_The Director_: “This places an additional responsibility on the
company. If Company B loses its direction the whole battalion will do
the same and it is probable that the troops will not be in position
ready to ‘jump off’ tomorrow morning. You have no idea of the confusion
that can take place in an outfit that loses its direction and gets lost
in an operation of this kind. Every possible precaution must be taken to
prevent it. In this case the Captain must charge the platoon that is to
march nearest to the directing line to guide on that line throughout the
march and for the other platoons to guide on it. In this case the right
(left) assault platoon will be designated ‘base platoon’ and will take
every precaution to keep the right (left) element of the platoon
absolutely on the directing line. You can see that this places the
responsibility for the march direction of the whole battalion on the
squad that is nearest the directing line. I want you to keep this in
mind throughout the problem.”