four or six men, one of whom will command in each patrol. Let each
take up the formation it would usually adopt; that is, one or two
files in advance, followed by the rest at a distance sufficient to
prevent the surprise of the whole by one and the same opening of
fire. Teach the method advocated for movement across country, i.e.,
a careful but rapid advance from one cover to another, also how to
approach suspicious localities. The leading file halts and looks
for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile the rear file comes nearly
up to it; the leading file then moves forward while the rear file
lies down with rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire at once to
cover the others if the enemy shows himself. If the locality to be
searched can be outflanked, the leading files should move round one
or both flanks before closing in on it. If it is one that cannot be
outflanked, as, for instance, a straight edge of a large wood, they
should approach it under cover, creeping up a hedgerow perhaps, and
so get inside. If there is no cover they may try some ruse to draw
the enemy’s fire before getting too close, halting as if they had
seen something, shading the eyes with the hand, pointing and then
starting to run back as if alarmed, which might lead the enemy to
open fire to prevent their escape. But it is rather hard to get
men to do this play-acting unless there is a real force of “Blue”
or “Red” enemy against them. The commander of the patrol, when
approaching any place, should tell his men what they are to do if it
is seen to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still and watch, or
retire. If the latter, he should fix some place in rear where the
patrol could rally after getting out of harm’s way.
Show them how to look over a ridge, wall, or hedge, without
attracting notice, taking off their headdress and raising the head
slowly, keeping the rest of the body carefully under cover, and
also to move unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges or roadside
trees, and covering up any polished metal work of their uniform; to
lie up on any place that commands a good view, and look long and
carefully all over the country to catch sight of anything. Finally to
report what they see, and to do this at once, if there is need, by
sending one, or better, if the patrol can spare them, two men back
to the piquet with a _written_ report, the rest still remaining in
observation. Without having an actual force opposing you, you can
only do this exercise with some appearance of reality by giving out
verbal situations to the patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that wood
which an enemy may be holding.” On this the patrol would get into
formation and move forward. Then, when approaching the wood, “You
have seen small parties of the enemy beyond the wood both on its
right and left, and they are perhaps in the wood also; try and get
into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or, if not, “show what you
would do to draw their fire before getting close.” Then “the wood is
held by the enemy, withdraw your patrol if you can.” As the patrol
attempts to retire “a heavy fire is opened on you as you retire,
showing that there is at least a company in the wood, your first
duty is to send news of this to your piquet—how and whom would you
send, and how would you frame your message?”
(_d_) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon and take it to the place
where the piquet is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position has
at once to strengthen the position against attack, and this without
waiting for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are here only training
the non-commissioned officers in their duties we will not ask them
actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes and entanglements;
indeed, this, as one may term it, executive work, has its proper
place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind, then, that we are dealing with a
day outpost, ask or show the platoon how to strengthen the position.
Bring out a few picks and let them spitlock on the ground the lines
of any trenches that might be needed, paying great attention to the
siting of the trench so that fire could be brought over all the
ground in front. Let them indicate with exactness where and how they
would improve and adapt existing cover. Great regard need not be had
to the number of men in the piquet, as outposts, if attacked, should
make as much show of force as possible, and it does good and not harm
if there are alternative loop-holes facing in different directions;
also accommodation must be provided for the support. The commander
should look for ground outside the outpost line from which enfilade
rifle or artillery fire might be brought to bear on him, and mark how
he would protect his men from it by traverses, breaking the line of
loop-holes into short lengths, keeping under lee of existing cover
and so on. The strengthening of the piquet must be done with the aid
of common-sense. It will seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit
of trench all in one piece and hope the enemy will be good enough to
come and knock his head against it. Cover may be made or adapted in
several separate groups, if this is needed, so as to make it possible
to bring fire to bear on any part of the ground in front. The piquet
must be prepared to make as brave a show as possible, therefore the
commander, while strengthening the point near which his piquet is to
rest, must decide what he will do if attacked. Probably there will be
within the limits of his piquet’s frontage one or two other points
which might be useful for defence, and he must not expect attack
just from one direction. With regard to such alternative positions
he should settle when and how he will use them, and whether he can
afford time and men to strengthen them, and, last but not least,
whether he will be able to get men from one to the other if the enemy
does develop a strong attack. If he can do all these he will have
added immensely to his power of defence, provided he handles his men
skilfully, as he will be able to hold one position till the enemy
thinks he has defined its location, then dodge to another, while
they will go on firing at the old one, and so make his piquet appear
many times stronger than it is. Concealment of the defence is very
important, and the non-commissioned officers should be reminded that
this must be attended to. They may forget it as there is no actual
digging.
(_e_) Duties in Piquet.—The position of the piquet and alternative
defence positions having been fixed, and trenches or other defences
marked out on the position, and on the alternative positions if any,
assemble the platoon at the piquet and show the non-commissioned
officers how to tell off reliefs and other duties. Each group
furnished by the piquet consists of three to eight men, and mounts
one or two men as sentry, as the circumstances of the post require
(I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry, single or double, being relieved in turn
by the others of the group. The whole group is under command of the
senior soldier or a non-commissioned officer. The men who are to
form the reliefs of the groups stay with the piquet, which usually
is composed solely of the reliefs of groups and patrols. Extra men
who have no specific duties are not advisable unless the position is
very exposed. Suppose your group sentries are single, and the groups
of three men each, and relieved every eight hours, then for every
group posted and in position there will be six men in the piquet
resting and waiting their turn, each group thus needing a total of
nine men—three out, six in. Patrols start from the piquet or support,
as the commander of the company directs, and the piquet commander may
send them out on his own initiative, if he thinks it needful. As they
are practically all on duty as long as they are out, a turn of four
hours is enough for them, or, rather, a third of the daylight time.
Take your patrols from this piquet to be four strong, there will be
for each patrol eight men in the piquet and four out on patrol, a
total of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.
In telling off a piquet on the above conditions of relief, and before
dismissing the men to rest, the commander must pay attention to two
main points. Firstly, he must tell off the reliefs, and give each
relief a place to rest in. Men on outpost are usually tired and need
all the rest they can get, especially if they are up all night.
Therefore reliefs should be kept together and rest in one place, so
that the commander can find them at once without stirring up the
others to see who’s who. Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm
posts, which they are to occupy in case of attack—each relief and
each man of it should be given a position on the entrenchment which
he is to hold. To ensure that they will do this at once and without
confusion they should be made to go to these places and occupy them
before being dismissed. There will then be no needless running about
with consequent casualties if fire, either of artillery or infantry,
suddenly opens.
Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned officers and others) in
your instructional piquet give out that it is to furnish—
1 Sentry over the piquet.
2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.
2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.
The sentry over the piquet alone being actually posted, the two
groups and two patrols being supposed to be out in front, as this
part of the lesson is only concerned with the inside work of the
piquet, and you have already shown them this work on sentry and
patrol. As your strength is not sufficient you must make a further
supposition, and make believe that for the reliefs of the groups one
of your rifles represents three, and for those of the patrols one
rifle represents two. Appoint one of the non-commissioned officers in
turn as commander, and let him tell off accordingly.
3 Rifles for piquet sentry, one of whom he actually mounts.
1 Rifle (representing three) as second relief, No. 1 group.
1 Rifle (representing three) as third relief, No. 1 group.
2 Rifles (representing two each) for second relief, No. 1 patrol.
2 Rifles (representing two each) for third relief, No. 1 patrol.
And a similar number for No. 2 patrol and No. 2 group.
Having told off these reliefs the commander should then tell them
where they are to have their resting places and where their posts are
in case of alarm. At this time also he would give out any special
orders which concern the piquet. Then without dismissing the men
he should order them to go to their resting places, and as soon as
they are there order them to occupy their alarm posts, which should
be done in double time, the men lying down on the places that have
been marked out for entrenchment or improvement of existing cover.
Make this falling in on alarm posts a standing order in the company.
After this has been done, and each man knows exactly what he has to
do on the alarm, the men should be dismissed to their resting places,
which, as before said, should be separate for each relief and apart
from each other. After being dismissed, the men would on service be
allowed to make themselves as comfortable as possible. Other duties
of the piquet commander are:—
(1) The opening of communication with piquets in right and left and
the support.
(2) The fixing of places for purposes of nature.
(3) The arrangements for getting up food to his men if they have
not their rations with them.
(4) Keeping his piquet in a state of readiness; besides keeping
accoutrements on, the men should have their rifles at their
sides when resting, and take them with them wherever they go.
There should be no such thing as piling arms on outpost.
_Night Piquets._
In the dark the bullet is a fool unless fired at close quarters.
No practicable amount of shooting, even at only a hundred yards
distance, will dislodge determined men posted under cover, and a
serious attack must be made with the bayonet or by shooting within
the distance at which a man may be distinguished—ten yards or so.
F.S.R., 138 (2), lays down for the British Army that the bayonet only
is to be used in night attacks, and we may assume that any civilized
army we may have to meet will pursue similar tactics. Aerial
reconnaissance may nowadays allow an enemy to locate the position
held by the main body of his opponent, in spite of its being covered
by outposts, but such reconnaissance does not admit of any hope of
a successful night attack being made on that main body by eluding
or passing through the outposts, because the surface of the ground
cannot be sufficiently searched from above to discover the small
obstacles which must be avoided or known if the advance of a large
body of men is to be carried out at night. So we may take it that
now, as formerly, any large attack will fall first on the outposts,
supposing, as we must, that these are placed so as to hold or watch
all possible lines of advance. In addition to this, outposts must
expect isolated attacks made against one or two points held by them
which the enemy desires to gain possession of. The duties of outposts
by night are, then, to hold and defend the outpost line in sufficient
strength to prevent any large body of the enemy breaking through,
or getting a footing in some tactically important position on the
line, and also to prevent the enemy’s scouts from getting through and
making observations, and, lastly, but of most importance, to get news
of the enemy both as a means of forestalling any attack, and for the
use of the force commander in framing his plans. Bringing the matter
down to the level of a piquet of an outpost company, it seems to
resolve itself into night patrolling and night defence of a position.
As before pointed out, enclosed country allows of piquets closing
the lines of advance by which large bodies can only hope to move
undiscovered, while intervening ground can be searched by patrols. On
the other hand, open country leaves the front vulnerable everywhere,
and calls for a greater number of piquets and closer patrolling than
are needed by day.
Of course, elementary instruction in these duties must be carried out
by daylight to allow of supervision; so now assemble your platoon
of non-commissioned officers and give out that you are going to
practise night work. Choose some place for your night piquet,
realistic as may be, a bridge, a cutting, or anything else that
constitutes a defile or otherwise blocks a likely line of advance
from the enemy’s direction. Also choose, and point out to the
platoon, positions where the adjoining piquets on the right and left
would be. Give out the following instructions to the non-commissioned
officers:—
(1) Piquets must take up their night positions when it is getting
dusk, the strengthening of the piquet and construction of
obstacles being done in advance, secretly if possible, and
towards evening the working party should withdraw and leave
the intended night position empty till it is time to move
into it, further work being completed by twilight.
(2) The provision of obstacles is more necessary than entrenchment,
as securing the piquet from being rushed while completing the
latter.
(3) Men must rest on their alarm posts, and bayonets may have to be
kept fixed by all, if there is a possibility of a sudden
attack (I.T., 151 (7)), to ensure instant readiness.
(4) All piquets must stand to arms one hour before light and remain
ready for action till the patrols have found that there is no
sign of an immediate attack. When relief takes place in the
morning, night outposts will not return to camp till the
patrols report all clear.
After this, let the non-commissioned officer in command withdraw the
piquet from its day position and march it to the night position. On
arrival ask the non-commissioned officers in turn where they would
place the piquet exactly and where they would put their obstacles.
Obstacles for a night piquet should be under close fire, i.e., ten or
twenty paces, but, in addition, booby traps and alarms may be placed
further in front. Barbed wire is the best of all obstacles. The
actual defensive measures to be taken do not differ from those taken
for the defence of any position not on outpost.
The position of the piquet and obstacles being decided on, let the
non-commissioned officers mark on the ground the actual work they
would undertake, having regard to the time available, which you
should tell them, and, on the same lines as for the day piquet, let
them as commanders in turn divide the men into reliefs of sentries
and patrols, tell them off to their alarm posts, and order them to
occupy them once as if on alarm.
A piquet by night, no matter how well entrenched, has a very limited
field of action. Even with most carefully arranged night rests for
the men’s rifles its fire effect is small except at close ranges,
and to resist attack by relatively larger bodies it must in general
keep behind its defences. Hence a well organised scheme of patrols is
necessary to supplement the passive opposition which the piquet can
offer. The patrols are charged with the duty of bringing news of any
advance of the enemy to attack, and, if he is close enough, of spying
out his movements on and within his outpost line, of preventing
his patrols or scouts penetrating their own line, of watching any
localities which are of particular importance and unoccupied by
piquets, such, for example, as villages beyond the outpost line which
the enemy might try to occupy by night, and, lastly, of keeping
up communication between the various bodies of the outposts. The
strength of patrols is limited by the necessity of their being able
to do this work without making a noise, and a strength of three to
eight men is advised. A patrol performs its duty of observation
either by going from point to point, or by watching one particular
place, when it is called a “standing patrol.” If a piquet posts any
group sentries by night, away from the piquet, such groups have just
the same work as standing patrols, except that they may be ordered to
maintain their position in case of attack as they are near support,
whereas patrols would fall back as soon as they had made sure the
enemy was advancing, and possibly, if in accordance with their
instructions, after treating him to a short burst of rapid fire. An
ordinary patrol will also have to halt and listen perhaps for long
periods, and so becomes for the nonce a standing patrol.
Form up the platoon at the piquet position, and let the commander
tell it off into three patrols to practise this duty, disregarding
reliefs, all three to be sent out at the same time in different
directions, one man in each to be commander. Before they start off,
tell them the following, which piquet commanders must see to:—
(1) If there is no countersign published for the force, piquet
commanders must arrange either a word or a sign by which men
may know their own side in the dark.
(2) Patrols going out are to tell the nearest sentry which way they
are going (I.T., 156 (5)).
(3) For patrols a code of signals should be arranged, e.g., a hiss
or half-whistle, to call attention, answered by the same to
show that the man called has heard it, followed by the
signal, whatever it is:—a double hiss for “come up to me,” a
click of the tongue for “retire,” but anything will do
provided it cannot be clearly heard much further off than the
listeners for whom it is intended, and is neither a very
common nor a very uncommon sound.
(4) The piquet commander must tell patrols how long they are to
stay out and any places he thinks must be visited, in
addition to what they themselves may find advisable, on
closer acquaintance with the ground.
A suitable formation for a night patrol of six men would be four in
the advanced party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the rear party
or two. The reason for the stronger party being ahead is, firstly,
that fighting at night begins with suddenness and ends rapidly, while
reinforcement of one party by another is slow and uncertain, and,
secondly, to ensure that some part of the patrol may have a good
chance of getting away with news, whatever happens to the rest:
Bayonets should be fixed and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the
right hand holding the small of the butt so as to come to the charge
at once, and not to have any chance of a rifle falling on the ground.
Tell patrol commanders to get their patrols into formation and
practise movement in silence along a road and on ordinary road. If
along a road, let them move on each side of it, off the metal on the
roadside grass or dust, and under trees or close to the hedge or
wall. On ordinary country the ball of the foot should be put down
first as if to feel the surface, before putting the full weight
of the body on the advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle, _à la_
“boy scout,” is invaluable in moving over unexplored ground, as by
it the real nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet can be made
out, and awkward spills thereby avoided. The movement of patrols
under these conditions will be very slow over any but quite level
ground. As the patrols move let them practise the code of signals,
halting, advancing, coming up into one line, etc., also the keeping
up of communication by one file moving back and forward between the
two parts of the patrol. They should practise also breaking up and
scattering as if attacked by overwhelming numbers, each individual
getting away as quickly and quietly as possible, and the whole
rallying again at some place in rear. The patrol commander as he goes
out must fix these rallying places, usually one is enough over the
whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be _outside_ the outpost
line. Have the patrols moved so that on their beats they may meet
each other once or twice, and use the sign to reply when challenge
is made. As a second practice, direct one of the meeting patrols to
consider itself hostile, and let the commander of the other patrol
excogitate how he would deal with men who did not stand fast on being
told to halt and could not give the countersign.
Next tell the patrols to get into position to watch various
localities, a farm steading, a ravine, or such like, as they would
have to do for limited periods as patrols reconnoitring on their
beats, or for the whole night as standing patrols. One of the best
ways in which patrols can fulfil their office is by halting and
listening with ears near the ground for sounds of human movement.
There is no rule for thus lying up except that they must not get
caught themselves. A couple of men should be left quite clear of the
patrol to get away if the others strike trouble, and the commander
of the patrol should have word passed to these two from time to time
that all is well with the rest, or they may wait in their place
while the others have been quietly downed.
Lastly, let patrols return to the piquet, and learn how to approach
without getting themselves fired on, or causing useless alarm. A
good way is for two of the patrol to advance a few steps at a time
when near the piquet, halting and quietly code-signalling the piquet
sentry till they get His attention and warn him that the patrol wants
to come in.
It has taken longer to write about outposts than it may take you
to put your men through them, and I have purposely been discursive
because a knowledge of what is needed from outposts is more important
than any set exercise, and also because this duty is the one which
newly raised troops are most likely to perform negligently, and at
the same time the one which, if neglected, allows the enemy to bring
raw troops to quick demoralisation. I have also purposely written as
if unlimited ground were available, and, speaking generally, I think
it is. You can, and should, practise your piqueting and patrolling on
the ordinary countryside, with its main and bye-roads, paths, fields,
and hedges. The practice of outposts when piquets are not entrenched,
causes no damage, so that leave to move over the fields should not
be hard to get, but even if it cannot be got, the principal and most
important work of patrolling and watching all roads and paths, will
be done on the ground on which they would be done on service. If
fighting ever takes place in Britain, which Heaven forefend, outpost
lines will be along the ordinary country and not on Salisbury Plain,
so do not go into wild and desolate places for your outposts, but
take the ordinary country round where you are.
EXERCISE XV.
DEFENCE.