Combatant officers of every rank are required to issue orders of some
kind or other, and orders for operations should always be committed to
paper when circumstances permit. The object of an operation order is
to bring about a course of action in accordance with the intentions of
the commander, and with full co-operation between all units.
Operation orders of a complicated nature are unlikely to be required
from the pen of infantry officers in the junior ranks, and the rules
for drafting orders are stated in detail in the official text-books,
for the use of officers of the ranks that will be required to issue
them.
The general principles underlying orders of all kinds are that they
should be "fool proof," and it has been remarked that the writer of
orders should always remember that at least one silly ass will try to
misunderstand them. They must, therefore, be void of all ambiguity,
and while containing every essential piece of information, and omitting
everything that is clearly known already to the recipients, they should
be confined to facts, and conjecture should be avoided.
"An operation order must contain just what the recipient requires to
know and nothing more. It should tell him nothing which he can and
should arrange for himself, and, especially in the case of large
forces, will only enter into details when details are absolutely
necessary. Any attempt to prescribe to a subordinate at a distance
anything which he, with a fuller knowledge of local conditions, should
be better able to decide on the spot, is likely to cramp his initiative
in dealing with unforeseen developments, and will be avoided. In {179}
particular, such expressions as 'Will await further orders' should be
avoided" ("Field Service Regulations," vol. ii. (1921)).
Apart from the standing rules as to the printing of names of places in
block type, including a reference to the map used, dating and signing
the orders, numbering the copies, and stating the time and method of
issue, etc., the general tenour of all operation orders will always be:
_The enemy are. . . . My intention is. . . . You will. . . ._ In
other words, all that is known about the enemy, and of our own troops,
that is essential for the purposes of the order, should be revealed;
then the general intention of the commander who issues the orders; then
the part in the operations that is to be played by the recipient. But
the method of attaining the object will be left to the utmost extent
possible to the recipient, with due regard to his personal
characteristics. "It is essential that subordinates should not only be
able to work intelligently and resolutely in accordance with brief
orders or instructions, but should also be able to take upon
themselves, whenever necessary, the responsibility of departing from,
or of varying, the orders they may have received" ("Field Service
Regulations," vol. ii. (1921)).
{181}