Part 3

A natural parallel of departure may exist or may partially exist, or it may not exist at all. In the second case, the line of shelters must be adapted, and in the third case it must be created in order to be able to stay a few moments at a short distance from the enemy without being destroyed. To facilitate this extremely difficult and dangerous construction, it is a good thing to have each man fill a sand bag at the last shelter and put in some stones, which, while not bulky, stop the bullets. Each man makes his rushes with his sand bag, which protects him partially during the halts. Having reached the line fixed upon for the parallel, this sand bag serves him as a cover, which he has only to complete rapidly. Each man then enlarges his shelter so as to accommodate near comrades.

The first wave, reformed at the assaulting distance, makes the assault as before. At times, the losses and the confusion of units may lead to an assault by entire companies.

The second and third waves follow and imitate the movements of the first.

_Machine Guns and Light Cannon._

The artillery can only give the second line a support which is often partial and not very effective; its action must be replaced at whatever cost by other means, such as machine guns for sweeping the hostile firing line and light cannon to instantly destroy the hostile machine guns.

_Location of the Machine-Gun and Gun Crews during the Assault._—These detachments follow the last waves of the first line, and they therefore are not directly taken under fire and can profit by the indications of the fight of the first line and so be in a way to act effectively when the second line comes into action.

_Machine Guns._—The machine gun is an element of attack and the most terrible arm of close fighting. However, it is employed in the attack only to man the positions taken or to support the infantry elements from a distance. This is nonsense: to give it such a rôle, one could never have trembled with rage and impotence at a few paces from the enemy, whom he could not get at.

The machine gun should be pushed as far as possible in front of the halted line of fire. If it remains behind or abreast of the fighting line, its field of fire is generally blocked or masked by the slightest movement; in advance of the line, it will enable the infantry line to advance for some time under the cover of its fire; it is the tooth of the attack. It can move forward, its crew of a few men can creep along the smallest pathway, and a shell hole is sufficient for its shelter; in the skirmish chain a whole ditch is necessary. Will it lack ammunition, having only the boxes that the gun crew carries sometimes incomplete? No, for it has only to fire on rare occasions, for example, at the moment of assault. If it is taken, what does that matter—we will take ten from the enemy. The problem would be much simplified _with a few automatic rifles_.

_Light Cannon._—We have spoken of the rôle of light cannon in the paragraph relating to the destruction of machine guns.

_Instruction of Units of the Second Line._

This instruction proposes to create the reflex of immediately attacking all resistance that appears and of developing presence of mind by inventing sudden incidents requiring the taking of a rapid decision. In a word, to add a spirit of prompt decision in the troops of the second line to the irresistible _élan_ which one tries to develop in all assaulting troops.

The troops of the second line when facing a resistance should have only one idea: to assault as soon as possible and for that purpose to try to bring about the two following conditions:

_To create a sort of parallel of departure at assaulting distance_;

_To obtain superiority of fire by all means at their disposal._

We will study by means of examples the two preceding cases cited. Troops of the second line should know them by heart, because all cases resemble them more or less.

_First Case._—We reach the first line, halted under cover at 150 metres from the enemy; this is a case of organizing a long-distance assault.

Attention should be focussed on the following points:

1. Reestablishment of Order and Calm.

The line of cover is an extemporized parallel, the men are crowded into uncomfortable positions, several units are mixed. These are conditions likely to create disorder, the worst enemy of the assault. Think well as long as you are under cover because amid the bullets you march straight ahead without thinking. Transmit simple indications from man to man and orders to the chiefs of section by note.

Have all cease firing except the best shots; firing unnerves and distracts the noncommissioned officers and soldiers. On the contrary, silence is at once a mark of order; it impresses the men who collect themselves and make the appeal for a supreme resolution to their inner selves.

2. Gaining Superiority of Fire.

It can be obtained in the two following ways:

The execution of an intense fire by the whole line;

The execution of a slow, deadly, and precise fire by the best shots, well concealed.

The men are under cover, consequently it is possible to avoid the first plan, which is noisy and not particularly effective but which circumstances beyond our control sometimes make necessary.

The best shots are designated by the chiefs of section. They construct masks in front of themselves, behind which they fire obliquely, that is to say, under excellent conditions of security and calm. They locate an adversary, keep aiming at him and firing each time that he appears, and they go successively from right to left. This method is very effective; the enemy does not dare to fire any more, and it soon seems as if his trench were empty.

In addition if possible, get a small group to the front or on the flank, who will protect a forward movement by their fire.

3. Execution of the Assault.

“The first and second sections will move out under command of Lieutenant X and will make a rush of 80 metres. Open fire after the rush.”

The movement should be simultaneous and without warning to the enemy; the following suggestions are made:

“Prepare to rush, look toward Lieutenant X, hide your bayonets.”

The movement having been executed by the first echelon and fire opened, the second echelon rushes in its turn, aligned at a quick pace, then at double time, and carries along the first.

From the moment of the charge, each man rushes on the enemy and fires if necessary.

_Second Case._—The units of the first line have been stopped at more than 200 metres from the enemy, say at 500 metres.

Move forward, executing short, rapid rushes without firing, in thin lines which are united at assaulting distance from the enemy.

The formation of successive lines for rushing is extremely simple. The company having arrived at a sheltered line beyond which extends an open space, the company commander commands:

“In thin lines by half section, at 100 metres distance by short rushes: 1st and 3d Sections, forward.”

He personally goes out with the first line to select the emplacement where he will halt it.

Each of the 1st and 3d Sections sends out two squads (1, 3, 9, 11). The men immediately take 6 pace intervals. This forms the first line, which is followed by a second, and so on, the rushes of each line alternating with those of the preceding one.

The construction of the parallel of departure is accomplished as has been indicated above.

_Instruction of the Machine-Gun Sections._

The machine-gun sections should participate in the exercises with the infantry. They should be accustomed to grasp the idea of the situation rapidly and to replace the fire of the attacking infantry either by taking a position in rear or on the flanks which will permit them to fire up to the end of the action without being hindered by the movement to the front, or by going squarely out in advance of the halted line.

This last case should be particularly studied; the Germans have shown it to us, and it is therefore possible; I know that it is very effective (25th of August at Crevic).

Therefore train them to get used to picking out cover, however insignificant, as a position for a machine gun and to utilize the ground skilfully and rush rapidly with the matériel in order to make themselves invisible or indiscernible;

To arrange shelter rapidly, to create a mask in front, and arrange for oblique fire, in order that the personnel may not be rapidly destroyed;

To keep still and try to be forgotten until the moment of assault.

The crews of the light guns should be attached to the infantry and learn to cooperate with it instead of being independent.

_Exercises to Develop the Spirit of Decision in the Second Line._

In front of any resistance whatever, the units of the second line should have but two ideas:

To take positions rapidly for the assault;

To assault.

The dispositions for the assault are:

The creation or adaptation of a line of a shelter at assaulting distance;

The rapid gaining of superiority of fire.

All the work of maneuver is reduced to the realization of these two ideas. It is a question of applying in slightly varying circumstances the two classic studies above indicated, and one should know them perfectly.

To develop presence of mind in the noncommissioned officers and suppleness in the organization, situations analogous to those formerly used on the drill ground such as, “Cavalry to the right—in rear” should be devised.

Choose a parallel of departure and have the troops of the second line take their formation and march on the objectives designated in advance. Suddenly call out, “Enemy resistance on such a line, our first elements are stopped at such a point ... hostile machine guns in such a region.” Then everybody, infantry, machine guns, light canon, instantly take up their dispositions.

By representing the enemy and having him fire blank cartridges, one becomes accustomed to making rapid reconnaissance of resistances.

IV. PREPARATION OF THE TROOPS FOR PENETRATION.

The battle of today, since the last evolution of the war, is only a succession of assaults. The assault being the hardest and most murderous phase of the combat, before which the attack generally breaks down, we should only undertake it with assaulting troops. All troops are far from being assaulting troops; they need a well established cohesion and a special training.

In nine months of campaign, I have only twice had a company really capable of delivering the assault: that of the active regiment, which was eager to charge at whatever cost at Morhange, and that of Neuville-Saint-Vaast, toward which during the assault, I turned but twice—when we started and when I fell.

THE COHESION.

In order that an organization may be capable of reaching the enemy, it is necessary for each man to be thoroughly convinced that his neighbor will march at his side and not abandon him; he should not have to turn around to see whether his comrade is coming. This requires a solidly established cohesion. Cohesion is very difficult to obtain with the continual renewal of men and noncommissioned officers; to cement it well, the men must have lived long together and have borne the same hardships during which are strengthened the sentiments of solidarity and affection which create in the company invisible bonds, stronger than all discipline and the only ones capable of resisting the fierce egoism of the battlefield.

The company must also have been tried out by experiences severe enough for everyone to be able to estimate what his leaders and neighbors are worth under circumstances where borrowed masks fall off. Thus habit, friendship, and confidence make no difference in the appearance of a company; it is the battle alone that unveils these qualities in their full staunchness and value.

The company of the 9th of May had been in existence at least four months, that is, the last considerable reinforcements had been present about four months. We had indeed received newer recruits, but they were not sufficient to change the spirit of the company. We had lived in the Belgian trench where the material side of the situation could not have been more miserable. Without having suffered serious losses, we had been at times very roughly used, so that all the men had an idea of the trials of war.

Thus trench life is an excellent school for cohesion, but a company which moves forward directly from trench life would not be capable of attacking as we should like. Trench life is deteriorating and destroys in the mind of the man the idea that he belongs to a unit, to an organization. It should be completed by a period of exercises.

During the period of exercises, the work should be toward cohesion by establishing an exact discipline, difficult to obtain in the trenches, by punctually requiring the marks of respect, and by paying close attention to the uniform and personal appearance. All these details have a prime moral importance; nothing is more demoralizing for the soldier than to see around him his comrades badly dressed and negligent in their duty; he evidently finds at times that this is more convenient but at heart he lacks confidence because he well knows that in this troop of Bohemians, without faith or order, everyone will go his own way in the moment of danger. The daily aspect of a company, carefully uniformed and well disciplined, gives him, on the contrary, a feeling of reassurance and confidence.

“... Mais par un prompt renfort Nous nous vîmes trois mille en arrivant au port Tant à nous voir marcher en _si bel équipage_ Les plus épouvantés reprenaient de courage.”

This is what our battalion commander often quoted to us.

Combat exercises by entire units, close-order drill, and passing in review which should always close an exercise session, contribute to develop the sentiment, which becomes blunted in the trenches, that the soldier belongs to a unit, compact and articulate.

The trench produces cohesion in the _small group_, the period of exercise the _cohesion in the organization_.

THE OFFENSIVE SPIRIT.

In order to rush headlong at the enemy out in the open, where at any moment shot and shell may do its worst, one must have an exuberance of energy. This increase of courage exists only among troops who have for a long time been able to accumulate reserves of moral force. A unit that has recently made a bloody effort is incapable of delivering a _furious and unlimited assault_, such as we wish for. It might with trouble take a line of trenches and there hastily take cover. The supply of energy is used up quickly and comes back very slowly; the memory of the terrible dangers must be dulled. In a combat, the expenditure of energy is at once physical and nervous, but rather nervous than physical. Now the mistake is often made of thinking that an organization is in fighting condition when it has again taken on a good appearance and seems in excellent form. A few nights of sleep and a few days of good food are sufficient to restore the physique, but the nerve cells are reformed with all the slowness that is characteristic of them. How many times, some days after bloody fights which have left me weak and emaciated, have I found myself in a state of flourishing health almost shameful for a soldier, and felt at the same time a faltering courage at heart!

To try to attack with troops already dejected or insufficiently recovered is to march to meet a certain and bloody defeat. It is sufficient to see the troops with which the attempts to break through at Neuville in the month of June were made and their result, known in advance by the discouraged officers. The almost destroyed regiments that had made the magnificent attacks of May 9 and had occupied the conquered ground under the worst bombardments until the 25th, had been reorganized with dispirited officers and noncommissioned officers, and were the sorriest soldiers that one could see—men recalled after having been formerly rejected, incompletely instructed, and of rather mediocre spirit. The few survivors of the splendid days of May, instead of being exalted by the memory of these exploits, had retained the memory of the massacre which had left them almost alone among their former officers and two hundred comrades. Two weeks rest and a new attack with the painful result which covered the famous regiments with unmerited shame; companies hesitating to leave their trenches, officers obliged to drive their men, the slaughter of abandoned noncommissioned officers.

Therefore do not attack except with troops that have not made a bloody effort for a long time and who have been able to recuperate their supply of energy.

The second condition under which troops attack without thought of sparing themselves is when they truly feel that the action in which they are going to engage is worth the immense sacrifice of life. Each man down to the most humble feels conscious that his existence is of inestimable value, that it represents many efforts, many troubles, and many affections. The infantry soldier has so many and many occasions to die that he only gives himself up to it on real occasions, and this calm and conscientious self-denial which irritates those who would like to find the troops ever responsive to their orders is of a supreme grandeur. When one has seen the death and suffering of the soldier at close range, one ties to him as to one’s self and does not expose him for every whim. The soldier understands this thoroughly, and when he is told that it is “_pour la Patrie_,” he then goes in for all he is worth, and so it is that the chief who has not stormed and fumed in vain is rewarded for his wisdom.

The coming of the generals who know how to talk to the men who will meet their death with simplicity and conviction, has a profound and decisive influence on the open-hearted mass of infantrymen. Handling soldiers was formerly the greatest accomplishment of commanders, who did not confine themselves to the brief and abstract formulas of their orders. _Today as formerly, the word of the great chief, rational and assured, is graven in ineffaceable letters in the hearts of the combatants._ Beyond the chief, the soldier clearly sees his native country, whose supreme will still claims the sacrifice, and in himself he feels his courage harden.

Toward the 15th of April, returning from Belgium, our regiment passed in review before General F—, our former Corps Commander, who assembled the officers and said to them: “We are going to attempt another maneuver ..., the waiting has come to an end, we are going after them ..., we have today cannon and ammunition in abundance, we will crush their shelters, we will destroy their machine guns.... Then the infantry will be launched and will crush them; after the first ones, there will be others ..., then others ...; if we do not succeed, we shall have no one to blame but ourselves.” These words sank into the hearts of the company officers, and they repeated them with conviction to their soldiers, and the latter heard them so well that they surpassed all that could have been expected; they are not the ones whom General F— might blame.

Thus the troops see clearly the object, but the moral preparation would be insufficient if the man felt himself incapable of accomplishing it. Each day the officers should instil in the troops the idea of the effort and show them how it may be realized; there are even questions concerning the instinct of preservation that it is well to bring into play. Thus instead of fearing the ordeal, the man little by little gets accustomed to the idea of facing it.

It remains now to complete and exalt the offensive spirit by an intense period of appropriate exercises. Trench life has a tendency to kill the offensive spirit of the troops. They think only of protecting themselves, they are always under cover, they circulate in the _boyaux_, and all this creates a horror of the open ground. Daily experiences, such as not being able to show one’s head without running the risk of receiving a bullet in the face, create a very acute sensation of danger. They dare no longer stir, and to attack the terrible trenches of the enemy which one cannot look at even for a second seems a mad and irrealizable project. The service in the trenches creates terror of the hostile trench.

_The Man Must Be Put into Forward Movement_

Make him run, jump, and rush in the open spaces; let him get intoxicated with air and movement; the attitude creates the mentality. As soon as he has lost the habit of hanging his head and hunching his back, he has also lost his exaggerated prudence and the fear of unsheltered spaces.

At the cantonments at Fiefs and Berles, where we passed a fortnight before the 9th of May, the afternoons were entirely given up to sport. We organized “field days” in the woods, obstacle races, and the men, recruits and old reservists, galloped through these spring days with absolutely unbounded animation. To give the men the habit of moving without anxiety over open ground where the bullets whistled, I took advantage of the nights when we were working on saps and parallels to make them march in patrols a short distance in front of the lines. If I saw that the workmen were thinking of crouching down, I made them stand up for a while; as for me, I fortified myself by walking up and down in front of the working party.

We wished for an irresistible assault and therefore tried to inculcate in the men the instinct of hand-to-hand fighting, at which they ordinarily hesitate with the result that the close combat is stopped for days and months at a few score metres from the enemy. We had bayonet fencing, but it was a demoniacal fencing, the fencing of the chargers of Froeschwiller.

The fencing exercises, carried out by the company to prepare for the attack, were as follows: first, a brief review of the movements, then immediately fencing on the run; the men were formed at a few paces intervals and then started on a run; it was “Halt! Thrust! Thrust again!” They started again, climbed the embankments, lunged and relunged furiously; they got winded, so much the worse.... “Right face!” and everyone ran to the right, descended the slope stabbing and stabbing again, getting excited and feverish, the officers and sergeants galloping more furiously than the rest.

Afterwards fencing with the dummy. We had stuffed sacks full of straw and made them smaller each day to make a smaller target and oblige the men to be more accurate in their thrusts.

Each man attacked the dummy individually, shouting with all the frenzy of which his imagination was capable, and those who attacked the best, with the greatest _élan_, went over it again to show their comrades how to do it. It was no play, they knew enough of the Germans to believe them in front of them, and I recall that among those from Gascony, Toulouse, and Provence, who formed the basis of the company, some shouted with frenzy, “Piquo, Piquo!”

In order to give more movement, the exercise against the dummy was arranged in the following manner: