ways of doing a thing, and it should
+always be constructive and not merely destructive (T. & M.R., 2 (2)).
+
+
+
+
+                           EXERCISE XIII.
+
+                     THE COMPANY IN RETIREMENT.
+
+
+The men have been practised in retirement in pairs in Exercise
+II., and the sections and platoons have also learned their part in
+Exercise VI. It remains to train the company for this duty, which
+it might have to do either as acting as rearguard to the battalion,
+whether the latter was, or was not, in conjunction with other troops,
+or as if effecting its withdrawal when isolated. In both cases the
+procedure and distribution are pretty much alike. In the former case,
+the company, if it gets into difficulties, _may_ be able to get help
+from the rest of the force, but in the latter it will not be able
+to do so, and the commander should be especially careful to have
+in hand some portion of his company which he can use to extricate
+any detachment which gets “tied up.” On the other hand, it is very
+desirable that the main body should not be called on to reinforce
+the rearguard when the company is not acting alone. So that in both
+cases you should be prepared to meet eventualities from your own
+resources. Again, a rearguard is bound to have the majority of
+its force in action in order to hold back the enemy and present an
+appearance of force, so that it is not always possible to set apart
+a portion of so small a body as a company to act solely as reserve,
+and to remain continuously outside the actual combat. The solution
+of the difficulty seems to lie in an intelligent application of the
+principles of rearguard fighting given in F.S.R., 71 to 73, and the
+early but timeous withdrawal from the fighting line of a portion
+of the company who move back to a position in rear from which they
+can cover the withdrawal of the remainder, but are still available
+to be thrown into the fight, if it is necessary to inaugurate some
+sort of a counter attack to give portions heavily engaged a chance
+to break away from close grips. It is important in this exercise
+to teach non-commissioned officers and men to be ready to adopt
+quickly any method of withdrawal that may be ordered, because the
+nature of the ground must determine the way in which a withdrawal can
+best be effected, and the nature of the ground may vary every few
+hundred yards. Therefore I merely suggest some ways of practising
+retirements, and during the course of the exercise you should change
+from one to another, and also encourage commanders to act on their
+own initiative, when, as will probably happen, your system of
+inter-communication fails to act with sufficient speed and accuracy.
+I.T., 137, gives general rules as to the action of platoons and
+sections, and the standard set up in Exercises II. and VI. should be
+adhered to. Send out the skeleton enemy with orders to follow up the
+retirement, but not to close in under six hundred yards.
+
+(_a_) Get the whole company deployed into one line of platoons,
+with intervals between them, occupying a wide front, four to eight
+hundred yards, the men at five or more paces extension. This may
+seem too wide a front, but, after all, the intervals between the
+platoons are only two hundred and forty yards, and an enemy trying
+to break straight through the line would be under fire at one
+hundred and twenty yards or less, while a wide front is the best
+precaution against having your flanks turned and your retreat
+intercepted.
+
+Send back a platoon from one of the flanks to take up quickly a
+position in rear clear away from the firing line; three hundred to
+six hundred yards is not too much; let it open fire, and let the
+remainder of the firing line work back by retirement of alternate
+sections, each running back thirty or forty yards, beginning this
+movement from the flank from which the first platoon went, the
+platoon on the other flank holding on and only giving ground when the
+two centre platoons have got well on their way to the line on which
+the first platoon is halted. This is a slow retirement, but gives a
+maximum of continuous fire and the flanks are strong.
+
+(_b_) With the whole company extended in one line, and no intervals
+between platoons. Retire by short rushes of alternate sections;
+the rushes must be quite short, twenty yards at most, so that the
+sections that have retired can fire through the intervals of the
+rear portion of the line the instant that it begins to retire. This
+is meant for use after an unsuccessful assault, and only on flat
+ground.
+
+(_c_) With the company extended in one line, but with intervals
+between the platoons. Order the flank platoons to retire and take
+post to cover the withdrawal of the two centre platoons, who remain
+in position till the flank platoons are ready to open fire. Watch
+how the platoon commanders handle their platoons; they should do so
+artfully, as taught in Exercise VI.
+
+(_d_) Retire by half-companies, two platoons together, using your
+subalterns as half-company commanders, and putting the onus of
+finding suitable covering positions on them, merely telling them
+to cover each other’s retirement.
+
+(_e_) With the company all holding one position, leave the scouts
+or picked men to cover the retirement by rapid fire, and withdraw
+the remainder at full speed, then cover the retirement of the
+scouts by the fire of the whole from a position in rear. Watch
+that the scouts creep back from their cover without letting the
+enemy know they are going; and of this screen of scouts the flank
+men ought usually to be the last to go in order to make the enemy
+believe that the position is still occupied.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XIV.
+
+                              OUTPOSTS.
+
+
+                                 I.
+
+The general rules for outposts and the part played by an outpost
+company are to be found in I.T., 147 to 157, and it is necessary
+accordingly to train for those duties in peace. Let us begin from
+the beginning, and see what infantry outposts are and what they have
+to do. A line of infantry outposts will very often have to be taken
+up after a day’s fighting, or in close proximity to the enemy before
+a battle. The commander of an outpost battalion will be told by the
+staff to take up with his battalion a certain length of the front,
+say, from Farm A to Hill B, inclusive—perhaps a mile or even two in
+extent. He cannot possibly have time to ride all along the front and
+fix places for piquets and sentries. Instead of this, he looks at
+the ground and comes to the conclusion that it will require, say,
+all his four companies in the outpost line. He divides up his front
+into four parts, and gives each of his companies one part. It is
+his duty to see that the eight companies form along the line that
+combines the best facilities for defence and reconnaissance to the
+front. Accordingly, he tells the captain of A Company to take from
+Farm A to, say, the wood X, inclusive, the captain of B Company
+from the wood X, exclusive, to, say, the stream ML, inclusive, and
+so along. The captains of companies then have to go off and take up
+their frontages. As beforesaid, infantry outposts must expect to take
+up their line close to the enemy, and often when dusk is falling.
+This gives you your clue as to how it should be done. You must march
+your company in fighting formation, so as not to be ambushed—a screen
+of scouts or other covering troops in front and on the flanks, a
+party, section, or platoon ready to succour the covering party, and
+hold up the enemy, and a reserve ready to act under your orders,
+either for attack or defence. Your movement and the taking up of
+your line should be unseen by the enemy; therefore, move carefully
+under cover both from distant and close positions, from which you
+may be seen. The line must be taken up quickly. The main thing is
+to get it occupied; therefore, it is a mistake to halt the company
+while you plod round the whole of the front and plan just where each
+piquet and sentry will be. Instead, take a good look at the line as
+you march and decide what are the essential points to be held for
+defence and as observation points. As soon as your scouts have made
+good the ground a little in front of those points, send off what you
+think are necessary, sections or platoons, to seize these points,
+and act as piquets till you go round and adjust details. Thus your
+company will occupy the line in rough-and-ready fashion as quickly
+as they can advance. When the company breaks up to go to the piquet
+posts, go with any one of the piquets which is to be on one flank and
+settle the exact position of the piquet with reference to the line
+you intend to hold as your line of resistance, and any other details
+which you think the piquet commander should attend to, such as what
+localities should be patrolled, and estimate the number of men
+required. Any surplus sections should accompany you from this piquet,
+and you and they then go along the line to the other piquets which
+you arrange similarly, using the surplus to reinforce those piquets
+that need them, and if at the end you have still a surplus of men you
+may either form them as a support in rear or dismiss them to remain
+with their own platoons. For purposes of messing on service the
+latter is convenient, but, tactically, a support is often needed, in
+which case the men’s comfort must take second place.
+
+You must make a clear distinction between day and night outposts,
+though you practise the latter by daylight. Infantry outposts by day
+and until the enemy advances, are firstly patrols and look-out men,
+whose business is to look for any movement on the part of the enemy,
+and to prevent his seeing their own side’s doings, and to report
+what they see of the enemy’s, and, secondly, a line of piquets who
+occupy the line decided on as the line of resistance, and who may
+fall out and rest while things are quiet, with supports and sometimes
+a reserve behind them. The patrols are active agents in getting
+information in front of the outpost line, and they will mostly
+consist of mounted troops except in close country or thick weather.
+The look-out sentries are passive obstacles to the enemy’s patrols
+or scouts penetrating the line; the piquets are the reserve of force
+ready to be called into action when needed. But a line suitable for
+observation and resistance by day is seldom suitable by night also.
+Fighting by day is done by shooting, and rough ground affording cover
+is likely to be chosen for the advance of the attackers. By night,
+however, the attack will be made with the bayonet, and the attacker
+will avoid broken country, which will confuse and delay his advance.
+Choose your outpost line accordingly. By day seek for a good field
+of fire, mutually supporting positions, and good facilities for
+observation, and strengthen the position you mean to fight on. By
+night close the likely ways by which an enemy may advance by putting
+piquets on them in strengthened positions with obstacles prepared
+in front, and patrols lying out on intervening ground to intercept
+scouts. Thus, in an undulating hedge-covered country with many roads,
+by day your piquets would be behind the crests of the undulations,
+sentries only on the look-out, and patrols scouting in front. By
+night your piquets would be on the roads, which they would block with
+barbed wire or abattis of cut hedge stuff, and your patrols in the
+fields between and lying out along the road in front at some place
+where they could watch anything passing, and get back to the piquet
+line without running risks of being shot by their own side. We will
+see below what training is required for non-commissioned officers
+and men in their duties on piquet, patrol and sentry. When you have
+trained them in these duties, take up an outpost line as a tactical
+exercise with your company, acting as an outpost company by day,
+and then as by night, and if you have scouts send them out to act
+as an enemy’s patrol in front to see how much of the operation of
+taking up the line is visible to them; then, after a certain hour,
+let them try to make their way through the line unseen. They must
+not work round the flanks as _ex hypothesi_; these are held by other
+outpost companies; finally, let them start sniping the outposts as
+if ushering in an attack, and let your piquets take up the line of
+resistance, your patrols falling back on the firing beginning.
+
+
+                                 II.
+
+        _The Training of Men and Platoons in Outpost Duties._
+
+An outpost company will more often consist of two or more small
+piquets of one or more platoons with a support, than simply of one
+large piquet with its support, so that when you come to train the
+whole company, as above, in taking up a part of an outpost line, the
+performance of the work will depend largely on the ability of your
+platoon and section commanders to direct the men in their duties.
+Unless they are capable of doing this, time will be wasted as you
+will be occupied with one portion of the line while the rest are
+doing nothing and awaiting your arrival, for in this class of work
+the instructor must remain for some time with each piquet while the
+men are being put through the various duties, and cannot supervise
+concurrently at all points. Therefore, it is best, before taking
+the men out for instruction, to give a day or two solely to the
+instruction of subalterns and non-commissioned officers. When they
+have got a knowledge of what is required, have the men out, divide
+them into piquets under subalterns and section commanders, who will
+put them through the duties, and the work will go on on proper lines,
+and you will be free to go round and supervise each in turn.
+
+You will have four subalterns, sixteen section commanders, and other
+non-commissioned officers, a total of twenty rifles or so, but if you
+are short of non-commissioned officers, have out enough privates to
+give you sixteen or twenty rifles. Form them up as a piquet and make
+the supposition that it has just received its orders to break off
+from the company and go to a certain point in the outpost line and
+take up its duties there.
+
+
+                           _Day Piquets._
+
+Indicate some such point as a day piquet position at a reasonable
+distance from where the piquet is when you give it its orders,
+and let the senior non-commissioned officer march it there, as on
+service, the point chosen being, if possible, such a one as would be
+occupied on service.
+
+(_a_) This advance to the piquet is the first duty. In spite of the
+company covering troops being supposed to be somewhere in advance,
+the piquet on its march should be protected by a small patrol
+(F.S.R., 64 (1)). In taking up the position, it must not let the
+enemy see it; that is, neither the men nor their commander should
+show themselves. Very often the men are kept under cover, but the
+commander wanders about fixing places for sentries in full view of
+everyone. He should lie down and peep over the crest or whatever it
+is while making his plans.
+
+Having arrived at the piquet position, indicate a position on the
+right and on the left where other piquets are supposed to be and
+proceed with:—
+
+(_b_) Duties of outpost sentries.—These are given in I.T., 152. Post
+as many groups as will use up the whole strength in places which
+would need watching on service; if there are not enough such places
+near by, then merely for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two or
+more groups close together. A group consists of one or two men on
+duty, and their reliefs, who lie down near them. These groups are
+relieved every eight or twelve hours. Let it be understood that the
+position of their own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of these
+groups and of patrols, and it is a good plan to show the position
+by a flag. The sentries must see without being seen, know where
+other groups are, where their own and other piquets are, be told to
+challenge and halt anyone approaching as in I.T., 152 (3), and what
+to do if attacked. Let them do this to you personally, as if you were
+someone not belonging to the troops, and impress on them that they
+must be careful to teach it to their men so that _no stranger may
+ever be allowed to get close_ to a group, and to shoot if he does
+not halt. Neglect of this simple rule has led to many mishaps in all
+armies. Concealment is not easy, but must be got somehow—by artifice,
+if the ground is unfavourable. After putting all through “sentry go”
+close to the groups and teach them:—
+
+(_c_) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and 156. Patrols are not
+meant for fighting, but to get information or watch dangerous places.
+But they may have to fight to avoid capture, and they do no good
+by walking blindly into an ambush. To bring back information or
+news that the enemy are coming on, it is evidently essential that
+whatever happens to the rest of the party, one man at least should
+always be able to escape, and to avoid ambush the patrol should move
+in a formation which will prevent a surprise overwhelming the whole
+party. In short, one portion must scout, and the other be prepared
+to cover their movement and help them to get away, if possible, but
+in any case to get away itself and carry news of the enemy. But
+patrols must be limited in strength, or they will not be able to
+escape notice, and must make up for their weakness by cunning and
+stealthiness of movement.
+
+For patrolling by day, tell off the whole strength into patrols of
+four or six men, one of whom will command in each patrol. Let each
+take up the formation it would usually adopt; that is, one or two
+files in advance, followed by the rest at a distance sufficient to
+prevent the surprise of the whole by one and the same opening of
+fire. Teach the method advocated for movement across country, i.e.,
+a careful but rapid advance from one cover to another, also how to
+approach suspicious localities. The leading file halts and looks
+for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile the rear file comes nearly
+up to it; the leading file then moves forward while the rear file
+lies down with rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire at once to
+cover the others if the enemy shows himself. If the locality to be
+searched can be outflanked, the leading files should move round one
+or both flanks before closing in on it. If it is one that cannot be
+outflanked, as, for instance, a straight edge of a large wood, they
+should approach it under cover, creeping up a hedgerow perhaps, and
+so get inside. If there is no cover they may try some ruse to draw
+the enemy’s fire before getting too close, halting as if they had
+seen something, shading the eyes with the hand, pointing and then
+starting to run back as if alarmed, which might lead the enemy to
+open fire to prevent their escape. But it is rather hard to get
+men to do this play-acting unless there is a real force of “Blue”
+or “Red” enemy against them. The commander of the patrol, when
+approaching any place, should tell his men what they are to do if it
+is seen to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still and watch, or
+retire. If the latter, he should fix some place in rear where the
+patrol could rally after getting out of harm’s way.
+
+Show them how to look over a ridge, wall, or hedge, without
+attracting notice, taking off their headdress and raising the head
+slowly, keeping the rest of the body carefully under cover, and
+also to move unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges or roadside
+trees, and covering up any polished metal work of their uniform; to
+lie up on any place that commands a good view, and look long and
+carefully all over the country to catch sight of anything. Finally to
+report what they see, and to do this at once, if there is need, by
+sending one, or better, if the patrol can spare them, two men back
+to the piquet with a _written_ report, the rest still remaining in
+observation. Without having an actual force opposing you, you can
+only do this exercise with some appearance of reality by giving out
+verbal situations to the patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that wood
+which an enemy may be holding.” On this the patrol would get into
+formation and move forward. Then, when approaching the wood, “You
+have seen small parties of the enemy beyond the wood both on its
+right and left, and they are perhaps in the wood also; try and get
+into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or, if not, “show what you
+would do to draw their fire before getting close.” Then “the wood is
+held by the enemy, withdraw your patrol if you can.” As the patrol
+attempts to retire “a heavy fire is opened on you as you retire,
+showing that there is at least a company in the wood, your first
+duty is to send news of this to your piquet—how and whom would you
+send, and how would you frame your message?”
+
+(_d_) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon and take it to the place
+where the piquet is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position has
+at once to strengthen the position against attack, and this without
+waiting for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are here only training
+the non-commissioned officers in their duties we will not ask them
+actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes and entanglements;
+indeed, this, as one may term it, executive work, has its proper
+place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind, then, that we are dealing with a
+day outpost, ask or show the platoon how to strengthen the position.
+Bring out a few picks and let them spitlock on the ground the lines
+of any trenches that might be needed, paying great attention to the
+siting of the trench so that fire could be brought over all the
+ground in front. Let them indicate with exactness where and how they
+would improve and adapt existing cover. Great regard need not be had
+to the number of men in the piquet, as outposts, if attacked, should
+make as much show of force as possible, and it does good and not harm
+if there are alternative loop-holes facing in different directions;
+also accommodation must be provided for the support. The commander
+should look for ground outside the outpost line from which enfilade
+rifle or artillery fire might be brought to bear on him, and mark how
+he would protect his men from it by traverses, breaking the line of
+loop-holes into short lengths, keeping under lee of existing cover
+and so on. The strengthening of the piquet must be done with the aid
+of common-sense. It will seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit
+of trench all in one piece and hope the enemy will be good enough to
+come and knock his head against it. Cover may be made or adapted in
+several separate groups, if this is needed, so as to make it possible
+to bring fire to bear on any part of the ground in front. The piquet
+must be prepared to make as brave a show as possible, therefore the
+commander, while strengthening the point near which his piquet is to
+rest, must decide what he will do if attacked. Probably there will be
+within the limits of his piquet’s frontage one or two other points
+which might be useful for defence, and he must not expect attack
+just from one direction. With regard to such alternative positions
+he should settle when and how he will use them, and whether he can
+afford time and men to strengthen them, and, last but not least,
+whether he will be able to get men from one to the other if the enemy
+does develop a strong attack. If he can do all these he will have
+added immensely to his power of defence, provided he handles his men
+skilfully, as he will be able to hold one position till the enemy
+thinks he has defined its location, then dodge to another, while
+they will go on firing at the old one, and so make his piquet appear
+many times stronger than it is. Concealment of the defence is very
+important, and the non-commissioned officers should be reminded that
+this must be attended to. They may forget it as there is no actual
+digging.
+
+(_e_) Duties in Piquet.—The position of the piquet and alternative
+defence positions having been fixed, and trenches or other defences
+marked out on the position, and on the alternative positions if any,
+assemble the platoon at the piquet and show the non-commissioned
+officers how to tell off reliefs and other duties. Each group
+furnished by the piquet consists of three to eight men, and mounts
+one or two men as sentry, as the circumstances of the post require
+(I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry, single or double, being relieved in turn
+by the others of the group. The whole group is under command of the
+senior soldier or a non-commissioned officer. The men who are to
+form the reliefs of the groups stay with the piquet, which usually
+is composed solely of the reliefs of groups and patrols. Extra men
+who have no specific duties are not advisable unless the position is
+very exposed. Suppose your group sentries are single, and the groups
+of three men each, and relieved every eight hours, then for every
+group posted and in position there will be six men in the piquet
+resting and waiting their turn, each group thus needing a total of
+nine men—three out, six in. Patrols start from the piquet or support,
+as the commander of the company directs, and the piquet commander may
+send them out on his own initiative, if he thinks it needful. As they
+are practically all on duty as long as they are out, a turn of four
+hours is enough for them, or, rather, a third of the daylight time.
+Take your patrols from this piquet to be four strong, there will be
+for each patrol eight men in the piquet and four out on patrol, a
+total of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.
+
+In telling off a piquet on the above conditions of relief, and before
+dismissing the men to rest, the commander must pay attention to two
+main points. Firstly, he must tell off the reliefs, and give each
+relief a place to rest in. Men on outpost are usually tired and need
+all the rest they can get, especially if they are up all night.
+Therefore reliefs should be kept together and rest in one place, so
+that the commander can find them at once without stirring up the
+others to see who’s who. Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm
+posts, which they are to occupy in case of attack—each relief and
+each man of it should be given a position on the entrenchment which
+he is to hold. To ensure that they will do this at once and without
+confusion they should be made to go to these places and occupy them
+before being dismissed. There will then be no needless running about
+with consequent casualties if fire, either of artillery or infantry,
+suddenly opens.
+
+Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned officers and others) in
+your instructional piquet give out that it is to furnish—
+
+  1 Sentry over the piquet.
+
+  2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.
+
+  2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.
+
+The sentry over the piquet alone being actually posted, the two
+groups and two patrols being supposed to be out in front, as this
+part of the lesson is only concerned with the inside work of the
+piquet, and you have already shown them this work on sentry and
+patrol. As your strength is not sufficient you must make a further
+supposition, and make believe that for the reliefs of the groups one
+of your rifles represents three, and for those of the patrols one
+rifle represents two. Appoint one of the non-commissioned officers in
+turn as commander, and let him tell off accordingly.
+
+  3 Rifles for piquet sentry, one of whom he actually mounts.
+
+  1 Rifle (representing three) as second relief, No. 1 group.
+
+  1 Rifle (representing three) as third relief, No. 1 group.
+
+  2 Rifles (representing two each) for second relief, No. 1 patrol.
+
+  2 Rifles (representing two each) for third relief, No. 1 patrol.
+
+    And a similar number for No. 2 patrol and No. 2 group.
+
+Having told off these reliefs the commander should then tell them
+where they are to have their resting places and where their posts are
+in case of alarm. At this time also he would give out any special
+orders which concern the piquet. Then without dismissing the men
+he should order them to go to their resting places, and as soon as
+they are there order them to occupy their alarm posts, which should
+be done in double time, the men lying down on the places that have
+been marked out for entrenchment or improvement of existing cover.
+Make this falling in on alarm posts a standing order in the company.
+After this has been done, and each man knows exactly what he has to
+do on the alarm, the men should be dismissed to their resting places,
+which, as before said, should be separate for each relief and apart
+from each other. After being dismissed, the men would on service be
+allowed to make themselves as comfortable as possible. Other duties
+of the piquet commander are:—
+
+  (1) The opening of communication with piquets in right and left and
+        the support.
+
+  (2) The fixing of places for purposes of nature.
+
+  (3) The arrangements for getting up food to his men if they have
+        not their rations with them.
+
+  (4) Keeping his piquet in a state of readiness; besides keeping
+        accoutrements on, the men should have their rifles at their
+        sides when resting, and take them with them wherever they go.
+        There should be no such thing as piling arms on outpost.
+
+
+                          _Night Piquets._
+
+In the dark the bullet is a fool unless fired at close quarters.
+No practicable amount of shooting, even at only a hundred yards
+distance, will dislodge determined men posted under cover, and a
+serious attack must be made with the bayonet or by shooting within
+the distance at which a man may be distinguished—ten yards or so.
+F.S.R., 138 (2), lays down for the British Army that the bayonet only
+is to be used in night attacks, and we may assume that any civilized
+army we may have to meet will pursue similar tactics. Aerial
+reconnaissance may nowadays allow an enemy to locate the position
+held by the main body of his opponent, in spite of its being covered
+by outposts, but such reconnaissance does not admit of any hope of
+a successful night attack being made on that main body by eluding
+or passing through the outposts, because the surface of the ground
+cannot be sufficiently searched from above to discover the small
+obstacles which must be avoided or known if the advance of a large
+body of men is to be carried out at night. So we may take it that
+now, as formerly, any large attack will fall first on the outposts,
+supposing, as we must, that these are placed so as to hold or watch
+all possible lines of advance. In addition to this, outposts must
+expect isolated attacks made against one or two points held by them
+which the enemy desires to gain possession of. The duties of outposts
+by night are, then, to hold and defend the outpost line in sufficient
+strength to prevent any large body of the enemy breaking through,
+or getting a footing in some tactically important position on the
+line, and also to prevent the enemy’s scouts from getting through and
+making observations, and, lastly, but of most importance, to get news
+of the enemy both as a means of forestalling any attack, and for the
+use of the force commander in framing his plans. Bringing the matter
+down to the level of a piquet of an outpost company, it seems to
+resolve itself into night patrolling and night defence of a position.
+As before pointed out, enclosed country allows of piquets closing
+the lines of advance by which large bodies can only hope to move
+undiscovered, while intervening ground can be searched by patrols. On
+the other hand, open country leaves the front vulnerable everywhere,
+and calls for a greater number of piquets and closer patrolling than
+are needed by day.
+
+Of course, elementary instruction in these duties must be carried out
+by daylight to allow of supervision; so now assemble your platoon
+of non-commissioned officers and give out that you are going to
+practise night work. Choose some place for your night piquet,
+realistic as may be, a bridge, a cutting, or anything else that
+constitutes a defile or otherwise blocks a likely line of advance
+from the enemy’s direction. Also choose, and point out to the
+platoon, positions where the adjoining piquets on the right and left
+would be. Give out the following instructions to the non-commissioned
+officers:—
+
+  (1) Piquets must take up their night positions when it is getting
+        dusk, the strengthening of the piquet and construction of
+        obstacles being done in advance, secretly if possible, and
+        towards evening the working party should withdraw and leave
+        the intended night position empty till it is time to move
+        into it, further work being completed by twilight.
+
+  (2) The provision of obstacles is more necessary than entrenchment,
+        as securing the piquet from being rushed while completing the
+        latter.
+
+  (3) Men must rest on their alarm posts, and bayonets may have to be
+        kept fixed by all, if there is a possibility of a sudden
+        attack (I.T., 151 (7)), to ensure instant readiness.
+
+  (4) All piquets must stand to arms one hour before light and remain
+        ready for action till the patrols have found that there is no
+        sign of an immediate attack. When relief takes place in the
+        morning, night outposts will not return to camp till the
+        patrols report all clear.
+
+After this, let the non-commissioned officer in command withdraw the
+piquet from its day position and march it to the night position. On
+arrival ask the non-commissioned officers in turn where they would
+place the piquet exactly and where they would put their obstacles.
+Obstacles for a night piquet should be under close fire, i.e., ten or
+twenty paces, but, in addition, booby traps and alarms may be placed
+further in front. Barbed wire is the best of all obstacles. The
+actual defensive measures to be taken do not differ from those taken
+for the defence of any position not on outpost.
+
+The position of the piquet and obstacles being decided on, let the
+non-commissioned officers mark on the ground the actual work they
+would undertake, having regard to the time available, which you
+should tell them, and, on the same lines as for the day piquet, let
+them as commanders in turn divide the men into reliefs of sentries
+and patrols, tell them off to their alarm posts, and order them to
+occupy them once as if on alarm.
+
+A piquet by night, no matter how well entrenched, has a very limited
+field of action. Even with most carefully arranged night rests for
+the men’s rifles its fire effect is small except at close ranges,
+and to resist attack by relatively larger bodies it must in general
+keep behind its defences. Hence a well organised scheme of patrols is
+necessary to supplement the passive opposition which the piquet can
+offer. The patrols are charged with the duty of bringing news of any
+advance of the enemy to attack, and, if he is close enough, of spying
+out his movements on and within his outpost line, of preventing
+his patrols or scouts penetrating their own line, of watching any
+localities which are of particular importance and unoccupied by
+piquets, such, for example, as villages beyond the outpost line which
+the enemy might try to occupy by night, and, lastly, of keeping
+up communication between the various bodies of the outposts. The
+strength of patrols is limited by the necessity of their being able
+to do this work without making a noise, and a strength of three to
+eight men is advised. A patrol performs its duty of observation
+either by going from point to point, or by watching one particular
+place, when it is called a “standing patrol.” If a piquet posts any
+group sentries by night, away from the piquet, such groups have just
+the same work as standing patrols, except that they may be ordered to
+maintain their position in case of attack as they are near support,
+whereas patrols would fall back as soon as they had made sure the
+enemy was advancing, and possibly, if in accordance with their
+instructions, after treating him to a short burst of rapid fire. An
+ordinary patrol will also have to halt and listen perhaps for long
+periods, and so becomes for the nonce a standing patrol.
+
+Form up the platoon at the piquet position, and let the commander
+tell it off into three patrols to practise this duty, disregarding
+reliefs, all three to be sent out at the same time in different
+directions, one man in each to be commander. Before they start off,
+tell them the following, which piquet commanders must see to:—
+
+  (1) If there is no countersign published for the force, piquet
+        commanders must arrange either a word or a sign by which men
+        may know their own side in the dark.
+
+  (2) Patrols going out are to tell the nearest sentry which way they
+        are going (I.T., 156 (5)).
+
+  (3) For patrols a code of signals should be arranged, e.g., a hiss
+        or half-whistle, to call attention, answered by the same to
+        show that the man called has heard it, followed by the
+        signal, whatever it is:—a double hiss for “come up to me,” a
+        click of the tongue for “retire,” but anything will do
+        provided it cannot be clearly heard much further off than the
+        listeners for whom it is intended, and is neither a very
+        common nor a very uncommon sound.
+
+  (4) The piquet commander must tell patrols how long they are to
+        stay out and any places he thinks must be visited, in
+        addition to what they themselves may find advisable, on
+        closer acquaintance with the ground.
+
+A suitable formation for a night patrol of six men would be four in
+the advanced party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the rear party
+or two. The reason for the stronger party being ahead is, firstly,
+that fighting at night begins with suddenness and ends rapidly, while
+reinforcement of one party by another is slow and uncertain, and,
+secondly, to ensure that some part of the patrol may have a good
+chance of getting away with news, whatever happens to the rest:
+Bayonets should be fixed and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the
+right hand holding the small of the butt so as to come to the charge
+at once, and not to have any chance of a rifle falling on the ground.
+
+Tell patrol commanders to get their patrols into formation and
+practise movement in silence along a road and on ordinary road. If
+along a road, let them move on each side of it, off the metal on the
+roadside grass or dust, and under trees or close to the hedge or
+wall. On ordinary country the ball of the foot should be put down
+first as if to feel the surface, before putting the full weight
+of the body on the advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle, _à la_
+“boy scout,” is invaluable in moving over unexplored ground, as by
+it the real nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet can be made
+out, and awkward spills thereby avoided. The movement of patrols
+under these conditions will be very slow over any but quite level
+ground. As the patrols move let them practise the code of signals,
+halting, advancing, coming up into one line, etc., also the keeping
+up of communication by one file moving back and forward between the
+two parts of the patrol. They should practise also breaking up and
+scattering as if attacked by overwhelming numbers, each individual
+getting away as quickly and quietly as possible, and the whole
+rallying again at some place in rear. The patrol commander as he goes
+out must fix these rallying places, usually one is enough over the
+whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be _outside_ the outpost
+line. Have the patrols moved so that on their beats they may meet
+each other once or twice, and use the sign to reply when challenge
+is made. As a second practice, direct one of the meeting patrols to
+consider itself hostile, and let the commander of the other patrol
+excogitate how he would deal with men who did not stand fast on being
+told to halt and could not give the countersign.
+
+Next tell the patrols to get into position to watch various
+localities, a farm steading, a ravine, or such like, as they would
+have to do for limited periods as patrols reconnoitring on their
+beats, or for the whole night as standing patrols. One of the best
+ways in which patrols can fulfil their office is by halting and
+listening with ears near the ground for sounds of human movement.
+There is no rule for thus lying up except that they must not get
+caught themselves. A couple of men should be left quite clear of the
+patrol to get away if the others strike trouble, and the commander
+of the patrol should have word passed to these two from time to time
+that all is well with the rest, or they may wait in their place
+while the others have been quietly downed.
+
+Lastly, let patrols return to the piquet, and learn how to approach
+without getting themselves fired on, or causing useless alarm. A
+good way is for two of the patrol to advance a few steps at a time
+when near the piquet, halting and quietly code-signalling the piquet
+sentry till they get His attention and warn him that the patrol wants
+to come in.
+
+It has taken longer to write about outposts than it may take you
+to put your men through them, and I have purposely been discursive
+because a knowledge of what is needed from outposts is more important
+than any set exercise, and also because this duty is the one which
+newly raised troops are most likely to perform negligently, and at
+the same time the one which, if neglected, allows the enemy to bring
+raw troops to quick demoralisation. I have also purposely written as
+if unlimited ground were available, and, speaking generally, I think
+it is. You can, and should, practise your piqueting and patrolling on
+the ordinary countryside, with its main and bye-roads, paths, fields,
+and hedges. The practice of outposts when piquets are not entrenched,
+causes no damage, so that leave to move over the fields should not
+be hard to get, but even if it cannot be got, the principal and most
+important work of patrolling and watching all roads and paths, will
+be done on the ground on which they would be done on service. If
+fighting ever takes place in Britain, which Heaven forefend, outpost
+lines will be along the ordinary country and not on Salisbury Plain,
+so do not go into wild and desolate places for your outposts, but
+take the ordinary country round where you are.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XV.
+
+                              DEFENCE.
+
+
+The subject of defence is treated of in F.S.R., 107-110, I.T.,
+125-135, and in Chapter VII., M.F.E., 1911. The duties required of
+the company commander and his subordinates are briefly defined by
+I.T., 132, to be similar to those they carry out in the attack. The
+whole spirit of the regulations is that the active Defence is merely
+a means to an end, viz., the ultimate assumption of the offensive,
+which may be carried out either by the same troops which have acted
+on the defensive or by fresh troops detailed for the purpose. In both
+cases the troops that have acted on the defensive must be ready to
+become the aggressors. Therefore, in training your men, you should
+keep this constantly in view and conserve a spirit of aggressive
+mobility. Men must not be allowed to think that once a position
+has been taken up and entrenched it is to be their location till
+fighting ceases; on the contrary, they should be encouraged to look
+for opportunities while still on the defensive, to occupy alternative
+positions which will make the task of the attacking enemy more
+difficult. Quickness in seizing and strengthening a position must be
+combined with mobility in leaving it to take up and strengthen a new
+one. Of course, the time available regulates the work that can be
+undertaken (M.F.E., VII. (2)); deep trenches and concealed head cover
+cannot be made with an enemy pressing in to assault, but the first
+requirement is the ability to choose positions that give a good field
+of fire and to strengthen them as thoroughly as the time available
+and the proximity of the enemy admit.
+
+In dealing with a company, the onus of choosing what localities it is
+tactically necessary to occupy and strengthen rests with the company
+commander, subject to the orders of his battalion commander. In the
+same way as on outpost, you will be given a bit of ground to defend,
+either acting with the battalion or as an isolated company, and the
+rest will be on your head. I do not propose to deliver a treatise
+on the tactical occupation of ground, but instead I will ask you to
+procure and read two books. The first is “The Defence of Duffer’s
+Drift,” by Backsight Forethought (W. Clowes and Sons), the second
+is “A Staff Officer’s Scrap Book,” by Sir Ian Hamilton (Edward
+Arnold). They are both most readable books, and are quite free of
+soporific effects. The first is small, and deals with the efforts
+of a half-company, under Lieutenant B. F., to defend a drift over a
+South African river. In the second the author takes you along with
+him through the Russo-Japanese War, of which he was a privileged
+spectator, and in your journeyings you look on at victories and
+defeats in the making, while the causes that led to them, great and
+small, are set forth, along with many shrewd comments on human nature
+and how it translates itself in the day of battle. Every fight bears
+its own lesson of what to do and what not to do in defence, and this
+told in no pedantic strain, but with the saving grace of humour, to
+mitigate the darker side of human carnage. Read them both, get to
+yourself the wisdom and understanding with which they are filled, and
+you will know how to take up a position for defence.
+
+Having educated yourself to choose the points of a defensive position
+that must be occupied if the position is to be effectively held,
+you have still to train your men to the work of defending them, and
+they must learn to be able to do without the help of a supervising
+officer, as will often be the case on service.
+
+Daylight defence is almost entirely a matter of fire, the immediate
+object being to make it impossible for the enemy to come to close
+quarters. Platoon and section commanders then must be able to dispose
+their men with this in view to the best advantage within the limits
+of the ground allotted to their units, and the men must be able to
+site their trenches or whatever form of cover has to be constructed
+so as to use their rifles to the best effect. It is no good to teach
+men to dig trenches and make loop-holes unless they know the proper
+places for them. (M.F.E., 18 (7)).
+
+At the same time, practice in digging and the use of tools is very
+necessary for men who are not accustomed to such work. The hands of
+the untrained man blister and his muscles tire under the unusual
+effort, while he expends much energy with results small in comparison
+with what he can accomplish once he has learnt to use his strength
+well. Moreover, a certain amount of technical skill is required in
+making any but the most simple cover.
+
+To practise the execution of work, you _must_ have ground which you
+are at liberty to turn up, as well as some materials for loop-holes
+and obstacles. These may not be obtainable at any and every parade,
+but you can give practice in the selection and siting of trenches
+on any bit of country without causing damage, the men merely
+spitlocking or marking with stones or anything else the position of
+the trenches on the surface of the ground, and describing what they
+propose doing.
+
+I would, therefore, advise that you make your training consist of
+two parts, firstly the siting of trenches and the planning by unit
+commanders and men of defensive work, the choice and occupation of
+alternative positions, and the assumption of the offensive from the
+defensive, all this without actually breaking ground, and, secondly,
+ground and tools being then available, the performance of a course of
+making real cover and obstacles.
+
+But the first part cannot be carried out unless the men have a
+knowledge of what trenches, loop-holes and so on are like, and the
+objects with which they are made. In a company of raw recruits taken
+from the populace at large, there will be plenty who have no ideas
+on the subject at all. You must then precede your exercises either
+by a short lecture, materials for which you will find in plenty in
+the “Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” and the manuals of training, or,
+better than a lecture, by showing them specimens of entrenchments
+made by regular troops. The main points to insist on are the securing
+of a field of fire, the necessity of concealment of the defences,
+the importance of head cover as a help to the delivery of an
+accurate fire by letting men keep the enemy in view without showing
+up themselves, the avoidance of enfilade fire by making traverses,
+or by taking advantage of intervening high ground, the provision
+of cover from downward shell fire by making the trenches deep and
+steep enough to let men stand close up to the edges, and, in the
+case of isolated posts and points held as pivots of a position, the
+necessity of preparing an all-round defence so that these pivots will
+be able to continue fighting whatever happens on the intervening
+ground. The course of work actually performed for the second part
+should include digging all kinds of trenches, by which the men will
+learn to use their tools to the best advantage, and their hands and
+muscles will become hardened, the use of the excavated earth to form
+parapets and parados (cover from fire from the rear of the trench;
+forty inches of earth are needed to keep out a bullet), the drainage
+of trenches, the making of traverses against enfilade fire, the
+making of loop-holes and head-cover with the aid of all sorts of
+materials, sand bags, brushwood and heather, straw and twigs, stones
+and bricks (which must be covered with earth to deaden the effects of
+splinters), packing boards, and so on, the concealment of trenches
+and loop-holes so as to be invisible to the enemy (this is of great
+importance), the masking of loop-holes when not in use to prevent
+light showing through, the making of dummy trenches and loop-holes to
+draw the enemy’s fire away, the improvement of existing cover, such
+as loop-holing walls and the use of hedges with or without ditches,
+making sangars, if stones are available, the making of obstacles of
+barbed and plain wire, and measuring and marking of ranges round
+a position, which should be done by some means not obvious to the
+enemy, and clearing the field of fire. It will seldom be practicable
+to obtain subjects for practical demonstration of some of the latter
+in peace time; people will object to their walls being experimented
+on or their shrubberies laid low, and so even here a description of
+the method will have to be substituted for actual performance. For
+night defence the construction of night rests for rifles is needed.
+The best I know is a packing case, filled with earth, with the front
+and rear edges notched to hold the rifle stock. The magazine is laid
+hard up against the outside of the rear edge and the notches, front
+or rear, slowly deepened with a penknife till the sights bear on the
+target; afterwards earth is banked up outside the box and head-cover
+made above. The foregoing may seem a formidable list, but they are
+things that will undoubtedly be required as soon as you get on
+shooting terms with an enemy; while if you exhaust this list and feel
+the want of further occupation, the Engineering Manual will supply
+you with further subjects for your activities.
+
+Pending your getting facilities of ground, tools, and materials
+to execute work, you can proceed with the first part of training
+outlined above. If your non-commissioned officers have not had
+experience, take them out as an instructional section in the same way
+as when teaching outpost work, and put them through the exercises
+which follow. But if they are already fairly competent, take the men
+on parade, forming them, if possible, into not less than two sections.
+
+
+                  _Instruction in Siting Trenches._
+
+Choose any position on undulating ground, form the men in extended
+order in one line in rear of it, and order them to move up, and
+mark where each would place his trench in order to fire on an enemy
+advancing from the front. In doing this it should be an invariable
+rule that men must lie down, bring the rifle into the firing
+position, look along the sights, and move forward or back till they
+see that they have got the best position to sweep the ground in their
+immediate front (see M.F.E., 31 (3)). Dead ground close to the trench
+gives the enemy a place in which to collect and organise an assault.
+Take the men in the same way on to other positions and repeat the
+lesson till they all understand that the _first thing to be done is
+this aiming with the rifle to secure a good field of fire_. At first
+halt them close to what you see is the best line, and afterwards halt
+them thirty or forty yards from it, and then give the order to choose
+sites. For instance, halt them on the top of a convex slope and let
+them find out that the best place to bring fire on to flat ground at
+its base is somewhere on the enemy’s side of the convexity, for if
+the trench were made on the top of the slope the ground immediately
+in front would be hidden by the convexity. The section commanders
+must help the men in choosing sites.
+
+After the men have fixed and marked the proposed sites, let them lay
+down their rifles three paces in rear and kneel or lie down at the
+rear edge of the site as if waiting to commence work while you and
+section and platoon commanders go round and examine the line. Ask
+details from the men—how high they would make the parapet, how thick
+it should be, how they would make head-cover, how they would conceal
+the work, and so on.
+
+
+              _Traverses and broken lines of Trenches._
+
+Repeat the exercise as above, but this time have the men in sections
+or small groups, and the trenches made not in one line, but in
+short lengths, separated by traverses. You will have to explain
+the construction and use of these to prevent enfilade fire (if not
+from long range), and to localise shell bursts. Again, have lines
+of trenches mapped out in short lengths on an irregular front, some
+a little forward, some a little back, with the earth at each end,
+banked up on the flanks with the same object (M.F.E., 33).
+
+
+                    _Short Trenches for Two Men._
+
+Bring the men extended to six or eight paces on to a position, and
+let the men of each file close to two paces from each other. Each
+file is then to choose and mark a site for a short trench to hold
+both of them, or, as it would formerly have been called, a rifle pit,
+marking where they would make loop-holes to fire both to the front,
+and obliquely towards the right and left, so as to rake the ground
+in front of the line of the other men’s pits. This arrangement is
+not officially recognised, and it does not give the closest possible
+firing line, but it is an excellent way of making men think for
+themselves.
+
+When the men have got their bearings in the matter of taking up a
+line for entrenchment, make them get into the way of changing from
+defence into attack. Take up a position as before, and as soon as
+the trenches are marked out, indicate a position at some distance as
+an objective for attack and start an advance against it, as done in
+the attack practices, forming a firing line rapidly of some named
+platoons and the support of the others. A skeleton enemy kept hidden
+till needed adds much to the realism.
+
+
+        _Defence of Pivots (M.F.E., 50 (3), and I.T., 129)._
+
+Find a position in which there are some points separated from each
+other which command the ground between, and also form such pivots
+for defence of the position as are described in the paras. above.
+According to the nature of the ground, such pivots might be, for
+platoons, as much as four hundred yards apart, i.e., attackers coming
+between them would be under fire at not more than two hundred yards.
+Send a platoon under a commander to each pivot, and let him plan and
+mark out his defensive measures, which must include:—
+
+  1. An arrangement for all-round defence, so that the pivot may be
+       self-contained and capable of continuing the fight, although
+       others may have been captured.
+
+  2. The siting accordingly of trenches and loop-holes to fire all
+       round and especially to sweep the front and rear of adjoining
+       pivots.
+
+  3. The adaptation of existing cover to save labour.
+
+  4. The provision of protection against enfilade and reverse fire,
+       and the _recognition of distant localities_ from which such
+       fire, whether of artillery or rifle, might be brought to bear
+       on the post.
+
+  5. The marking of ranges in each direction.
+
+  6. The provision of obstacles.
+
+  7. Any feasible scheme for alternative positions which his men
+       could reach and occupy under fire.
+
+  8. The concealment of the defences, provision of dummy trenches,
+       and loop-holes and any other shifts.
+
+  9. The telling off and posting of look-out men and fixing and
+       occupying of alarm posts when work has been completed.
+
+  10. Drainage and sanitation.
+
+The concealment of defences from aerial reconnaissance will, perhaps,
+soon claim more attention than it gets at present.
+
+Practise an attack after defence, starting off one platoon under your
+own orders to “go for” an indicated enemy, and sending word either
+by messenger or by semaphore to the others, either to join you and
+form a firing line, or to move out in support, but, if the latter,
+do not fail to finally call them up to reinforce the firing line;
+counter-attacks must usually be made with a relatively strong firing
+line and small support.
+
+
+               _The Company in Defence Acting Alone._
+
+When you have put non-commissioned officers and men through the
+preceding course, plan some scheme on the lines of the defence of
+Duffer’s Drift, to deal with a company isolated and beyond reach of
+immediate reinforcement. Any bridge over a railway line, a group of
+buildings supposed to contain stores, or a ford or bridge over a
+river, will provide you with an object to defend. Choose a line of
+defence round it and determine what are the essential pivots to be
+held. To do this, so as to furnish an instructive lesson, it will
+usually be necessary for you to pay a visit to the place by yourself
+and formulate your proposed defence before bringing the company on
+to the ground. Pay great attention to crossing and supporting fire
+from the pivots, and look at the surrounding country with a view to
+meeting attack from any direction, for in this case the company, as
+well as the pivots in its line of defence, must be self-contained.
+Also have regard to the certainty that you will have artillery
+fire against you, to which you will not be able to reply, and in
+consequence your proposed defences must include deep trenches or
+recesses to shelter the men from shell. Your defences will take the
+form of a chain of isolated groups about the point to be defended
+and separated from each other by possibly several hundred yards. It
+is no use simply to go and sit inside a group of buildings which
+the guns would knock about your ears and against which the enemy
+can concentrate. The better plan is to break up his attack and hide
+your weakness by occupying well-strengthened pivots, behind whose
+protection you may have some freedom of movement, and so be able,
+if the weakness or rashness of the enemy gives opportunity, to
+inaugurate local counter-attacks. These, if successful in inflicting
+a sharp and sudden loss, will make him hesitate to deliver a decisive
+attack till he has found out all about you. With one company you
+cannot expect to achieve decisive results against any considerable
+body of the enemy, but must be content with keeping him in play for
+as long a time as possible, and an attitude of active bluff is the
+best means of doing so.
+
+When you have got your plans completed, take out the company
+as strong as possible and complete in its proper platoons and
+sections—if there are too few men let one man count for two or three.
+Send off platoons to occupy and plan the defence of the pivots as
+done when practising it before. Do the same scheme on two separate
+occasions. The first time do not send out a skeleton enemy, so that
+the men may have time to look round, but for the second time send out
+some scouts under a subaltern, and let the platoons fall out on their
+positions with patrols out in front. Fix a certain hour by which you
+expect the arrangements to be all ready, and arrange for the enemy to
+advance at that time, and open fire on the patrols if they are met.
+When the patrols have fallen back the enemy closes in and starts
+sniping at the position. Then bring off a counter-attack, withdrawing
+some men for the purpose from pivots that are not threatened, and
+coming in on the flank of the attackers. In theory, of course, you
+should have a support or reserve available for this, but it does no
+harm to move men out of their trenches with the object of assuming
+the offensive, while the men learn the essential part of their work
+by all being employed on the perimeter.
+
+Have out the company yet a third time on the same or a similar
+scheme, pivots and skeleton enemy as before. On this occasion, if the
+scheme is the same, change round the platoons to different pivots
+from what they occupied before, and when the arrangements for defence
+have been settled, leave only sentries and their groups on the pivots
+as look-outs, but have patrols in front. Form the remainder of the
+men into a support in some central position, and tell them off to
+occupy as alarm posts the pivots from which they were withdrawn. When
+the skeleton enemy attacks, reinforce the threatened part of the line
+by the men of the units told off for its defence, and with part, or
+even the whole of the rest, make a counter-attack.
+
+It is very desirable, though unfortunately not often possible, to
+perform these last three practices on ground where you are at
+liberty to dig, and with an enemy of three or four companies instead
+of a few snipers.
+
+
+                          _Night Defence._
+
+A night attack may be delivered as a sequence to fighting by
+daylight, in the course of which the enemy has established himself
+sufficiently close to the defences held by his opponent to see
+clearly the way to reach the point against which he intends to lead
+his force. Or he may deliver an attack without previous fighting,
+hoping to get the better of the defenders by surprise, and basing
+his plans solely on the results of reconnaissance. In the latter
+case the attack must be preceded by a night advance, long or
+short, according as the defenders’ outposts and their patrols have
+succeeded in keeping the hostile troops at a distance or not, unless,
+indeed, the troops or their scouts or spies have not been in touch
+at all during the day in which case an attack would not be a wise
+proceeding, because the needful information about the ground and
+your forces is lacking. Such attacks as require a night advance as a
+preliminary are likely to be made either over open ground or along
+roads, for the difficulties and delays occasioned by moving troops
+over broken ground which is not thoroughly known are very great.
+But in the first case, when fighting has been going on by day, and
+the two forces are in close contact at nightfall, separated perhaps
+by only a few hundred yards, the presence of broken ground in front
+of the defences is no guarantee that the enemy may not consider an
+attack by night to have a reasonable chance of succeeding against
+any of the points which he has been trying to carry by daylight. It
+follows then that in preparing a position for defence the pivots must
+be ready to withstand attack by night as well as by day, and also
+that roads or paths leading into the position from the surrounding
+country should be held and defended by night, in spite of their being
+innocuous by daylight owing to being swept effectively by fire from
+the adjacent pivots. It will be admitted, I think, that fire by night
+is ineffectual unless at very short ranges, or when delivered by men
+of extraordinary skill such as the up-country Boer and the American
+backwoods-men were pictured to be. A European enemy will seek to
+bring off his attack with the bayonet. The defenders will try to foil
+this attack, firstly, by the use of fire at the close range, which
+allows it to be effective, and, secondly, by the use of the bayonet.
+This plainly translates itself into obstacles to keep the enemy under
+fire, obstacles to hamper him when at bayonet distance, and night
+rests to help the accuracy of the fire in certain desired directions.
+I have told you one good form of night rest, and there are several
+others, but all require some material if they are to be even
+approximately accurate. Failing material of any sort, tie white rags
+round the muzzles of the men’s rifles if you can get them. After a
+week in the field your men will have nothing that is not very dirty,
+but in a civilised country some member of the population may perhaps
+be found ready to oblige a soldier.
+
+Working still on your daylight scheme show your non-commissioned
+officers and men how to make night obstacles in addition to those
+meant for daylight defence, which latter may be any distance up to
+one hundred yards in front of the trenches. The night obstacles, on
+the other hand, should be quite close, the fire obstacles as close
+as ten yards, the bayonet obstacles, say a narrow ditch and a wire,
+close under the trenches so as to make a man stumble when trying to
+reach the defender with his bayonet. Make or plan these arrangements
+round the pivots, and then practise blocking and defending paths or
+roads by the same methods as for pivots, but with this variation,
+that a parapet which can only be used for defence at night may
+be as high as you consider needful without paying regard to its
+invisibility, while those to be used by day are kept as low as
+possible. In a practical exercise the men to hold these night posts
+would have to be furnished either from your support or by thinning
+some of the pivots.
+
+Yet the most carefully arranged trenches and obstacles will be of
+no value unless the men occupy them in time to avail themselves of
+their advantages. Time sufficient to allow of this, must be got by
+patrolling in front as for outposts, by making automatic alarms in
+front of the obstacles (M.F.E., 55 (12)), by having alert sentries
+on the defence line, and by having a good and well understood
+arrangement of alarm posts by which each man shall be ready to occupy
+at once, in silence, and without confusion, the place which has been
+assigned to him. Patrolling has been dealt with under “Outposts,”
+the alertness of your sentries will depend largely on the state
+of discipline to which you have brought your company, and on the
+commonsenseness, to coin a word, of their training. Alarm posts
+are practised in the same way as on outpost. In many corps it is a
+standing order that when in camp or bivouac, on manœuvre as well as
+on service, men are to fall in on their alarm posts once a day, the
+usual times being at retreat or on arrival in camp (F.S.R., 48 (2)),
+and this is done whether in Brigade (F.S.R., 47 (2)) or not. If such
+is the order in your battalion, adhere to it within your company when
+detached, if not, do it off your own bat. It does not fatigue the men
+and ensures attention being paid on all occasions to this important
+duty.
+
+
+
+
+                            EXERCISE XVI.
+
+                          HASTY EXPEDIENTS.
+
+
+I.T., 93 (iii.), directs the training of the section to include
+rough and ready expedients so as to form a fighting front in any
+direction. This training is of great value, both from a disciplinary
+point of view, as it makes men quick to move on an order, and also
+from the point of view of _moral_, as men accustomed to get sudden
+and unexpected orders given under imaginary circumstances will be
+more likely to keep cool, when such orders are necessitated by the
+stress of actual battle, than men who have always been trained in a
+deliberate fashion.
+
+Such sudden orders must in general mean one of two things, either
+that the enemy has got you, or you have got him, “on the hop,” if I
+may introduce an expression from the cricket field, and that there
+is every chance of the bowler, whoever he is, being badly scored
+off, unless he treats the batsman to something more difficult than
+the expensive half-volley. If you are fortunately able to find the
+enemy at a disadvantage, you will act against him by rifle fire
+alone; but, on the other hand, you may find yourself caught in a bad
+situation, by either artillery or rifle fire, or possibly by cavalry,
+who mean to use the steel. It follows then, in practising expedients,
+based, as they should be, on some possible situation, that you should
+make the central idea either offensive, as if attempting to bring
+your men into a position to get the best results from their fire, or
+defensive, as if to escape, or mitigate shell fire or rifle fire, to
+which you are subjected under adverse conditions.
+
+Against artillery fire from ranges or in positions at which you
+cannot reply effectively with rifle fire, your action at first, at
+all events, must be purely defensive, i.e., all you can do, will be
+to escape being overwhelmed by the shell fire, and even at effective
+rifle range, the shields of modern field guns, enable them to engage
+infantry on very equal terms, so long as the infantry is in front, or
+not far on a flank, of the line of guns.
+
+In the days of muzzle-loaders, it was the cavalry who possessed the
+power of suddenly annihilating infantry, when caught unprepared to
+withstand their charge. The magazine rifle has reduced this danger,
+but the quick-firing cannon has now equal, if not greater, powers of
+dealing out swift destruction to any infantry that it finds exposed
+in close formation, if only the range be known. At least once in the
+Russo-Japanese War, and again in the Turko-Bulgarian war, if we may
+believe the somewhat ill-authenticated reports yet to hand, have
+artillery wiped out of existence in a few moments several hundred
+unfortunate infantrymen, who were caught in the _rafâle_ fired at a
+range either ascertained previously, or got at the moment by good
+luck or good judgment. The contingency of being thus caught by
+artillery is evidently one that should be prepared for by infantry,
+as was the forming of squares in the old days, when a cavalry charge
+was an ever present peril. In this case of artillery fire, the
+conditions and the object desired are practically always the same—the
+infantry is in close order of some sort, and wishes to break up into
+a congeries of small groups, so as to isolate the effect of the burst
+of each shrapnel. The matter of rifle fire is different, as there
+are any number of ways in which you may seek either to escape the
+results of the enemy’s fire or attempt to use your own, and this is
+the proper field in which to practise expedients.
+
+Whenever you intend to carry out some such movement to meet a
+supposed situation, you must let the men know exactly what you are
+picturing, so that they also may understand what is needed. The
+essence of these practices is that they should be performed without
+time for deliberate thought—the men must learn to think and act
+quickly. The most satisfactory way is to be yourself mounted, as you
+can then get the whole company to hear you at once, whereas, if on
+foot, the men who are farthest from you often lose the first part
+of what you say; you then have to repeat it, and the thing loses
+its character of surprise for the rest, who have already heard it
+once. Give out the situation in a loud voice, and in as few words as
+possible, then try and give the very order you think you would give,
+if the situation was a real one on service; use your own imagination,
+in figuring what you would say, and how you would say it. To call
+attention, it seems legitimate to use your whistle, as on service
+the men would have some warning that things were about to happen,
+either by the arrival of shell or bullets, the sight of the enemy, or
+by the signal of their own scouts. In giving the situation, if you
+are receiving fire, give out what kind of fire it is, the enemy’s
+position, if it is allowable to suppose it known, or if you are
+going to be on the offensive, give out where the enemy is, and what
+he is doing, and how you learn this, i.e., by your scouts, or by
+first-hand observation. For example, while the company is marching
+in fours along a road, you see, in imagination, two shells burst
+simultaneously near by, and about two hundred yards from each other,
+and you wisely deduce that the enemy is ranging on your company. Blow
+your whistle and give out “Artillery fire is opening on the company,
+from such and such a direction—open out to columns of sections.” If
+you have taught your men what to do to escape artillery fire, they
+will open out at the double into columns of platoons, at not less
+than fifty yards interval, measuring roughly at right angles to the
+direction of the supposed fire (I.T., 118 (3)).
+
+In practising this opening out under artillery fire, which, as I have
+said, is the one specific hasty manœuvre performed under conditions
+nearly always similar, it is inexpedient to lay down any fixed rules
+for the positions to be taken up by the platoons. It sounds simple to
+say that the platoons of the leading half-company go to the right,
+and those of the rear half to the left, but when men are marching at
+ease, and shells begin bursting round them unexpectedly, I do not
+think there will be time for anyone to see which half-company is
+leading. The main thing is to get the platoons instantly away from
+the road on which the enemy has laid his guns, and from each other.
+Direct platoon commanders to lead their men at the double in any
+direction away from the platoon in front, except, of course, towards
+the rear. In theory, of course, this might result in all four making
+out towards one flank, but, even so, this is better than having any
+deliberative halts on the road, and in practice the platoons in rear
+can see which way those in front are heading, and wheel to go to
+the other flank. There is no advantage to be had from getting the
+men in the ranks into extended order, as the shrapnel scatter the
+whole width of their bursting zone in an impartial manner, nor is it
+any use to seek such slight cover as gives only a screen from view,
+unless with a view to getting away from the shell-swept locality
+without attracting notice. Platoon commanders should, of course, make
+for any cover that is sufficiently steep on the rear side to shelter
+them from the downward dropping shrapnel bullets. If there is no
+cover, the best thing after getting out into the line of platoons
+separated by fully fifty yards intervals, is to move rapidly forward.
+If cover exists with open ground round it, the men may be got away by
+“dribbling” man by man, in the hope that the enemy may not spot the
+movement, and continue or resume his shell practice, to defeat it.
+
+As regards expedients against rifle fire, I will only suggest a few,
+and leave you to invent others suited to the nature of the ground you
+have got to exercise on.
+
+  1. The company in close order is surprised by a heavy rifle fire;
+       there is cover near by sufficient to hold the whole company
+       crowded together. Order the men to get into the cover helter
+       skelter, and then advance or retire, by the successive
+       movement of platoons or sections, who take extended order at
+       their best speed as they emerge from shelter. If facilities
+       exist, tell one or two platoons to reply to the fire, from the
+       cover, till their own turn comes to move, by which time the
+       first lots that went out should have got into position to open
+       fire.
+
+  2. The company in close order is again surprised by rifle fire, but
+       there is no cover near to act as a base. Get the company
+       quickly into extended order, and let men reply to the fire as
+       soon as they have extended, using studiously slow fire.
+
+  3. The company or platoons in extended order have to change front
+       to meet an attack from a flank. As in the book, call on them
+       to line a hedge or ditch, facing so as to fire in the new
+       direction.
+
+  4. Coming through a gap in a hedge or wall, either in advance or
+       retreat, scattering off right and left, so as to get out of
+       the way of fire concentrated on the gap.
+
+  5. The scouts from a position some distance from the company report
+       a body of the enemy unaware of their presence and exposed to
+       fire. Bring the company quickly up to the scouts’ position,
+       halt, load, and adjust sights under cover and just short of
+       the firing position, and on your whistle the men advance at
+       once to the edge of the fire position and surprise the enemy
+       by a simultaneous fire from all the rifles.
+
+  6. Taking up quickly an all-round defensive position; the platoons
+       or sections go off and find the best positions in different
+       directions which you merely indicate roughly.
+
+  7. Hastily organised attacks, to dislodge an enemy unexpectedly
+       found in occupation of a position, also taking up action as
+       flank and rearguards under fire.
+
+
+
+
+                           EXERCISE XVII.
+
+                      NIGHT OPERATION TRAINING.
+
+
+I.T., 113, gives some instructions as to how men are to be taught to
+march and to use their ears and eyes at night, while F.S.R., chapter
+ix., goes into the subject at length. These operations are divided
+into night marches, night advances, and night attacks. The men of
+a company will not be fit to take a useful part in night tactical
+exercises either in company or in battalion, unless they have had
+some elementary training as laid down in “Infantry Training,”
+and have also been practised in the two indispensable duties of
+maintaining connection (F.S.R., 129 (4)) and in reconnaissance
+(F.S.R., 130 (1)). Night patrolling and the duties of night sentries
+have been dealt with under outposts, and I will not say anything
+more about them here. The rest of the elementary training contained
+in “Infantry Training” requires no explanation, and you can practise
+your men in it in small parties. There remains the maintenance of
+connection, and I have found that training for this is best done at
+first by daylight. It is very simple, and after one or two daylight
+lessons the men will work quite well by night, but to begin straight
+off under darkness will only lead to waste of time, as mistakes
+cannot easily be corrected, nor the working of a system made plain.
+The company should parade as strong as possible in this exercise,
+as, with only a few files on parade, the necessity of maintaining
+connection, and the difficulty of doing so, are not so obvious as
+when a fairly large body of men has to be handled without making a
+noise. Connection has to be maintained within the company itself,
+and also with the other companies in front or rear, if in column of
+route, or on the right and left, if deployed. In order to practise
+this connection with other companies, represent the front and rear,
+or flank section commanders of the supposed adjacent companies by a
+man for each company, who should move where those section commanders
+would be, i.e., in fours, at the head or tail of the directing flank,
+in line, on the flanks of the front rank. Use these dummies as the
+recipients of all orders and signals passed along, so that your
+company may get the habit of keeping touch with the others before it
+works with the battalion.
+
+
+                       _I. Connecting Files._
+
+The only sure way of keeping connection between bodies of troops
+moving in separate parties is by connecting files, who keep within
+sight of each other and so can seldom be at more than twenty yards
+distance apart. These files must be taught to pass commands with
+exactitude, and never to open their mouths otherwise, i.e., they
+must never speculate between themselves “Are they advancing?” or so
+forth, or talk at all, because the next file may hear some word of
+their talk and mistake it for an order. When connecting files are
+needed they must take up their places without its being necessary to
+tell them off loudly, and when no longer needed they must close into
+company in silence and in good order.
+
+Form the company into fours, turned to a flank as in column of route:
+tell the dummy section commander of the preceding company to march
+off; string the company out after him, the men marching off in files
+at about ten paces between each file without further command after
+the first one has gone, each as it moves off touching the next to
+follow, to give it notice. When they are all strung out, let the rear
+dummy section commander follow. Then pass orders up the line; use
+only the form given in I.T., 96 (3). To make sure that such verbal
+orders have reached the intended recipient, the only way, though a
+slow one, is to require him to send back a report that he has taken
+the action required. Thus, a message from the rear to the leading
+portion to halt would be answered from the leading portion by a
+report passed down the line to the commander “The leading portion,
+or, etc., has halted.” Let your first order be to halt, passed from
+the dummy company in rear up to that in front “From Colonel A. to all
+companies—halt.” On receiving the order one man of each file halts
+on his ground and turns to the rear, the other goes forward to the
+next file as quickly as he can without noise, delivers the order, and
+returns to his former place, when he halts and faces the other way
+from his comrade. Thus, on the completion of the order to halt, one
+man of each file will be facing each way. Bayonets will usually be
+fixed in night operations, and it is important, especially in Rifle
+Battalions, to accustom men to carry the rifle on the right shoulder,
+with the hand round the small of the butt and never at the trail,
+otherwise there is much danger of someone getting a stab as well as
+an order.
+
+After the halt, get on the move again by passing up the word to
+advance, and practise any other likely orders:—“Go fast in front,”
+“Go slow in front,” “The rear cannot keep up,” and so on. Follow the
+orders up the line and see that men do not tamper with the form of
+the order en route, and that they speak in a whisper when giving it
+over. Section and platoon commanders must be told all orders as they
+pass, see that their units conform, and look after the maintenance of
+the distance between files.
+
+Next practise lateral communication, the four platoons in one line
+in close order, with company intervals between each, representing
+the leading platoons of four companies drawn up in line of columns
+of platoons at deploying intervals and ready for a night advance.
+Lateral connecting files need to be closer than when following
+each other, so put out connecting files to the flanks in a similar
+way to what was done before, but at six, or eight yards interval.
+Then move, halt, and deploy the supposed column by means of these
+files, dressing and interval being kept up by the files moving up or
+stepping short, and closing on or inclining from any named company of
+direction without specific orders.
+
+
+                   _II. Marching and Formations._
+
+Form up the company and get it into fours as if in column of route,
+dummy company section commanders as before. Practise marching off
+from the halt, and halting, passing the word from the front or rear
+company along the men on the flanks of the fours. As the order comes
+along, the flank men of the fours nudge or shove the other men in
+their respective fours, and whisper to the flank men in the four in
+front or behind. There is seldom any need to speak, as a push or
+pull is enough. The platoon commanders get the word from the flank
+men of the sections of fours, and from one another as well, as they
+are to follow the order along their own platoons, and go forward or
+back to the commander of the next platoon to whom they must repeat
+it, and then resume their proper places. The platoon commander of
+the leading, or rear, platoon is responsible for passing the word
+to the nearest platoon commander of the next company. The company
+officers must arrange also to hear all orders, and should have fixed
+positions, known to all, which they will only quit temporarily.
+In marching off from the halt, the rear portion of the company
+should step out well, as soon as the order reaches them, so as to
+avoid straggling, while the leading fours preserve a uniform pace.
+In halting in battalion, the leading fours should close up on the
+company in front, and continue to do so, till it is seen that it
+has finished closing up; there is always bound to be a good deal
+of straggling at first owing to the method of giving orders. When
+this system is in good working order, move and halt the company on
+your own audibly whispered word of command, the platoon commanders
+repeating it, the system of communication being kept up as before,
+but the men moving at once on the word; this will give a fairly
+simultaneous action throughout the company while ensuring against
+loss of touch.
+
+On the same lines, practise forming line from column of platoons,
+mass, and column of platoons from column of fours, and marching in
+line, paying attention throughout to dressing and the covering of
+files in line.
+
+
+                        _III. Night Assault._
+
+Choose a position as objective, and form the company, in line or in
+column of platoons, about three hundred yards from it, with scouts
+about eighty yards in front of the company (F.S.R., 137 (4)). This
+is the formation which would usually be adopted at the position of
+deployment. When the scouts have got about one hundred yards from the
+position, or up to a line which they would recognise in the dark as
+being in close proximity to it, they should halt, and wait for the
+arrival of the company. The whole then move silently forward towards
+the position till you give the word or signal for assault, when all
+charge. Practise this stealthy advance right on to the position,
+as if the enemy were not alert, and also make the charge from
+some distance, as would be done if the enemy opened fire, which is
+recognised to be what will most often happen. After the assault the
+men should be rallied by the non-commissioned officers taking all men
+within their reach, and forming them into extemporised sections ready
+to be reformed into platoons and to begin entrenching.
+
+If by chance you get material, you may introduce refinements, in the
+way of wire-cutting men with each section, sand bags with each man,
+and bags stuffed with straw carried ready to throw on to abatis or to
+fill up trenches, to be carried in a fixed place in the company.
+
+
+                      _IV. Night Entrenching._
+
+Practise marching with arms and tools, and taking up a position to
+be entrenched, with especial regard to avoidance of noise. When
+entrenching by night, the trenches cannot be chosen to give a
+field of fire unless it has been possible to obtain access to the
+locality by day, and mark them in advance; failing this the company
+commander, as soon as the position is reached, must send patrols,
+and go himself, to ascertain that no commanding ground, at least
+in the immediate vicinity, has been left unoccupied, and, at the
+first light, all other such points within effective range as it is
+possible to hold, should be secured and entrenched, without orders
+from higher commanders. A full illustration of this, however, can
+only be done by parading at night.
+
+
+                          _V. Search Work._
+
+Practise the company in going off, as if detached from the column to
+get touch with other troops, or to find a gate or bridge by which
+some obstacle, wall, canal, etc., met with, can be passed. The
+company moves off dropping connecting files to keep touch with the
+halted column, the files halt at their distances, and pass word if
+the company has achieved its mission, and close on the company when
+the column comes up, but not before, else the column will be left out
+of touch; or, if the need has passed and the company is recalled to
+the column, the connecting files again remain at their posts till the
+company is gathered back on them.
+
+
+                          _VI. Surprises._
+
+When only a few men are on parade, advanced education, combined with
+some amusement, may be got by experimenting in the best ways of
+laying out obnoxious persons, such as hostile patrols, who have to
+be rushed in silence (F.S.R., 138 (5)). Before beginning a stalk,
+the quarry should be kept under observation to see which way he looks
+when halted, and any other idiosyncrasies. The assailant should creep
+up to him either on his flank, or from behind, moving one foot at a
+time, and bending down, though not on all fours. If the sentry looks
+his way, he must stay absolutely motionless, till he again looks
+away. My informant on this matter was a friend of a successful rifle
+thief in Upper India.
+
+After putting the company through the above daylight course, you
+should, of course, put theory into practice and do some real night
+work whenever you get the chance, putting out a skeleton enemy or
+some observers to tell you how much noise you make, and follow out
+the full instructions as to orders, watchwords, etc., given in
+F.S.R., 138 and 139. Test your men as to their ability to see in the
+dark; some men can see much more than others; spot these men and tell
+them off as “Night Scouts.” Even if they are not otherwise qualified
+as scouts, they are most useful in guiding the company over rough
+ground.
+
+
+
+
+                   A SCHEME OF A COMPANY TRAINING.
+
+
+I give below, as an example of the application of the foregoing
+exercises, a scheme of company training which I actually carried out.
+This was in the days before platoons, so I have altered the scheme to
+show what I should have done had the company organisation been what
+it now is. I was given from Monday in one week to Saturday the next
+week to march out into camp, about 10 miles, and get back, i.e., two
+days of march, and ten halted working days. I had thirty-five rounds
+per man of ball cartridge available for field practice musketry, and
+a sufficiency of blank for the requirements of skeleton enemy and
+for use with the men in one or two of the exercises. My men were
+Regulars, and during the previous furlough season I had grounded them
+piecemeal in field work.
+
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+DAY. |          |      FORENOON WORK.          |  AFTERNOON WORK.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  1  |Monday    |   March out to camp. March   |
+     |          | discipline and work of       |
+     |          | connecting files. Advanced   |
+     |          | guard. Sanitation. Water     |
+     |          | piquet and sanitary patrols. |
+     |          | Pitched a perimeter camp as  |
+     |          | for savage warfare. Trenched |
+     |          | tents against rain, and      |
+     |          | made a shelter trench round  |
+     |          | camp. Alarm posts.           |
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  2  |Tuesday   |   Individual advance in      |   Improved and
+     |          |                              | deepened camp
+     |          | extended order. Retirement   | entrenchments, made
+     |          | by pairs.                    | loop-holes, night
+     |          |                              | rests, and obstacles.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  3  |Wednesday |   Platoon and Section in     |   Field practice
+     |          | attack as part of Company.   | Musketry:—Individual
+     |          |                              | advance in extended
+     |          |                              | order. 7 rounds ball
+     |          |                              | per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  4  |Thursday  |   Platoon in independent     |   Field practice
+     |          | attack.                      | Musketry:—Section
+     |          |                              | in independent
+     |          |                              | attack,  7 rounds
+     |          |                              | ball per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  5  |Friday    |   Platoon in retirement.     |   Preliminary
+     |          |                              | training for Company
+     |          |                              | attack. Fire
+     |          |                              | discipline and
+     |          |                              | control.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  6  |Saturday  |   Company in attack with the |   Prepared target
+     |          | battalion.                   | positions and markers
+     |          |                              | butts for
+     |          |                              | snapshooting.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  7  |Monday    |   Company in attack with     |   Snapshooting, 7
+     |          |  Battalion.                  | rounds per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  8  |Tuesday   |   Company in attack acting   |   Snapshooting, 7
+     |          | alone.                       | rounds per man.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+  9  |Wednesday |   Outposts.                  |   Company in attack,
+     |          |                              | 7 rounds ball.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+ 10  |Thursday  |   Defence.                   |   Company in
+     |          |                              | retirement.
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+ 11  |Friday    |   Night attack. Parade at    |   Hasty expedients.
+     |          | 2.30 a.m.                    |
+-----+----------+------------------------------+----------------------
+ 12  |Saturday  |   March back to quarters.    |
+=====+==========+==============================+======================
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Notes
+
+  Catalog page Changed Miscellaneous Tactica to: Tactical
+  pg 62 Changed close and re-form to: reform
+  pg 63 Changed expect either a counterattack to: counter-attack
+  pg 67 Changed this exercise, though to: through
+  pg 76 Added period after: left on the position
+  pg 124 Changed trenches or make loopholes to: loop-holes
+  pg 125 Changed the line of loopholes to: loop-holes
+  pg 136 Changed: (I.T, 156 (5)) to: (I.T., 156 (5))
+  pg 182 Added comma after: entrenchments, made loop-holes
+  pg 183 Added period after: 7 rounds ball per man
+  pg 184 Added period after: Friday Night attack
+
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+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The training of an infantry company</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Edward Kirkpatrick</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 3, 2023 [eBook #69943]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Brian Coe, Bob Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINING OF AN INFANTRY COMPANY ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 65%">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover">
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h1>
+THE TRAINING<br>
+
+<span class="fs60">OF AN</span><br>
+
+INFANTRY COMPANY.</h1>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+</div>
+
+<div class="pageborder">
+<p class="center fs150"><b>CATECHISM ON FIELD TRAINING</b></p>
+
+<p class="center">(<b>INFANTRY</b>).</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A series of Questions and Answers on
+all subjects of field training, extracted
+from the latest official TRAINING
+MANUALS, together with miscellaneous
+information, practical exercises
+and examples progressively arranged.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+<em>Revised and brought up to date by</em><br>
+<span class="fs130 wsp"><b>COL. H. O’DONNELL, p.s.c.</b></span><br>
+<span class="fs80 wsp">(WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT).<br>
+<em>SIXTH EDITION.</em></span></p>
+
+<hr class="r65">
+
+<p class="center">CONTENTS.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Elementary—General Principles of Attack
+and Defence—Miscellaneous Tactical
+Operations—Warfare in uncivilised Countries—Protection
+on the Line of March—Protection
+when at Rest—Methods of
+obtaining Information—Quarters, Camps,
+and Bivouacs—Field Engineering—Diary
+of Training.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><em>Fully illustrated with 30 pages of Plates and Diagrams.</em></p>
+
+<hr class="r35">
+
+<p class="center"><b>One of the numerous Press Opinions.</b></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“The book is most comprehensive, for every
+branch of the soldier’s life is touched upon, and
+every situation or emergency seems to be anticipated.
+Colonel O’Donnell’s publication is quite
+a military encyclopædia.”—<cite>Empress</cite>, Calcutta.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center"><b>PRICE 3/- NET.</b></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center wsp"><em>From the Printers and Publishers</em>,<br>
+GALE &amp; POLDEN LTD.,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Wellington Works, Aldershot</span>,<br>
+And at London and Portsmouth.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center wsp">
+<span class="fs150"><b><em>The</em> TRAINING</b></span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs80">OF AN</span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="smcap fs150"><b>Infantry Company</b></span><br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs80"><em>By</em></span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="fs130">Major <span class="smcap">E. Kirkpatrick</span>, I.A.</span><br>
+<br>
+<br>
+—————:O:—————
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="smcap fs120">2nd Edition.</span><br>
+<br></p>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<p class="center wsp"><br>
+<em>London</em>: <span class="smcap">Gale &amp; Polden, Ltd.</span>,<br>
+<br>
+2, AMEN CORNER, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.<br>
+<br>
+Nelson House, PORTSMOUTH &amp;<br>
+Wellington Works, ALDERSHOT.<br>
+Obtainable from all Booksellers.<br>
+<br></p>
+
+<hr class="r90">
+
+<p class="center fs130 wsp">
+<em>TWO SHILLINGS &amp; SIXPENCE</em> (<em>Net</em>)<br>
+
+<span class="fs80">(<em>Copyright under Act of 1911.</em>)</span><br>
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Aldershot</span>:<br>
+<br>
+PRINTED BY GALE &amp; POLDEN, <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Wellington Works</span>.<br>
+<br></p>
+<hr class="r5">
+<p class="center"><span style="margin-left: -1em;">1914</span></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>This booklet has not been written for
+the use and benefit of officers and non-commissioned
+officers of long experience
+and proved skill in the profession of
+training men for battle. To such as
+these it may only provide an object of
+criticism, for in the course of years spent
+in turning recruits into trained soldiers
+they will have formulated to themselves,
+and adopted, some system of training
+which they found productive of the best
+results under their own guidance. But
+there are many at present, and at a future
+time, should certain circumstances arise
+in the life of the nation, there may be very
+many more who may not have such stores
+of experience to draw on, and yet may
+be faced with the problem of rapidly
+converting an untrained or only partially
+trained body of men into a force capable
+of acting successfully in real war, both
+in attack and defence against trained and
+disciplined troops. Again, it is written,
+not for officers commanding battalions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span>
+nor for officers of cavalry and artillery,
+but only for officers commanding companies
+or other similar units of infantry,
+though it may, perhaps, be of use in
+training mounted troops for dismounted
+action.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, while the pipes of peace are
+still smoking, it is hoped it may be of
+some use to officers and non-commissioned
+officers when the time comes to prepare
+schemes of company training and put
+them into execution.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+E. K.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><em>September, 1913.</em></p>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<p class="center">PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.</p>
+
+<p>Since the above was written, the issue of
+new or amended Manuals of Training has
+necessitated a revision of the book, which
+is now presented in a form agreeable to
+the four-company organisation.</p>
+
+<p>The Empire is now confronted by those
+circumstances to which allusion was made
+in the Preface.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+E. K.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><em>September, 1914.</em></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdr"><span class="fs80">PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">List of Abbreviations</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Introductory Remarks—</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr" style="width:13%">I.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Intention of the Book</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Making the Best of their Companies to Train the Modern Man for the Modern Battle</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Standard of Training assumed to have already been acquired and its application to further Exercises</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Ground for Training—Its Use and Influence—Palliation of the Lack of a Training Ground</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Company Organisation—Moral and the Personality of the Commander</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Discipline—Moral and Means of Supervision</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Organisation by Files and its Effect on Moral—Cohesion</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Method of Training</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">As to Scouts and Working Dress</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr style="height:40px">
+<td class="tdc" colspan="3"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</span>EXERCISES</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Individual Advance in Extended Order</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Retirement by Pairs</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Individual Training in Use of Fire and Fire Discipline</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Assault</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Attack</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Retirement</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Section and Platoon in Independent Attack</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Platoon as Advanced and Flank Guard</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Preliminary for the Attack by the Company in Battalion</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">X.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack with the Battalion under Artillery Fire</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack with the Battalion under Rifle Fire</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Attack Acting Alone</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">The Company in Retirement</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XIV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Outposts</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XV.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Defence</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVI.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Hasty Expedients</td>
+<td class="tdr"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</span><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XVII.—</td>
+<td class="tdl">Night Operations</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+<td class="tdc">————</td>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">A Scheme of Company Training</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center fs120">REFERENCES <span class="fs80">AND</span> ABBREVIATIONS.</p>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" style="width:20%">I.T., 128 (3)</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Infantry Training, 1914, Section 128, para. 3.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">F.S.R.</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Field Service Regulations, Part I. Operations, 1909 (Reprint 1912).</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">T. &amp; M.R.</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Training and Manœuvre Regulations, 1913.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">M.F.E.</td>
+<td class="tdl">= Manual of Field Engineering, 1911.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_FEW_PRESS_OPINIONS">A FEW PRESS OPINIONS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<p class="center">“UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE.”</p>
+
+<p>Major E. Kirkpatrick is the author of a small book on
+“The Training of an Infantry Company.” There have
+been so many books and pamphlets of this kind—short
+cuts to knowledge—that one is apt to regard each fresh
+one with suspicion and even with aversion, but Major
+Kirkpatrick has much that is helpful to say, he says it
+well, and he shows how much good work may be done
+even in the training of the emasculated companies such
+as our military system so often leaves us. His instructions
+cover a wide field, and there must be few company
+officers who will not be grateful to the author for many
+valuable hints.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">“UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION OF INDIA.”</p>
+
+<p>There are few junior officers of infantry who will not
+benefit by a study of this book. The thorough system of
+training elaborated in the seventeen exercises, which
+form the major portion of the book, is worthy of the
+attention of Regular as well as Territorial Officers.</p>
+
+<p>These elementary exercises deal with the essentials in
+the war training of the Infantry soldier, from the work of
+the individual in advance and retirement, and of the
+section in action and on protection duties, to the training
+of the company in attack and defence, and outpost.</p>
+
+<p>As an example of a system of training illustrating the
+necessity of attention to detail in the early instruction of
+the soldier, this series of exercises is valuable, and their
+value is increased by the constant reference to training
+manuals. The author wisely recommends the study of
+all the official books referred to as he recognises that his
+exercises and comments are only of value in so far as they
+illustrate and explain the principles laid down in training
+manuals.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter"></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center fs150"><b>THE TRAINING</b></p>
+
+<p class="center fs80">OF AN</p>
+
+<p class="center fs150"><b>INFANTRY COMPANY.</b></p>
+
+
+<hr class="r35">
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTORY_REMARKS">INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.</h2>
+
+<p>The authorised handbooks of training
+rightly confine themselves to broad principles,
+and do not attempt to give
+detailed examples of their application,
+the idea being that officers should study
+these regulations and apply the principles
+by the light of local conditions and their
+own experience. Infantry Training and
+the Field Service Regulations are, however,
+very pregnant little books, containing,
+as they do, a summary of the whole
+of Modern Tactics, as far as they concern
+infantry and the combined action of all
+arms. Time and thought are necessary,
+if the principles contained in them are to
+be translated into such intelligent action
+that the men trained on the lines laid
+down may be capable of doing their duty
+in real warfare, without first undergoing
+a bitter and costly schooling of useless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span>
+casualties or, perhaps, even of defeat.
+But if an officer is called on to achieve this
+result, being himself without much previous
+experience in training, he will find
+himself faced with a task of great difficulty,
+and, with the best intentions, he
+may waste precious time, as well as his
+own and his men’s patience and energy,
+in doing parades and exercises, which are
+either not indispensable, or of minor
+importance for the main object. As an
+extreme example, it would be better, in
+a hastily raised corps, to combine the
+disciplinary training of obedience to the
+word of command, with instruction in the
+use of their arms, by practice in smart
+work in aiming and firing, than merely
+to study precision in “sloping” and
+“presenting arms,” which look well,
+but do not immediately affect fighting
+efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>For these reasons, it has occurred to
+me that I might do some of my brother
+officers <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in esse</i> or <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in posse</i> a service by
+setting out certain elementary exercises in
+training infantry soldiers, which I have
+found of value in bringing them up to a
+standard of battle training sufficiently
+high to need only battalion training and
+a baptism of fire to turn them into steady
+and reliable troops. It is not contended
+that these few examples are anything but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span>
+concrete instances of the application of
+the principles of the Training Manuals.
+They are intended, as has been stated,
+merely for those who are short of time
+and experience, and, therefore, references
+to the manuals are given when the exercise
+illustrates some particular section of those
+works, and it is recommended that
+officers who intend to use these examples
+should look up and read the sections
+referred to before going on to the parade.</p>
+
+<p>Though this book is not meant for
+officers commanding battalions, I have
+one word to say to them, and it is this,
+that if they wish to have an efficient
+battalion they must let the company
+officers have proper opportunities of training
+their companies, apart from the time
+of company training, when the whole
+company is struck off duty. If there are
+six parades a week, let three or four of
+them be company parades, ordered and
+carried out by the company commanders;
+the balance will be quite enough to secure
+combination between the companies in
+battalion. On company parades, the
+battalion commander should supervise,
+but never interfere, unless things are
+being manifestly mismanaged. (See
+T. &amp; M.R., 2 (2 and 3)). The days
+of the one man battalion are gone
+for ever. The company is the thing that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>
+matters; a good battalion can only be
+composed of well-trained companies. It
+is the work of the battalion commander
+to propound the general lines of training
+and to use the companies to the best
+advantage in combination, but the training
+of the individual soldier must be in
+the hands of the man who is to lead him
+in war.</p>
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p>On ordinary parades, the captain of
+an infantry company is seldom able to
+get together more than a fraction of his
+men. The calls on the company for men
+for duties and odd jobs, leave and furlough,
+and, in the Territorial Force, the
+private occupations of the men, allow of
+only a few being assembled on any one
+parade. This being so, there is a temptation—sometimes
+yielded to by officers
+who have not much experience, to say to
+themselves: “This is rot; what can I do
+without any men?” Such a question is
+the result of confusing the individual
+instruction of the men with the tactical
+practice of the leader in handling his
+company as a whole. The answer too
+often takes the form of an hour’s close
+order drill or something similar, which
+may do some good, but not nearly as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span>
+much as if the officer stoutly made up his
+mind to make the best of a bad job and
+took out those few men and did some
+practical training in field operations. The
+fewer men there are on parade, the more
+individual attention will the company
+commander be able to give them. He will
+be able to look at each man’s work more
+carefully, talk to the men and get to
+know their characters as soldiers, spot
+who are likely to make good non-commissioned
+officers, and coach them far more
+than if the whole company were on hand
+at once. So do not turn up your nose at
+a company only twenty strong, but make
+up a scheme of exercises to be gone
+through, and, since the men who are not
+on parade to-day will be so to-morrow,
+arrange to do the same exercise on two,
+or, if needed, three, consecutive days, so
+as to catch all, or, at least, most of the
+men, and your non-commissioned officers,
+who are not usually so drawn on for off-parade
+duties, will become well acquainted
+with each exercise, learn what
+to do and how to run things, and so
+become both a help to you as instructors,
+and themselves gain authority and power
+of command from the knowledge of their
+own competency.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite likely that these exercises and
+the explanations given, may seem to some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>
+readers to be absurdly simple and needlessly
+long-winded, while there is also a
+good deal of repetition. To this I will
+make early reply that they are written for
+officers who are not too proud to accept
+other people’s advice in training a company
+of young soldiers of the stamp
+which would be forthcoming if some
+cause<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> or other tempted or constrained into
+military service that great proportion of
+our male population who are at present
+quite ignorant of a soldier’s work, and
+who, from apathy, or a hundred other
+causes, do not join the Territorial Force.
+Such men probably have never in their
+lives given a thought to soldiering. The
+majority of them are town born and bred,
+and have passed most of their lives among
+bricks and mortar. If they have ever
+looked carefully at the large or small
+features of a bit of country, it has been
+from an industrial, sporting, or, perhaps,
+sentimental, but never from a tactical,
+point of view. They have everything to
+learn in making use of ground for fighting.
+Their ideas of using modern arms
+are equally crude; the primitive fighting
+instinct will be uppermost in their minds,
+and would express itself in an incontinent
+desire to get to close quarters with their
+enemy, when bayonet, butt or hand grips<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>
+would seem the proper way to settle the
+matter. A very laudable desire it is—this
+of wanting to close in—and one to
+be encouraged by every means, but however
+brave troops may be, they cannot in
+general indulge their desire to attain
+close quarters and the resulting facilities
+of fighting by the light of their natural
+instincts unless they have first been successful
+in the fire fight—the strife of the
+arms of artifice—which is waged by bullet
+and shell at distances which Nature never
+contemplated.</p>
+
+<p>It is the artificiality of the fire fight
+which makes the task of turning town-bred
+men into skilful soldiers such a
+difficult and lengthy process. They must
+be led to look at ground in relation to its
+capabilities of increasing the effectiveness
+of their own fire and also of diminishing
+the result of that of the enemy, i.e., they
+must learn to select good fire positions
+and good cover. The problem of finding
+the latter for himself against a civilized
+foe begins, for the individual soldier, as
+soon as the enemy’s rifle fire becomes
+effective and compels the use by his side
+of extended order; this is held to be on
+open ground about fourteen hundred
+yards from the enemy’s infantry (I.T.,
+118 (4)). Prior to this the responsibility
+for cover rests with his leaders, as he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>
+will then be in some close formation. Fire
+positions he must choose for himself as
+soon as his section commander ceases
+to be able to indicate his wishes, or
+to secure combined action by the whole
+unit. This will probably happen at
+about six hundred yards from the enemy,
+when individual fire is expected to
+replace controlled fire by sections. These
+two aspects of fighting—the use of
+ground, and the use of the rifle as a
+far-reaching weapon of almost absolute
+precision, if truly sighted and aimed—are
+foreign to our instincts, and the
+average man has to be trained till he is
+able to override his instinct and fight an
+artificial war, so as to work his way to
+charging distance. Some men need less
+training than others; a stalker in a deer
+forest is an adept in the use of cover, and
+in general, country-bred men should be
+easier to train than town-bred, but the
+majority of our men being the latter, we
+must lay ourselves out to teach them from
+the beginning this business of the fire
+fight, since success in this is usually
+necessary before the assault can succeed
+(I.T., 121 (7)). This can only
+be done by training them in extended
+order and putting them through various
+exercises chosen for the purpose. Any
+exercise which does not in some way tend<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>
+to fit men for battle is mere waste of
+time; aimless perambulations of an extended
+line fall under this category, but
+are quite often to be seen on parade
+grounds. No amount of smartness in
+close order drill will compensate for a
+deficiency of field training.</p>
+
+
+<h3>III.</h3>
+
+<p>The exercises which I have drawn up,
+simple though they are, are of the nature
+of “Instructional Operations,” as defined
+by T. &amp; M.R., 40 (12), and it is presupposed
+that the men have received, or
+are in course of receiving, sufficient instruction
+in the use of the rifle (musketry
+in all its branches), and of the bayonet
+(bayonet fighting), in drill in close order,
+and the drill grounding of extended
+order work, including signals (I.T.,
+90-96). We are then to consider ourselves
+to be at the stage in which the soldier is
+to be taught to work over broken country
+as directed in the latter part of para. 90,
+above quoted. But do not think the
+lessons learned at musketry instruction are
+to be forgotten and left behind by the
+men when they begin to work in extended
+order across country. Demand
+from your men that the rifle shall be
+deadly, and, by unceasing supervision,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>
+breed a habit among them of aiming and
+firing in extended order, whether with
+or without blank cartridge, with the same
+exactitude as when firing their course of
+musketry on the range. Take the high
+standard—a hundred men’s lives in one
+man’s bandolier, instead of a hundred
+bandoliers for one man’s life. The higher
+standard of the two is at least possible,
+though not common, but why not try and
+work towards it, so that when bullets are
+flying within decisive range of the enemy,
+it will be your men’s fire, that is the
+deadly close-hitting kind, that makes
+afraid, and not the haphazard jet of
+bullets whose inefficacy lets unhurt
+familiarity breed tolerant contempt?</p>
+
+<p>In the same way, when men are in close
+order at any time during a field parade,
+keep up the same smartness, and quick
+obedience to orders which are exacted in
+close order drills, in order that the men
+may become truly disciplined, and not
+merely so in appearance, so when they
+come under fire without being extended,
+as may happen in the early and distant
+stages of a fight, they will, as a matter
+of course, submit themselves to their
+commander’s wishes, and ignore their own
+inclinations, which, just at the first experience,
+even with very brave men, might
+be for an immediate and independent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>
+rush in some direction—perhaps forward,
+perhaps in another direction—they will
+be “in hand,” and free of the liability
+of raw troops to suffer from sudden panic
+or to become a mob, full of fight, perhaps,
+but still a mob, and as such, a
+force which cannot be controlled or used
+in furtherance of any general plan.</p>
+
+
+<h3>IV.</h3>
+
+<p>The want of a suitable and accessible
+bit of ground on which to train our men
+is one of the chief difficulties we have to
+meet in the United Kingdom, and, of
+course, it is greatest in the case of town
+corps, varying with the size of towns,
+while in large cities ground is not to be
+had at all, save at a distance of several
+miles from the men’s dwelling places.
+Unfortunately, there is little doubt that
+the possession or lack of suitable training
+grounds has a great effect on the readiness,
+or otherwise, of troops to give a
+good account of themselves when they
+come under fire for the first time in their
+lives. The lack of it takes away reality
+from the work of the men in the ranks
+and cramps the initiative of their officers,
+who are given no opportunity to exercise
+their wits in figuring out practical situations
+which might occur on service.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p>
+
+<p>I can give no recipe for obtaining the
+use of ground, but from what I have just
+said I hope it is clear that the officer commanding
+a battalion or company should
+use every blandishment or art of which
+he is capable to get the use of a stretch
+of ground, and also, if it is at a distance,
+and the attendance of the men at parades
+voluntary, he should try to provide facilities
+for getting them to and from the
+ground. The worst bit of country is
+better than the barrack square.</p>
+
+<p>The ideal ground is that which gives
+conditions suited to each phase of the
+training, the principal requirements being
+fire positions and cover, and these should
+occur so as to provide illustrations of
+the use to be made of them in individual
+training, and in the collective training of
+sections, platoons, and the larger units.
+Thus, for training individual men, good
+ground would be that with an irregular
+surface, giving many places twenty to
+fifty yards apart, which each man could
+use in firing and taking cover. The
+usual seaside golf course of hummocks,
+furze bushes, and occasional watercourses,
+is good to teach individual men over—I
+say teach, for we must not imagine that
+an enemy will be so kind as to leave easy
+ground like that in his front, if he can
+help it. For section or platoon training,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>
+the surface should be similar, so that the
+individuals should still be called on to
+look out for their own halting places, but,
+in addition, there should be a certain
+number of small features, hillocks, banks,
+and so on, one to four hundred yards
+apart, which will serve as fire positions
+and cover for the whole unit, and provide
+the commanders with successive
+objectives, to which it will be their duty
+to bring their men in good order, and
+without needless exposure to the enemy’s
+fire. When the company is training
+together, the ground should be similar,
+but of greater extent, both broader and
+larger, so that sections and platoons may
+be practised in supporting each other,
+some being halted in these fire positions,
+and covering by their fire the movements
+of the others who are in process of gaining
+fresh vantage points. And so on for
+larger units and the combined action of
+all arms; good ground for early instruction
+is that whose features, from their
+nature and distance from each other, lend
+themselves to illustrate conditions under
+which the power of each unit and arm
+may be most profitably employed in conjunction
+with others. Troops trained over
+ground that gives the above advantages
+will acquire an eye for country. A knowledge
+of the uses to be made of ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>
+will be common to all ranks, so that when
+they find themselves fighting on bad
+ground, which does not give much cover
+or good fire positions, they will be the
+more apt to search for such cover and fire
+positions as are obtainable, while troops
+trained on flat and open ground would be
+much slower in making the best of a bad
+job. We are not concerned with anything
+more than a company; therefore, get for
+your own use, if you can manage it—failing
+help from higher powers—a bit of
+ground of some sort, golf course, common,
+city park, or what not. It need not be
+very extensive. Even if it gives only three
+or four positions suitable for occupation
+by a section working in conjunction with
+another, say, six hundred by three
+hundred yards, it will give room for useful
+instruction; but, of course, a larger
+extent is preferable, as giving room for
+more extended and varied exercises. If
+your training ground is of limited extent,
+it should, nevertheless, if possible, have
+a wide field of view on all sides beyond
+its own confines, and leave you the right
+to send a few men to take positions on the
+adjoining country, even if not allowed to
+manœuvre about it, so that when carrying
+out your exercises you may be able to use
+men with blank cartridge to act as a skeleton
+enemy, when such is needed. But if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>
+you are not allowed to send men on
+to the neighbouring ground, the wide field
+of view will still enable you to indicate
+certain distant positions as <em>supposed</em> to
+be held by the enemy. By this means you
+will be able to use the whole area of your
+permissible ground to represent a bit of
+the battlefield, and escape having to
+place the supposed enemy absurdly close
+to your manœuvring troops, e.g., at the
+edge of the training ground, or in some
+other position which makes heavy calls on
+the imagination. Britishers are not
+imaginative. Lastly, if all else fails, and
+you have nowhere to go except the flat
+parade ground, or even the drill hall,
+which in large towns is often very spacious,
+do not, I beg you, become discouraged
+and throw up all effort to get
+your men ready for field work. Do the
+exercises on the flat, limiting the extent of
+movements, if there is little room, and
+use flags or anything else to represent fire
+positions for sections and platoons, and let
+the men kneel or lie down between
+advances, if there is no cover. A great
+deal may be done in this way to lay a
+good foundation for extended order
+work. Your men will know the mechanism
+of it, and you will save much time when
+you do manage to have them out on a
+proper training ground. I.T., 107 (2), requires<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>
+company commanders, in preparing
+their schemes of training, to have regard
+to the ground at their disposal; do so,
+therefore, even if the ground aforesaid is
+only a parade ground, and make the most
+of it; it is better than sitting still and
+either doing nothing, or only a weary
+round of company drill in close order.
+Of course, you must let the men know
+what you are driving at, or they will get
+bored and lose interest.</p>
+
+
+<h3>V.</h3>
+
+<p>Having got a company of men and
+ground to train them on, the first step is
+to organise that company for its battle
+training. A company is organised into
+four platoons, each under a subaltern, with
+a sergeant as his second-in-command
+(platoon sergeant). Each platoon has
+four sections, and the sixteen sections
+of the company are numbered one
+to sixteen. The men of each of
+the above units remain permanently in
+that unit. <em>If possible</em>, maintain this
+organisation on duties and fatigues,
+though this is often a counsel of perfection,
+but quarter the men together, and
+insist on the maintenance of the organisation,
+<em>without deviation</em>, on parades. Have
+lists made up of the men of each platoon
+and section, and let men who so wish,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>
+belong to the same unit. Once these lists
+are made up, see to it by means of the
+section commanders that these men fall in
+on parade together in the place in the
+company where their section is standing,
+no matter how few there are; if there are
+but two men of one section on parade, they
+should fall in as front and rear rank men
+of one file. Avoid disseminating the
+men of a platoon or section among other
+units in order to raise the latter to a sizeable
+strength. Instead of this: supposing
+you have three weak platoons and
+one strong one on parade; of the four
+sections of one of the weak platoons, send
+two to each of the other two weak platoons.
+This will give you three platoons of, perhaps,
+unequal strength, but sufficient for
+work—and this without taking the responsibility
+of section commanders off their
+shoulders, and the cohesion of each
+unit is preserved. Some further suggestions
+on the subject of organisation will be put
+forward when speaking of <em>moral</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The officer who aspires to develop whatever
+capabilities his men possess of
+becoming individually and collectively
+formidable in battle, must pay attention
+to much more than mere physical considerations.
+Napoleon’s dictum, that the
+moral is to the physical as three to one is
+early dinned into the ears of the officer of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>
+Regulars, but may stand repetition in
+pages meant for the perusal of others.
+No officer can expect to get the most out
+of his men unless he directs his attention
+to the study of the psychical side of the
+training. There are two fields in which
+the study must be pursued. One is the
+officer’s own personality, the other that of
+his non-commissioned officers and men.
+T. &amp; M.R., 8, deals with the former, and
+should be read and pondered over.</p>
+
+<p>In battle good men have sometimes
+achieved victory in spite of the shortcomings
+of their officers, but good officers,
+as well as men, are necessary for consistent
+success in the series of battles
+which make a campaign. Now, good
+officers, given time for training, will infallibly
+produce good men, provided the
+latter are of the average physique and
+courage. Therefore, study thyself, and
+try to see what you lack, in order to become
+a good officer. Cultivate your skill
+in handling your men by reading any
+books you can get; there are, unfortunately,
+not very many that deal with the
+work of such small units as companies
+or even single battalions. Go out
+into the country, or, if you have
+not time, recall to yourself some bit of
+country you know, and import an enemy
+into the landscape. Perhaps a few riflemen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>
+are holding ground on the flank of a
+road along which your battalion wants
+to march, but cannot, without undue loss,
+until these riflemen are driven off; and
+your commanding officer tells you to do
+the driving. In imagination, or on the
+ground, decide what position you would
+hold, if you were the enemy, in order to
+make yourself as nasty as possible—though
+having no hope of being reinforced—to
+the battalion trying to come
+along the road. Then settle in your mind
+what you, as commanding your company,
+would do to get rid of the annoyance.
+Be quite clear, what would you do? Go
+at them bald-headed? There are times
+and enemies when this is the best way;
+you would have to be fairly close, and
+the enemy not shooting very straight, and
+rather careful of his skin; or will you
+march a long way round till the enemy
+sees you are getting behind him, and so
+manœuvre him out? Then your battalion
+will be a long time waiting. Or will you
+look at the ground and find, let us suppose,
+a spot to which you will send a
+section or platoon to open a fire on the
+enemy, while another works its way to a
+point you have noted from which fire can be
+brought to sweep crossways a little knoll,
+or some such supposititious feature which
+seems to form the enemy’s left flank, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>
+to be occupied by ten or twelve men, and
+which gives command over the rest of his
+position? Then, while the second lot is on
+its way, you plan to lead the remainder a
+little way round, under cover, in order to
+get to fairly close range of the knoll, so
+that when the second party opens fire on it,
+and its defenders are hampered both by
+this fire and by that of those you first
+posted, you may surprise them by an
+outburst of fire from your reserve, and
+either drive them off their perch by
+cross-fire from three directions, or, if they
+do not shift, run in at them with the
+bayonet, trusting to get across the intervening
+space at the cost of a few casualties,
+when your superior numbers at that
+point should ensure your success even if
+they actually await the bayonet. Learn
+to consider quickly how many ways there
+are of doing such a job as the above, and
+to decide quickly and rationally which is
+the best.</p>
+
+<p>These schemes, involving only a company
+or two, will not be presented for your solution
+by your battalion commander; you
+must set them yourself, and their solution,
+and the thinking necessary thereto are the
+best methods an officer can get of training
+himself without having his men on the
+ground. In your mind’s eye, put your
+company into every situation you can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>
+think of, and get it out again, and you
+will have acquired an enormous reserve of
+capacity for acting quickly and rightly
+when your men and your enemy are both
+on the ground. But beware of dealing in
+too short distances, or you may produce
+unreal pictures of war. Do not imagine
+manœuvres at four hundred yards from the
+enemy when every man exposed would be
+hit in a few minutes. The clearness and
+decision of thought you acquire will be
+reflected in the orders you give. Your
+men will give you their confidence when
+they see, as they are quick to do, that you
+know your job. There is nothing more
+disheartening for a subordinate, be he
+private or colonel, than to feel he is under
+control of a duffer, whose mistakes he will
+have to correct. This feeling saps discipline,
+and quickly destroys the fighting
+value of a body of men. In peace training,
+the men become sulky at being
+“bothered about,” lose interest in their
+work, and wish themselves done with
+parade. In war, their personal characters
+usurp the control of their actions, and they
+become a mob in uniform.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>But in addition to possessing the confidence
+of the men in your tactical ability,
+you should seek all other means to increase
+your influence over them. Gain their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>
+respect in other ways, by honesty of purpose,
+by example, tact, devotion to duty,
+and so on. Gain their goodwill by watching
+over their individual and collective
+interests, though in this you must play to
+the gallery sufficiently to let them identify
+you as the source of benefits received.
+Keep an even temper, and do not show
+anger without good cause. Personal attachment
+to their officer shows itself most
+when men’s powers are taxed by hardship,
+fatigue, and danger; it is then a great
+auxiliary in maintaining discipline among
+the mass.</p>
+
+
+<h3>VI.</h3>
+
+<p>As regards the <em>moral</em> of the men,
+I.T., 1 (4 to 10) must be referred to.
+You <em>must</em> introduce discipline—the habit
+of subordinating personal inclination to
+the orders of the superior promptly and
+without cavil. If your men are raw, you
+have to go slow just at first till they all
+know what is expected of them. Let
+them understand that orders are not given
+haphazard, but are invariably based on
+some good reason, which, being so, there
+is no need for reasons to be always stated,
+nor for recipients of orders to feel unhappy
+for want of them. If you can induce a
+feeling among the men that slackness on
+parade, slowness in obeying orders, and so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>
+on, are bad form, and tend to disgrace the
+company, you will do well, and this good
+spirit will enable you to enforce discipline
+without having recourse to punishment, if
+you are vested with the power of inflicting
+it.</p>
+
+<p>I have already said that when in close
+order during tactical exercises, you should
+maintain discipline in the ranks. I now
+go further and say that you should maintain
+it when the men are extended or
+detached from the company singly or in
+small groups. Evidently the discipline
+here needed is something more than mere
+mechanical obedience. What it is, is to
+be found in T. &amp; M.R., 39 (4), and F.S.R. 12
+(13), and I.T., 116 and 117. Make the
+men understand that when they are extended
+they must obey their unit commander’s
+orders and signals as to fire and
+movement at once, and without hesitation,
+and must be always on the look-out
+for them. Allow no talking, except what
+relates to the business in hand, such as
+passing of orders or information, results
+of fire, and so on. Hold the men responsible
+that if they are out of reach of the
+control of their leader, it is their duty to
+carry out the spirit of the orders under
+which they set out. To bring their
+responsibility home to them, you must
+make a point of calling men occasionally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>
+to give an account of what they did when
+detached, and why they did it, so that they
+may pause for a moment if they are of the
+sort that take advantage of opportunity
+to sit behind a hedge and smoke a
+cigarette when they ought to be up and
+doing.</p>
+
+<p>Here you will naturally say that this is
+all very well, but how is one to look after
+men scattered here and there over several
+hundred yards of rough country? Here
+come in the non-commissioned officers, of
+whom, so far, no mention has been made,
+and also your subaltern officers. Since
+success in battle will depend largely on the
+efficiency of fire unit commanders, and the
+normal fire unit is the section (I.T., 6 (4)),
+it is evident that the section commander is
+a very responsible person, and much must
+be expected from him.</p>
+
+<p>Your subalterns and platoon sergeants
+you must use as your delegates in supervising
+and leading the platoons to which
+they belong, except when they are needed
+to act specifically as platoon commanders,
+keeping themselves constantly on the
+move among the men, looking at the details
+of the work, sighting of rifles, aiming,
+use of cover, choice of lines of movement,
+not lying down themselves nor participating
+in the operation as combatants. When you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>
+wish to give them practice in setting exercises
+themselves, turn the whole company
+over to one of them and act yourself as
+critic, or act as subaltern under his orders.
+This is one means of supervision.</p>
+
+<p>The next is your non-commissioned
+officers. They are in direct command,
+and you must hold them responsible for
+their sections, but when their units
+are acting in conjunction with others, it
+is evident they cannot act both as commanders
+and instructors unless certain
+concessions are made, for if the non-commissioned
+officers as well as the men of a
+section were to act as they would have to
+do under real fire, each non-commissioned
+officer might be able only to supervise a
+man or two on his right and left, the rest
+being too far off. Therefore, at the beginning
+of an exercise, you should tell the
+non-commissioned officers whether, in
+addition to giving executive commands,
+they are to be at liberty to move about
+freely and act as instructors also. Needless
+to say, in instructional exercises, and
+until the men are quite seasoned, you
+should let them do this, but, on the other
+hand, in exercises meant to illustrate
+actual conflict and the limitations imposed
+by the presence of an enemy, they should
+pay attention to those limitations so that
+they, as well as the men, may be prepared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>
+to endure the disabilities imposed by Service
+conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Next comes yourself. Once you have
+given your subordinates your orders for
+any exercise, leave them to carry it
+through, and make yourself as ubiquitous
+as may be in supervision. Keep criticism
+for the end, and interference only
+for the prevention of absurdities. To
+make yourself ubiquitous, the best way
+is to use your horse, and make
+the noble animal do the running about
+with you on his back. You can then get
+through about six times what you can on
+your own feet, by cantering from one
+section to another, and you get a better
+view of the whole performance, but you
+must remember when correcting anything
+the men are doing that you are mounted,
+while they are probably kneeling or lying,
+and much that you see is invisible to them.
+Equip yourself with a pair of field glasses,
+and also with a megaphone, which latter
+should be about fourteen inches long, and
+carried by a strap over the shoulder, the
+strap punched so as to be capable of being
+made long or buckled up close under the
+arm, according as you need to use the
+megaphone, or wish to get it out of your
+way. Use your glasses to look at what
+sections and individual men in them are
+doing. They will reveal to you small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>
+mistakes that escape notice at some
+distance with the unaided eye. The megaphone
+saves you a lot of small excursions
+to get to earshot of men, and also a lot of
+shouting at a distance, which is fatiguing,
+and is apt to lead to exacerbation of
+tempers, both of the shouter and the
+listener. Moreover, it enables you to hear
+as well as speak from a distance. This is
+done simply by holding it aimed at the
+other man with your ear instead of your
+mouth at the mouthpiece. Use your
+whistle to call attention to orders or
+signals, carry it in your hand, not in your
+pocket, and put a loop in the cord and
+pass the loop over your middle finger, or
+you will be always dropping it. Instead
+of a cane, carry a small semaphore flag,
+and give your signals with it. This saves
+a good deal of arm-waving, and tends to
+smarten up movement, as it is more easily
+seen than the arm. By bringing all these
+aids into your service, you will find that
+you can make your influence felt, although
+the sections are separated by the greatest
+distances which they are ever likely to be
+called on to take up in battle.</p>
+
+
+<h3>VII.</h3>
+
+<p>Besides discipline, there are certain
+other moral influences which give strength<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>
+to an Army. These are indicated
+in I.T., 1 (4 and 5). The two mighty
+forces of religion and patriotism are
+not treated of here, as they have their
+roots not in any system of training,
+but in the upbringing of the youth
+of the nation, but there is one force
+which you, as a humble commander, can
+call into play, and that is shame—the
+dread of losing the respect of oneself and
+of one’s comrades. During peace training
+you may make men dread the public
+shame of misbehaviour by the aid of those
+means of supervision which I have suggested,
+but in war the power to supervise
+is greatly curtailed, and it is very desirable
+to find something to replace it, and, at the
+same time, to supplement a too absolute
+reliance on the stoutness of men’s hearts,
+for this may prove a broken reed when
+the troops are largely composed of unseasoned
+soldiers.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>To a certain extent, the organisation of
+the company into permanent sections provides
+us with the substitute we desire, as
+the men of sections are likely to be
+cognisant of how their comrades behave
+when out of view of the rest of
+the company as long as the whole
+of the men of the section are in
+view of each other; but this will not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>
+always be the case: for example, in wood
+fighting or in house fighting, both of
+which would assuredly occur if our men
+have to fight in Europe. In such fighting
+everything comes down to the pushfulness
+of the individual soldiers, for even sections
+will lose their leaders. Therefore let us
+carry the principle of the company
+organisation logically one step further, and
+make the men of a file as they fall in on
+parade in the section act in conjunction for
+the remainder of that parade. This
+arrangement is recognised in the last edition
+of the Musketry Regulations, and has,
+at various times, been adopted in former
+drill books of our Army, and has given
+excellent results, while, if the present
+book does not prescribe it, at least
+it countenances it (I.T., 123 (12)), and
+I strongly recommend your introducing
+it into your company. It is likely
+to produce emulation in the fire fight
+among men whose hearts are in the
+right place, and in the assault it must produce
+the advantages of combination, for
+two men coming on with the bayonet in
+conjunction are far more likely to do
+someone an injury than if they each came
+on independently, since in the latter case
+a cool and skilful antagonist might dispose
+of one and then the other, even as the
+Japanese are said to have stepped aside<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>
+when charged by the Russians, who, running
+forward blindly and head down, fell
+an easy prey to their alert little enemies,
+and were bayoneted in succession as they
+arrived. The proof of this pudding is the
+eating thereof, and if your company ever
+happens to be alongside a company told
+off daily into haphazard sections, as
+is sometimes done, in spite of rules,
+you will then see the difference, even
+if it is only at manœuvres. In close
+order they may still look alike, but let
+them be extended in rough country, and
+you will see that yours is the blade of
+steel; the particles of its metal are coherent;
+it will bend, but not break. The
+other is of wrought iron, polished on the
+surface but of brittle material, and sure to
+fly to pieces in any rough usage. By this
+file organisation you will produce in the
+men in the ranks the highest degree of
+cohesion—the habit of regulating their
+own actions in accordance with the
+actions and needs of others in furtherance
+of one general aim.</p>
+
+<p>Having secured this cohesion among the
+men, you have still to produce it within
+the company as between platoons and
+sections. For cohesion is the coping stone
+of the edifice of efficiency, and rests on a
+basis of discipline, moral and training.
+It makes possible the application of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>
+the principle of mutual support which
+is indispensable in the attack (F.S.R.,
+105 (4)), and it enables retirements
+and defensive action to be carried out
+without disorganisation, and with the
+minimum of loss. Whenever sections
+act together, see to it that the non-commissioned
+officers keep an eye on the
+movements of the others, and question
+them as to the extent their orders to their
+sections should be influenced by the needs
+and movements of the others. By this
+means they will be induced to check the
+inclination to play only for their own
+hands, and to remember always that their
+unit is part of a combination which can
+best attain success by acting accordingly.</p>
+
+
+<h3>VIII.</h3>
+
+<p>Training is the preparation of officers
+and men for the duties which they will
+carry out in war. These duties consist in
+the application of the principles contained
+in the training manuals, and it is your
+business to provide concrete examples.
+But in these days of long range arms combats
+take a very long time, and you cannot
+expect in a parade of perhaps one or at
+most two hours, and with a limited extent
+of ground, to carry out all the varied
+phases of an operation which, in warfare,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>
+would take anything from six to eighteen
+hours to complete, and would extend over
+perhaps five or six miles of country, even
+if we limit ourselves to the extreme ranges
+of heavy artillery, and take no account of
+movements not within the range of possible
+fire. Therefore, in your training, you
+must be analytical, choosing for one
+parade such phase or phases as you have
+time and ground for, and doing the others
+later on. When your company knows all it
+can be taught thus piecemeal, it will be
+early enough to try to get time and ground
+to perform continuous operations.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>For instance, infantry in the attack will
+usually have to go through three phases:
+first, the advance to fire positions; second,
+the fire fight (I.T., 121 (6)); and,
+third, the assault, which latter must
+be divided into the charge and the steps
+which follow it according as it is successful
+or not. You will have to train for
+these three phases. The first, against an
+enemy armed with guns and rifles, would
+consist in opening out from column of
+route into little columns—sections or
+platoons—and moving forward in this
+formation, the main object being to
+escape being smashed to pieces by his
+artillery fire before being able to do him
+any damage (I.T., 118 (3)). Later, you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>
+would come under his rifle fire, and your
+little columns must scatter out into lines
+of men in extended order (I.T., 118 (5)).
+These movements seem, and are, very easy,
+but still they must be practised in peace
+if they are to be done coolly and without
+confusion in time of war when the first
+intimation of the necessity for opening out
+may be the shriek and crash of what will be
+to most of the men the first shrapnel
+they have ever seen, and withal aimed
+at themselves. This phase requires the
+presence of all four platoons of the company,
+and so may be kept over till the men
+have been trained in the phase which it
+precedes, namely, that of the fire fight.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The fire fight begins when the attacking
+infantry have got as far forward as they
+can without having to reply to the enemy’s
+fire, and it is quite distinct from the preceding
+phase of passive endurance. Success
+in the fire fight is an absolute necessity
+for a successful assault. Possibly your
+enemy has prepared your success before
+war broke out by abstaining from training
+his men in musketry, but even if his shooting
+is inferior, the fire fight will call into
+play all the qualities and skill of which
+your men are possessed, both individually
+and collectively. Accordingly you should
+practise them in the fire fight from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>
+opening of their fire up to the assault, first
+individually and then collectively.</p>
+
+<p>The assault can be dissected into the
+fixing of bayonets with as little cessation
+of fire as possible, the charge itself, followed,
+according as it is held to have been
+successful or not, by the rallying of the
+troops, pursuit of the enemy by fire and
+strengthening of the captured position, or
+the withdrawal or such mitigation of the
+results of failure as may fairly be attempted.
+Thus, by considering the attack
+as made up of phases as above, it is, I
+think, possible and instructive to practise
+each one of them separately, on a short
+parade, and on limited ground, by placing
+the men in the order in which they would
+be at beginning of any one phase, and
+carrying on from there.</p>
+
+<p>Before beginning any exercise, call your
+non-commissioned officers out to the front,
+and explain to them and to the men, in
+very full detail, what the exercise is intended
+to be, what points particularly
+require attention, how you want it done,
+and the sequence of events, if it involves
+combined action between the different
+units; whether the company is supposed
+to be acting by itself or as part of the
+battalion, and, if the latter, whether your
+side are having the support of artillery fire
+or not, where the enemy is, and what he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>
+is, i.e., is he infantry only, or has he also
+cavalry and guns, what he is supposed to
+be doing, attacking, defending, retiring,
+marching, or what. Deal with all such
+points before you start, otherwise you will
+find your non-commissioned officers and
+men filling in the blanks each according to
+his own bent of imagination, and everyone
+in consequence playing at a different game.
+To be thus able to define the scope and
+arrangements of the exercise, you must
+have it clearly planned out in all detail in
+your head. This you should do if possible
+the day before the parade, so that you will
+have the thing well thought out, and events
+marshalled in logical sequence.</p>
+
+<p>At all exercises, if possible, have the
+enemy represented by a skeleton force, as
+directed by T. &amp; M.R., 48, a few actual
+men with blank cartridge, and a red range
+flag or two to roughly define the enemy’s
+position. Use for this purpose old soldiers,
+if you have them, or, at least, men
+who have already performed the exercise
+you mean to do, and it is better to take
+one or two men from each platoon than
+to send off a whole section, and so
+break up the company organisation. Six
+or eight men are quite enough to form any
+skeleton enemy that is needed for a company
+to manœuvre against. You must
+give the skeleton enemy definite orders as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>
+to what they are to represent, where they
+are to go, and what to do and not to do.
+If they are given at all a free hand, especially
+if under the enterprising British
+subaltern, they are very apt to indulge in
+far-reaching manœuvres, and subject you
+to sudden raids and onslaughts which upset
+your scheme for the parade, and leave
+you no enemy at the very point you wished
+to have him. If you cannot arrange for a
+skeleton enemy, at least never fail to indicate
+some position as supposed to be held
+by an enemy. If your exercise ground is
+limited in extent, fix the enemy’s position
+outside it, regardless of whether you have,
+or have not, licence to traverse the intervening
+space, so as to avoid carrying out
+your exercise within impossibly close range
+of the enemy. In default of a skeleton
+enemy to provide you with a target, tell
+your men to aim at any members of the
+public who are about the enemy’s position.
+This is better than snapping at inanimate
+objects, as it gives more interest and so
+keeps up careful aiming. As regards the
+general method of training, follow commonsense
+and the manuals, and work from
+individual up to collective, bearing in mind
+always that collective work is built up of
+the work of the individuals who throughout
+have to be kept up to the collar by the
+various arts which I have touched on. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>
+less of the iron hand that is shown the
+better.</p>
+
+
+<h3>IX.</h3>
+
+<p>I make no mention of scouts, as they are
+specialists. They must be selected after
+you have got to know all the men of your
+company and their capabilities. Their
+training as scouts cannot be carried out by
+you personally at the same time that you
+are training the company. To be really of
+use, it will be a whole-time job for one
+officer, and you will either have to turn
+them over to one of the subalterns, or go
+with them yourself, preferably the former,
+if the subaltern is capable. When they
+are trained and fall in on parade as scouts
+in their sections, it is a good plan to have
+places permanently reserved for them as
+third files from the left of sections (the
+blank file’s place) so that they can leave the
+ranks without disturbing the formation for
+forming fours.</p>
+
+<p>As regards dress one thing is quite
+certain, and that is that with only
+one suit of uniform men cannot appear
+clean and smart off duty in it, and yet use
+it for field work with all the lying down
+and knockabout wear involved. In time
+of national danger, appearances will go to
+the wall, and men will do their work at the
+expense of the fit of their one and only suit
+of uniform.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> A cause now exists, and the men have come out.</p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_I">EXERCISE I.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Individual Advance in Extended Order.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The exercise portrays what men will
+have to do when the rifle fire of the enemy
+becomes effective, and necessitates extension
+of the small columns which are used
+to dodge his shell fire (I.T., 118 (3)). This
+will be somewhere over one thousand yards
+from the enemy, and perhaps fourteen hundred
+may be taken as a maximum. From
+the point at which extension from the small
+columns is made up till the time of the
+assault, a line of men in extended order is
+the suitable formation, unless there is some
+covered way leading forward which can be
+traversed in file or other formation. Once
+the advance has begun it should be
+carried through as quickly as possible
+without exhausting the men too much, and
+fire should not be opened until it is absolutely
+necessary to neutralise that of the
+enemy, firstly, because it lessens the speed
+of the advance and so increases the time
+during which the attackers are exposed to
+the enemy’s fire; secondly, because once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>
+men start firing it is more difficult to lead
+them forward; and, thirdly, because it uses
+up cartridges whose value and difficulty of
+replacement increases at every yard
+nearer the enemy’s position.</p>
+
+<p>The exercise is then to train men to gain
+ground to the front with the minimum of
+exposure to the enemy’s fire, and as quickly
+as may be, firstly, without firing, and,
+secondly, while firing themselves, but in
+the latter case speed must be subordinated
+to the development of a fire of sufficient
+accuracy and volume to largely neutralise
+that of the enemy, for at this stage of the
+battle advances under fire will only be
+possible if it is inaccurate; and the only
+certain means of causing it to be inaccurate
+is by disturbing the enemy’s nerves and
+aim by bringing to bear on him the fire
+both of supporting troops and of the firing
+line itself (I.T., 118 (6)).</p>
+
+<p>The regulations do not encourage the
+opening of fire by units less than two
+platoons at ranges over one thousand yards
+as the results do not compensate for the
+delay. Under one thousand and up to six
+hundred it is desired that fire should
+be controlled and directed, i.e., the
+amount, and the target should be specified
+by commanders (I.T., 116). Under
+six hundred yards it is recognised<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>
+that individual fire gives good results,
+and, moreover, control becomes almost
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Divide your exercise accordingly. First,
+teach merely the advance without firing,
+letting the men know that they are not to
+fire, as a rule, without orders under six hundred
+yards, and then let them advance
+firing at each halt behind cover, choosing
+their own target and times of firing as they
+would do in the stage of “close fire,” i.e.,
+six or perhaps eight hundred yards up to
+assaulting distance, which latter is about
+two hundred yards from the enemy’s line of
+defences.</p>
+
+<p>This parade is one that can be done with
+very few men present, but it is necessary
+to form them up into sections with a large
+proportion of non-commissioned officers.
+Keep the men in their proper sections, but,
+if necessary, join two or three together, so
+as to form sections with three or four non-commissioned
+officers to each. Thus, if you
+form four sections, they should each be in
+reality a boiling down of the platoons. In
+future exercises I will also suppose that you
+thus concentrate your men, keeping the
+members of each section together, and
+form them into sections of size suitable to
+the work of the day, and no further allusion
+will be made to this.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p>
+
+<p>Before taking the men on to the exercise
+ground, you should choose a point on it
+from which you intend to start your advance.
+Some fourteen hundred or less
+yards from this choose a position for your
+skeleton enemy, who will consist of three
+or four old soldiers with forty rounds of
+blank each. If men are not available, put
+up a few red range flags. Whichever are
+used, put them into some position that an
+enemy might reasonably occupy; do not
+simply dump them down on to the ground.
+The skeleton enemy must be told to show
+up occasionally, and to open a slow but
+regular fire as soon as they see your men
+advancing, but only to keep it up as long as
+your men show themselves in making their
+advance. A complete cessation of fire will
+denote that your men are making such good
+use of cover as to be invisible to the
+enemy. Let your men also know that
+these instructions have been given, and
+that such an advance is the ideal to be
+sought for, provided always that it is not
+absurdly slow. If neither men nor flags are
+available you must make believe and point
+out a supposed position at a supposed
+distance. I have already pointed out the
+advantages of having a skeleton enemy to
+work against.</p>
+
+<p>In front of your starting point, and about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>
+four hundred yards from it, decide on some
+point at which you will let the men halt
+after they have made their way across the
+intervening space. Here I will refer you to
+the diagram. The line AA´ is your starting
+point, CC´ the enemy’s position. Your
+exercise consists in showing individual men
+how to gain ground from AA´ as far as
+BB´, distant about four hundred yards
+from AA´, with the minimum of exposure
+to the enemy’s aimed fire. Draw up the sections,
+supposing there are two, on the line
+AA´, fifty to one hundred yards apart, and
+let the men sit down facing away from
+CC´ and, if possible, under cover, so that
+they may not see how their comrades
+negotiate the course. Space the available
+non-commissioned officers of each section
+along the course from A to B and A´ to
+B´, with orders to supervise and criticise
+the advance of each man within the limits
+of their beats. Allow a belt of twenty to
+thirty yards broad from A to B and from
+A´ up to B´, within which men must seek
+their cover. This belt is made broad here
+to afford instruction, but when the men
+work together in their sections, it will be
+much narrower, as they will then be extended
+at intervals of five or six paces only.
+Start off one man at a time from each section
+to cross from AA´ to BB´, to move as
+if under fire from the enemy in rushes from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>
+one cover to another. As soon as a man
+reaches BB´ he may fall out and watch the
+movements of the remainder. Do not send
+off a fresh man until the preceding one has
+nearly reached BB´, so that your non-commissioned
+officers may have good opportunity
+to look at each man as he goes. As
+for yourself, be active in supervising both
+sections, using your horse if you have one.</p>
+
+<p class="center bold p2">DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. &amp; II.</p>
+
+<hr class="r15">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>CC´ = Enemy’s position about 1400<sup>X</sup> from AA´. Enemy<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">being represented by men with blank cartridge</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">or flags.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="i_b_044" style="max-width: 39.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i_b_044.jpg" alt="DIAGRAM I. FOR EXERCISES I. &amp; II.">
+  <figcaption class="caption">
+</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>AA´ = Starting points 1400 yards from enemy’s
+position.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Men start from AA´ to cross to BB´</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">without exposing themselves to the</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">enemy at CC.´</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Crosses indicate cover, and the chain</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">dotted lines routes by which men</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">may advance.</span></p>
+
+<p>AA´ to BB´ is about 400<sup>X</sup></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following are points to be attended
+to:—Before leaving their cover, men must
+decide where their next halting place is to
+be, and make for it quickly, and with
+decision. There must be no emerging into
+the open, and then looking about for a bit
+of cover to go for. The length of each
+rush should not be enough to let the enemy
+have time for deliberate aim—fifty yards or
+so is quite the limit for this. If there is
+no cover the men must lie down flat between
+each rush. Occasionally it is
+advisable to make a long rush from one
+good position to another at sprinting
+pace without stopping at all (I.T., 121
+(12)), so this should be practised sometimes,
+the non-commissioned officers at that
+part of the beat being ordered to tell the
+men what is needed. Once a man has decided
+on his next halting place, and is in
+wind, he should leave his cover with a
+jump. The slow uprising of a figure is
+sure to draw the enemy’s attention, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>make his fire more accurate than it would
+be if no intimation were given him. Similarly,
+on reaching cover, men should fall
+down quickly, and not lower themselves
+slowly to earth.</p>
+
+<p>Insist on a careful choice of cover, a very
+small depression or elevation, even six
+inches, is enough to give cover from view,
+and therefore helps in escaping aimed fire,
+but in peace time men will not take trouble
+over apparently trifling things like this unless
+it is rubbed into them by close supervision.
+Noticeable objects should be
+avoided as the enemy may have taken their
+range, and they help him to define a point
+on which to concentrate fire. If a man
+makes mistakes and shows indecision at
+any part of the course, call him back to the
+last cover he left, and let him start again
+from there after pointing out what he has
+done wrong.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>II. The advance combined with individual
+fire.</em></h3>
+
+<p>The second part of the exercise is done
+in the same way as the first, the men advancing
+and taking cover as before, but
+now using their rifles. They have to be
+taught to use the cover to advantage, both
+as a protection and as an aid to their shooting,
+and to take pains in searching for a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>
+good target, and in their sighting, aiming
+and firing. For purposes of instruction, six
+hundred yards is rather a short range to
+open fire at, and I recommend your making
+a start at eight hundred or so, i.e., two hundred
+yards beyond BB´ towards the enemy,
+working up to four hundred. This necessitates
+judging distance at beyond the practically
+point-blank ranges of the Lee-Enfield
+rifle, and makes the men use their
+eyes keenly to spot the enemy, while it
+avoids a certain amount of unreality which
+is apt to attach to instructional movements
+carried on in front of a skeleton enemy at
+the deadly short ranges under three hundred
+yards.</p>
+
+<p>Points which should be considered
+are:—</p>
+
+<p>To fire from the right and lower edge of
+any cover, not over the top.</p>
+
+<p>Make the men keep a count of the number
+of times they snap over the course (i.e.,
+cartridges used), and report to the non-commissioned
+officer at the finish of their
+course.</p>
+
+<p>Let the men do their own judging distance,
+and let non-commissioned officers
+drop at once on any man who either fails
+to do so, or forgets, as they often do, to
+adjust the backsight.</p>
+
+<p>Cultivate a habit among the men of looking
+about for different targets, not firing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>
+only straight in front of themselves, but on
+their right and left, so that when they come
+to fire collectively they may feel nothing
+new in being told to open the enfilade fire
+recommended by I.T., 116 (11), and also
+get the custom of watching for the enemy
+all along his front.</p>
+
+<p>These two exercises of advancing with
+and without firing are the groundwork of
+the fighting efficiency of the soldier in the
+attack, and will be found to call for every
+natural and acquired qualification the individual
+possesses. Good shooting, quick
+judgment, activity, wind, and everything
+else are needed if the work is done with
+full observance of the conditions which
+would exist under fire. Put the men through
+exercises of this sort several times, and,
+if possible, on different ground, till they
+acquire quickness in choosing cover and
+the arts that make an expert fighter. Confidence
+in themselves will come with the
+skill they acquire, and with confidence
+comes decision of mind, which is really
+more important than bodily efficiency. If
+you have time, a useful rider to this exercise
+is to work the men by pairs, as is recommended
+in the Musketry Regulations
+for the observation of fire, and so introduce
+them early to the use of the file organisation
+which I have advised you to adopt.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_II">EXERCISE II.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Retirement by Pairs.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>A sound provision against panic among
+young troops is to accustom them to regard
+a retirement as all in the day’s work, and
+not as an exceptional undertaking which
+their anxiety may invest with possibilities
+of disaster. The essence of successful retirement
+in face of an enemy lies in the
+continuous opposition, or appearance of it,
+offered to the enemy by one portion of the
+troops, while others draw off to take post
+to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost
+portion. I.T., 137, gives the idea in
+few words. It does not mention individual
+training in this, but it is useful to put men
+through the movements, both to cultivate
+cohesion in the ranks, and as a tactical
+exercise. It may happen in war that an
+extended line has to give ground when
+engaged with the enemy, and this under so
+heavy a fire as to make movement except
+over short distances impossible without
+great loss. Such a withdrawal would mean
+that the troops are in a very tight corner,
+and would test them very highly, but that
+is another matter. It may happen, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>
+should be prepared for. A withdrawal
+under these conditions might perhaps be
+carried out by the alternate movement of
+men in files covered by the fire of the
+others, until such a distance from the
+enemy had been obtained as to allow sections
+or companies to take up the
+alteration. Up to that distance it will be
+simply a reversal of what was done in
+Exercise I., but worked by files—a front
+rank man and his rear rank man, one
+going back a short distance, and the other
+firing to cover the movement. Again, men
+on patrol or otherwise detached may have
+to retire to avoid capture, or for many other
+reasons, when they might not be under
+close and heavy fire, but still would be
+under the necessity of preventing the
+enemy closing in on them or surrounding
+them. In this case, the length of each
+withdrawal would be much longer than in
+the former case; one man would fire while
+the other made off perhaps two or three
+hundred yards at his best speed. Train
+for both contingencies; it can be done in
+one and the same parade. Skeleton enemy
+as usual. For the withdrawal under
+heavy fire, let the sections sit down and
+fall out at BB´ (Diagram I.), and put out
+the non-commissioned officers between BA
+and B´ A´ as before. Call out the men by
+files, tell them to work back to A and A´,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>
+one firing, the other retiring. As a rule they
+should retire past each other before halting.
+The same points must be observed as in
+Exercise No. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, and the quicker they are
+in movement the better, but they must be
+taught to go in quick time also when so
+ordered (I.T., 137 (4)).</p>
+
+<p>For the retirement of a file as on patrol,
+do exactly the same, but you should work
+over six hundred yards of ground or so to
+correct any tendency to import the short
+rush into this exercise, which would be out
+of place, and also to let men have more
+practice in looking for suitable fire positions
+from which they can both fire on the
+enemy, <em>and from which they can get away
+when their turn comes</em>, a point they often
+neglect at first. The different nature of
+the two exercises must be made quite
+clear.</p>
+
+<p>At this exercise you should bring before
+your men the need of using all sorts of
+<em>ruses</em> in a retirement, the use of rapid fire
+just before withdrawing, the sham withdrawal
+acted by ceasing fire, and retiring
+a few yards, but only to halt and re-open
+fire after a few seconds if the enemy has
+been tempted to expose himself, thinking
+the coast clear, the real withdrawal effected
+so carefully that the enemy is not sure
+whether you are there still or not, and so
+on; and make them put their own ideas of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>
+these plans into action and tell them if they
+are doing what is feasible on service or
+not. Bar all “manœuvre slimness,” i.e.,
+anything that could not be done on service.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_III">EXERCISE III.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Individual Training in use of Fire
+and Fire Discipline.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Early lessons in fire discipline can be
+given in single rank on the parade ground,
+but the open country and extended order
+are wanted for training men to the fullest
+extent under service conditions. Only in
+the open country can be got the variety
+of targets, ranges and the visual training
+which are necessary for a complete education.
+Men must be taught, and taught
+again, that the taking up of extended
+order, and movement over all sorts of
+ground, in no way mean that they are
+to pass at once beyond the control of
+their unit leaders, or that it is optional to
+continue to take any sort of pains with
+their shooting just because their non-commissioned
+officers cannot stand over them,
+but have to shout orders from a distance.</p>
+
+<p>This exercise consists in advancing
+and retiring in extended order with fire
+and the use of cover when halted; but to
+allow for more prolonged shooting practice
+and closer supervision than are possible
+when carrying out an attack or retirement<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>
+as on service, the halts are longer
+and movements should at first be made
+in quick time.</p>
+
+<p>Put out your skeleton enemy on a good
+broad front, so as to allow room for
+change of targets, and do not have them
+all in one straight line, so that each target
+shall call for a change of sighting. Let
+the sections work independently of each
+other under their section commanders,
+who, with the other non-commissioned
+officers, will have to act both as commanders
+and instructors. Bring the
+sections up to about twelve hundred yards
+from the enemy; get them into a line with
+intervals between them, i.e., spaces
+measuring from the flank of one to the
+flank of the other, sufficient to admit of
+each section being extended to two or
+three paces between men without its flank
+men coming too close to those of other
+sections, e.g., with two sections of eight
+file, i.e., sixteen men each; you must
+leave room for half of each to extend to
+two paces towards the other, and keep a
+fair interval; that is, from the centre of
+each of the above sections of eight men
+in each rank you want 8 ÷ 2 (half the
+number in the front rank) × 2 (two ranks)
+× 2 (two paces extension) = 16 paces for
+the line extended and an interval of, say,
+30 yards, which gives 46 yards between<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>
+each section centre to centre. Now, let
+the section commanders order the men to
+extend, lie down, take cover and open
+fire. The unit commander, the non-commissioned
+officer in charge of the section, is
+to name the target and distance and also
+the rate of fire, rapid or slow, at all distances
+over six hundred yards from the
+enemy (I.T., 116 (5)), unless it is desired
+on occasion to train men to do this for
+themselves. After fire has been delivered,
+direct section commanders to proceed
+with the exercise, giving orders for advancing,
+halting and firing, the advance
+to be made from cover to cover as in
+Exercise No. <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, but in quick time. Yourself
+supervise in chief, and tell section
+commanders when you want to give
+orders as to the firing or movement, and
+let them give the executive commands,
+after which you and they should pass
+along the lines and scrutinise each man’s
+actions in carrying out the orders, questioning
+them, and repealing hints you
+may have given when telling them the
+object and methods of the practice, if
+they appear not to be giving them effect.
+The value of the practice depends on the
+orders you give as to the firing and the
+following are suggested:—</p>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) Switching the fire of all the rifles
+on to different parts of the enemy’s position,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>
+sometimes straight in front, <em>but
+quite as often</em> at his extreme flanks. This
+is to introduce the use of enfilade fire
+(I.T., 116 (11)) and the habit of giving support
+by fire to other units (F.S.R., 105 (4)),
+by concentrating the fire on to particular
+targets.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) Distributing the fire laterally along
+the whole or a part of the enemy’s front
+(I.T., 116 (10)). This may be done by
+giving the section a particular extent of the
+enemy’s front, e.g., “from the dry tree to
+the gate in the hedge.” The section commander
+then allots those of the enemy,
+who can be viewed within his bit of front
+to individual men, or preferably files of
+men, who are to treat them as their especial
+charge and keep on firing at them
+till otherwise ordered, or till the enemy
+shifts. Of course, if there is not enough
+of the skeleton enemy to give each file in
+the section a live antagonist (and there
+won’t be on your parades), the commander
+must indicate bits of cover
+which individual men of the enemy might
+be expected to use and tell his men to fire
+at these spots. This is a most important
+practice, and needs a good deal of attention
+and application before the men get
+really quick at it. It means, of course,
+that on service you will make it your
+business to allow as few of the enemy’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>
+riflemen as possible to be free of the distraction
+of having some bullets landing
+about them, to upset their nerves and aim.
+Unless some plan is adopted to do this
+all along his line, it is all too probable
+your men will be exposed to some accurate
+fire from rifles held in steady hands,
+and even one rifle so held has, to my
+knowledge, caused a loss of eleven men
+in as many minutes. This lateral distribution
+is rather difficult, but it is easy,
+compared with the concomitant task of
+spotting where the men of the enemy are
+hidden, if they really try to hide, at anything
+but the shortest fighting ranges.
+The only remedy for this is for each private
+to carry field glasses of sorts; you
+will not get them from Government, but
+if any of your men are keen enough to
+go in for spotting a hidden enemy for
+themselves with glasses and would bring
+their own to parade, forbid them not, but
+encourage it. I have been told that in some
+of the yeomanry corps in the South
+African war nearly every trooper raised
+somehow and somewhere a pair of glasses—some
+were mother o’ pearl and silver-mounted,
+but did the spotting all right
+in spite of that.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>c</em>) Passing orders and changing targets.
+Under heavy fire non-commissioned
+officers will not be able to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>
+move along the line, and orders must
+be passed either by word of mouth
+or by written messages passed from hand to
+hand; the former is apt to be slow, and the
+orders garbled en route unless practised
+beforehand; the latter is not very practical
+as men in action are too busy to read bits
+of paper or trouble themselves to see that
+they are passed on (I.T., 119 (4)). To
+practise the verbal method while the men
+are engaged in firing at any particular
+target, give orders to one man in a low
+tone (you would have to speak loud if ball
+cartridge were being used) to fire at some
+other target, and to pass the word. The
+man then tells his neighbours on each side,
+and yourself and a non-commissioned
+officer then follow the order each way, and
+when a man varies it admonish him to repeat
+just what he got from the last speaker,
+no more and no less. In a little time the
+men will become exact in taking and passing
+messages. This method should be confined
+to directions about firing; orders for
+movement should invariably be given by
+commanders by word themselves or signal,
+and men should not be allowed to repeat
+these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on
+service, as a signal may be seen and acted
+on by someone for whom it was not intended.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>d</em>) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>
+or bits of cover, let fire be directed at
+civilians who are moving about in the field
+of view. Call on some individual man by
+name to choose some such target, and tell
+him he has to pass the word to the rest of
+his squad what target he has chosen and
+to fire at it. This gives practice in target
+definition, i.e., describing its position so
+that other men can know just where to look
+for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid
+of noticeable objects to do this quickly,
+but it is important, as the difficulty of locating
+a well-concealed enemy with smokeless
+powder requires that every pair of eyes in
+the ranks should be engaged in the search
+till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen
+are seen, and the information given to
+everyone in the firing line. Until this is
+done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise
+aimed by unaimed fire, a pretty hopeless
+task. Hence train your men to use
+their eyes for seeing and their tongues for
+description.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>e</em>) Accustoming the men to judge distance,
+and use their backsights without
+orders. Judging distance for the men as a
+formal practice is confined to ranges under
+800 yards, but it does no harm to let them
+judge greater ranges. Let the unit commanders
+define targets to be fired at, omitting
+to state the range, and let the men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>
+judge it for themselves and fire. Walk up
+the line and see that no man forgets to
+adjust his backsight for the distance he
+estimates. If possible, have the correct
+ranges taken previously with a range
+finder, and let the men know what they are
+after they have aimed. Each change of
+target gives the men a useful lesson in
+judging distance.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>f</em>) Having put the men through all
+sorts of paces in the way of firing while
+advancing and retiring, in quick time do
+the same thing again, but with the movements
+in double time, and, in addition,
+carry out the increases and decreases of the
+extension, inclines and changes of direction
+given in I.T., 93, throughout insisting
+on the same steadiness in firing as
+when in quick time. All this will at first
+probably get the men “rattled,” and the
+benefit of it is that after some of it they
+will get over being “rattled,” and will not
+let hurried orders or speed of movement
+interfere with deliberation and steadiness
+in shooting.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_IV">EXERCISE IV.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Assault.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Exercise III. can suitably be wound up
+by a practice in delivering an assault, as
+this does not take long, and the moral
+may be pointed that all fire training is
+only a preparation for a successful
+assault. The fixing of bayonets before
+assault commonly leads to a complete
+cessation of fire in the firing line. This
+is quite wrong, as such complete cessation
+of fire by the firing line must largely surrender
+for the time being that superiority
+of fire which facilitates the delivery
+of the assault (I.T., 121 (7)), for it
+gives the enemy a chance to take aim
+again. Supporting fire by artillery or
+infantry not in the firing line cannot be
+relied on when the firing line has reached
+assaulting distance. Therefore, do not
+have a simultaneous fixing of bayonets,
+but let one-half fix while the other fires,
+and the best arrangement is evidently one
+that ensures a fire being kept up along
+the whole front and not in patches. The
+system I have found most satisfactory is
+to fix bayonets by ranks, the front rank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>
+fixing while the rear rank continues firing,
+and then the rear rank fixing while the
+front rank fires. It may be done by odd
+and even files, or other ways, but, the
+company being organised in files, the
+same men are usually in the front and
+rear rank, and there is no difficulty in
+their remembering which they are. The
+important thing is to adhere to one
+system once it is adopted, and have it
+well understood by all. It does not
+matter much if a few men fix bayonets
+out of turn, so long as the fire is merely
+diminished and not stopped during the
+time bayonets are being fixed. In the
+charge, the men should work by their
+files, i.e., the two men of each file should
+act together and run at the same objective.
+The meaning of this is that in actual
+conflict two men would go together for
+the same individual enemy, and between
+the two of them they would be pretty sure
+to bring him to an untimely end, if the
+enemy really waited for the steel, and
+with less chance of his doing damage than
+if the combat took place man-to-man;
+thereafter they could turn their attentions
+to some other person.</p>
+
+<p>For the practice choose and indicate
+any position for assault; work sections
+up to about two hundred yards
+from it, and then order rapid fire and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>
+bayonets to be fixed. As soon as all
+are ready, order the charge to be sounded.
+(I.T., 124). When the men hear the
+bugle they must at once jump from their
+cover and go straight and hard at the
+position; there must be no waiting by individuals
+to fire a last shot or two. The
+rush should be made suddenly and
+swiftly, so that the enemy has no time to
+see what is happening before the men are
+well on their way at him. When the
+position is reached, pass right through it
+and well beyond it, to escape hostile gunfire
+(I.T., 124 (5)), and then order the
+“Halt,” when the men may lie down
+under cover and open a pursuing fire.
+Walk along the line and see, with the
+help of non-commissioned officers, whether
+men of each file are together; if so, it will
+be proof that they have obeyed the directions
+to keep together during the charge.
+Allow a minute or two of the pursuing
+fire, then let section or platoon commanders
+sound their whistles, close and
+reform their sections under cover. On
+the whistle-sound (a succession of short
+blasts), men rise and double to where
+the commander is, resume their places,
+and lie down. This re-organisation
+is very important for you as company
+commander, for by it you get your
+men formed up quickly into platoons<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>
+and ready to be closed into company or to
+take fresh orders in the minimum of time.
+The usual thing seen is that after the
+assault the ground is covered with a mixture
+of men of all companies staring
+about, and apparently thinking the show
+at an end, whereas on service this is the
+very time you may expect either a counter-attack
+by infantry or a burst of artillery
+fire directed on the lost position.</p>
+
+<p>To repeat the orders of the assault:
+“Rapid Fire; Fix Bayonets; Charge;
+Halt and Take Cover; Commence Fire;
+Rally and Close Under Cover,” and be
+ready for further happenings.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_V">EXERCISE V.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in the
+Attack.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having trained the individual men in the
+work needed of them, the next step is to
+make use of that individual skill to the best
+effect in combination under orders of a
+commander. The section is the lowest unit
+recognised for <em>training</em> (I.T., 107), and
+it also is the normal unit used in firing
+(I.T., 6 (4)). When the company is advancing
+in the attack, or retiring, its sections
+and platoons will often be widely
+separated from each other, and the company
+commander cannot look after each
+one in detail, so that the platoon
+commanders, and under them the section
+commanders, must be fully competent
+to lead their men without supervision,
+in accordance with the general
+intention given them before the company
+opened out. So the training of men
+in combination must be accompanied by
+the training of your section and platoon
+commanders.</p>
+
+<p>The duties of fire unit commanders are
+laid down in I.T., 116 (5), and those of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>
+section commanders in I.T., 116 and 123
+(10). Before you proceed with this
+exercise have up these non-commissioned
+officers and devote ten minutes to an exposition
+of what is contained in the above
+paragraphs. Dilate on them, and show
+how neglect of those duties hampers the
+company commanders. At the same time,
+desire them to maintain among the men
+during sectional exercises the standard of
+individual training which was obtained in
+the preliminary exercises. Unless they
+do so the men will soon cease to apply what
+they then learnt, and so forget it in battle
+until the occurrence of casualties impresses
+its value afresh in their minds. Also
+give them the gist of what follows as to the
+advance and description of fire phases.</p>
+
+<p>The exercise gives commanders the
+opportunity of doing what they will
+have to do when the company is attacking
+or retiring, but without their having to keep
+an eye on the movements of the other
+platoons. The men should now be extended
+at full intervals as on service, five or six
+yards apart, this being held to be the most
+that is needed. Put out the skeleton
+enemy in groups, one group as objective
+of attack for each section or platoon on
+parade, and the groups sufficiently apart to
+prevent them interfering with each other
+when extended as above, for they are to act<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>
+independently. Take up the advance as if
+at fourteen hundred from the enemy, when
+his rifle fire on open ground would compel
+you to change from small columns of sections
+or platoons into the line of extended
+men (I.T., 118 (5)). The advance up to
+assaulting distance, from fourteen hundred
+yards, consists (I.T., 121 (7)), in the first
+place, of an advance to fire positions. Now
+Musketry Regulations lay down that fire
+by less than two platoons is of little effect
+over one thousand yards, so do not
+encourage commanders to open fire till
+one thousand yards at least, and use the
+space fourteen hundred to one thousand
+yards for instruction in getting their
+sections or platoons forward as quickly,
+and with as little exposure, as possible.
+Secondly, the advance consists
+of a fire fight combined with further
+advances up to the assaulting position. In
+this fire fight controlled collective fire is
+better than individual fire (I.T., 116 (7)
+(iii)), so up to six hundred yards let firing
+take place, only on the specific orders of
+commanders, who accordingly are to name
+the targets and ranges. In this phase
+therefore make them choose forward fire
+positions and work their units forward,
+using controlled collective fire at the same
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Under six hundred yards it is apparently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>
+held best to accept the inevitable and allow
+individual fire, the unit commanders being
+still responsible for getting their men forward
+up to the position of assault—about
+two hundred yards from the enemy. Still
+at this close range unit commanders should
+do what they can to direct the fire, and
+especially they should see that men fire
+slowly and carefully. In general the rate
+of firing or snapping is far too fast, and
+pouches would be empty long before the
+assaulting position would be reached.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the great importance of training
+the sections, it is advisable to let them
+do this exercise, through both the phases
+below, separately from each other, and not
+in platoon. When they know all about it,
+let them work in platoon.</p>
+
+<p>Having drawn up your sections in line
+at fourteen hundred yards, order the section
+commanders to extend and move on,
+and signal the skeleton enemy to open fire.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>First Phase: Fourteen to One Thousand
+Yards, Gaining Ground Without Firing.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Practise the section commanders in all
+ways of getting their sections forward
+without undue exposure or delay, by
+rushes of the whole section, man-by-man
+from one and both flanks and
+by files, together, and any other way<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span>
+that suggests itself. Stand over the
+section commanders in turn and tell
+them to advance the section by one
+method and then by another, and ask them
+which seems most suitable for various conditions
+of fire and ground (I.T., 118
+(4)). The advance should be steady
+and determined. Before starting the
+advance from one position to another,
+section commanders are to decide and
+<em>must tell the men</em> to what point they mean
+the next advance to be made (I.T., 108
+(2)), in the same way as individual men
+were taught to mark their next halting
+places.</p>
+
+<p>Attention must be paid to the way in
+which advances are inaugurated. Rushes
+must be sudden and simultaneous
+(I.T., 92 (5)). The men have been
+trained to leave their cover quickly.
+The unit commander must give his
+directions for the next move without
+getting up (if himself lying) and
+tell the men to be prepared; when
+all are ready, he and the men must
+jump up together and rush at once on the
+word or signal. The object of this, of
+course, is to avoid a concentrated fire being
+directed on the unit commander, and,
+perhaps, the two or three men nearest him,
+if they get up before the others, which
+would make it likely that some of them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>
+would be hit immediately, while the rest
+of the unit looked for a new leader, and so
+no advance take place; whereas if everyone
+gets on the move together a casualty
+or two will not bring the whole to a standstill.
+Of course, commanders should lead
+the way, but they must get in front by
+sprinting the first few yards.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Second Phase: One thousand to Six Hundred
+Yards (Collective Fire) and Six
+Hundred to Two Hundred Yards (Individual
+Fire).</em></h3>
+
+<p>As soon as a section begins to fire, it
+becomes possible for it to practise the
+lessons in the use of fire which were learnt
+in Exercise III., such as concentration and
+distribution of fire. From one position the
+commander must choose his next fire position,
+and work his section up to it in whatever
+way is most suitable. On flat and
+open ground this position may simply
+be the halting place of the next rush,
+thirty or forty paces to the front, but
+it is more instructive and practical to
+have positions far enough from each other,
+say one hundred and fifty or two hundred
+yards, to necessitate the advancing section
+making several successive rushes and using
+various devices to gain ground without
+attracting the enemy’s attention. Practise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>
+sections in all ways of advancing from one
+position to another, as was done before
+firing began, and encourage the use of
+covered ways. This exercise, if properly
+done, represents what the section
+would have to do in battle. For the purpose
+of instruction, the unit commanders
+should be allowed to move about as instructors,
+but when all ranks have been
+through the exercise and know what is
+needed, you should practise it under service
+conditions, and tell unit commanders
+to behave as if under fire; this is important,
+as it lets all see how much will be
+asked of the individual man under fire,
+and how difficult it is to exercise any wide
+control.</p>
+
+<p>For the same reason you must in this
+exercise begin the practice of ordering
+casualties of leaders, and carry it on
+through the whole of the rest of the training.
+Order section commanders to
+be casualties, and let the next senior
+man carry on, then order that man
+to become a casualty, and let the next one
+take command. Collect these casualties
+with you and let them go round with you,
+and have for a time the onlooker’s view
+of the game. Do not stint in ordering
+them, but let every man be ready to take
+up command. This readiness to assume
+command and to carry on the advance in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>
+spite of the absence of leaders is most valuable
+in battle and on parade for training,
+keeps men’s attention fixed on the business,
+and helps to counteract disorder when
+companies and sections get mixed up in
+reinforcement in battalion attack.</p>
+
+<p>Under six hundred yards let the men
+use individual fire, choosing their own
+targets; at this time try to get them into
+the way of looking for the targets which
+most require to be shot at at the moment—they
+must be always looking along the
+enemy’s line, and must not acquire the
+paralysing habit of only seeing straight in
+front of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Call on unit commanders to keep in
+view the question of expenditure of ammunition.
+It is no good ordering men to
+snap-fire 200 times in the course of an
+advance when they would only have 100
+rounds in their pouches on service, and no
+means of getting more; when blank is
+being used they should see that the ammunition
+of casualties is collected and
+redistributed.</p>
+
+<p>At some time in the course of this exercise
+the section must be practised in improving
+cover as if under fire, i.e., working
+lying down. The nature of the work
+depends on what tools you have, but it
+should be attempted if possible. Order
+the section to do it when halted together<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>
+in some fire position. At first they will
+shape badly and expose themselves a lot,
+but if you have time for practice they get
+into the way of digging in very quickly.
+If there are stones pile up “schanzes.”
+Attention should be paid to concealment
+of the cover, so as not to make it a target
+for the whole countryside, and it must give
+cover from fire or view, or both; one often
+sees men making molehills which show up
+their position without being capable of
+stopping a bullet. Better not make them
+at all than that way.</p>
+
+<p>Wind up the advance occasionally by an
+assault, as it is a mistake to let the idea
+take hold that the fire fight is the end of
+all things. This, I think, is the reason
+that the word “skirmishing” has disappeared
+from the book of training, as it
+connoted an indecisive action, whereas the
+whole spirit of the present training is that
+it shall be directed to the delivery of an
+assault and the ousting of the enemy from
+his position. Scouts are the only people
+who may have to skirmish in the former
+accepted meaning of the word, and they
+only do so until the firing line joins them,
+or they withdraw after reconnoitring.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>In Platoon.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Next work the sections together in
+their platoons on similar lines. Practise<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>
+again all ways of gaining ground; by
+rushes of the whole platoon, or if one or
+more sections, man by man, and so on, as
+taught to the section. Fire should be
+directed by the platoon commander, and
+controlled by the section commander.
+Teach the lateral distribution of fire along
+a given front among the four sections of
+the platoon. Teach also the principle of
+covering fire, one section being sent to
+make its way with every use of cover to a
+forward fire position, while the remainder
+continue firing. The first section, on
+arrival at the new fire position, opens fire,
+and the others follow in due course, one
+section only being dumb while the movement
+is in progress. If there is a choice of
+good lines of advance it is better that
+sections should not follow each other on
+one line, as the enemy may have noticed
+the move and be waiting for them.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VI">EXERCISE VI.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in
+Retirement.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>For the general principles of retirements
+see I.T., 137. The platoon, when working
+with the company, will take its turn at
+being the rearmost portion of the troops,
+and will have the difficult task of getting
+away while in touch with the enemy, but
+its retirement will be covered by the fire
+of other portions of the company. On
+the other hand, if a platoon or section finds
+itself beyond support from other troops, as
+might happen often enough, it will have
+to act itself as a rearguard and retire by
+alternate parts.</p>
+
+<p>In both cases great advantage is gained
+if the position held can be vacated so
+stealthily that the enemy shall not be
+aware of its having been vacated till the
+defenders are well on their way to the rear.
+For this reason it will be worth while to
+accustom the men to employ, when practicable,
+a procedure used in mountain
+warfare, withdrawing the bulk of men
+first and leaving only a few quick-footed
+men to keep up appearances and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span>
+fire as long as possible and then retiring
+them at speed. Also all men must be
+taught to grovel backwards on their
+stomachs from the crest of their fire position
+till sufficiently under cover, if there is
+cover, to stand up without being seen, after
+which they rise and make off.</p>
+
+<p>Send out the skeleton enemy with instructions
+to follow up the retirement
+slowly, and not to close in on the sections,
+as it is easy and tempting to do this when
+there are no bullets in the rifles.</p>
+
+<h3>(<em>a</em>) <em>As a Section or Platoon Acting with the
+Company.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Do the practice first by sections and then
+in platoon. Draw up the unit on a fire position
+about eight hundred yards from the
+enemy, the men in extended order, lying
+down, and open fire on the enemy. Tell
+the commander to choose his next halting
+place and retire his unit on it,
+which he should do on the lines before
+indicated. The halting places should be
+chosen as far apart as two to four hundred
+yards; short retirements merely prolong
+the time exposure to fire and should not be
+used unless the enemy are very close or the
+fire very heavy. Once the men are clear
+of the position, they should move as fast
+as they can, trusting to escape casualties,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>
+by speed, the alteration of range, and the
+fire of the few men left on the position.
+As a rule, carry out all retirements at the
+double, so that the men shall not be confused
+by the hasty movement. As soon
+as the first party has reached the new
+position, the fringe of men left on the
+old one should creep back and go as
+hard as they can to rejoin their
+section or platoon, and they should be
+taught to judge the time of going for
+themselves, so as not to “let in” the section
+or themselves, by going too early or
+staying too late. Repeat the movement to
+one or two further positions. It is a
+strenuous practice and makes demands on
+the men’s limbs, wind, and willingness,
+but the rearguard is the post of honour
+and danger. Order casualties of leaders
+from time to time, and let the men be
+called to move in quick time sometimes,
+which they would have to do if there were
+signs of unsteadiness.</p>
+
+<h3>(<em>b</em>) <em>As a Section or Platoon Acting Alone.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Act on the same lines as before, but let
+the commander run the show, which he
+should be able to do, after having done it
+under supervision. One party (a file or two
+in the case of a section, or one or
+two sections in that of a platoon) gets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>
+back to a fire position and opens fire to
+cover the retirement of the other. In
+general, it is better that both parties
+should not fall back on one and the same
+fire position; on the contrary, if they act
+on a wide front in ordinary country—say,
+three hundred yards apart—their fire is
+equally effective, but the enemy is broken
+up, and the danger of their being outflanked
+or surrounded is less. For the
+same reason it is good practice, if the platoon
+is strong, to send out groups of four
+or five men still further on the flanks, and
+a group to precede the whole on the line
+of retirement by six hundred yards or so,
+in order to occupy positions and deny them
+to the enemy, and after one or two turns
+of this exercise tell the skeleton enemy to
+follow on harder and try to work round
+the flanks. In this part also continue to
+order casualties of leaders.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VII">EXERCISE VII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Section and Platoon in
+Independent Attack.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is very important to secure the intelligent
+co-operation of section and platoon
+commanders in the operations in which
+their company or battalion is taking part.
+I have read that in the Russo-Japanese
+War the result of one of the battles—I
+think at Penlin, 31st July—turned on
+the action of an infantry section who
+gained a footing on the extreme flank of
+the Russian line, and drove off the defenders
+in the immediate vicinity, opened
+a way for the advance of the greater
+numbers, and led to the outflanking and
+retreat of the whole Russian force. If you
+give your unit commanders some chances of
+carrying out attacks, acting as if unsupported
+by other troops, they will find
+themselves faced with the same problems
+which confront commanders of larger
+bodies in the attack, and they will be
+more likely, when acting in combination,
+to look beyond just the limits of their own
+commands; they will be led to comprehend
+the object of operations and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>
+difficulties in the way, and will become
+quick to seize any opportunity to further
+the general plan without waiting for
+orders. It is true that so small a body as a
+section would seldom be formally told to
+attack an objective single-handed, but there
+are often occasions on service when a
+platoon might have to carry out an attack
+on a small scale, as when a few of the
+enemy’s riflemen are making themselves
+unpleasant, while not in sufficient force to
+do more than “snipe,” or to require the
+diversion against them of a whole company.
+Though a section as now constituted is a
+very small unit to work with, I think no
+excuse is needed for performing the attack
+with the smallest unit, having in view the
+excellent training it forms for non-commissioned
+officers and men. However, for
+this practice, it is advisable to form sections
+somewhat above the usual strength, by
+joining two together, so as to give at least
+eighteen rifles in the whole. After having
+put the sections through the exercise, you
+will, of course, let the platoon commanders
+carry out the attack with their platoons.</p>
+
+<p>Put out a skeleton enemy of three or
+four men for each platoon or section, or
+one only for all to attack in turn, and
+post this enemy in some commanding
+place, with a good field of view and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>
+fire so that if possible the unit shall
+have twelve to eight hundred yards to
+manœuvre over before coming to close
+quarters. As an example, give out the
+supposition that this enemy are a cavalry
+patrol of the enemy, who have dismounted
+and are using their rifles on the
+company as it is on the move from somewhere
+to somewhere else. The section or
+platoon is ordered to drive them off, neutralise
+their fire, or hold them in check, in case
+they should be the forerunners of a greater
+number. The enemy should begin to fire
+on a signal from you (with your flag),
+which you should give as you tell off
+the commander for the duty. If the
+other units are to attack the same
+enemy in turn, you should halt them
+under cover or turn them to the rear, so
+as not to see too much of the method the
+first lot choose to carry out their job.</p>
+
+<p>The method of the attack will depend
+on the nature of the ground—what suits
+one case may not suit another, and there
+may be two or three courses open in
+attacking any one position. The commander
+should accordingly look well
+at the ground before deciding how he will
+carry out the attack, but there are certain
+principles common to attacks, great or
+small, which he should put into practice.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>
+He should secure himself from interruption
+on his flanks and rear, and he should
+provide a supporting fire to distract the
+enemy and cover the advance of his main
+force. He cannot make large detachments
+or indulge in wide patrolling, nor
+would such small bodies as platoons be sent
+off to attack if such were advisable; but,
+at least he can post a file or two
+on some high ground, or, failing that,
+on one flank out of decisive range of the
+enemy, i.e., about eight hundred yards
+from him, with orders to keep up a steady
+fire until his advance masks their fire.
+This will prevent, or at least give warning
+of, an attempt to cut in on the rear.
+He may also send a file perhaps two or
+three hundred yards to either flank, to
+move parallel with his advance and prevent
+his being enfiladed at short range,
+if the enemy should be tactless enough
+to avail himself of a chance of meeting
+the advance by a counter-attack. Until
+he sees pretty well what he has in front
+of him, he should divide his party
+into two, sending one to engage the
+enemy and keeping the other as a
+reserve to support the first by fire if they
+get into difficulties, and to be available
+to carry on the attack after the other has
+got the enemy well busy, either by reinforcing
+it directly, or, better still, by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>
+continuing the advance along a fresh line
+leading to some position from which the
+enemy can be finally turned out, either
+by fire or by a charge, the first half
+joining in and advancing as soon as the
+enemy has turned his attention to the
+new attack. Both parties should keep
+scouts or a patrol of some sort out in front
+of them until the foreground is proved
+not to contain any hidden body of the
+enemy, or until the opening of fire by
+their own side makes it necessary for the
+scouts to merge into the firing line. I
+have seen on service a half-company go
+off to take post as a piquet on a long
+ridge; it neglected the above precautions,
+beyond having some scouts in front.
+There were four or five of the enemy on
+the ridge, and they waited till the scouts
+were close, shot some down and drove
+the others to cover, and then turned their
+fire on to the half-company, who were
+also driven to ground, and, as there was
+little cover, they were tied up till set free
+by some more infantry, who had to be
+specially sent off to move along the ridge.
+Had the half-company moved in two
+portions, the first would have contained
+this weak enemy, and the rear party
+could easily have circled round and got
+on to the ridge farther along, which would
+at once have caused the enemy to clear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>
+out. See F.S.R., I., <span class="allsmcap">I</span>, as to the results
+of the violation of the principles of leading
+troops, and as therein directed, impress
+the principles taught on the minds
+of your non-commissioned officers, who
+are commanders, albeit only of platoons
+and sections.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_VIII">EXERCISE VIII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Platoon as an Advanced Guard
+and as a Flank Guard.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) When the company is on the march,
+it should always be preceded by an advanced
+guard—either a party of scouts,
+or, more usually, by one of the platoons.
+After the advanced guard comes in contact
+with the enemy its further action
+becomes either an attack to drive off the
+enemy, or a defence to delay his advancing,
+according to his strength and
+tactics; so I propose here merely to indicate
+suitable formations of march in
+ordinary, i.e., non-mountainous country,
+so that the platoons may be practised in
+taking them up without delay on being
+told off for the duty. The exercise takes
+little time, and can be done on the same
+parade as the flank guard exercise.</p>
+
+<p>An advanced guard may come under
+Are at any moment, and to provide
+against surprise (F.S.R., 64), its leading
+portions may move in extended order.
+The duties are given in F.S.R., 68, and
+apply quite completely to so small a body
+as a platoon. The platoon should be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>
+divided into a vanguard and a main guard.
+For the vanguard, a common plan is
+simply to extend a section on either side of
+the road, but I prefer to divide the section
+into three patrols, or more if strength permits,
+who work along in a general line—one
+to search the road and its immediate
+vicinity, and one on each side. The
+nature of the country regulates the
+breadth of ground the centre patrol can
+search from the road, and the distance to
+which the others are sent out on each side.
+The other sections follow as main guard,
+not so close as to be at once mixed up
+with the vanguard if fire is opened on the
+latter, nor so far as to be unable to support
+it quickly with fire. The advanced
+guard is responsible for keeping touch
+with the main body (the company)
+(F.S.R., 64 (4)), but the company commander
+should satisfy himself that this
+is being done. If view is restricted, the
+main guard must drop a connecting
+file to keep connection. This file must
+march with their beards on their shoulders,
+to see what the company is doing, and
+let the commander know, and also
+to signal to the company, if the platoon
+has had to halt. If the country is open,
+the commander should still tell off
+a file for this duty, who will march with
+the platoon, but be continually on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>
+look-out to the rear. The platoon
+commander ought, of course, to keep a
+watch himself, but may have other things
+to attend to, and it is well to take precautions
+against the platoon either getting
+too far in front or letting the company
+get too close to it, by marching on while
+the platoon is investigating some suspicious
+locality.</p>
+
+
+<h3>(<em>b</em>) <em>The Platoon as a Flank Guard.</em></h3>
+
+<p>A platoon may sometimes be used as a
+flank guard, as when a small convoy is
+on the march with only a company or two
+as escort. Flank guards are dismissed in
+a few words in F.S.R., 70. It is worth
+while to practise them once or twice to
+avoid delay in taking up the formation
+when the march is being started, or in improvising
+a method of fighting off the
+enemy if he attacks.</p>
+
+<p>Represent the convoy or whatever it is
+by a man with a red flag to move along
+the road; the platoon is then to move along
+parallel to the road, and far enough off
+to afford protection from effective rifle
+fire, i.e., at least eight hundred yards in
+open country. The skeleton enemy should
+be instructed to keep about the same distance
+again on the flank beyond the
+platoon, and to move along parallel with it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>
+without closing in, opening fire on an
+agreed signal.</p>
+
+<p>The march formation should be on the
+same principles as those for the advanced
+guard. The platoon should move in two
+bodies, and patrols or scouts should precede
+it, both in the direction of the march
+and towards the flank which is being
+guarded. It is important to keep touch
+with the main body by connecting files at
+all times, otherwise if the road changes
+direction out of view of the flank guard
+it may separate them too far or bring
+them too close to the company.</p>
+
+<p>The method of fighting merely to hold
+off the enemy resembles that used by a
+rear guard for the same purpose, i.e., fire
+and movement by alternate portions.
+When the enemy opens fire on your signal,
+the patrol on the flank either falls back,
+or the platoon reinforces it. The patrol
+in the line of advance should still continue
+to precede the movements of the
+platoon in that direction, and should be
+told to conform to its movement. The
+platoon replies to the enemy’s fire as soon
+as possible and begins the lateral fight—one
+half is sent, if possible under cover,
+to take up a fire position farther along the
+direction of the line of march, preceded
+by the patrol, which, to some extent,
+secures it from surprise from that direction.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>
+As soon as the leading party has
+found a fire position and opens its fire,
+the other follows it, and either halts
+alongside it, so allowing it to go off to a
+new position, or continues its movement
+beyond it and takes up a third position to
+cover the further movements. The latter
+method is the quicker, as it saves the time
+of replacing men of the first party in
+their fire position by those of the second.
+The exercise need not be prolonged, as a
+few of these lateral movements are quite
+sufficient illustration to enable the men in
+future to take up their duty quickly.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_IX">EXERCISE IX.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Preliminary for the Attack by the
+Company in Battalion.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>A company attacking as part of the
+battalion is sure to find the men of different
+platoons mixed up in the course of the
+attack with those of other platoons, both of
+that company and of others. Before
+practising the attack, accompanied with
+this mixture of platoons, it is advisable
+to train them and their non-commissioned
+officers for their duties without
+allowing any mixing up. This may be
+done by bringing all the platoons of the
+company up into one line, and then
+extending each on its own ground. The
+result is that each platoon may be taken
+to represent the leading platoon of four
+companies told off to furnish the firing
+line and supports (I.T., 122). The four
+platoons form thus the firing line, the
+other three supposititious platoons of each
+company being in support. This formation
+would be taken up when the enemy’s
+rifle fire began to be effective, i.e., at or
+under fourteen hundred yards. Within
+this distance the firing line has to press<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>
+on through the zones in which it uses collective
+and individual fire up to assaulting
+distance, being reinforced as needed,
+firstly by the supports, and finally at the
+time of the assault by all or part of the
+local reserve, which, in this case, would
+be composed of the four companies of the
+battalion not detailed to furnish the firing
+line and supports.</p>
+
+<p>Put out a skeleton enemy with orders to
+remain in one position, and fire slowly,
+but continuously. Draw up the four
+platoons, or as many as are present of the
+company at fourteen hundred yards or
+so from the enemy, in one line and at
+sufficient intervals to allow of their extending
+to five paces, <em>plus</em> some space
+between flanks of sections after extension,
+to allow plenty of choice of lines of advance.
+Indicate to each platoon a part of
+the enemy’s position which it is to regard
+as its final objective of assault (I.T.,
+121 (3)). Have the men extended to five
+paces, and carry out the attack right
+through on the lines of Exercise V., and
+finish with an assault and rally after it.
+Each company would have an officer with
+its platoon in the firing line to direct the fire.
+If fire is opened between fourteen hundred
+and one thousand yards, it will not
+be effective against ordinary targets unless
+the whole four platoons direct their fire<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>
+on the same target. Under one thousand
+yards fire should be controlled by section
+commanders and directed by platoon commanders.</p>
+
+<p>Practise concentration of the fire of the
+four platoons on one part of the enemy’s
+line and lateral distribution of fire <em>within
+the limits of that part</em>. Give each platoon
+a fraction of this fraction of the enemy’s
+frontage to deal with, and let the platoon
+commander again tell off his sections to fire
+at various marks inside <em>his</em> limits. Again
+switch the fire of all four platoons on to
+some other particular bit of the enemy’s
+position, as done in previous exercises.</p>
+
+<p>To do this you must introduce and work
+with thoroughness a system of inter-communication
+(I.T., 119), but it should be
+one approved and adopted by your
+battalion commander, otherwise each company
+of the battalion may be found using
+a different one. It is to be understood
+that orders as to the direction of fire in
+no way interfere with the gaining of
+ground to the front, a platoon firing at
+one object ceases fire in order to advance,
+but resumes its fire on the same object
+when it again halts.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as section fire is opened,
+encourage mutual support, some part of the
+line firing while others advance, and make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>
+section commanders continue to observe
+this principle.</p>
+
+<p>At some one parade for this exercise
+halt the whole line during the attack and
+practise entrenching under fire, the men
+working lying down (I.T., 121 (13)).
+Thereafter resume the advance.</p>
+
+<p>Move about yourself and let your section
+commanders do so also, and check
+any slovenly work on the part of the men
+in using, quitting, or getting into cover,
+and in the use of their rifles and judging
+distance if, as should often be done, it
+is left to them to estimate how far they
+are from the target of the moment.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_X">EXERCISE X.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack with the
+Battalion under Artillery Fire.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the battalion is moving forward
+to attack, and before the enemy’s rifle fire
+is more than a distant and future danger,
+that of his artillery becomes an imminent
+and formidable menace as soon as the
+limits of its range are crossed, because of
+the suddenness with which it is capable
+of dealing destruction. Whether his
+artillery actually opens on the battalion
+is another matter. If the battalion shows
+up as a tempting target in column of route
+or mass, he most certainly will fire
+on it, but if it is skilfully led it may
+possibly escape his notice altogether; at
+the same time, it is hardly likely that it
+can move from five thousand to fourteen
+hundred yards from the enemy’s infantry
+without giving some indications of its
+movement, and the probability is, that at
+some part of the advance it will find
+itself the recipient of the enemy’s attention.
+To escape the effect of this fire,
+the battalion and the company will have
+to break up into small shallow columns<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>
+such as platoons or sections at least 50
+yards from each other laterally (I.T.,
+118) and two hundred yards from
+front to rear; in fact, a lot of little
+groups of men sufficiently apart to
+prevent the burst of one shell covering
+more than one group. The advance
+in this order constitutes the first phase of
+the infantry attack. The company must
+be practised in getting into this formation,
+and moving in it so as to avoid confusion
+in action, and also to let non-commissioned
+officers and men understand
+that this formation does not free them
+from the control of their commander.</p>
+
+<p>At manœuvres and exercises the adoption
+of this formation is sometimes
+burked on various pretexts, of which the
+most heinous is to say that the results of
+artillery fire are overrated, and the risk
+run in keeping in closed formation is more
+than compensated for by the comfort of
+the men, maintenance of control and
+saving of time. This theory I fancy had
+its origin in the South African War,
+where the Boer artillery was skilful but
+exiguous, if judged by European standards.
+I have not been under shell fire
+myself, but I have seen the results of it
+on a column of about two hundred men
+who came along a watercourse two
+thousand yards or so from the guns, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span>
+something resembling a march formation.
+The guns had the range, and the enemy
+left about fifty dead in that watercourse
+in a few minutes, so personally I am
+going to open out my company and trust
+to my peace training of it to keep it in
+hand and get it along fast enough to be
+on the spot when wanted.</p>
+
+<p>I need hardly give details how to practise
+this. The point is, to get the
+company opened out quickly and without
+confusion, and this is to be done by telling
+your platoon commanders what you
+want and where they are to go, and not
+by any drill. Platoons may further split
+up into columns of sections. Leave it to
+your platoon commanders to have the sections
+moved apart to intervals of fifty yards.
+If the enemy’s artillery is straight in front,
+a diamond formation seems suitable—a
+platoon at each angle—the length of the
+diagonal front to rear being over two hundred
+yards and side to side over one hundred;
+or the platoons may simply follow
+each other at two hundred yards distance,
+though this is not a very handy arrangement.
+But, subject to keeping the distances
+large enough, it is not the formation
+that matters, but the way it is taken up,
+and I will leave it at that.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of this phase of endurance
+of the enemy’s artillery fire the company<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span>
+comes under rifle fire and has to take to
+extended order, and on service it would
+perhaps have to do this and plunge into
+the attack without the platoons closing in
+from the scattered formation in which
+they have so far moved. But for the
+first few times you should close up at
+fourteen hundred yards and start from
+there, so as to tell the men what is next
+to be done when they come under rifle
+fire, and in any case the size of your exercise
+ground would probably necessitate
+your doing the two phases over more or
+less the same bit of ground.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XI">EXERCISE XI.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack with the
+Battalion, under Rifle Fire.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The immediate objects of the fire fight
+within effective rifle range are to produce
+a fire sufficiently heavy to overcome
+the fire of the defence, and to reach
+a position from which the assault can be
+delivered (I.T., 121 (5 and 6)). In theory,
+then, the desideratum is to get so many
+men up to about two hundred yards from
+the enemy that they form a line practically
+shoulder to shoulder, in order that
+their fire may be at least as heavy as that
+of the enemy, if the latter are also in one
+continuous line, and in default of circumstances
+admitting of effective covering
+fire being maintained from positions in
+rear or on a flank. On this supposition it
+is frequently argued that a battalion and
+its companies, when advancing to the
+attack, should do so on a front not
+greater than that which the battalion
+would occupy if it were in single rank, but
+this does not really follow. The nature
+of the ground may be such that to attempt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>
+to build up a shoulder-to-shoulder firing
+line all along the enemy’s position within
+charging distance, may be merely to send
+men to useless destruction by exposing
+them on fire-swept spaces, where they are
+sure to be knocked over before they can do
+any good. On the other hand, there may
+be other points where men may be massed
+so as to give not only a firing line of
+maximum density, but also a supporting
+force both to replace casualties and to
+carry out the assault. These are the points
+which it is of importance to gain and
+hold in strength sufficient to carry out the
+object of the attack—the assault. It is
+the duty of the battalion commander to
+give each of his firing line companies
+some such point as their objective, and to
+define the frontage and direction of
+their attack. It is similarly the duty
+of the commander of a firing line
+company to give each of his sections
+an objective within the limits assigned to
+his company (I.T., 122 (4) and 123 (3-)).
+The problem for solution is, how to get to
+those points, and so it does not appear to
+matter much what frontage the battalion
+and its companies occupy when they start
+off for the attack at the fourteen hundred
+yards limit of effective rifle fire, provided
+of course, they do not encroach on the
+frontage of other units. Indeed, an attack<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>
+which starts on a wide base and concentrates
+only in its later stages seems
+much more likely than one which starts
+from base equal to a single rank frontage
+to keep the enemy uncertain of its
+objective, and to be able to bring oblique
+or enfilade fire to bear on portions of his
+line. Therefore, when practising the company
+in attack, do not be bound by cast
+iron rules as to the breadth of the zone of
+ground within which you are to bring
+your company from fourteen hundred
+yards up to the charging position. Four
+platoons following one straight behind the
+other, at two hundred yards distance,
+make a very unwieldy procession, and, in
+general, I would advise you to use something
+in the nature of a diamond formation
+at first, the three platoons in rear
+making their own way forward till they
+reinforce the leading portion which finally
+consists of the whole company.</p>
+
+<p>Put out the skeleton enemy on a front
+of, roughly, what your company will
+occupy in single rank, and let the position,
+if possible, have within it two, or at
+most, three points, which you can assign
+as objectives to the platoon commanders.
+You must consider this position as having
+been assigned to you as objective by your
+battalion commander, the ground on the
+right and left of it being the prey of other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>
+companies, and not the object of your
+assault, though it should, nevertheless,
+frequently be the object of your <em>fire</em>
+during the advance.</p>
+
+<p>Draw up the company at about fourteen
+hundred yards from the enemy. Tell
+the platoon commanders the relative positions
+the platoons are to take up when the
+advance begins, roughly the distances
+between them (I.T., 123 (7)), the direction
+of the attack, if the enemy’s position is not
+quite clearly to be seen, the frontage on
+which the company is free to manœuvre,
+and the points which the sections are to
+regard as their objectives; the details
+contained in I.T., 123 and 124, may
+also be enumerated if the commanders
+are not experienced. As regards these
+details, I recommend that scouts be
+formed not in a line of men extended
+at wide intervals, but as a line
+of patrols of four or six men each, and
+you or a subaltern should halt them early
+in the attack and tell them to send back
+word that they are held up by fire, or
+that they have defined the enemy’s position;
+on this the nearest platoon reinforces
+them, and the process of building up the
+firing line begins from that point. As
+regards inter-communication, use connecting
+files and semaphore signalling to join
+up the various parts and make real use of
+them, but avoid sham messages.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p>
+
+<p>As soon as the object and manner of
+the attack have been detailed to all, tell
+the platoon commanders to move off their
+platoons to their positions and extend them
+ready to advance, and the scouts to get
+off in front. Five paces is the least extension
+to ensure that a bullet aimed at
+one man may miss him with a fair chance
+of not hitting his neighbour. Do not let
+the scouts go too far away, because at
+this time of getting to grips with the
+enemy, their usefulness, when acting with
+their companies is mainly limited to
+guarding against ambush at close range,
+and as ground scouts to prevent the company
+coming against some unseen obstacle,
+barbed wire, donga, canal, or what not.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as all are in position, the company
+may be considered as being in the
+formation in which it would have arrived
+at the point where, in addition to the
+enemy’s artillery fire, it comes under
+heavy and fairly accurate rifle fire. Give
+the signal to advance, and let the platoon
+commanders begin to work their platoons
+forward, using what covered ways they
+can find. After a little of this, have the
+scouts halted and reinforce them by one
+platoon, order fire to be opened, bearing
+in mind that one platoon’s fire is probably
+useless at over one thousand yards from
+the enemy, but if your company is in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>
+diamond formation the platoons on each
+flank will probably be able to fire, and
+with favourable ground, e.g., a knoll, or
+bluff somewhere on the line of advance,
+the rear platoon also will be able to fire
+over the heads of the firing line. There
+is no danger in this if the men hold their
+rifles straight, and it would assuredly
+be done in war. I have myself seen it,
+and the chances of an accident are minimised
+by practice in peace. During this
+early opening of fire use every effort to
+keep the fire from being merely a make-believe,
+i.e., send word round by your
+connecting files or semaphore to fire at
+certain targets, and see that section commanders
+direct their fire accordingly.
+In battle the information as to which part
+of the enemy’s position seemed most to
+demand attention would, of course, reach
+you from those of your side who were
+suffering fire coming from that part of the
+position, and the result of your passing
+the word to fire at it as above would be
+that a shower of bullets would come dropping
+all round it, to the upsetting of the
+aim of the hostile marksmen. Under
+cover of this fire your firing line may be
+allowed to gain a little ground, platoons
+moving alternately so as to avoid a cessation
+of fire. Thereafter continue to gain
+ground, and gradually reinforce the firing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>
+line till all your supports are absorbed
+and the whole company is in the firing
+line. When this has taken place the line
+will consist of a mixture of men of
+different sections and platoons. Avoid
+unreal movements in attempting to keep
+the men of each unit together in reinforcing
+and recognise that admixture is
+unavoidable. (I.T., 93 (11) and 123
+(9)). The organising of the resultant
+disorder is one of the essential
+objects of training for the attack. Make
+your section commanders call on the
+men to right and left of them, if
+they are nearer them than any other unit
+commander, to act under their orders.
+Thus: “Private A to Private J under my
+orders.” Have this done constantly till
+it becomes a matter of course. The men
+of files can always hang together, but
+prove that this is being done by asking
+men where their file mates are. Get this
+system started as soon as reinforcement is
+begun, and keep it in full swing throughout.
+Once it is started, these extemporized
+fire units must apply the principles
+learnt by the intact sections and squads in
+Exercise IX., i.e., supporting fire by part
+to cover movement of the others, control
+and distribution of fire, etc., and so work
+on up to assaulting distance and deliver
+an assault. After this, let section and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>
+platoon commanders reform their men
+and units as quickly as possible, and
+then reform the company under your
+own orders. At subsequent parades
+introduce casualties among the section and
+platoon commanders, and let the senior
+privates in each of the mixed up fire units
+step into their places and carry on the
+attack without halt or confusion.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XII">EXERCISE XII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Attack Acting
+Alone.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>On service a company may often have
+to attack some post of the enemy without
+having the support of either artillery or
+infantry, and exercises framed to illustrate
+these conditions are very useful in
+developing the initiative of all ranks. In
+paragraph V. of the preamble I gave an
+example, and I think, if you will peruse
+it again, you will see what sort of thing
+you should arrange for the exercise. At
+inspections one sometimes sees a company
+sent off by itself to carry out such an
+attack, and the method often adopted is
+to tell off the company into the firing line
+and supports, and, perhaps, a reserve.
+The whole then go straight for the object
+and perform a sort of travesty of what
+the company does when acting as part of
+a battalion. By this time I trust you will
+be quick to perceive that this is just what
+it ought not to do. As an isolated force
+it has to do much more than simply to
+form a firing line and bring off an assault.
+It must secure its flanks, have a real<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>
+reserve, employ a flank as well as a
+frontal attack, provide for its own withdrawal
+if worsted, be prepared to deal
+with a counter-attack, and observe all
+the principles laid down in I.T., 121.
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mutatis mutandis</i>, your reserve may consist
+of only a platoon, your flank
+guards a file or two of men, your
+flank attacks a section or platoon with
+a subaltern accompanying it, and so
+on, but the precautions must be taken
+and the principles put into practice,
+or your attack would run risk of failure.
+You would do it all on service; therefore,
+do it all in peace. Carry out such exercises,
+carefully planned, and with observance
+of service conditions, and I am quite
+sure you will see what a great deal there
+is to be done in this direction before you
+feel yourself and your company quite
+competent to undertake a similar task in
+the field. That first exercise against a
+skeleton enemy will be the forerunner
+of many others. Your criticism of the
+action of your non-commissioned officers
+must be carefully considered, as there are
+usually several justifiable ways of doing
+a thing, and it should always be constructive
+and not merely destructive (T. &amp; M.R.,
+2 (2)).</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XIII">EXERCISE XIII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">The Company in Retirement.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The men have been practised in retirement
+in pairs in Exercise II., and the sections
+and platoons have also learned their
+part in Exercise VI. It remains to train the
+company for this duty, which it might have
+to do either as acting as rearguard to
+the battalion, whether the latter was, or
+was not, in conjunction with other troops,
+or as if effecting its withdrawal when
+isolated. In both cases the procedure and
+distribution are pretty much alike. In the
+former case, the company, if it gets into
+difficulties, <em>may</em> be able to get help from
+the rest of the force, but in the latter it
+will not be able to do so, and the commander
+should be especially careful to have
+in hand some portion of his company which
+he can use to extricate any detachment
+which gets “tied up.” On the other hand,
+it is very desirable that the main body
+should not be called on to reinforce the
+rearguard when the company is not acting
+alone. So that in both cases you should be
+prepared to meet eventualities from your
+own resources. Again, a rearguard is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span>
+bound to have the majority of its force in
+action in order to hold back the enemy
+and present an appearance of force, so that
+it is not always possible to set apart a
+portion of so small a body as a company to
+act solely as reserve, and to remain continuously
+outside the actual combat. The
+solution of the difficulty seems to lie in
+an intelligent application of the principles
+of rearguard fighting given in F.S.R., 71 to
+73, and the early but timeous withdrawal
+from the fighting line of a portion of the
+company who move back to a position in
+rear from which they can cover the withdrawal
+of the remainder, but are still available
+to be thrown into the fight, if it is
+necessary to inaugurate some sort of a
+counter attack to give portions heavily
+engaged a chance to break away from close
+grips. It is important in this exercise to
+teach non-commissioned officers and men
+to be ready to adopt quickly any method
+of withdrawal that may be ordered, because
+the nature of the ground must
+determine the way in which a withdrawal
+can best be effected, and the nature of the
+ground may vary every few hundred yards.
+Therefore I merely suggest some ways of
+practising retirements, and during the
+course of the exercise you should change
+from one to another, and also encourage
+commanders to act on their own initiative,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>
+when, as will probably happen, your system
+of inter-communication fails to act with
+sufficient speed and accuracy. I.T., 137,
+gives general rules as to the action of platoons
+and sections, and the standard set up
+in Exercises II. and VI. should be adhered
+to. Send out the skeleton enemy with
+orders to follow up the retirement, but not
+to close in under six hundred yards.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) Get the whole company deployed
+into one line of platoons, with intervals between
+them, occupying a wide front, four
+to eight hundred yards, the men at five or
+more paces extension. This may seem too
+wide a front, but, after all, the intervals
+between the platoons are only two hundred
+and forty yards, and an enemy trying to
+break straight through the line would be
+under fire at one hundred and twenty yards
+or less, while a wide front is the best
+precaution against having your flanks
+turned and your retreat intercepted.</p>
+
+<p>Send back a platoon from one of the
+flanks to take up quickly a position in rear
+clear away from the firing line; three hundred
+to six hundred yards is not too much;
+let it open fire, and let the remainder of the
+firing line work back by retirement of
+alternate sections, each running back thirty
+or forty yards, beginning this movement
+from the flank from which the first platoon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>
+went, the platoon on the other flank holding
+on and only giving ground when the two
+centre platoons have got well on their way
+to the line on which the first platoon is
+halted. This is a slow retirement, but
+gives a maximum of continuous fire and
+the flanks are strong.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) With the whole company extended in
+one line, and no intervals between platoons.
+Retire by short rushes of alternate sections;
+the rushes must be quite short, twenty
+yards at most, so that the sections that have
+retired can fire through the intervals of the
+rear portion of the line the instant that it
+begins to retire. This is meant for use
+after an unsuccessful assault, and only on
+flat ground.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>c</em>) With the company extended in one
+line, but with intervals between the
+platoons. Order the flank platoons to
+retire and take post to cover the withdrawal
+of the two centre platoons, who
+remain in position till the flank platoons
+are ready to open fire. Watch how the
+platoon commanders handle their platoons;
+they should do so artfully, as taught
+in Exercise VI.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>d</em>) Retire by half-companies, two platoons
+together, using your subalterns as
+half-company commanders, and putting the
+onus of finding suitable covering positions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>
+on them, merely telling them to cover each
+other’s retirement.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>e</em>) With the company all holding one
+position, leave the scouts or picked men to
+cover the retirement by rapid fire, and
+withdraw the remainder at full speed, then
+cover the retirement of the scouts by the
+fire of the whole from a position in rear.
+Watch that the scouts creep back from
+their cover without letting the enemy know
+they are going; and of this screen of scouts
+the flank men ought usually to be the last
+to go in order to make the enemy believe
+that the position is still occupied.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XIV">EXERCISE XIV.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Outposts.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>I.</h3>
+
+<p>The general rules for outposts and the
+part played by an outpost company are to
+be found in I.T., 147 to 157, and it is necessary
+accordingly to train for those duties in
+peace. Let us begin from the beginning,
+and see what infantry outposts are and
+what they have to do. A line of infantry
+outposts will very often have to be taken up
+after a day’s fighting, or in close proximity
+to the enemy before a battle. The commander
+of an outpost battalion will be
+told by the staff to take up with his battalion
+a certain length of the front, say,
+from Farm A to Hill B, inclusive—perhaps
+a mile or even two in extent. He
+cannot possibly have time to ride all along
+the front and fix places for piquets and
+sentries. Instead of this, he looks at the
+ground and comes to the conclusion that
+it will require, say, all his four companies
+in the outpost line. He divides up his
+front into four parts, and gives each of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>
+his companies one part. It is his duty to
+see that the eight companies form along
+the line that combines the best facilities
+for defence and reconnaissance to the
+front. Accordingly, he tells the captain
+of A Company to take from Farm A to,
+say, the wood X, inclusive, the captain of
+B Company from the wood X, exclusive,
+to, say, the stream ML, inclusive, and so
+along. The captains of companies then
+have to go off and take up their frontages.
+As beforesaid, infantry outposts must
+expect to take up their line close to the
+enemy, and often when dusk is falling.
+This gives you your clue as to how it
+should be done. You must march your
+company in fighting formation, so as not
+to be ambushed—a screen of scouts
+or other covering troops in front and
+on the flanks, a party, section, or platoon
+ready to succour the covering party, and
+hold up the enemy, and a reserve ready
+to act under your orders, either for attack
+or defence. Your movement and the
+taking up of your line should be unseen by
+the enemy; therefore, move carefully
+under cover both from distant and close
+positions, from which you may be seen.
+The line must be taken up quickly. The
+main thing is to get it occupied; therefore,
+it is a mistake to halt the company
+while you plod round the whole of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>
+front and plan just where each piquet and
+sentry will be. Instead, take a good look
+at the line as you march and decide what
+are the essential points to be held for
+defence and as observation points. As
+soon as your scouts have made good the
+ground a little in front of those points,
+send off what you think are necessary,
+sections or platoons, to seize these
+points, and act as piquets till you go
+round and adjust details. Thus your
+company will occupy the line in rough-and-ready
+fashion as quickly as they can
+advance. When the company breaks up
+to go to the piquet posts, go with any one
+of the piquets which is to be on one flank
+and settle the exact position of the piquet
+with reference to the line you intend to
+hold as your line of resistance, and any
+other details which you think the piquet
+commander should attend to, such as what
+localities should be patrolled, and estimate
+the number of men required. Any surplus
+sections should accompany you from this
+piquet, and you and they then go along the
+line to the other piquets which you arrange
+similarly, using the surplus to reinforce
+those piquets that need them, and if at the
+end you have still a surplus of men you
+may either form them as a support in rear
+or dismiss them to remain with their own
+platoons. For purposes of messing on service
+the latter is convenient, but, tactically,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>
+a support is often needed, in which case the
+men’s comfort must take second place.</p>
+
+<p>You must make a clear distinction
+between day and night outposts, though
+you practise the latter by daylight. Infantry
+outposts by day and until the
+enemy advances, are firstly patrols and
+look-out men, whose business is to look
+for any movement on the part of the
+enemy, and to prevent his seeing their
+own side’s doings, and to report what
+they see of the enemy’s, and, secondly,
+a line of piquets who occupy the line decided
+on as the line of resistance, and who
+may fall out and rest while things are
+quiet, with supports and sometimes a
+reserve behind them. The patrols are
+active agents in getting information in
+front of the outpost line, and they
+will mostly consist of mounted troops
+except in close country or thick weather.
+The look-out sentries are passive obstacles
+to the enemy’s patrols or scouts
+penetrating the line; the piquets are the
+reserve of force ready to be called into
+action when needed. But a line suitable
+for observation and resistance by day is
+seldom suitable by night also. Fighting
+by day is done by shooting, and rough
+ground affording cover is likely to be
+chosen for the advance of the attackers.
+By night, however, the attack will be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span>
+made with the bayonet, and the attacker
+will avoid broken country, which will
+confuse and delay his advance. Choose
+your outpost line accordingly. By day
+seek for a good field of fire, mutually
+supporting positions, and good facilities
+for observation, and strengthen the position
+you mean to fight on. By night
+close the likely ways by which an enemy
+may advance by putting piquets on them
+in strengthened positions with obstacles
+prepared in front, and patrols lying out
+on intervening ground to intercept scouts.
+Thus, in an undulating hedge-covered
+country with many roads, by day your
+piquets would be behind the crests of the
+undulations, sentries only on the look-out,
+and patrols scouting in front. By night
+your piquets would be on the roads, which
+they would block with barbed wire or
+abattis of cut hedge stuff, and your patrols
+in the fields between and lying out along
+the road in front at some place where they
+could watch anything passing, and get
+back to the piquet line without running
+risks of being shot by their own side. We
+will see below what training is required
+for non-commissioned officers and men in
+their duties on piquet, patrol and sentry.
+When you have trained them in these
+duties, take up an outpost line as a tactical
+exercise with your company, acting as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span>
+an outpost company by day, and then as
+by night, and if you have scouts send
+them out to act as an enemy’s patrol in
+front to see how much of the operation
+of taking up the line is visible to them;
+then, after a certain hour, let them try
+to make their way through the line unseen.
+They must not work round the flanks as
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">ex hypothesi</i>; these are held by other outpost
+companies; finally, let them start
+sniping the outposts as if ushering in an
+attack, and let your piquets take up the
+line of resistance, your patrols falling
+back on the firing beginning.</p>
+
+
+<h3>II.</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><em>The Training of Men and Platoons in
+Outpost Duties.</em></p>
+
+<p>An outpost company will more often
+consist of two or more small piquets of
+one or more platoons with a support, than
+simply of one large piquet with its support,
+so that when you come to train the whole
+company, as above, in taking up a part
+of an outpost line, the performance of the
+work will depend largely on the ability
+of your platoon and section commanders
+to direct the men in their duties.
+Unless they are capable of doing this,
+time will be wasted as you will be occupied
+with one portion of the line while<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>
+the rest are doing nothing and awaiting
+your arrival, for in this class of work the
+instructor must remain for some time with
+each piquet while the men are being put
+through the various duties, and cannot
+supervise concurrently at all points.
+Therefore, it is best, before taking the
+men out for instruction, to give a day or
+two solely to the instruction of subalterns
+and non-commissioned officers. When
+they have got a knowledge of what is
+required, have the men out, divide them
+into piquets under subalterns and section
+commanders, who will put them through
+the duties, and the work will go on on
+proper lines, and you will be free to go
+round and supervise each in turn.</p>
+
+<p>You will have four subalterns, sixteen
+section commanders, and other non-commissioned
+officers, a total of twenty rifles
+or so, but if you are short of non-commissioned
+officers, have out enough privates to
+give you sixteen or twenty rifles. Form
+them up as a piquet and make the supposition
+that it has just received its orders to
+break off from the company and go to a
+certain point in the outpost line and take
+up its duties there.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Day Piquets.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Indicate some such point as a day piquet
+position at a reasonable distance from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span>
+where the piquet is when you give it its
+orders, and let the senior non-commissioned
+officer march it there, as on service,
+the point chosen being, if possible, such a
+one as would be occupied on service.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) This advance to the piquet is the
+first duty. In spite of the company covering
+troops being supposed to be somewhere
+in advance, the piquet on its march should
+be protected by a small patrol (F.S.R.,
+64 (1)). In taking up the position, it
+must not let the enemy see it; that is,
+neither the men nor their commander
+should show themselves. Very often the
+men are kept under cover, but the commander
+wanders about fixing places for
+sentries in full view of everyone. He
+should lie down and peep over the crest
+or whatever it is while making his plans.</p>
+
+<p>Having arrived at the piquet position,
+indicate a position on the right and on
+the left where other piquets are supposed
+to be and proceed with:—</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) Duties of outpost sentries.—These
+are given in I.T., 152. Post as many
+groups as will use up the whole
+strength in places which would need
+watching on service; if there are not
+enough such places near by, then merely
+for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two
+or more groups close together. A
+group consists of one or two men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>
+on duty, and their reliefs, who lie
+down near them. These groups are relieved
+every eight or twelve hours. Let
+it be understood that the position of their
+own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of
+these groups and of patrols, and it is a
+good plan to show the position by a flag.
+The sentries must see without being seen,
+know where other groups are, where their
+own and other piquets are, be told to
+challenge and halt anyone approaching as
+in I.T., 152 (3), and what to do if
+attacked. Let them do this to you personally,
+as if you were someone not belonging
+to the troops, and impress on
+them that they must be careful to teach
+it to their men so that <em>no stranger may
+ever be allowed to get close</em> to a group,
+and to shoot if he does not halt. Neglect
+of this simple rule has led to many mishaps
+in all armies. Concealment is not
+easy, but must be got somehow—by
+artifice, if the ground is unfavourable.
+After putting all through “sentry go”
+close to the groups and teach them:—</p>
+
+<p>(<em>c</em>) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and
+156. Patrols are not meant for fighting,
+but to get information or watch dangerous
+places. But they may have to fight
+to avoid capture, and they do no good
+by walking blindly into an ambush.
+To bring back information or news that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span>
+the enemy are coming on, it is evidently
+essential that whatever happens to the rest
+of the party, one man at least should
+always be able to escape, and to avoid
+ambush the patrol should move in a formation
+which will prevent a surprise overwhelming
+the whole party. In short, one
+portion must scout, and the other be prepared
+to cover their movement and help
+them to get away, if possible, but in any
+case to get away itself and carry news of
+the enemy. But patrols must be limited
+in strength, or they will not be able to
+escape notice, and must make up for their
+weakness by cunning and stealthiness of
+movement.</p>
+
+<p>For patrolling by day, tell off the whole
+strength into patrols of four or six men,
+one of whom will command in each patrol.
+Let each take up the formation it would
+usually adopt; that is, one or two files in
+advance, followed by the rest at a distance
+sufficient to prevent the surprise of the
+whole by one and the same opening of
+fire. Teach the method advocated for
+movement across country, i.e., a careful but
+rapid advance from one cover to another,
+also how to approach suspicious localities.
+The leading file halts and looks
+for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile
+the rear file comes nearly up to
+it; the leading file then moves forward<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span>
+while the rear file lies down with
+rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire
+at once to cover the others if the enemy
+shows himself. If the locality to be
+searched can be outflanked, the leading
+files should move round one or both flanks
+before closing in on it. If it is one that
+cannot be outflanked, as, for instance, a
+straight edge of a large wood, they should
+approach it under cover, creeping up a
+hedgerow perhaps, and so get inside. If
+there is no cover they may try some ruse
+to draw the enemy’s fire before getting
+too close, halting as if they had seen
+something, shading the eyes with the
+hand, pointing and then starting to run
+back as if alarmed, which might lead the
+enemy to open fire to prevent their escape.
+But it is rather hard to get men to do
+this play-acting unless there is a real force
+of “Blue” or “Red” enemy against
+them. The commander of the patrol,
+when approaching any place, should tell
+his men what they are to do if it is seen
+to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still
+and watch, or retire. If the latter, he
+should fix some place in rear where the
+patrol could rally after getting out of
+harm’s way.</p>
+
+<p>Show them how to look over a ridge,
+wall, or hedge, without attracting notice,
+taking off their headdress and raising the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>
+head slowly, keeping the rest of the body
+carefully under cover, and also to move
+unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges
+or roadside trees, and covering up any
+polished metal work of their uniform; to
+lie up on any place that commands a good
+view, and look long and carefully all over
+the country to catch sight of anything.
+Finally to report what they see, and to
+do this at once, if there is need, by sending
+one, or better, if the patrol can spare
+them, two men back to the piquet with a
+<em>written</em> report, the rest still remaining in
+observation. Without having an actual
+force opposing you, you can only do this
+exercise with some appearance of reality
+by giving out verbal situations to the
+patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that
+wood which an enemy may be holding.”
+On this the patrol would get into formation
+and move forward. Then, when
+approaching the wood, “You have seen
+small parties of the enemy beyond the
+wood both on its right and left, and they
+are perhaps in the wood also; try and get
+into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or,
+if not, “show what you would do to draw
+their fire before getting close.” Then
+“the wood is held by the enemy, withdraw
+your patrol if you can.” As the
+patrol attempts to retire “a heavy fire is
+opened on you as you retire, showing that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>
+there is at least a company in the wood,
+your first duty is to send news of this
+to your piquet—how and whom would you
+send, and how would you frame your
+message?”</p>
+
+<p>(<em>d</em>) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon
+and take it to the place where the piquet
+is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position
+has at once to strengthen the position
+against attack, and this without waiting
+for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are
+here only training the non-commissioned
+officers in their duties we will not ask them
+actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes
+and entanglements; indeed, this, as one
+may term it, executive work, has its proper
+place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind,
+then, that we are dealing with a day outpost,
+ask or show the platoon how to
+strengthen the position. Bring out a few
+picks and let them spitlock on the ground
+the lines of any trenches that might be
+needed, paying great attention to the siting
+of the trench so that fire could be brought
+over all the ground in front. Let them
+indicate with exactness where and how
+they would improve and adapt existing
+cover. Great regard need not be had to
+the number of men in the piquet, as outposts,
+if attacked, should make as much
+show of force as possible, and it does good
+and not harm if there are alternative loop-holes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>
+facing in different directions; also
+accommodation must be provided for
+the support. The commander should
+look for ground outside the outpost
+line from which enfilade rifle or artillery
+fire might be brought to bear on
+him, and mark how he would protect
+his men from it by traverses, breaking the
+line of loop-holes into short lengths, keeping
+under lee of existing cover and so on.
+The strengthening of the piquet must be
+done with the aid of common-sense. It will
+seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit
+of trench all in one piece and hope the
+enemy will be good enough to come and
+knock his head against it. Cover may be
+made or adapted in several separate
+groups, if this is needed, so as to make it
+possible to bring fire to bear on any part
+of the ground in front. The piquet must
+be prepared to make as brave a show as
+possible, therefore the commander, while
+strengthening the point near which his
+piquet is to rest, must decide what he will
+do if attacked. Probably there will be
+within the limits of his piquet’s frontage
+one or two other points which might be
+useful for defence, and he must not expect
+attack just from one direction. With
+regard to such alternative positions he
+should settle when and how he will use
+them, and whether he can afford time and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>
+men to strengthen them, and, last but
+not least, whether he will be able to get
+men from one to the other if the enemy
+does develop a strong attack. If he can
+do all these he will have added immensely
+to his power of defence, provided he
+handles his men skilfully, as he will be
+able to hold one position till the enemy
+thinks he has defined its location, then
+dodge to another, while they will go
+on firing at the old one, and so make his
+piquet appear many times stronger than it
+is. Concealment of the defence is very
+important, and the non-commissioned
+officers should be reminded that this must
+be attended to. They may forget it as
+there is no actual digging.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>e</em>) Duties in Piquet.—The position of
+the piquet and alternative defence positions
+having been fixed, and trenches or other
+defences marked out on the position, and
+on the alternative positions if any, assemble
+the platoon at the piquet and show the
+non-commissioned officers how to tell off
+reliefs and other duties. Each group furnished
+by the piquet consists of
+three to eight men, and mounts one or two
+men as sentry, as the circumstances of the
+post require (I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry,
+single or double, being relieved in turn by
+the others of the group. The whole group
+is under command of the senior soldier or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span>
+a non-commissioned officer. The men
+who are to form the reliefs of the groups
+stay with the piquet, which usually is composed
+solely of the reliefs of groups and
+patrols. Extra men who have no specific
+duties are not advisable unless the position
+is very exposed. Suppose your group
+sentries are single, and the groups of three
+men each, and relieved every eight hours,
+then for every group posted and in position
+there will be six men in the piquet resting
+and waiting their turn, each group thus
+needing a total of nine men—three out, six
+in. Patrols start from the piquet or support,
+as the commander of the company
+directs, and the piquet commander may
+send them out on his own initiative, if he
+thinks it needful. As they are practically
+all on duty as long as they are out, a turn
+of four hours is enough for them, or, rather,
+a third of the daylight time. Take your
+patrols from this piquet to be four strong,
+there will be for each patrol eight men in
+the piquet and four out on patrol, a total
+of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.</p>
+
+<p>In telling off a piquet on the above conditions
+of relief, and before dismissing the
+men to rest, the commander must pay attention
+to two main points. Firstly, he
+must tell off the reliefs, and give each relief
+a place to rest in. Men on outpost
+are usually tired and need all the rest they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>
+can get, especially if they are up all night.
+Therefore reliefs should be kept together
+and rest in one place, so that the commander
+can find them at once without
+stirring up the others to see who’s who.
+Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm
+posts, which they are to occupy in case of
+attack—each relief and each man of it
+should be given a position on the entrenchment
+which he is to hold. To ensure that
+they will do this at once and without confusion
+they should be made to go to these
+places and occupy them before being dismissed.
+There will then be no needless
+running about with consequent casualties
+if fire, either of artillery or infantry, suddenly
+opens.</p>
+
+<p>Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned
+officers and others) in your instructional
+piquet give out that it is to furnish—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent">1 Sentry over the piquet.<br>
+2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.<br>
+2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The sentry over the piquet alone being
+actually posted, the two groups and two
+patrols being supposed to be out in front,
+as this part of the lesson is only concerned
+with the inside work of the piquet, and
+you have already shown them this work on
+sentry and patrol. As your strength is not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span>
+sufficient you must make a further supposition,
+and make believe that for the
+reliefs of the groups one of your rifles represents
+three, and for those of the patrols
+one rifle represents two. Appoint one of
+the non-commissioned officers in turn as
+commander, and let him tell off accordingly.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent">3 Rifles for piquet sentry, one of whom he actually mounts.<br>
+1 Rifle (representing three) as second relief, No. 1 group.<br>
+1 Rifle (representing three) as third relief, No. 1 group.<br>
+2 Rifles (representing two each) for second relief, No. 1 patrol.<br>
+2 Rifles (representing two each) for third relief, No. 1 patrol.<br>
+<span style="padding-left: .8em">And a similar number for No. 2  patrol and No. 2 group.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Having told off these reliefs the commander
+should then tell them where they
+are to have their resting places and where
+their posts are in case of alarm. At this
+time also he would give out any special
+orders which concern the piquet. Then
+without dismissing the men he should
+order them to go to their resting places,
+and as soon as they are there order them
+to occupy their alarm posts, which should
+be done in double time, the men lying
+down on the places that have been marked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span>
+out for entrenchment or improvement of
+existing cover. Make this falling in on
+alarm posts a standing order in the company.
+After this has been done, and each
+man knows exactly what he has to do on
+the alarm, the men should be dismissed to
+their resting places, which, as before said,
+should be separate for each relief and apart
+from each other. After being dismissed,
+the men would on service be allowed to
+make themselves as comfortable as possible.
+Other duties of the piquet commander
+are:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (1) The opening of communication with piquets in right and left and the support.</p>
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (2) The fixing of places for purposes of nature.</p>
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (3) The arrangements for getting up food to his men if they have not their rations with them.</p>
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+  (4) Keeping his piquet in a state of readiness; besides keeping accoutrements on, the men
+should have their rifles at their sides when resting, and take them with them wherever they
+go. There should be no such thing as piling arms on outpost.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h3><em>Night Piquets.</em></h3>
+
+<p>In the dark the bullet is a fool unless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span>
+fired at close quarters. No practicable
+amount of shooting, even at only a
+hundred yards distance, will dislodge determined
+men posted under cover, and a
+serious attack must be made with the
+bayonet or by shooting within the distance
+at which a man may be distinguished—ten
+yards or so. F.S.R., 138 (2), lays
+down for the British Army that the
+bayonet only is to be used in night attacks,
+and we may assume that any civilized
+army we may have to meet will pursue
+similar tactics. Aerial reconnaissance may
+nowadays allow an enemy to locate the
+position held by the main body of his
+opponent, in spite of its being covered by
+outposts, but such reconnaissance does not
+admit of any hope of a successful night
+attack being made on that main body by
+eluding or passing through the outposts,
+because the surface of the ground cannot
+be sufficiently searched from above to discover
+the small obstacles which must be
+avoided or known if the advance of a
+large body of men is to be carried out at
+night. So we may take it that now, as
+formerly, any large attack will fall first
+on the outposts, supposing, as we must,
+that these are placed so as to hold or
+watch all possible lines of advance. In
+addition to this, outposts must expect isolated
+attacks made against one or two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span>
+points held by them which the enemy
+desires to gain possession of. The duties
+of outposts by night are, then, to hold
+and defend the outpost line in sufficient
+strength to prevent any large body of the
+enemy breaking through, or getting a
+footing in some tactically important position
+on the line, and also to prevent the
+enemy’s scouts from getting through and
+making observations, and, lastly, but of
+most importance, to get news of the enemy
+both as a means of forestalling any
+attack, and for the use of the force commander
+in framing his plans. Bringing
+the matter down to the level of a piquet
+of an outpost company, it seems to resolve
+itself into night patrolling and night
+defence of a position. As before pointed
+out, enclosed country allows of piquets
+closing the lines of advance by which
+large bodies can only hope to move undiscovered,
+while intervening ground can be
+searched by patrols. On the other hand,
+open country leaves the front vulnerable
+everywhere, and calls for a greater number
+of piquets and closer patrolling than
+are needed by day.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, elementary instruction in
+these duties must be carried out by daylight
+to allow of supervision; so now
+assemble your platoon of non-commissioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span>
+officers and give out that you are going to
+practise night work. Choose some place
+for your night piquet, realistic as may be,
+a bridge, a cutting, or anything else that
+constitutes a defile or otherwise blocks a
+likely line of advance from the enemy’s
+direction. Also choose, and point out to
+the platoon, positions where the adjoining
+piquets on the right and left would be.
+Give out the following instructions to the
+non-commissioned officers:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (1) Piquets must take up their night
+    positions when it is getting dusk,
+    the strengthening of the piquet
+    and construction of obstacles
+    being done in advance, secretly if
+    possible, and towards evening the
+    working party should withdraw
+    and leave the intended night position
+    empty till it is time to move
+    into it, further work being completed
+    by twilight.</p>
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (2) The provision of obstacles is
+    more necessary than entrenchment,
+    as securing the piquet from
+    being rushed while completing
+    the latter.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (3) Men must rest on their alarm
+    posts, and bayonets may have to
+    be kept fixed by all, if there is
+    a possibility of a sudden attack
+    (I.T., 151 (7)), to ensure instant
+    readiness.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (4) All piquets must stand to arms
+    one hour before light and remain
+    ready for action till the patrols
+    have found that there is no sign
+    of an immediate attack. When
+    relief takes place in the morning,
+    night outposts will not return to
+    camp till the patrols report all
+    clear.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>After this, let the non-commissioned
+officer in command withdraw the piquet
+from its day position and march it to the
+night position. On arrival ask the non-commissioned
+officers in turn where they
+would place the piquet exactly and where
+they would put their obstacles. Obstacles
+for a night piquet should be under close
+fire, i.e., ten or twenty paces, but, in
+addition, booby traps and alarms may be
+placed further in front. Barbed wire is
+the best of all obstacles. The actual
+defensive measures to be taken do not
+differ from those taken for the defence of
+any position not on outpost.</p>
+
+<p>The position of the piquet and obstacles
+being decided on, let the non-commissioned
+officers mark on the ground the
+actual work they would undertake, having
+regard to the time available, which you
+should tell them, and, on the same lines<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span>
+as for the day piquet, let them as commanders
+in turn divide the men into reliefs
+of sentries and patrols, tell them off
+to their alarm posts, and order them to
+occupy them once as if on alarm.</p>
+
+<p>A piquet by night, no matter how well
+entrenched, has a very limited field of
+action. Even with most carefully arranged
+night rests for the men’s rifles its fire effect
+is small except at close ranges, and to resist
+attack by relatively larger bodies it
+must in general keep behind its defences.
+Hence a well organised scheme of patrols
+is necessary to supplement the passive opposition
+which the piquet can offer. The
+patrols are charged with the duty of bringing
+news of any advance of the enemy to
+attack, and, if he is close enough, of spying
+out his movements on and within his outpost
+line, of preventing his patrols or scouts
+penetrating their own line, of watching any
+localities which are of particular importance
+and unoccupied by piquets, such, for
+example, as villages beyond the outpost
+line which the enemy might try to occupy
+by night, and, lastly, of keeping up communication
+between the various bodies of
+the outposts. The strength of patrols is
+limited by the necessity of their being able
+to do this work without making a noise,
+and a strength of three to eight men is
+advised. A patrol performs its duty of observation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span>
+either by going from point to
+point, or by watching one particular place,
+when it is called a “standing patrol.” If a
+piquet posts any group sentries by night,
+away from the piquet, such groups have
+just the same work as standing patrols,
+except that they may be ordered to maintain
+their position in case of attack as
+they are near support, whereas patrols
+would fall back as soon as they had made
+sure the enemy was advancing, and possibly,
+if in accordance with their instructions,
+after treating him to a short burst of
+rapid fire. An ordinary patrol will also
+have to halt and listen perhaps for long
+periods, and so becomes for the nonce a
+standing patrol.</p>
+
+<p>Form up the platoon at the piquet position,
+and let the commander tell it off into
+three patrols to practise this duty, disregarding
+reliefs, all three to be sent out at
+the same time in different directions, one
+man in each to be commander. Before
+they start off, tell them the following, which
+piquet commanders must see to:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (1) If there is no countersign published
+    for the force, piquet commanders
+    must arrange either a
+    word or a sign by which men may
+    know their own side in the dark.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (2) Patrols going out are to tell the
+    nearest sentry which way they are
+    going (I.T., 156 (5)).</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (3) For patrols a code of signals<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span>
+    should be arranged, e.g., a hiss or
+    half-whistle, to call attention,
+    answered by the same to show
+    that the man called has heard it,
+    followed by the signal, whatever
+    it is:—a double hiss for “come up
+    to me,” a click of the tongue for
+    “retire,” but anything will do provided
+    it cannot be clearly heard
+    much further off than the listeners
+    for whom it is intended, and is
+    neither a very common nor a very
+    uncommon sound.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    (4) The piquet commander must tell
+    patrols how long they are to stay
+    out and any places he thinks must
+    be visited, in addition to what they
+    themselves may find advisable, on
+    closer acquaintance with the ground.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>A suitable formation for a night patrol
+of six men would be four in the advanced
+party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the
+rear party or two. The reason for the
+stronger party being ahead is, firstly, that
+fighting at night begins with suddenness
+and ends rapidly, while reinforcement of
+one party by another is slow and uncertain,
+and, secondly, to ensure that some
+part of the patrol may have a good chance
+of getting away with news, whatever happens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span>
+to the rest: Bayonets should be fixed
+and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the
+right hand holding the small of the butt so
+as to come to the charge at once, and not
+to have any chance of a rifle falling on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>Tell patrol commanders to get their
+patrols into formation and practise movement
+in silence along a road and on
+ordinary road. If along a road, let them
+move on each side of it, off the metal on
+the roadside grass or dust, and under trees
+or close to the hedge or wall. On ordinary
+country the ball of the foot should be put
+down first as if to feel the surface, before
+putting the full weight of the body on the
+advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle,
+<em>à la</em> “boy scout,” is invaluable in moving
+over unexplored ground, as by it the real
+nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet
+can be made out, and awkward spills
+thereby avoided. The movement of
+patrols under these conditions will be very
+slow over any but quite level ground. As
+the patrols move let them practise the code
+of signals, halting, advancing, coming up
+into one line, etc., also the keeping up of
+communication by one file moving back and
+forward between the two parts of the
+patrol. They should practise also breaking
+up and scattering as if attacked by
+overwhelming numbers, each individual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>
+getting away as quickly and quietly as
+possible, and the whole rallying again at
+some place in rear. The patrol commander
+as he goes out must fix these rallying
+places, usually one is enough over the
+whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be
+<em>outside</em> the outpost line. Have the patrols
+moved so that on their beats they may
+meet each other once or twice, and use the
+sign to reply when challenge is made. As
+a second practice, direct one of the meeting
+patrols to consider itself hostile, and
+let the commander of the other patrol
+excogitate how he would deal with men
+who did not stand fast on being told to
+halt and could not give the countersign.</p>
+
+<p>Next tell the patrols to get into position
+to watch various localities, a farm steading,
+a ravine, or such like, as they would have to
+do for limited periods as patrols reconnoitring
+on their beats, or for the whole
+night as standing patrols. One of the best
+ways in which patrols can fulfil their office
+is by halting and listening with ears near
+the ground for sounds of human movement.
+There is no rule for thus lying up except
+that they must not get caught themselves.
+A couple of men should be left quite clear
+of the patrol to get away if the others
+strike trouble, and the commander of the
+patrol should have word passed to these
+two from time to time that all is well with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span>
+the rest, or they may wait in their place
+while the others have been quietly
+downed.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, let patrols return to the piquet,
+and learn how to approach without getting
+themselves fired on, or causing useless
+alarm. A good way is for two of the patrol
+to advance a few steps at a time when near
+the piquet, halting and quietly code-signalling
+the piquet sentry till they get His attention
+and warn him that the patrol wants
+to come in.</p>
+
+<p>It has taken longer to write about outposts
+than it may take you to put your men
+through them, and I have purposely been
+discursive because a knowledge of what is
+needed from outposts is more important
+than any set exercise, and also because
+this duty is the one which newly raised
+troops are most likely to perform negligently,
+and at the same time the one which,
+if neglected, allows the enemy to bring raw
+troops to quick demoralisation. I have also
+purposely written as if unlimited ground
+were available, and, speaking generally, I
+think it is. You can, and should, practise
+your piqueting and patrolling on the
+ordinary countryside, with its main and
+bye-roads, paths, fields, and hedges. The
+practice of outposts when piquets are not
+entrenched, causes no damage, so that
+leave to move over the fields should not be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span>
+hard to get, but even if it cannot be got,
+the principal and most important work of
+patrolling and watching all roads and paths,
+will be done on the ground on which they
+would be done on service. If fighting ever
+takes place in Britain, which Heaven forefend,
+outpost lines will be along the ordinary
+country and not on Salisbury Plain, so
+do not go into wild and desolate places
+for your outposts, but take the ordinary
+country round where you are.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XV">EXERCISE XV.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Defence.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>The subject of defence is treated of in
+F.S.R., 107-110, I.T., 125-135, and in
+Chapter VII., M.F.E., 1911. The duties
+required of the company commander and
+his subordinates are briefly defined by I.T.,
+132, to be similar to those they carry out in
+the attack. The whole spirit of the regulations
+is that the active Defence is merely a
+means to an end, viz., the ultimate assumption
+of the offensive, which may be carried
+out either by the same troops which have
+acted on the defensive or by fresh troops
+detailed for the purpose. In both cases
+the troops that have acted on the defensive
+must be ready to become the aggressors.
+Therefore, in training your men, you
+should keep this constantly in view and
+conserve a spirit of aggressive mobility.
+Men must not be allowed to think that
+once a position has been taken up and
+entrenched it is to be their location till
+fighting ceases; on the contrary, they
+should be encouraged to look for opportunities
+while still on the defensive,
+to occupy alternative positions which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>
+will make the task of the attacking
+enemy more difficult. Quickness
+in seizing and strengthening a position
+must be combined with mobility in
+leaving it to take up and strengthen a
+new one. Of course, the time available
+regulates the work that can be undertaken
+(M.F.E., VII. (2)); deep trenches and
+concealed head cover cannot be made with
+an enemy pressing in to assault, but the
+first requirement is the ability to choose
+positions that give a good field of fire
+and to strengthen them as thoroughly as
+the time available and the proximity of
+the enemy admit.</p>
+
+<p>In dealing with a company, the onus of
+choosing what localities it is tactically
+necessary to occupy and strengthen rests
+with the company commander, subject to
+the orders of his battalion commander.
+In the same way as on outpost, you will
+be given a bit of ground to defend, either
+acting with the battalion or as an isolated
+company, and the rest will be on your
+head. I do not propose to deliver a
+treatise on the tactical occupation of
+ground, but instead I will ask you to procure
+and read two books. The first is
+“The Defence of Duffer’s Drift,” by
+Backsight Forethought (W. Clowes and
+Sons), the second is “A Staff Officer’s
+Scrap Book,” by Sir Ian Hamilton<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>
+(Edward Arnold). They are both most
+readable books, and are quite free of
+soporific effects. The first is small, and
+deals with the efforts of a half-company,
+under Lieutenant B. F., to defend a drift
+over a South African river. In the second
+the author takes you along with him
+through the Russo-Japanese War, of which
+he was a privileged spectator, and in your
+journeyings you look on at victories and
+defeats in the making, while the causes
+that led to them, great and small, are set
+forth, along with many shrewd comments
+on human nature and how it translates
+itself in the day of battle. Every fight
+bears its own lesson of what to do and
+what not to do in defence, and this told
+in no pedantic strain, but with the saving
+grace of humour, to mitigate the darker
+side of human carnage. Read them both,
+get to yourself the wisdom and understanding
+with which they are filled, and
+you will know how to take up a position
+for defence.</p>
+
+<p>Having educated yourself to choose the
+points of a defensive position that must
+be occupied if the position is to be effectively
+held, you have still to train your
+men to the work of defending them, and
+they must learn to be able to do without
+the help of a supervising officer, as will
+often be the case on service.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span></p>
+
+<p>Daylight defence is almost entirely a
+matter of fire, the immediate object being
+to make it impossible for the enemy to come
+to close quarters. Platoon and section commanders
+then must be able to dispose their
+men with this in view to the best advantage
+within the limits of the ground
+allotted to their units, and the men must
+be able to site their trenches or whatever
+form of cover has to be constructed so
+as to use their rifles to the best effect. It
+is no good to teach men to dig trenches
+and make loop-holes unless they know the
+proper places for them. (M.F.E., 18 (7)).</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, practice in digging
+and the use of tools is very necessary for
+men who are not accustomed to such work.
+The hands of the untrained man blister
+and his muscles tire under the unusual
+effort, while he expends much energy with
+results small in comparison with what he
+can accomplish once he has learnt to use
+his strength well. Moreover, a certain
+amount of technical skill is required in
+making any but the most simple cover.</p>
+
+<p>To practise the execution of work, you
+<em>must</em> have ground which you are at liberty
+to turn up, as well as some materials for
+loop-holes and obstacles. These may not
+be obtainable at any and every parade,
+but you can give practice in the selection
+and siting of trenches on any bit of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span>
+country without causing damage, the men
+merely spitlocking or marking with stones
+or anything else the position of the
+trenches on the surface of the ground, and
+describing what they propose doing.</p>
+
+<p>I would, therefore, advise that you
+make your training consist of two parts,
+firstly the siting of trenches and the planning
+by unit commanders and men of
+defensive work, the choice and occupation
+of alternative positions, and the assumption
+of the offensive from the defensive,
+all this without actually breaking ground,
+and, secondly, ground and tools being
+then available, the performance of a course
+of making real cover and obstacles.</p>
+
+<p>But the first part cannot be carried out
+unless the men have a knowledge of what
+trenches, loop-holes and so on are like,
+and the objects with which they are made.
+In a company of raw recruits taken from
+the populace at large, there will be plenty
+who have no ideas on the subject at all.
+You must then precede your exercises either
+by a short lecture, materials for which you
+will find in plenty in the “Defence of
+Duffer’s Drift,” and the manuals of training,
+or, better than a lecture, by showing
+them specimens of entrenchments made by
+regular troops. The main points to insist
+on are the securing of a field of fire, the
+necessity of concealment of the defences,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span>
+the importance of head cover as a help to
+the delivery of an accurate fire by letting
+men keep the enemy in view without showing
+up themselves, the avoidance of enfilade
+fire by making traverses, or by taking
+advantage of intervening high ground,
+the provision of cover from downward
+shell fire by making the trenches deep and
+steep enough to let men stand close up
+to the edges, and, in the case of isolated
+posts and points held as pivots of a position,
+the necessity of preparing an all-round
+defence so that these pivots will be
+able to continue fighting whatever happens
+on the intervening ground. The course
+of work actually performed for the second
+part should include digging all kinds of
+trenches, by which the men will learn to
+use their tools to the best advantage, and
+their hands and muscles will become
+hardened, the use of the excavated earth
+to form parapets and parados (cover from
+fire from the rear of the trench; forty
+inches of earth are needed to keep out a
+bullet), the drainage of trenches, the making
+of traverses against enfilade fire, the
+making of loop-holes and head-cover with
+the aid of all sorts of materials, sand
+bags, brushwood and heather, straw and
+twigs, stones and bricks (which must be
+covered with earth to deaden the effects
+of splinters), packing boards, and so on,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span>
+the concealment of trenches and loop-holes
+so as to be invisible to the enemy (this is
+of great importance), the masking of loop-holes
+when not in use to prevent light
+showing through, the making of dummy
+trenches and loop-holes to draw the
+enemy’s fire away, the improvement of
+existing cover, such as loop-holing walls
+and the use of hedges with or without
+ditches, making sangars, if stones are
+available, the making of obstacles of
+barbed and plain wire, and measuring and
+marking of ranges round a position, which
+should be done by some means not obvious
+to the enemy, and clearing the field of
+fire. It will seldom be practicable to
+obtain subjects for practical demonstration
+of some of the latter in peace time;
+people will object to their walls being
+experimented on or their shrubberies laid
+low, and so even here a description of the
+method will have to be substituted for
+actual performance. For night defence
+the construction of night rests for rifles is
+needed. The best I know is a packing
+case, filled with earth, with the front and
+rear edges notched to hold the rifle stock.
+The magazine is laid hard up against the
+outside of the rear edge and the notches,
+front or rear, slowly deepened with a penknife
+till the sights bear on the target;
+afterwards earth is banked up outside the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span>
+box and head-cover made above. The
+foregoing may seem a formidable list, but
+they are things that will undoubtedly be
+required as soon as you get on shooting
+terms with an enemy; while if you exhaust
+this list and feel the want of further
+occupation, the Engineering Manual will
+supply you with further subjects for your
+activities.</p>
+
+<p>Pending your getting facilities of
+ground, tools, and materials to execute
+work, you can proceed with the first part
+of training outlined above. If your non-commissioned
+officers have not had experience,
+take them out as an instructional
+section in the same way as when teaching
+outpost work, and put them through the
+exercises which follow. But if they are
+already fairly competent, take the men
+on parade, forming them, if possible, into
+not less than two sections.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Instruction in Siting Trenches.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Choose any position on undulating
+ground, form the men in extended order
+in one line in rear of it, and order them
+to move up, and mark where each would
+place his trench in order to fire on an
+enemy advancing from the front. In
+doing this it should be an invariable rule
+that men must lie down, bring the rifle into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span>
+the firing position, look along the sights,
+and move forward or back till they see that
+they have got the best position to sweep the
+ground in their immediate front (see
+M.F.E., 31 (3)). Dead ground close to
+the trench gives the enemy a place in which
+to collect and organise an assault. Take
+the men in the same way on to other positions
+and repeat the lesson till they all
+understand that the <em>first thing to be done
+is this aiming with the rifle to secure a
+good field of fire</em>. At first halt them
+close to what you see is the best line, and
+afterwards halt them thirty or forty yards
+from it, and then give the order to choose
+sites. For instance, halt them on the top
+of a convex slope and let them find out
+that the best place to bring fire on to flat
+ground at its base is somewhere on the
+enemy’s side of the convexity, for if the
+trench were made on the top of the slope
+the ground immediately in front would be
+hidden by the convexity. The section
+commanders must help the men in choosing
+sites.</p>
+
+<p>After the men have fixed and marked
+the proposed sites, let them lay down their
+rifles three paces in rear and kneel or lie
+down at the rear edge of the site as if
+waiting to commence work while you and
+section and platoon commanders go round
+and examine the line. Ask details from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span>
+the men—how high they would make the
+parapet, how thick it should be, how they
+would make head-cover, how they would
+conceal the work, and so on.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Traverses and broken lines of Trenches.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Repeat the exercise as above, but this
+time have the men in sections or small
+groups, and the trenches made not in one
+line, but in short lengths, separated by
+traverses. You will have to explain the
+construction and use of these to prevent
+enfilade fire (if not from long range), and
+to localise shell bursts. Again, have lines
+of trenches mapped out in short lengths
+on an irregular front, some a little forward,
+some a little back, with the earth
+at each end, banked up on the flanks with
+the same object (M.F.E., 33).</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Short Trenches for Two Men.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Bring the men extended to six or eight
+paces on to a position, and let the men of
+each file close to two paces from each
+other. Each file is then to choose and
+mark a site for a short trench to hold both
+of them, or, as it would formerly have
+been called, a rifle pit, marking where
+they would make loop-holes to fire both
+to the front, and obliquely towards the
+right and left, so as to rake the ground<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span>
+in front of the line of the other men’s pits.
+This arrangement is not officially recognised,
+and it does not give the closest
+possible firing line, but it is an excellent
+way of making men think for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When the men have got their bearings
+in the matter of taking up a line for entrenchment,
+make them get into the way
+of changing from defence into attack.
+Take up a position as before, and as soon
+as the trenches are marked out, indicate a
+position at some distance as an objective
+for attack and start an advance against
+it, as done in the attack practices, forming
+a firing line rapidly of some named
+platoons and the support of the others. A
+skeleton enemy kept hidden till needed
+adds much to the realism.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Defence of Pivots (M.F.E., 50 (3), and
+I.T., 129).</em></h3>
+
+<p>Find a position in which there are some
+points separated from each other which
+command the ground between, and also
+form such pivots for defence of the position
+as are described in the paras.
+above. According to the nature of
+the ground, such pivots might be, for
+platoons, as much as four hundred yards
+apart, i.e., attackers coming between them
+would be under fire at not more than two
+hundred yards. Send a platoon under a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span>
+commander to each pivot, and let him
+plan and mark out his defensive measures,
+which must include:—</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    1. An arrangement for all-round defence,
+    so that the pivot may be
+    self-contained and capable of
+    continuing the fight, although
+    others may have been captured.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    2. The siting accordingly of trenches
+    and loop-holes to fire all round
+    and especially to sweep the front
+    and rear of adjoining pivots.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    3. The adaptation of existing cover to
+    save labour.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    4. The provision of protection against
+    enfilade and reverse fire, and the
+    <em>recognition of distant localities</em>
+    from which such fire, whether of
+    artillery or rifle, might be
+    brought to bear on the post.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    5. The marking of ranges in each
+    direction.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    6. The provision of obstacles.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    7. Any feasible scheme for alternative
+    positions which his men could
+    reach and occupy under fire.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    8. The concealment of the defences,
+    provision of dummy trenches,
+    and loop-holes and any other
+    shifts.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    9. The telling off and posting of
+    look-out men and fixing and
+    occupying of alarm posts when
+    work has been completed.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    10. Drainage and sanitation.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span>
+
+<p>The concealment of defences from aerial
+reconnaissance will, perhaps, soon claim
+more attention than it gets at present.</p>
+
+<p>Practise an attack after defence, starting
+off one platoon under your own orders
+to “go for” an indicated enemy, and
+sending word either by messenger or by
+semaphore to the others, either to join
+you and form a firing line, or to move out
+in support, but, if the latter, do not fail
+to finally call them up to reinforce the
+firing line; counter-attacks must usually
+be made with a relatively strong firing
+line and small support.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>The Company in Defence Acting Alone.</em></h3>
+
+<p>When you have put non-commissioned
+officers and men through the preceding
+course, plan some scheme on the lines of
+the defence of Duffer’s Drift, to deal with
+a company isolated and beyond reach of
+immediate reinforcement. Any bridge
+over a railway line, a group of buildings
+supposed to contain stores, or a ford or
+bridge over a river, will provide you with
+an object to defend. Choose a line of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>
+defence round it and determine what are
+the essential pivots to be held. To do
+this, so as to furnish an instructive lesson,
+it will usually be necessary for you to
+pay a visit to the place by yourself and
+formulate your proposed defence before
+bringing the company on to the ground.
+Pay great attention to crossing and supporting
+fire from the pivots, and look at
+the surrounding country with a view to
+meeting attack from any direction, for
+in this case the company, as well as the
+pivots in its line of defence, must be self-contained.
+Also have regard to the certainty
+that you will have artillery fire
+against you, to which you will not be able
+to reply, and in consequence your proposed
+defences must include deep trenches
+or recesses to shelter the men from shell.
+Your defences will take the form of a
+chain of isolated groups about the point
+to be defended and separated from each
+other by possibly several hundred yards.
+It is no use simply to go and sit inside a
+group of buildings which the guns would
+knock about your ears and against which
+the enemy can concentrate. The better
+plan is to break up his attack and hide
+your weakness by occupying well-strengthened
+pivots, behind whose protection you
+may have some freedom of movement, and
+so be able, if the weakness or rashness of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span>
+the enemy gives opportunity, to inaugurate
+local counter-attacks. These, if successful
+in inflicting a sharp and sudden loss,
+will make him hesitate to deliver a decisive
+attack till he has found out all about
+you. With one company you cannot
+expect to achieve decisive results against
+any considerable body of the enemy, but
+must be content with keeping him in play
+for as long a time as possible, and an
+attitude of active bluff is the best means
+of doing so.</p>
+
+<p>When you have got your plans completed,
+take out the company as strong as
+possible and complete in its proper platoons
+and sections—if there are too few
+men let one man count for two or three.
+Send off platoons to occupy and plan the
+defence of the pivots as done when practising
+it before. Do the same scheme
+on two separate occasions. The first time
+do not send out a skeleton enemy, so that
+the men may have time to look round, but
+for the second time send out some scouts
+under a subaltern, and let the platoons fall
+out on their positions with patrols out in
+front. Fix a certain hour by which you
+expect the arrangements to be all ready,
+and arrange for the enemy to advance at
+that time, and open fire on the patrols if
+they are met. When the patrols have
+fallen back the enemy closes in and starts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>
+sniping at the position. Then bring off a
+counter-attack, withdrawing some men for
+the purpose from pivots that are not
+threatened, and coming in on the flank of
+the attackers. In theory, of course, you
+should have a support or reserve available
+for this, but it does no harm to move men
+out of their trenches with the object of
+assuming the offensive, while the men learn
+the essential part of their work by all being
+employed on the perimeter.</p>
+
+<p>Have out the company yet a third time
+on the same or a similar scheme, pivots
+and skeleton enemy as before. On this
+occasion, if the scheme is the same, change
+round the platoons to different pivots from
+what they occupied before, and when the
+arrangements for defence have been
+settled, leave only sentries and their groups
+on the pivots as look-outs, but have patrols
+in front. Form the remainder of the men
+into a support in some central position, and
+tell them off to occupy as alarm posts the
+pivots from which they were withdrawn.
+When the skeleton enemy attacks, reinforce
+the threatened part of the line by the
+men of the units told off for its defence,
+and with part, or even the whole of the
+rest, make a counter-attack.</p>
+
+<p>It is very desirable, though unfortunately
+not often possible, to perform these last
+three practices on ground where you are at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>
+liberty to dig, and with an enemy of three
+or four companies instead of a few snipers.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>Night Defence.</em></h3>
+
+<p>A night attack may be delivered as a
+sequence to fighting by daylight, in the
+course of which the enemy has established
+himself sufficiently close to the defences
+held by his opponent to see clearly the way
+to reach the point against which he intends
+to lead his force. Or he may deliver an
+attack without previous fighting, hoping to
+get the better of the defenders by surprise,
+and basing his plans solely on the
+results of reconnaissance. In the latter
+case the attack must be preceded by a
+night advance, long or short, according as
+the defenders’ outposts and their patrols
+have succeeded in keeping the hostile
+troops at a distance or not, unless, indeed,
+the troops or their scouts or spies have not
+been in touch at all during the day in
+which case an attack would not be a wise
+proceeding, because the needful information
+about the ground and your forces
+is lacking. Such attacks as require a night
+advance as a preliminary are likely to be
+made either over open ground or along
+roads, for the difficulties and delays occasioned
+by moving troops over broken
+ground which is not thoroughly known are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span>
+very great. But in the first case, when
+fighting has been going on by day, and the
+two forces are in close contact at nightfall,
+separated perhaps by only a few hundred
+yards, the presence of broken ground
+in front of the defences is no guarantee
+that the enemy may not consider an attack
+by night to have a reasonable chance of
+succeeding against any of the points which
+he has been trying to carry by daylight.
+It follows then that in preparing a position
+for defence the pivots must be ready to
+withstand attack by night as well as by
+day, and also that roads or paths leading
+into the position from the surrounding
+country should be held and defended by
+night, in spite of their being innocuous by
+daylight owing to being swept effectively
+by fire from the adjacent pivots. It will
+be admitted, I think, that fire by night is
+ineffectual unless at very short ranges, or
+when delivered by men of extraordinary
+skill such as the up-country Boer and the
+American backwoods-men were pictured
+to be. A European enemy will seek to
+bring off his attack with the bayonet. The
+defenders will try to foil this attack, firstly,
+by the use of fire at the close range, which
+allows it to be effective, and, secondly, by
+the use of the bayonet. This plainly
+translates itself into obstacles to keep the
+enemy under fire, obstacles to hamper him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span>
+when at bayonet distance, and night rests
+to help the accuracy of the fire in certain
+desired directions. I have told you one
+good form of night rest, and there are
+several others, but all require some material
+if they are to be even approximately accurate.
+Failing material of any sort, tie
+white rags round the muzzles of the men’s
+rifles if you can get them. After a week
+in the field your men will have nothing that
+is not very dirty, but in a civilised country
+some member of the population may perhaps
+be found ready to oblige a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Working still on your daylight scheme
+show your non-commissioned officers and
+men how to make night obstacles in addition
+to those meant for daylight defence,
+which latter may be any distance up to one
+hundred yards in front of the trenches.
+The night obstacles, on the other hand,
+should be quite close, the fire obstacles as
+close as ten yards, the bayonet obstacles,
+say a narrow ditch and a wire, close under
+the trenches so as to make a man stumble
+when trying to reach the defender with his
+bayonet. Make or plan these arrangements
+round the pivots, and then practise
+blocking and defending paths or roads by
+the same methods as for pivots, but with
+this variation, that a parapet which can
+only be used for defence at night may be
+as high as you consider needful without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>
+paying regard to its invisibility, while
+those to be used by day are kept as low as
+possible. In a practical exercise the men
+to hold these night posts would have to be
+furnished either from your support or by
+thinning some of the pivots.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the most carefully arranged trenches
+and obstacles will be of no value unless the
+men occupy them in time to avail themselves
+of their advantages. Time sufficient
+to allow of this, must be got by
+patrolling in front as for outposts, by making
+automatic alarms in front of the obstacles
+(M.F.E., 55 (12)), by having alert
+sentries on the defence line, and by having
+a good and well understood arrangement
+of alarm posts by which each man shall be
+ready to occupy at once, in silence, and
+without confusion, the place which has
+been assigned to him. Patrolling has been
+dealt with under “Outposts,” the alertness
+of your sentries will depend largely on the
+state of discipline to which you have
+brought your company, and on the commonsenseness,
+to coin a word, of their
+training. Alarm posts are practised in the
+same way as on outpost. In many corps
+it is a standing order that when in camp or
+bivouac, on manœuvre as well as on service,
+men are to fall in on their alarm posts
+once a day, the usual times being at retreat
+or on arrival in camp (F.S.R., 48<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span>
+(2)), and this is done whether in Brigade
+(F.S.R., 47 (2)) or not. If such is the order
+in your battalion, adhere to it within your
+company when detached, if not, do it
+off your own bat. It does not fatigue the
+men and ensures attention being paid on
+all occasions to this important duty.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XVI">EXERCISE XVI.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Hasty Expedients.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>I.T., 93 (iii.), directs the training of the
+section to include rough and ready expedients
+so as to form a fighting front in
+any direction. This training is of great
+value, both from a disciplinary point of
+view, as it makes men quick to move on an
+order, and also from the point of view of
+<em>moral</em>, as men accustomed to get sudden
+and unexpected orders given under
+imaginary circumstances will be more
+likely to keep cool, when such orders are
+necessitated by the stress of actual battle,
+than men who have always been trained
+in a deliberate fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Such sudden orders must in general
+mean one of two things, either that the
+enemy has got you, or you have got him,
+“on the hop,” if I may introduce an expression
+from the cricket field, and that
+there is every chance of the bowler, whoever
+he is, being badly scored off, unless
+he treats the batsman to something more
+difficult than the expensive half-volley.
+If you are fortunately able to find the
+enemy at a disadvantage, you will act<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>
+against him by rifle fire alone; but, on the
+other hand, you may find yourself caught
+in a bad situation, by either artillery or
+rifle fire, or possibly by cavalry, who
+mean to use the steel. It follows then, in
+practising expedients, based, as they
+should be, on some possible situation, that
+you should make the central idea either
+offensive, as if attempting to bring your
+men into a position to get the best results
+from their fire, or defensive, as if to
+escape, or mitigate shell fire or rifle fire,
+to which you are subjected under adverse
+conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Against artillery fire from ranges or in
+positions at which you cannot reply effectively
+with rifle fire, your action at first,
+at all events, must be purely defensive,
+i.e., all you can do, will be to escape
+being overwhelmed by the shell fire, and
+even at effective rifle range, the shields of
+modern field guns, enable them to engage
+infantry on very equal terms, so long as
+the infantry is in front, or not far on a
+flank, of the line of guns.</p>
+
+<p>In the days of muzzle-loaders, it was
+the cavalry who possessed the power of
+suddenly annihilating infantry, when
+caught unprepared to withstand their
+charge. The magazine rifle has reduced
+this danger, but the quick-firing cannon
+has now equal, if not greater, powers of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>
+dealing out swift destruction to any infantry
+that it finds exposed in close
+formation, if only the range be known.
+At least once in the Russo-Japanese War,
+and again in the Turko-Bulgarian war, if
+we may believe the somewhat ill-authenticated
+reports yet to hand, have artillery
+wiped out of existence in a few moments
+several hundred unfortunate infantrymen,
+who were caught in the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rafâle</i>
+fired at a range either ascertained previously,
+or got at the moment by good luck
+or good judgment. The contingency of
+being thus caught by artillery is evidently
+one that should be prepared for by infantry,
+as was the forming of squares in the old
+days, when a cavalry charge was an ever
+present peril. In this case of artillery fire,
+the conditions and the object desired are
+practically always the same—the infantry
+is in close order of some sort, and wishes to
+break up into a congeries of small groups,
+so as to isolate the effect of the burst of
+each shrapnel. The matter of rifle fire is
+different, as there are any number of ways
+in which you may seek either to escape the
+results of the enemy’s fire or attempt to
+use your own, and this is the proper field
+in which to practise expedients.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever you intend to carry out some
+such movement to meet a supposed situation,
+you must let the men know exactly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span>
+what you are picturing, so that they also
+may understand what is needed. The
+essence of these practices is that they
+should be performed without time for deliberate
+thought—the men must learn to
+think and act quickly. The most satisfactory
+way is to be yourself mounted, as you
+can then get the whole company to hear
+you at once, whereas, if on foot, the men
+who are farthest from you often lose the
+first part of what you say; you then have
+to repeat it, and the thing loses its character
+of surprise for the rest, who have
+already heard it once. Give out the
+situation in a loud voice, and in as few
+words as possible, then try and give the
+very order you think you would give, if
+the situation was a real one on service;
+use your own imagination, in figuring what
+you would say, and how you would say it.
+To call attention, it seems legitimate to use
+your whistle, as on service the men would
+have some warning that things were about
+to happen, either by the arrival of shell or
+bullets, the sight of the enemy, or by the
+signal of their own scouts. In giving the
+situation, if you are receiving fire, give out
+what kind of fire it is, the enemy’s position,
+if it is allowable to suppose it known, or
+if you are going to be on the offensive, give
+out where the enemy is, and what he is
+doing, and how you learn this, i.e., by your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span>
+scouts, or by first-hand observation. For
+example, while the company is marching in
+fours along a road, you see, in imagination,
+two shells burst simultaneously near by,
+and about two hundred yards from each
+other, and you wisely deduce that the
+enemy is ranging on your company. Blow
+your whistle and give out “Artillery fire
+is opening on the company, from such and
+such a direction—open out to columns of
+sections.” If you have taught your men
+what to do to escape artillery fire, they will
+open out at the double into columns of
+platoons, at not less than fifty yards interval,
+measuring roughly at right angles to the
+direction of the supposed fire (I.T.,
+118 (3)).</p>
+
+<p>In practising this opening out under
+artillery fire, which, as I have said, is the
+one specific hasty manœuvre performed
+under conditions nearly always similar, it is
+inexpedient to lay down any fixed rules for
+the positions to be taken up by the
+platoons. It sounds simple to say that the
+platoons of the leading half-company go to
+the right, and those of the rear half to the
+left, but when men are marching at ease,
+and shells begin bursting round them unexpectedly,
+I do not think there will
+be time for anyone to see which half-company
+is leading. The main thing
+is to get the platoons instantly away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span>
+from the road on which the enemy has laid
+his guns, and from each other. Direct
+platoon commanders to lead their men at
+the double in any direction away from the
+platoon in front, except, of course,
+towards the rear. In theory, of course,
+this might result in all four making
+out towards one flank, but, even so,
+this is better than having any deliberative
+halts on the road, and in practice the
+platoons in rear can see which way those in
+front are heading, and wheel to go to the
+other flank. There is no advantage to be
+had from getting the men in the ranks into
+extended order, as the shrapnel scatter the
+whole width of their bursting zone in an
+impartial manner, nor is it any use to seek
+such slight cover as gives only a screen
+from view, unless with a view to getting
+away from the shell-swept locality without
+attracting notice. Platoon commanders
+should, of course, make for any cover that
+is sufficiently steep on the rear side to
+shelter them from the downward dropping
+shrapnel bullets. If there is no cover, the
+best thing after getting out into the line
+of platoons separated by fully fifty yards
+intervals, is to move rapidly forward. If
+cover exists with open ground round it, the
+men may be got away by “dribbling” man
+by man, in the hope that the enemy may
+not spot the movement, and continue or
+resume his shell practice, to defeat it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p>
+
+<p>As regards expedients against rifle fire, I
+will only suggest a few, and leave you to
+invent others suited to the nature of the
+ground you have got to exercise on.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    1. The company in close order is surprised
+    by a heavy rifle fire; there
+    is cover near by sufficient to hold
+    the whole company crowded together.
+    Order the men to get
+    into the cover helter skelter, and
+    then advance or retire, by the successive
+    movement of platoons or
+    sections, who take extended order
+    at their best speed as they emerge
+    from shelter. If facilities exist,
+    tell one or two platoons to reply
+    to the fire, from the cover, till
+    their own turn comes to move, by
+    which time the first lots that went
+    out should have got into position
+    to open fire.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    2. The company in close order is again
+    surprised by rifle fire, but there is
+    no cover near to act as a base.
+    Get the company quickly into extended
+    order, and let men reply
+    to the fire as soon as they have
+    extended, using studiously slow
+    fire.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    3. The company or platoons in extended
+    order have to change front
+    to meet an attack from a flank.
+    As in the book, call on them to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>
+    line a hedge or ditch, facing so as
+    to fire in the new direction.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    4. Coming through a gap in a hedge
+    or wall, either in advance or retreat,
+    scattering off right and left,
+    so as to get out of the way of fire
+    concentrated on the gap.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    5. The scouts from a position some
+    distance from the company report
+    a body of the enemy unaware
+    of their presence and exposed
+    to fire. Bring the company
+    quickly up to the scouts’ position,
+    halt, load, and adjust sights under
+    cover and just short of the firing
+    position, and on your whistle the
+    men advance at once to the edge
+    of the fire position and surprise
+    the enemy by a simultaneous fire
+    from all the rifles.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    6. Taking up quickly an all-round defensive
+    position; the platoons or
+    sections go off and find the best
+    positions in different directions
+    which you merely indicate
+    roughly.</p>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent" style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -1.5em;">
+    7. Hastily organised attacks, to dislodge
+    an enemy unexpectedly
+    found in occupation of a position,
+    also taking up action as flank and
+    rearguards under fire.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="EXERCISE_XVII">EXERCISE XVII.<br>
+<span class="smcap">Night Operation Training.</span></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>I.T., 113, gives some instructions as to
+how men are to be taught to march and
+to use their ears and eyes at night, while
+F.S.R., chapter ix., goes into the subject
+at length. These operations are
+divided into night marches, night advances,
+and night attacks. The men of a
+company will not be fit to take a useful
+part in night tactical exercises either in
+company or in battalion, unless they have
+had some elementary training as laid down
+in “Infantry Training,” and have also been
+practised in the two indispensable duties of
+maintaining connection (F.S.R., 129 (4))
+and in reconnaissance (F.S.R., 130 (1)).
+Night patrolling and the duties of night
+sentries have been dealt with under outposts,
+and I will not say anything more
+about them here. The rest of the
+elementary training contained in “Infantry
+Training” requires no explanation,
+and you can practise your men
+in it in small parties. There remains
+the maintenance of connection,
+and I have found that training for this is
+best done at first by daylight. It is very
+simple, and after one or two daylight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span>
+lessons the men will work quite well by
+night, but to begin straight off under darkness
+will only lead to waste of time, as
+mistakes cannot easily be corrected, nor
+the working of a system made plain.
+The company should parade as strong as
+possible in this exercise, as, with only a
+few files on parade, the necessity of maintaining
+connection, and the difficulty of
+doing so, are not so obvious as when a
+fairly large body of men has to be handled
+without making a noise. Connection has
+to be maintained within the company itself,
+and also with the other companies in front
+or rear, if in column of route, or on the
+right and left, if deployed. In order to
+practise this connection with other companies,
+represent the front and rear, or flank
+section commanders of the supposed adjacent
+companies by a man for each company,
+who should move where those
+section commanders would be, i.e., in
+fours, at the head or tail of the directing
+flank, in line, on the flanks of the front
+rank. Use these dummies as the recipients
+of all orders and signals passed along, so
+that your company may get the habit of
+keeping touch with the others before it
+works with the battalion.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>I. Connecting Files.</em></h3>
+
+<p>The only sure way of keeping connection
+between bodies of troops moving in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span>
+separate parties is by connecting files, who
+keep within sight of each other and so can
+seldom be at more than twenty yards distance
+apart. These files must be taught to
+pass commands with exactitude, and never
+to open their mouths otherwise, i.e., they
+must never speculate between themselves
+“Are they advancing?” or so forth, or talk
+at all, because the next file may hear some
+word of their talk and mistake it for an
+order. When connecting files are needed
+they must take up their places without its
+being necessary to tell them off loudly, and
+when no longer needed they must close
+into company in silence and in good order.</p>
+
+<p>Form the company into fours, turned to
+a flank as in column of route: tell the
+dummy section commander of the preceding
+company to march off; string the company
+out after him, the men marching off
+in files at about ten paces between each
+file without further command after the first
+one has gone, each as it moves off touching
+the next to follow, to give it notice. When
+they are all strung out, let the rear dummy
+section commander follow. Then pass
+orders up the line; use only the form given
+in I.T., 96 (3). To make sure that such
+verbal orders have reached the intended
+recipient, the only way, though a slow one,
+is to require him to send back a report that
+he has taken the action required. Thus, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span>
+message from the rear to the leading portion
+to halt would be answered from the
+leading portion by a report passed down
+the line to the commander “The leading
+portion, or, etc., has halted.” Let your first
+order be to halt, passed from the dummy
+company in rear up to that in front “From
+Colonel A. to all companies—halt.” On receiving
+the order one man of each file
+halts on his ground and turns to the rear,
+the other goes forward to the next file as
+quickly as he can without noise, delivers
+the order, and returns to his former place,
+when he halts and faces the other way
+from his comrade. Thus, on the completion
+of the order to halt, one man of each
+file will be facing each way. Bayonets
+will usually be fixed in night operations,
+and it is important, especially in Rifle Battalions,
+to accustom men to carry the rifle
+on the right shoulder, with the hand round
+the small of the butt and never at the trail,
+otherwise there is much danger of someone
+getting a stab as well as an order.</p>
+
+<p>After the halt, get on the move again by
+passing up the word to advance, and practise
+any other likely orders:—“Go fast in
+front,” “Go slow in front,” “The rear cannot
+keep up,” and so on. Follow the orders
+up the line and see that men do not tamper
+with the form of the order en route, and
+that they speak in a whisper when giving<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span>
+it over. Section and platoon commanders
+must be told all orders as they pass, see that
+their units conform, and look after the
+maintenance of the distance between files.</p>
+
+<p>Next practise lateral communication, the
+four platoons in one line in close order,
+with company intervals between each,
+representing the leading platoons of
+four companies drawn up in line of
+columns of platoons at deploying intervals
+and ready for a night advance.
+Lateral connecting files need to be
+closer than when following each other,
+so put out connecting files to the flanks in a
+similar way to what was done before, but
+at six, or eight yards interval. Then
+move, halt, and deploy the supposed
+column by means of these files, dressing
+and interval being kept up by the files moving
+up or stepping short, and closing on
+or inclining from any named company of
+direction without specific orders.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>II. Marching and Formations.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Form up the company and get it into
+fours as if in column of route, dummy company
+section commanders as before. Practise
+marching off from the halt, and halting,
+passing the word from the front or rear
+company along the men on the flanks of
+the fours. As the order comes along,
+the flank men of the fours nudge or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span>
+shove the other men in their respective
+fours, and whisper to the flank men in the
+four in front or behind. There is seldom
+any need to speak, as a push or pull is
+enough. The platoon commanders get
+the word from the flank men of
+the sections of fours, and from one
+another as well, as they are to follow
+the order along their own platoons,
+and go forward or back to the commander
+of the next platoon to whom they must repeat
+it, and then resume their proper
+places. The platoon commander of the
+leading, or rear, platoon is responsible for
+passing the word to the nearest platoon
+commander of the next company. The
+company officers must arrange also to hear
+all orders, and should have fixed positions,
+known to all, which they will only quit temporarily.
+In marching off from the halt,
+the rear portion of the company should
+step out well, as soon as the order reaches
+them, so as to avoid straggling, while the
+leading fours preserve a uniform pace. In
+halting in battalion, the leading fours
+should close up on the company in front,
+and continue to do so, till it is seen that it
+has finished closing up; there is always
+bound to be a good deal of straggling at
+first owing to the method of giving orders.
+When this system is in good working order,
+move and halt the company on your own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span>
+audibly whispered word of command, the
+platoon commanders repeating it, the system
+of communication being kept up as
+before, but the men moving at once on the
+word; this will give a fairly simultaneous
+action throughout the company while ensuring
+against loss of touch.</p>
+
+<p>On the same lines, practise forming line
+from column of platoons, mass, and column
+of platoons from column of fours, and
+marching in line, paying attention throughout
+to dressing and the covering of files in
+line.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>III. Night Assault.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Choose a position as objective, and form
+the company, in line or in column of
+platoons, about three hundred yards from it,
+with scouts about eighty yards in front of
+the company (F.S.R., 137 (4)). This is the
+formation which would usually be adopted
+at the position of deployment. When the
+scouts have got about one hundred yards
+from the position, or up to a line which
+they would recognise in the dark as being
+in close proximity to it, they should halt,
+and wait for the arrival of the company.
+The whole then move silently forward towards
+the position till you give the word
+or signal for assault, when all charge.
+Practise this stealthy advance right on to
+the position, as if the enemy were not alert,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span>
+and also make the charge from some distance,
+as would be done if the enemy
+opened fire, which is recognised to be what
+will most often happen. After the assault
+the men should be rallied by the non-commissioned
+officers taking all men within
+their reach, and forming them into extemporised
+sections ready to be reformed into
+platoons and to begin entrenching.</p>
+
+<p>If by chance you get material, you may
+introduce refinements, in the way of wire-cutting
+men with each section, sand
+bags with each man, and bags stuffed
+with straw carried ready to throw on to
+abatis or to fill up trenches, to be carried
+in a fixed place in the company.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>IV. Night Entrenching.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Practise marching with arms and tools,
+and taking up a position to be entrenched,
+with especial regard to avoidance of noise.
+When entrenching by night, the trenches
+cannot be chosen to give a field of fire
+unless it has been possible to obtain access
+to the locality by day, and mark them in
+advance; failing this the company commander,
+as soon as the position is reached,
+must send patrols, and go himself, to
+ascertain that no commanding ground, at
+least in the immediate vicinity, has been
+left unoccupied, and, at the first light, all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span>
+other such points within effective range as
+it is possible to hold, should be secured
+and entrenched, without orders from
+higher commanders. A full illustration
+of this, however, can only be done by
+parading at night.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>V. Search Work.</em></h3>
+
+<p>Practise the company in going off, as if
+detached from the column to get touch with
+other troops, or to find a gate or bridge by
+which some obstacle, wall, canal, etc.,
+met with, can be passed. The company
+moves off dropping connecting files to
+keep touch with the halted column, the
+files halt at their distances, and pass word
+if the company has achieved its mission,
+and close on the company when the column
+comes up, but not before, else the column
+will be left out of touch; or, if the need
+has passed and the company is recalled
+to the column, the connecting files again
+remain at their posts till the company is
+gathered back on them.</p>
+
+
+<h3><em>VI. Surprises.</em></h3>
+
+<p>When only a few men are on parade,
+advanced education, combined with
+some amusement, may be got by experimenting
+in the best ways of laying out
+obnoxious persons, such as hostile patrols,
+who have to be rushed in silence (F.S.R.,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span>
+138 (5)). Before beginning a stalk, the
+quarry should be kept under observation
+to see which way he looks when halted,
+and any other idiosyncrasies. The assailant
+should creep up to him either on his
+flank, or from behind, moving one foot at
+a time, and bending down, though not on
+all fours. If the sentry looks his way,
+he must stay absolutely motionless, till he
+again looks away. My informant on this
+matter was a friend of a successful rifle
+thief in Upper India.</p>
+
+<p>After putting the company through the
+above daylight course, you should, of
+course, put theory into practice and do
+some real night work whenever you get
+the chance, putting out a skeleton enemy
+or some observers to tell you how much
+noise you make, and follow out the full
+instructions as to orders, watchwords,
+etc., given in F.S.R., 138 and 139. Test
+your men as to their ability to see in the
+dark; some men can see much more than
+others; spot these men and tell them off
+as “Night Scouts.” Even if they are not
+otherwise qualified as scouts, they are
+most useful in guiding the company over
+rough ground.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_SCHEME_OF_A_COMPANY">A SCHEME OF A COMPANY
+TRAINING.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I give below, as an example of the application
+of the foregoing exercises, a
+scheme of company training which I
+actually carried out. This was in the days
+before platoons, so I have altered the
+scheme to show what I should have done
+had the company organisation been
+what it now is. I was given from
+Monday in one week to Saturday the next
+week to march out into camp, about 10
+miles, and get back, i.e., two days of
+march, and ten halted working days. I
+had thirty-five rounds per man of ball
+cartridge available for field practice
+musketry, and a sufficiency of blank for
+the requirements of skeleton enemy and
+for use with the men in one or two of
+the exercises. My men were Regulars,
+and during the previous furlough season
+I had grounded them piecemeal in field
+work.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bt bb br"> DAY.</td>
+<td class="tdrx bt bb br"></td>
+<td class="tdlx bt bb br">Forenoon Work.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bt bb">Afternoon Work.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">1</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Monday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">March out to camp. March discipline and work of connecting files.
+Advanced guard. Sanitation. Water piquet and sanitary patrols. Pitched a perimeter camp as
+for savage warfare. Trenched tents against rain, and made a shelter trench round camp. Alarm posts.</td>
+<td class="tdrx bb"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">2</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Tuesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Individual advance in extended order. Retirement by pairs.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Improved and deepened camp entrenchments, made loop-holes, night rests, and obstacles.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">3</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>Wednesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon and Section in attack as part of Company.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Field practice Musketry:—Individual advance in extended order. 7 rounds ball per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">4</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Thursday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon in independent attack.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Field practice Musketry:—Section in independent attack, 7 rounds ball per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">5</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Friday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Platoon in retirement.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Preliminary training for Company attack. Fire discipline and control.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">6</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Saturday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack with the battalion.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Prepared target positions and markers butts for snapshooting.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">7</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span>Monday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack with Battalion.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Snapshooting, 7 rounds per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">8</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Tuesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Company in attack acting alone.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Snapshooting, 7 rounds per man.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">9</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Wednesday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Outposts.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Company in attack, 7 rounds ball.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">10</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Thursday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Defence.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Company in retirement.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx bb br">11</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Friday</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb br">Night attack. Parade at 2.30 a.m.</td>
+<td class="tdlx bb">Hasty expedients.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdrx br">12</td>
+<td class="tdlx br">Saturday</td>
+<td class="tdlx br">March back to quarters.</td>
+<td class="tdrx"></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+
+<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
+<ul>
+
+<li>Catalog page Changed Miscellaneous Tactica to: Tactical</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_62">62</a> Changed close and re-form to: reform</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_63">63</a> Changed expect either a counterattack to: counter-attack</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_67">67</a> Changed this exercise, though to: through</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_76">76</a> Added period after: left on the position</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_124">124</a> Changed trenches or make loopholes to: loop-holes</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_125">125</a> Changed the line of loopholes to: loop-holes</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_136">136</a> Changed: (I.T, 156 (5)) to: (I.T., 156 (5))</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_182">182</a> Added comma after: entrenchments, made loop-holes</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_183">183</a> Added period after: 7 rounds ball per man</li>
+<li>  pg <a href="#Page_184">184</a> Added period after: Friday Night attack</li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TRAINING OF AN INFANTRY COMPANY ***</div>
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