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.