THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY
Organization implies that every man's work is defined; that he knows
exactly what he must answer for, and that his authority is co-extensive
with his responsibility.
A modern army fights by army corps, and by army corps the Prussian army
is managed, in peace as well as in war. Each province is an army corps
district.[1] All the troops in it belong to the corps[2] and are under
the command of the general, who has in military matters absolute
authority, being independent of the Ministry of War and responsible
directly to the king and to no one else. Every question that comes up
in the corps can be finally settled by its commanding general, except a
very few matters which require the king's assent, or an arrangement
with the Ministry of War. But comparatively few questions of detail
come as high as the commanding general.
His corps is at all times organized very much as it would be in war.
In the infantry four companies make a battalion, three battalions a
regiment, two regiments a brigade, two infantry brigades with their due
proportion of cavalry and artillery form an infantry division. In the
cavalry four or five squadrons form the regiment, two or three
regiments the brigade, and two or three brigades the division. In the
artillery two or three batteries form a group (_Abtheilung_, now
officially translated brigade division), two or three groups a
regiment, and two regiments a brigade. The corps is made up of
infantry divisions, a cavalry brigade or division,[3] and an artillery
brigade.
Responsibility and authority begin with the smallest units, the
company, squadron, or battery. The captain, the commander of such a
unit, is the lowest officer who has the power of punishment. In his
hands lies in peace the training, and in war the leading of the
company, squadron, or battery. The lieutenants and in a lower sphere
the noncommissioned officers are his assistants acting under his
responsibility. In the company, to take the infantry as the type, the
captain is supreme. The methods of instruction, the distribution of
time, and the order to be followed in the process are matters which he
settles according to his own judgment. His superiors abstain from any
interference. They are concerned only with the result, of which they
satisfy themselves by inspection at the end of the period assigned to
company training. If any of the soldiers have not been properly
instructed, or if the company is not fit to take its place in the
battalion, that is the captain's fault, and he is likely to lose his
chance of promotion.
The battalion commander receives his trained companies and practises
them in battalion manoeuvres. His business is with the battalion as a
body composed of four units, not with the internal affairs of the
companies. In battle as on the parade ground this rule is observed.
For example: "If a battalion receives the order to attack a farm its
commander must assign to the several companies the part which each is
to play, must prescribe the points of attack, and at least in general
terms the directions of their advance. He must also arrange the time
of their coming into action so that they may co-operate. But how each
company is to accomplish the task assigned to it, in what formation it
is to fight--these and similar details he will do well, if he knows
that his captains have the necessary insight, to leave to them."[4]
In this way authority and responsibility are graduated throughout the
army corps. Every commander above the rank of captain deals with a
body composed of units with the interior affairs of none of which he
meddles, except in the case of failure on the part of the officer
directly responsible. The higher the commander and the greater his
authority, the more general becomes the supervision and the less the
burden of detail. The superior prescribes the object to be attained.
The subordinate is left free to choose the means, and is interfered
with only in exceptional circumstances. Thus every officer in his own
sphere is accustomed to the exercise of authority and to the free
application of his own judgment.
By this system the labour and responsibility of commanding an army
corps are reduced to practicable dimensions. Regimental affairs are
settled by the colonels; brigade affairs by the major-generals. The
divisions commanded by lieutenant-generals are completely organized
bodies capable, in case of need, of independent action and requiring
little supervision from the corps commander. The general commanding
the army corps has to deal directly with only a few subordinates, the
commanders of his infantry divisions, of his cavalry brigade or
division, and of his artillery brigade, and with the heads of the corps
organizations for such purposes as supply and medical service. He
inspects and tests the condition of all the various units, but he does
not attempt to do the work of his subordinates. He is thus at liberty
to keep his mind concentrated upon those essential matters which
properly require his decision, for example, in war, whether he will
advance or retire, whether he will move to the right or to the left,
whether to fight or to postpone an engagement; how to distribute his
force;--what portion he will at once engage and where he will place his
reserve. When he receives an order from the army headquarters he is
able to deliberate upon the best way of realizing the intention
conveyed, for he is as far as possible unhampered by the worry of
detail. He can make up his mind coolly, a very necessary process,
seeing that he will stake life and reputation to carry out what he has
once decided.
[1] The civil and military boundaries are not quite identical.
[2] The garrisons of fortresses are exceptions.
[3] In recent years the cavalry division has been made independent of
the army corps.
[4] Blume, _Strategic_, p. 136.