LETTER X

_February 7, 1918._

PROBLEM 10

MY DEAR DICK,--

The problem I am setting you to-day has to do with fire control.

You are on outpost facing in a northerly direction and are in command of a picquet consisting of the headquarters of a platoon with a Lewis gun and thirty men at _G_. A man who has been sent in from a group on your left tells you that a company of the enemy is moving across your front from left to right along the road _A B C D E F_. He says that the company is marching with an advanced guard of one platoon about 200 yards in front of it. The platoon has a couple of groups 200 yards in front of it again. Five minutes after you have received this notice, you see a group of the enemy marching from the wood at _B_.

_Problem._

How do you appreciate the situation and what action do you intend to take?

_Solution._

So long as you remain carefully concealed at _G_ and your men do not show themselves, it is at least as likely as not that the enemy’s scouts will not discover you. If, however, they should do so, your danger will come from the enemy’s company and the platoon in front of it and not from the scouts, and it is with these larger bodies that you must make your plans to deal. At this close range you ought to be able to put them out of action in the first minute after opening fire. If your men conceal themselves properly, even if the scouts do discover you, they will not do so until the enemy’s main body is nearing the point _C_. Your orders should consequently be somewhat as follows:

“Let every man conceal himself.

“The Lewis gun and Nos. 1 and 2 Sections of the platoon on my command to open fire will direct their fire half left on the main body of the enemy’s company, which will be the rearmost party. No. 3 Section will deal with the platoon forming the advanced guard, and No. 4 Section, taking its orders from the section commander, will deal with isolated groups. No man will put up his head until I give the order to fire. The whole platoon will use fixed sights.”

You should at once issue these preliminary orders. If you are not discovered, do not open fire until the head of the main body has reached _D_.

Napoleon used to say that if you ever saw your enemy making a mistake, you should give him lots of time to make it thoroughly before punishing him. Do not pull the bait out of the pike’s mouth until he has properly gorged it. This maxim applies equally whether you are dealing with armies or only with platoons. I, myself, remember in my early days missing a tiger sixty yards off, when, if I had only waited, he would have walked right under the tree on which I was seated.

Your affectionate father, “X. Y. Z.”