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.