CHAPTER XVIII.
INFANTRY AND ITS WORK.
Before I describe the German invasion of Belgium, I must explain certain military terms which will crop up again and again in the following pages. Unless you understand these terms, you cannot read war news intelligently.
An army, you know, is a body of armed men, trained and organized and disciplined for the work of war. Most of the fighting men in an army are either infantry, cavalry, or artillery. Let me tell you something about each of these "arms."
_Infantry_ are foot-soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets. In time of peace you have seen them marching by in their scarlet and blue uniforms and smart spiked helmets. You have also seen the Highlanders, with their waving feather bonnets, short scarlet coats with yellow facings, white belts and gaiters, plaid stockings, and bare knees. In time of war all these fine uniforms are discarded, and the men are dressed in khaki.
Every foot-soldier belongs to a _regiment_, and is one of a _company_ of that regiment. A company consists of 227 men of all ranks, and is commanded by a captain or major, with a captain as second in command. Every company is divided into four platoons under lieutenants, each of whom has a sergeant as second in command, and each platoon consists of four sections under junior sergeants, corporals, or lance-corporals.
In the British Army four companies form a _battalion_, which has been well called the household or family to which the soldier belongs. It consists, when at war strength, of 1,007 men, including what is called headquarters--that is, the battalion staff, the men of the machine-gun section, the signallers, pioneers, and the bandsmen who in time of war serve as stretcher-bearers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant-colonel, who is assisted by a major, an adjutant, a quartermaster, together with a number of sergeants, orderlies, and clerks. The adjutant is specially responsible for the book-keeping of the battalion, for issuing the orders, and for seeing that all military duties are properly performed. The quartermaster has charge of the stores, clothing, and the equipment of the men.
The strength of an infantry force is reckoned in battalions, not in regiments. Four battalions--that is, 4,000 men--form a _brigade_ of infantry, which is commanded by a brigadier-general, who is assisted by a brigade-major and a staff-captain.
Foot-soldiers are now armed with what is called a magazine rifle. The short Lee-Enfield,[178] which our infantry carry, can fire a dozen aimed shots in a minute; and if the magazine is opened, the ten cartridges in it can be discharged in less than thirty seconds. With this rifle, which is sighted up to 2,800 yards, a man can hit a large object a mile and a half away, and if he is a good shot, can kill a man at half a mile. The cartridge--which contains bullet and powder in one case--is so light that a man can carry his one hundred and twenty cartridges without much discomfort. The powder used is smokeless, so that it is almost impossible to tell where the shots come from if the riflemen take _cover_--that is, if they conceal themselves behind bushes, rocks, or hedges. British soldiers are exceedingly good at taking cover, and they learnt the art from the Boers in South Africa. They are careful to notice the folds and waves of the ground, and to take advantage of everything which will hide them from the enemy. A skilful leader can march his company or platoon across country so that a man sitting still half a mile away from his route cannot catch as much as a glimpse of it.
Before a man can fire accurately at a distant enemy he must know the range, and must sight his rifle accordingly. To show you how this range is found, let us suppose that a platoon sees a party of the enemy on a ridge in front of it. At one end of this ridge there is a little sand heap. "The lieutenant calls for three good shots from your section, of whom you are one. You go up and lie down, and your section commander tells you that you are to fire at the sand hill to get the range, which he thinks is 800 yards. You fire at 800 yards, and see no result; the next man fires at 750--no result. The third man fires at 700, and the sergeant, with a field-glass, sees a splash of dust on the sand heap. That settles the range."[179] When the troops occupy a position some time before the enemy is in sight, it is usual to mark distances. "Half a dozen men are told to cut sticks from the nearest trees, and to tie red rags on to each of them. Then they are to pace 600 yards in a straight line to the front, stepping yards as well as they can, and then to plant their sticks so that the line of red sticks may mark the 600 yards line from where their comrades are lying down."[179]
Each infantryman carries a short bayonet, about twelve inches long. When a charge is ordered, the bayonet is fixed on to the end of the rifle-barrel, and is used as a thrusting-sword. British soldiers have always been famous for their prowess with the bayonet. A bayonet charge usually occurs when an enemy has been beaten by gun fire, and his trenches are carried by a final rush.
Each battalion has with it two machine guns, manned by an officer, a sergeant, and sixteen men. Two wagons accompany this section to convey the guns and their ammunition.
A machine gun is nothing but a rifle barrel fixed into a machine so that it becomes self-firing. The barrel is surrounded by a large tube filled with water, to keep the barrel from getting too hot. The gun is so fixed on a tripod stand that it can be turned round in any direction. One man carries the gun, which weighs about sixty pounds, to the selected position, and the other carries the tripod on which it is fixed. On the march, both gun and tripod are carried in a wagon. Each gun is supplied with boxes containing 3,500 rounds, and 8,000 more rounds are kept in reserve.
On the next page you will see a picture of this gun at work. When it is fixed and sighted, a button is pressed, and the first shot is fired. The recoil of this shot empties and reloads the gun, and so the process goes on just as long as the button is pressed. Some three hundred shots can be fired in a minute very accurately, and the effect on a body of men advancing along a road or across a bridge is deadly in the extreme.
Besides their rifles and bayonets, each infantryman carries a light, short-handled shovel attached to his belt. This is for making trenches and rifle pits to afford protection against the enemy's bullets. In a very short time a battalion can "dig itself in," and, thus protected, fire on the enemy from shelter. A trench a hundred yards long, three feet deep, and two feet wide, can be dug in easy soil by forty men in about three hours. Every battalion is accompanied by mules or carts, carrying picks and additional shovels.
A good infantryman must be able to shoot well and march well. If you are in good condition, you perhaps think nothing of a ten-mile walk. But suppose you are loaded up, as the soldier is, with rifle, bayonet, and knapsack, ammunition pouches, haversack, water-bottle, and entrenching tool, a total weight of about sixty-one pounds, you will find ten miles a long and very tiring distance. Our infantry usually march at about two and three-quarter miles an hour on a fourteen-mile march. The French are famous for what are called "forced marches"--that is, for marches more than twenty miles in one day--but British soldiers have done even better. In 1898, before the Battle of Atbara, some of our infantrymen covered 134 miles--mostly desert--in six and a half days, ninety-eight miles being covered in four successive days. The men were in fine condition, otherwise they could not have stood the strain. As it was, many of them arrived at their destination barefooted, the soles of their boots having come off owing to the rough nature of the country. This, of course, made the march all the more creditable.
In South Africa the 2nd Shropshire Light Infantry once marched forty-three miles in thirty-two hours. When pursuing De Wet in August 1900, the City Imperial Volunteers (C.I.V.) marched thirty miles in seventeen hours.
[Footnote 178: For diagram see p. 192.]
[Footnote 179: Quoted from "First Lessons in War," by Spenser Wilkinson.]