The English of military communications

It is important in military matters that a writer shall express definitely the ideas he intends to convey and in such phraseology that there can be no misunderstanding of the la...

All military language should be of the utmost brevity and clarity. Death and disaster are the direct results of ambiguity. Throughout all history mistaken directions and informa...

WAR DIARIES are daily records of events kept during campaign by each battalion and higher organization. From the entries in these diaries the facts of our military history are o...

“An intrinsically good tactical exercise,” says Griepenkerl,[2] “loses by _faulty composition_ and careless or illegible handwriting.... A rambling mode of expression, a long-wi...

1. (Three messages.) On July 18, 1930, you are Corporal Flint in charge of a reconnoitering patrol sent out from the 61st Infantry which is acting as Rear Guard to the 19th Brig...

There are occasions when it becomes proper not to write the field message, but to speak it. If the enemy is strong and active, so that a bearer of information runs grave risk of...

“Upon the information of the enemy and of the terrain obtained by reconnaissance, and, as far as time will permit, upon the study of the terrain made by the leader in the field...

After the plan of Trench of the English Service, we are going to take up the problems in the construction of the field order along the lines on which tactical situations natural...

1.—You are Major General Tuttill in command of the 10th Division of the 3d Corps, which is at Taneytown. On June 3, 1952, your division has been designated to keep a certain for...

“The initial combat orders of a division are almost invariably written; those of the brigade are generally so. The written order is preferable and is used wherever time permits....

Before August, 1914, the _Operation order_ was the English term for our _Field order_. Both orders had the same functions and about the same form. At times, the term _operation...

We have heretofore considered those communications which aid combat. We now take up those which have no direct bearing upon the outcome of an engagement. We have seen how the _f...

The heading consists of the name of the office, place, and date. In the first example the name of the office was “Headquarters, Eastern Department.” In the second, “Company A, 9...