Part 4

At this exercise you should bring before your men the need of using all sorts of _ruses_ in a retirement, the use of rapid fire just before withdrawing, the sham withdrawal acted by ceasing fire, and retiring a few yards, but only to halt and re-open fire after a few seconds if the enemy has been tempted to expose himself, thinking the coast clear, the real withdrawal effected so carefully that the enemy is not sure whether you are there still or not, and so on; and make them put their own ideas of these plans into action and tell them if they are doing what is feasible on service or not. Bar all “manœuvre slimness,” i.e., anything that could not be done on service.

EXERCISE III.

INDIVIDUAL TRAINING IN USE OF FIRE AND FIRE DISCIPLINE.

Early lessons in fire discipline can be given in single rank on the parade ground, but the open country and extended order are wanted for training men to the fullest extent under service conditions. Only in the open country can be got the variety of targets, ranges and the visual training which are necessary for a complete education. Men must be taught, and taught again, that the taking up of extended order, and movement over all sorts of ground, in no way mean that they are to pass at once beyond the control of their unit leaders, or that it is optional to continue to take any sort of pains with their shooting just because their non-commissioned officers cannot stand over them, but have to shout orders from a distance.

This exercise consists in advancing and retiring in extended order with fire and the use of cover when halted; but to allow for more prolonged shooting practice and closer supervision than are possible when carrying out an attack or retirement as on service, the halts are longer and movements should at first be made in quick time.

Put out your skeleton enemy on a good broad front, so as to allow room for change of targets, and do not have them all in one straight line, so that each target shall call for a change of sighting. Let the sections work independently of each other under their section commanders, who, with the other non-commissioned officers, will have to act both as commanders and instructors. Bring the sections up to about twelve hundred yards from the enemy; get them into a line with intervals between them, i.e., spaces measuring from the flank of one to the flank of the other, sufficient to admit of each section being extended to two or three paces between men without its flank men coming too close to those of other sections, e.g., with two sections of eight file, i.e., sixteen men each; you must leave room for half of each to extend to two paces towards the other, and keep a fair interval; that is, from the centre of each of the above sections of eight men in each rank you want 8 ÷ 2 (half the number in the front rank) × 2 (two ranks) × 2 (two paces extension) = 16 paces for the line extended and an interval of, say, 30 yards, which gives 46 yards between each section centre to centre. Now, let the section commanders order the men to extend, lie down, take cover and open fire. The unit commander, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the section, is to name the target and distance and also the rate of fire, rapid or slow, at all distances over six hundred yards from the enemy (I.T., 116 (5)), unless it is desired on occasion to train men to do this for themselves. After fire has been delivered, direct section commanders to proceed with the exercise, giving orders for advancing, halting and firing, the advance to be made from cover to cover as in Exercise No. I, but in quick time. Yourself supervise in chief, and tell section commanders when you want to give orders as to the firing or movement, and let them give the executive commands, after which you and they should pass along the lines and scrutinise each man’s actions in carrying out the orders, questioning them, and repealing hints you may have given when telling them the object and methods of the practice, if they appear not to be giving them effect. The value of the practice depends on the orders you give as to the firing and the following are suggested:—

(_a_) Switching the fire of all the rifles on to different parts of the enemy’s position, sometimes straight in front, _but quite as often_ at his extreme flanks. This is to introduce the use of enfilade fire (I.T., 116 (11)) and the habit of giving support by fire to other units (F.S.R., 105 (4)), by concentrating the fire on to particular targets.

(_b_) Distributing the fire laterally along the whole or a part of the enemy’s front (I.T., 116 (10)). This may be done by giving the section a particular extent of the enemy’s front, e.g., “from the dry tree to the gate in the hedge.” The section commander then allots those of the enemy, who can be viewed within his bit of front to individual men, or preferably files of men, who are to treat them as their especial charge and keep on firing at them till otherwise ordered, or till the enemy shifts. Of course, if there is not enough of the skeleton enemy to give each file in the section a live antagonist (and there won’t be on your parades), the commander must indicate bits of cover which individual men of the enemy might be expected to use and tell his men to fire at these spots. This is a most important practice, and needs a good deal of attention and application before the men get really quick at it. It means, of course, that on service you will make it your business to allow as few of the enemy’s riflemen as possible to be free of the distraction of having some bullets landing about them, to upset their nerves and aim. Unless some plan is adopted to do this all along his line, it is all too probable your men will be exposed to some accurate fire from rifles held in steady hands, and even one rifle so held has, to my knowledge, caused a loss of eleven men in as many minutes. This lateral distribution is rather difficult, but it is easy, compared with the concomitant task of spotting where the men of the enemy are hidden, if they really try to hide, at anything but the shortest fighting ranges. The only remedy for this is for each private to carry field glasses of sorts; you will not get them from Government, but if any of your men are keen enough to go in for spotting a hidden enemy for themselves with glasses and would bring their own to parade, forbid them not, but encourage it. I have been told that in some of the yeomanry corps in the South African war nearly every trooper raised somehow and somewhere a pair of glasses—some were mother o’ pearl and silver-mounted, but did the spotting all right in spite of that.

(_c_) Passing orders and changing targets. Under heavy fire non-commissioned officers will not be able to move along the line, and orders must be passed either by word of mouth or by written messages passed from hand to hand; the former is apt to be slow, and the orders garbled en route unless practised beforehand; the latter is not very practical as men in action are too busy to read bits of paper or trouble themselves to see that they are passed on (I.T., 119 (4)). To practise the verbal method while the men are engaged in firing at any particular target, give orders to one man in a low tone (you would have to speak loud if ball cartridge were being used) to fire at some other target, and to pass the word. The man then tells his neighbours on each side, and yourself and a non-commissioned officer then follow the order each way, and when a man varies it admonish him to repeat just what he got from the last speaker, no more and no less. In a little time the men will become exact in taking and passing messages. This method should be confined to directions about firing; orders for movement should invariably be given by commanders by word themselves or signal, and men should not be allowed to repeat these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on service, as a signal may be seen and acted on by someone for whom it was not intended.

(_d_) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy or bits of cover, let fire be directed at civilians who are moving about in the field of view. Call on some individual man by name to choose some such target, and tell him he has to pass the word to the rest of his squad what target he has chosen and to fire at it. This gives practice in target definition, i.e., describing its position so that other men can know just where to look for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid of noticeable objects to do this quickly, but it is important, as the difficulty of locating a well-concealed enemy with smokeless powder requires that every pair of eyes in the ranks should be engaged in the search till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen are seen, and the information given to everyone in the firing line. Until this is done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise aimed by unaimed fire, a pretty hopeless task. Hence train your men to use their eyes for seeing and their tongues for description.

(_e_) Accustoming the men to judge distance, and use their backsights without orders. Judging distance for the men as a formal practice is confined to ranges under 800 yards, but it does no harm to let them judge greater ranges. Let the unit commanders define targets to be fired at, omitting to state the range, and let the men judge it for themselves and fire. Walk up the line and see that no man forgets to adjust his backsight for the distance he estimates. If possible, have the correct ranges taken previously with a range finder, and let the men know what they are after they have aimed. Each change of target gives the men a useful lesson in judging distance.

(_f_) Having put the men through all sorts of paces in the way of firing while advancing and retiring, in quick time do the same thing again, but with the movements in double time, and, in addition, carry out the increases and decreases of the extension, inclines and changes of direction given in I.T., 93, throughout insisting on the same steadiness in firing as when in quick time. All this will at first probably get the men “rattled,” and the benefit of it is that after some of it they will get over being “rattled,” and will not let hurried orders or speed of movement interfere with deliberation and steadiness in shooting.

EXERCISE IV.

THE ASSAULT.

Exercise III. can suitably be wound up by a practice in delivering an assault, as this does not take long, and the moral may be pointed that all fire training is only a preparation for a successful assault. The fixing of bayonets before assault commonly leads to a complete cessation of fire in the firing line. This is quite wrong, as such complete cessation of fire by the firing line must largely surrender for the time being that superiority of fire which facilitates the delivery of the assault (I.T., 121 (7)), for it gives the enemy a chance to take aim again. Supporting fire by artillery or infantry not in the firing line cannot be relied on when the firing line has reached assaulting distance. Therefore, do not have a simultaneous fixing of bayonets, but let one-half fix while the other fires, and the best arrangement is evidently one that ensures a fire being kept up along the whole front and not in patches. The system I have found most satisfactory is to fix bayonets by ranks, the front rank fixing while the rear rank continues firing, and then the rear rank fixing while the front rank fires. It may be done by odd and even files, or other ways, but, the company being organised in files, the same men are usually in the front and rear rank, and there is no difficulty in their remembering which they are. The important thing is to adhere to one system once it is adopted, and have it well understood by all. It does not matter much if a few men fix bayonets out of turn, so long as the fire is merely diminished and not stopped during the time bayonets are being fixed. In the charge, the men should work by their files, i.e., the two men of each file should act together and run at the same objective. The meaning of this is that in actual conflict two men would go together for the same individual enemy, and between the two of them they would be pretty sure to bring him to an untimely end, if the enemy really waited for the steel, and with less chance of his doing damage than if the combat took place man-to-man; thereafter they could turn their attentions to some other person.

For the practice choose and indicate any position for assault; work sections up to about two hundred yards from it, and then order rapid fire and bayonets to be fixed. As soon as all are ready, order the charge to be sounded. (I.T., 124). When the men hear the bugle they must at once jump from their cover and go straight and hard at the position; there must be no waiting by individuals to fire a last shot or two. The rush should be made suddenly and swiftly, so that the enemy has no time to see what is happening before the men are well on their way at him. When the position is reached, pass right through it and well beyond it, to escape hostile gunfire (I.T., 124 (5)), and then order the “Halt,” when the men may lie down under cover and open a pursuing fire. Walk along the line and see, with the help of non-commissioned officers, whether men of each file are together; if so, it will be proof that they have obeyed the directions to keep together during the charge. Allow a minute or two of the pursuing fire, then let section or platoon commanders sound their whistles, close and reform their sections under cover. On the whistle-sound (a succession of short blasts), men rise and double to where the commander is, resume their places, and lie down. This re-organisation is very important for you as company commander, for by it you get your men formed up quickly into platoons and ready to be closed into company or to take fresh orders in the minimum of time. The usual thing seen is that after the assault the ground is covered with a mixture of men of all companies staring about, and apparently thinking the show at an end, whereas on service this is the very time you may expect either a counter-attack by infantry or a burst of artillery fire directed on the lost position.

To repeat the orders of the assault: “Rapid Fire; Fix Bayonets; Charge; Halt and Take Cover; Commence Fire; Rally and Close Under Cover,” and be ready for further happenings.

EXERCISE V.

THE SECTION AND PLATOON IN THE ATTACK.

Having trained the individual men in the work needed of them, the next step is to make use of that individual skill to the best effect in combination under orders of a commander. The section is the lowest unit recognised for _training_ (I.T., 107), and it also is the normal unit used in firing (I.T., 6 (4)). When the company is advancing in the attack, or retiring, its sections and platoons will often be widely separated from each other, and the company commander cannot look after each one in detail, so that the platoon commanders, and under them the section commanders, must be fully competent to lead their men without supervision, in accordance with the general intention given them before the company opened out. So the training of men in combination must be accompanied by the training of your section and platoon commanders.

The duties of fire unit commanders are laid down in I.T., 116 (5), and those of section commanders in I.T., 116 and 123 (10). Before you proceed with this exercise have up these non-commissioned officers and devote ten minutes to an exposition of what is contained in the above paragraphs. Dilate on them, and show how neglect of those duties hampers the company commanders. At the same time, desire them to maintain among the men during sectional exercises the standard of individual training which was obtained in the preliminary exercises. Unless they do so the men will soon cease to apply what they then learnt, and so forget it in battle until the occurrence of casualties impresses its value afresh in their minds. Also give them the gist of what follows as to the advance and description of fire phases.

The exercise gives commanders the opportunity of doing what they will have to do when the company is attacking or retiring, but without their having to keep an eye on the movements of the other platoons. The men should now be extended at full intervals as on service, five or six yards apart, this being held to be the most that is needed. Put out the skeleton enemy in groups, one group as objective of attack for each section or platoon on parade, and the groups sufficiently apart to prevent them interfering with each other when extended as above, for they are to act independently. Take up the advance as if at fourteen hundred from the enemy, when his rifle fire on open ground would compel you to change from small columns of sections or platoons into the line of extended men (I.T., 118 (5)). The advance up to assaulting distance, from fourteen hundred yards, consists (I.T., 121 (7)), in the first place, of an advance to fire positions. Now Musketry Regulations lay down that fire by less than two platoons is of little effect over one thousand yards, so do not encourage commanders to open fire till one thousand yards at least, and use the space fourteen hundred to one thousand yards for instruction in getting their sections or platoons forward as quickly, and with as little exposure, as possible. Secondly, the advance consists of a fire fight combined with further advances up to the assaulting position. In this fire fight controlled collective fire is better than individual fire (I.T., 116 (7) (iii)), so up to six hundred yards let firing take place, only on the specific orders of commanders, who accordingly are to name the targets and ranges. In this phase therefore make them choose forward fire positions and work their units forward, using controlled collective fire at the same time.

Under six hundred yards it is apparently held best to accept the inevitable and allow individual fire, the unit commanders being still responsible for getting their men forward up to the position of assault—about two hundred yards from the enemy. Still at this close range unit commanders should do what they can to direct the fire, and especially they should see that men fire slowly and carefully. In general the rate of firing or snapping is far too fast, and pouches would be empty long before the assaulting position would be reached.

Owing to the great importance of training the sections, it is advisable to let them do this exercise, through both the phases below, separately from each other, and not in platoon. When they know all about it, let them work in platoon.

Having drawn up your sections in line at fourteen hundred yards, order the section commanders to extend and move on, and signal the skeleton enemy to open fire.

_First Phase: Fourteen to One Thousand Yards, Gaining Ground Without Firing._

Practise the section commanders in all ways of getting their sections forward without undue exposure or delay, by rushes of the whole section, man-by-man from one and both flanks and by files, together, and any other way that suggests itself. Stand over the section commanders in turn and tell them to advance the section by one method and then by another, and ask them which seems most suitable for various conditions of fire and ground (I.T., 118 (4)). The advance should be steady and determined. Before starting the advance from one position to another, section commanders are to decide and _must tell the men_ to what point they mean the next advance to be made (I.T., 108 (2)), in the same way as individual men were taught to mark their next halting places.

Attention must be paid to the way in which advances are inaugurated. Rushes must be sudden and simultaneous (I.T., 92 (5)). The men have been trained to leave their cover quickly. The unit commander must give his directions for the next move without getting up (if himself lying) and tell the men to be prepared; when all are ready, he and the men must jump up together and rush at once on the word or signal. The object of this, of course, is to avoid a concentrated fire being directed on the unit commander, and, perhaps, the two or three men nearest him, if they get up before the others, which would make it likely that some of them would be hit immediately, while the rest of the unit looked for a new leader, and so no advance take place; whereas if everyone gets on the move together a casualty or two will not bring the whole to a standstill. Of course, commanders should lead the way, but they must get in front by sprinting the first few yards.

_Second Phase: One thousand to Six Hundred Yards (Collective Fire) and Six Hundred to Two Hundred Yards (Individual Fire)._

As soon as a section begins to fire, it becomes possible for it to practise the lessons in the use of fire which were learnt in Exercise III., such as concentration and distribution of fire. From one position the commander must choose his next fire position, and work his section up to it in whatever way is most suitable. On flat and open ground this position may simply be the halting place of the next rush, thirty or forty paces to the front, but it is more instructive and practical to have positions far enough from each other, say one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards, to necessitate the advancing section making several successive rushes and using various devices to gain ground without attracting the enemy’s attention. Practise sections in all ways of advancing from one position to another, as was done before firing began, and encourage the use of covered ways. This exercise, if properly done, represents what the section would have to do in battle. For the purpose of instruction, the unit commanders should be allowed to move about as instructors, but when all ranks have been through the exercise and know what is needed, you should practise it under service conditions, and tell unit commanders to behave as if under fire; this is important, as it lets all see how much will be asked of the individual man under fire, and how difficult it is to exercise any wide control.

For the same reason you must in this exercise begin the practice of ordering casualties of leaders, and carry it on through the whole of the rest of the training. Order section commanders to be casualties, and let the next senior man carry on, then order that man to become a casualty, and let the next one take command. Collect these casualties with you and let them go round with you, and have for a time the onlooker’s view of the game. Do not stint in ordering them, but let every man be ready to take up command. This readiness to assume command and to carry on the advance in spite of the absence of leaders is most valuable in battle and on parade for training, keeps men’s attention fixed on the business, and helps to counteract disorder when companies and sections get mixed up in reinforcement in battalion attack.

Under six hundred yards let the men use individual fire, choosing their own targets; at this time try to get them into the way of looking for the targets which most require to be shot at at the moment—they must be always looking along the enemy’s line, and must not acquire the paralysing habit of only seeing straight in front of themselves.

Call on unit commanders to keep in view the question of expenditure of ammunition. It is no good ordering men to snap-fire 200 times in the course of an advance when they would only have 100 rounds in their pouches on service, and no means of getting more; when blank is being used they should see that the ammunition of casualties is collected and redistributed.