Chapter VI: Part I: Operations, 1909 (3)

(_a_) When the company is on the march, it should always be preceded by an advanced guard—either a party of scouts, or, more usually, by one of the platoons. After the advanced guard comes in contact with the enemy its further action becomes either an attack to drive off the enemy, or a defence to delay his advancing, according to his strength and tactics; so I propose here merely to indicate suitable formations of march in ordinary, i.e., non-mountainous country, so that the platoons may be practised in taking them up without delay on being told off for the duty. The exercise takes little time, and can be done on the same parade as the flank guard exercise.

An advanced guard may come under Are at any moment, and to provide against surprise (F.S.R., 64), its leading portions may move in extended order. The duties are given in F.S.R., 68, and apply quite completely to so small a body as a platoon. The platoon should be divided into a vanguard and a main guard. For the vanguard, a common plan is simply to extend a section on either side of the road, but I prefer to divide the section into three patrols, or more if strength permits, who work along in a general line—one to search the road and its immediate vicinity, and one on each side. The nature of the country regulates the breadth of ground the centre patrol can search from the road, and the distance to which the others are sent out on each side. The other sections follow as main guard, not so close as to be at once mixed up with the vanguard if fire is opened on the latter, nor so far as to be unable to support it quickly with fire. The advanced guard is responsible for keeping touch with the main body (the company) (F.S.R., 64 (4)), but the company commander should satisfy himself that this is being done. If view is restricted, the main guard must drop a connecting file to keep connection. This file must march with their beards on their shoulders, to see what the company is doing, and let the commander know, and also to signal to the company, if the platoon has had to halt. If the country is open, the commander should still tell off a file for this duty, who will march with the platoon, but be continually on the look-out to the rear. The platoon commander ought, of course, to keep a watch himself, but may have other things to attend to, and it is well to take precautions against the platoon either getting too far in front or letting the company get too close to it, by marching on while the platoon is investigating some suspicious locality.

(_b_) _The Platoon as a Flank Guard._

A platoon may sometimes be used as a flank guard, as when a small convoy is on the march with only a company or two as escort. Flank guards are dismissed in a few words in F.S.R., 70. It is worth while to practise them once or twice to avoid delay in taking up the formation when the march is being started, or in improvising a method of fighting off the enemy if he attacks.

Represent the convoy or whatever it is by a man with a red flag to move along the road; the platoon is then to move along parallel to the road, and far enough off to afford protection from effective rifle fire, i.e., at least eight hundred yards in open country. The skeleton enemy should be instructed to keep about the same distance again on the flank beyond the platoon, and to move along parallel with it without closing in, opening fire on an agreed signal.

The march formation should be on the same principles as those for the advanced guard. The platoon should move in two bodies, and patrols or scouts should precede it, both in the direction of the march and towards the flank which is being guarded. It is important to keep touch with the main body by connecting files at all times, otherwise if the road changes direction out of view of the flank guard it may separate them too far or bring them too close to the company.

The method of fighting merely to hold off the enemy resembles that used by a rear guard for the same purpose, i.e., fire and movement by alternate portions. When the enemy opens fire on your signal, the patrol on the flank either falls back, or the platoon reinforces it. The patrol in the line of advance should still continue to precede the movements of the platoon in that direction, and should be told to conform to its movement. The platoon replies to the enemy’s fire as soon as possible and begins the lateral fight—one half is sent, if possible under cover, to take up a fire position farther along the direction of the line of march, preceded by the patrol, which, to some extent, secures it from surprise from that direction. As soon as the leading party has found a fire position and opens its fire, the other follows it, and either halts alongside it, so allowing it to go off to a new position, or continues its movement beyond it and takes up a third position to cover the further movements. The latter method is the quicker, as it saves the time of replacing men of the first party in their fire position by those of the second. The exercise need not be prolonged, as a few of these lateral movements are quite sufficient illustration to enable the men in future to take up their duty quickly.

EXERCISE IX.

PRELIMINARY FOR THE ATTACK BY THE COMPANY IN BATTALION.

A company attacking as part of the battalion is sure to find the men of different platoons mixed up in the course of the attack with those of other platoons, both of that company and of others. Before practising the attack, accompanied with this mixture of platoons, it is advisable to train them and their non-commissioned officers for their duties without allowing any mixing up. This may be done by bringing all the platoons of the company up into one line, and then extending each on its own ground. The result is that each platoon may be taken to represent the leading platoon of four companies told off to furnish the firing line and supports (I.T., 122). The four platoons form thus the firing line, the other three supposititious platoons of each company being in support. This formation would be taken up when the enemy’s rifle fire began to be effective, i.e., at or under fourteen hundred yards. Within this distance the firing line has to press on through the zones in which it uses collective and individual fire up to assaulting distance, being reinforced as needed, firstly by the supports, and finally at the time of the assault by all or part of the local reserve, which, in this case, would be composed of the four companies of the battalion not detailed to furnish the firing line and supports.

Put out a skeleton enemy with orders to remain in one position, and fire slowly, but continuously. Draw up the four platoons, or as many as are present of the company at fourteen hundred yards or so from the enemy, in one line and at sufficient intervals to allow of their extending to five paces, _plus_ some space between flanks of sections after extension, to allow plenty of choice of lines of advance. Indicate to each platoon a part of the enemy’s position which it is to regard as its final objective of assault (I.T., 121 (3)). Have the men extended to five paces, and carry out the attack right through on the lines of Exercise V., and finish with an assault and rally after it. Each company would have an officer with its platoon in the firing line to direct the fire. If fire is opened between fourteen hundred and one thousand yards, it will not be effective against ordinary targets unless the whole four platoons direct their fire on the same target. Under one thousand yards fire should be controlled by section commanders and directed by platoon commanders.

Practise concentration of the fire of the four platoons on one part of the enemy’s line and lateral distribution of fire _within the limits of that part_. Give each platoon a fraction of this fraction of the enemy’s frontage to deal with, and let the platoon commander again tell off his sections to fire at various marks inside _his_ limits. Again switch the fire of all four platoons on to some other particular bit of the enemy’s position, as done in previous exercises.

To do this you must introduce and work with thoroughness a system of inter-communication (I.T., 119), but it should be one approved and adopted by your battalion commander, otherwise each company of the battalion may be found using a different one. It is to be understood that orders as to the direction of fire in no way interfere with the gaining of ground to the front, a platoon firing at one object ceases fire in order to advance, but resumes its fire on the same object when it again halts.

As soon as section fire is opened, encourage mutual support, some part of the line firing while others advance, and make section commanders continue to observe this principle.

At some one parade for this exercise halt the whole line during the attack and practise entrenching under fire, the men working lying down (I.T., 121 (13)). Thereafter resume the advance.

Move about yourself and let your section commanders do so also, and check any slovenly work on the part of the men in using, quitting, or getting into cover, and in the use of their rifles and judging distance if, as should often be done, it is left to them to estimate how far they are from the target of the moment.

EXERCISE X.

THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION UNDER ARTILLERY FIRE.

When the battalion is moving forward to attack, and before the enemy’s rifle fire is more than a distant and future danger, that of his artillery becomes an imminent and formidable menace as soon as the limits of its range are crossed, because of the suddenness with which it is capable of dealing destruction. Whether his artillery actually opens on the battalion is another matter. If the battalion shows up as a tempting target in column of route or mass, he most certainly will fire on it, but if it is skilfully led it may possibly escape his notice altogether; at the same time, it is hardly likely that it can move from five thousand to fourteen hundred yards from the enemy’s infantry without giving some indications of its movement, and the probability is, that at some part of the advance it will find itself the recipient of the enemy’s attention. To escape the effect of this fire, the battalion and the company will have to break up into small shallow columns such as platoons or sections at least 50 yards from each other laterally (I.T., 118) and two hundred yards from front to rear; in fact, a lot of little groups of men sufficiently apart to prevent the burst of one shell covering more than one group. The advance in this order constitutes the first phase of the infantry attack. The company must be practised in getting into this formation, and moving in it so as to avoid confusion in action, and also to let non-commissioned officers and men understand that this formation does not free them from the control of their commander.

At manœuvres and exercises the adoption of this formation is sometimes burked on various pretexts, of which the most heinous is to say that the results of artillery fire are overrated, and the risk run in keeping in closed formation is more than compensated for by the comfort of the men, maintenance of control and saving of time. This theory I fancy had its origin in the South African War, where the Boer artillery was skilful but exiguous, if judged by European standards. I have not been under shell fire myself, but I have seen the results of it on a column of about two hundred men who came along a watercourse two thousand yards or so from the guns, in something resembling a march formation. The guns had the range, and the enemy left about fifty dead in that watercourse in a few minutes, so personally I am going to open out my company and trust to my peace training of it to keep it in hand and get it along fast enough to be on the spot when wanted.

I need hardly give details how to practise this. The point is, to get the company opened out quickly and without confusion, and this is to be done by telling your platoon commanders what you want and where they are to go, and not by any drill. Platoons may further split up into columns of sections. Leave it to your platoon commanders to have the sections moved apart to intervals of fifty yards. If the enemy’s artillery is straight in front, a diamond formation seems suitable—a platoon at each angle—the length of the diagonal front to rear being over two hundred yards and side to side over one hundred; or the platoons may simply follow each other at two hundred yards distance, though this is not a very handy arrangement. But, subject to keeping the distances large enough, it is not the formation that matters, but the way it is taken up, and I will leave it at that.

At the end of this phase of endurance of the enemy’s artillery fire the company comes under rifle fire and has to take to extended order, and on service it would perhaps have to do this and plunge into the attack without the platoons closing in from the scattered formation in which they have so far moved. But for the first few times you should close up at fourteen hundred yards and start from there, so as to tell the men what is next to be done when they come under rifle fire, and in any case the size of your exercise ground would probably necessitate your doing the two phases over more or less the same bit of ground.

EXERCISE XI.

THE COMPANY IN ATTACK WITH THE BATTALION, UNDER RIFLE FIRE.

The immediate objects of the fire fight within effective rifle range are to produce a fire sufficiently heavy to overcome the fire of the defence, and to reach a position from which the assault can be delivered (I.T., 121 (5 and 6)). In theory, then, the desideratum is to get so many men up to about two hundred yards from the enemy that they form a line practically shoulder to shoulder, in order that their fire may be at least as heavy as that of the enemy, if the latter are also in one continuous line, and in default of circumstances admitting of effective covering fire being maintained from positions in rear or on a flank. On this supposition it is frequently argued that a battalion and its companies, when advancing to the attack, should do so on a front not greater than that which the battalion would occupy if it were in single rank, but this does not really follow. The nature of the ground may be such that to attempt to build up a shoulder-to-shoulder firing line all along the enemy’s position within charging distance, may be merely to send men to useless destruction by exposing them on fire-swept spaces, where they are sure to be knocked over before they can do any good. On the other hand, there may be other points where men may be massed so as to give not only a firing line of maximum density, but also a supporting force both to replace casualties and to carry out the assault. These are the points which it is of importance to gain and hold in strength sufficient to carry out the object of the attack—the assault. It is the duty of the battalion commander to give each of his firing line companies some such point as their objective, and to define the frontage and direction of their attack. It is similarly the duty of the commander of a firing line company to give each of his sections an objective within the limits assigned to his company (I.T., 122 (4) and 123 (3-)). The problem for solution is, how to get to those points, and so it does not appear to matter much what frontage the battalion and its companies occupy when they start off for the attack at the fourteen hundred yards limit of effective rifle fire, provided of course, they do not encroach on the frontage of other units. Indeed, an attack which starts on a wide base and concentrates only in its later stages seems much more likely than one which starts from base equal to a single rank frontage to keep the enemy uncertain of its objective, and to be able to bring oblique or enfilade fire to bear on portions of his line. Therefore, when practising the company in attack, do not be bound by cast iron rules as to the breadth of the zone of ground within which you are to bring your company from fourteen hundred yards up to the charging position. Four platoons following one straight behind the other, at two hundred yards distance, make a very unwieldy procession, and, in general, I would advise you to use something in the nature of a diamond formation at first, the three platoons in rear making their own way forward till they reinforce the leading portion which finally consists of the whole company.

Put out the skeleton enemy on a front of, roughly, what your company will occupy in single rank, and let the position, if possible, have within it two, or at most, three points, which you can assign as objectives to the platoon commanders. You must consider this position as having been assigned to you as objective by your battalion commander, the ground on the right and left of it being the prey of other companies, and not the object of your assault, though it should, nevertheless, frequently be the object of your _fire_ during the advance.

Draw up the company at about fourteen hundred yards from the enemy. Tell the platoon commanders the relative positions the platoons are to take up when the advance begins, roughly the distances between them (I.T., 123 (7)), the direction of the attack, if the enemy’s position is not quite clearly to be seen, the frontage on which the company is free to manœuvre, and the points which the sections are to regard as their objectives; the details contained in I.T., 123 and 124, may also be enumerated if the commanders are not experienced. As regards these details, I recommend that scouts be formed not in a line of men extended at wide intervals, but as a line of patrols of four or six men each, and you or a subaltern should halt them early in the attack and tell them to send back word that they are held up by fire, or that they have defined the enemy’s position; on this the nearest platoon reinforces them, and the process of building up the firing line begins from that point. As regards inter-communication, use connecting files and semaphore signalling to join up the various parts and make real use of them, but avoid sham messages.

As soon as the object and manner of the attack have been detailed to all, tell the platoon commanders to move off their platoons to their positions and extend them ready to advance, and the scouts to get off in front. Five paces is the least extension to ensure that a bullet aimed at one man may miss him with a fair chance of not hitting his neighbour. Do not let the scouts go too far away, because at this time of getting to grips with the enemy, their usefulness, when acting with their companies is mainly limited to guarding against ambush at close range, and as ground scouts to prevent the company coming against some unseen obstacle, barbed wire, donga, canal, or what not.

As soon as all are in position, the company may be considered as being in the formation in which it would have arrived at the point where, in addition to the enemy’s artillery fire, it comes under heavy and fairly accurate rifle fire. Give the signal to advance, and let the platoon commanders begin to work their platoons forward, using what covered ways they can find. After a little of this, have the scouts halted and reinforce them by one platoon, order fire to be opened, bearing in mind that one platoon’s fire is probably useless at over one thousand yards from the enemy, but if your company is in the diamond formation the platoons on each flank will probably be able to fire, and with favourable ground, e.g., a knoll, or bluff somewhere on the line of advance, the rear platoon also will be able to fire over the heads of the firing line. There is no danger in this if the men hold their rifles straight, and it would assuredly be done in war. I have myself seen it, and the chances of an accident are minimised by practice in peace. During this early opening of fire use every effort to keep the fire from being merely a make-believe, i.e., send word round by your connecting files or semaphore to fire at certain targets, and see that section commanders direct their fire accordingly. In battle the information as to which part of the enemy’s position seemed most to demand attention would, of course, reach you from those of your side who were suffering fire coming from that part of the position, and the result of your passing the word to fire at it as above would be that a shower of bullets would come dropping all round it, to the upsetting of the aim of the hostile marksmen. Under cover of this fire your firing line may be allowed to gain a little ground, platoons moving alternately so as to avoid a cessation of fire. Thereafter continue to gain ground, and gradually reinforce the firing line till all your supports are absorbed and the whole company is in the firing line. When this has taken place the line will consist of a mixture of men of different sections and platoons. Avoid unreal movements in attempting to keep the men of each unit together in reinforcing and recognise that admixture is unavoidable. (I.T., 93 (11) and 123 (9)). The organising of the resultant disorder is one of the essential objects of training for the attack. Make your section commanders call on the men to right and left of them, if they are nearer them than any other unit commander, to act under their orders. Thus: “Private A to Private J under my orders.” Have this done constantly till it becomes a matter of course. The men of files can always hang together, but prove that this is being done by asking men where their file mates are. Get this system started as soon as reinforcement is begun, and keep it in full swing throughout. Once it is started, these extemporized fire units must apply the principles learnt by the intact sections and squads in Exercise IX., i.e., supporting fire by part to cover movement of the others, control and distribution of fire, etc., and so work on up to assaulting distance and deliver an assault. After this, let section and platoon commanders reform their men and units as quickly as possible, and then reform the company under your own orders. At subsequent parades introduce casualties among the section and platoon commanders, and let the senior privates in each of the mixed up fire units step into their places and carry on the attack without halt or confusion.

EXERCISE XII.

THE COMPANY IN ATTACK ACTING ALONE.

On service a company may often have to attack some post of the enemy without having the support of either artillery or infantry, and exercises framed to illustrate these conditions are very useful in developing the initiative of all ranks. In paragraph V. of the preamble I gave an example, and I think, if you will peruse it again, you will see what sort of thing you should arrange for the exercise. At inspections one sometimes sees a company sent off by itself to carry out such an attack, and the method often adopted is to tell off the company into the firing line and supports, and, perhaps, a reserve. The whole then go straight for the object and perform a sort of travesty of what the company does when acting as part of a battalion. By this time I trust you will be quick to perceive that this is just what it ought not to do. As an isolated force it has to do much more than simply to form a firing line and bring off an assault. It must secure its flanks, have a real reserve, employ a flank as well as a frontal attack, provide for its own withdrawal if worsted, be prepared to deal with a counter-attack, and observe all the principles laid down in I.T., 121. _Mutatis mutandis_, your reserve may consist of only a platoon, your flank guards a file or two of men, your flank attacks a section or platoon with a subaltern accompanying it, and so on, but the precautions must be taken and the principles put into practice, or your attack would run risk of failure. You would do it all on service; therefore, do it all in peace. Carry out such exercises, carefully planned, and with observance of service conditions, and I am quite sure you will see what a great deal there is to be done in this direction before you feel yourself and your company quite competent to undertake a similar task in the field. That first exercise against a skeleton enemy will be the forerunner of many others. Your criticism of the action of your non-commissioned officers must be carefully considered, as there are usually several justifiable ways of doing a thing, and it should always be constructive and not merely destructive (T. & M.R., 2 (2)).

EXERCISE XIII.

THE COMPANY IN RETIREMENT.

The men have been practised in retirement in pairs in Exercise II., and the sections and platoons have also learned their part in Exercise VI. It remains to train the company for this duty, which it might have to do either as acting as rearguard to the battalion, whether the latter was, or was not, in conjunction with other troops, or as if effecting its withdrawal when isolated. In both cases the procedure and distribution are pretty much alike. In the former case, the company, if it gets into difficulties, _may_ be able to get help from the rest of the force, but in the latter it will not be able to do so, and the commander should be especially careful to have in hand some portion of his company which he can use to extricate any detachment which gets “tied up.” On the other hand, it is very desirable that the main body should not be called on to reinforce the rearguard when the company is not acting alone. So that in both cases you should be prepared to meet eventualities from your own resources. Again, a rearguard is bound to have the majority of its force in action in order to hold back the enemy and present an appearance of force, so that it is not always possible to set apart a portion of so small a body as a company to act solely as reserve, and to remain continuously outside the actual combat. The solution of the difficulty seems to lie in an intelligent application of the principles of rearguard fighting given in F.S.R., 71 to 73, and the early but timeous withdrawal from the fighting line of a portion of the company who move back to a position in rear from which they can cover the withdrawal of the remainder, but are still available to be thrown into the fight, if it is necessary to inaugurate some sort of a counter attack to give portions heavily engaged a chance to break away from close grips. It is important in this exercise to teach non-commissioned officers and men to be ready to adopt quickly any method of withdrawal that may be ordered, because the nature of the ground must determine the way in which a withdrawal can best be effected, and the nature of the ground may vary every few hundred yards. Therefore I merely suggest some ways of practising retirements, and during the course of the exercise you should change from one to another, and also encourage commanders to act on their own initiative, when, as will probably happen, your system of inter-communication fails to act with sufficient speed and accuracy. I.T., 137, gives general rules as to the action of platoons and sections, and the standard set up in Exercises II. and VI. should be adhered to. Send out the skeleton enemy with orders to follow up the retirement, but not to close in under six hundred yards.

(_a_) Get the whole company deployed into one line of platoons, with intervals between them, occupying a wide front, four to eight hundred yards, the men at five or more paces extension. This may seem too wide a front, but, after all, the intervals between the platoons are only two hundred and forty yards, and an enemy trying to break straight through the line would be under fire at one hundred and twenty yards or less, while a wide front is the best precaution against having your flanks turned and your retreat intercepted.

Send back a platoon from one of the flanks to take up quickly a position in rear clear away from the firing line; three hundred to six hundred yards is not too much; let it open fire, and let the remainder of the firing line work back by retirement of alternate sections, each running back thirty or forty yards, beginning this movement from the flank from which the first platoon went, the platoon on the other flank holding on and only giving ground when the two centre platoons have got well on their way to the line on which the first platoon is halted. This is a slow retirement, but gives a maximum of continuous fire and the flanks are strong.

(_b_) With the whole company extended in one line, and no intervals between platoons. Retire by short rushes of alternate sections; the rushes must be quite short, twenty yards at most, so that the sections that have retired can fire through the intervals of the rear portion of the line the instant that it begins to retire. This is meant for use after an unsuccessful assault, and only on flat ground.

(_c_) With the company extended in one line, but with intervals between the platoons. Order the flank platoons to retire and take post to cover the withdrawal of the two centre platoons, who remain in position till the flank platoons are ready to open fire. Watch how the platoon commanders handle their platoons; they should do so artfully, as taught in Exercise VI.

(_d_) Retire by half-companies, two platoons together, using your subalterns as half-company commanders, and putting the onus of finding suitable covering positions on them, merely telling them to cover each other’s retirement.

(_e_) With the company all holding one position, leave the scouts or picked men to cover the retirement by rapid fire, and withdraw the remainder at full speed, then cover the retirement of the scouts by the fire of the whole from a position in rear. Watch that the scouts creep back from their cover without letting the enemy know they are going; and of this screen of scouts the flank men ought usually to be the last to go in order to make the enemy believe that the position is still occupied.

EXERCISE XIV.

OUTPOSTS.

I.

The general rules for outposts and the part played by an outpost company are to be found in I.T., 147 to 157, and it is necessary accordingly to train for those duties in peace. Let us begin from the beginning, and see what infantry outposts are and what they have to do. A line of infantry outposts will very often have to be taken up after a day’s fighting, or in close proximity to the enemy before a battle. The commander of an outpost battalion will be told by the staff to take up with his battalion a certain length of the front, say, from Farm A to Hill B, inclusive—perhaps a mile or even two in extent. He cannot possibly have time to ride all along the front and fix places for piquets and sentries. Instead of this, he looks at the ground and comes to the conclusion that it will require, say, all his four companies in the outpost line. He divides up his front into four parts, and gives each of his companies one part. It is his duty to see that the eight companies form along the line that combines the best facilities for defence and reconnaissance to the front. Accordingly, he tells the captain of A Company to take from Farm A to, say, the wood X, inclusive, the captain of B Company from the wood X, exclusive, to, say, the stream ML, inclusive, and so along. The captains of companies then have to go off and take up their frontages. As beforesaid, infantry outposts must expect to take up their line close to the enemy, and often when dusk is falling. This gives you your clue as to how it should be done. You must march your company in fighting formation, so as not to be ambushed—a screen of scouts or other covering troops in front and on the flanks, a party, section, or platoon ready to succour the covering party, and hold up the enemy, and a reserve ready to act under your orders, either for attack or defence. Your movement and the taking up of your line should be unseen by the enemy; therefore, move carefully under cover both from distant and close positions, from which you may be seen. The line must be taken up quickly. The main thing is to get it occupied; therefore, it is a mistake to halt the company while you plod round the whole of the front and plan just where each piquet and sentry will be. Instead, take a good look at the line as you march and decide what are the essential points to be held for defence and as observation points. As soon as your scouts have made good the ground a little in front of those points, send off what you think are necessary, sections or platoons, to seize these points, and act as piquets till you go round and adjust details. Thus your company will occupy the line in rough-and-ready fashion as quickly as they can advance. When the company breaks up to go to the piquet posts, go with any one of the piquets which is to be on one flank and settle the exact position of the piquet with reference to the line you intend to hold as your line of resistance, and any other details which you think the piquet commander should attend to, such as what localities should be patrolled, and estimate the number of men required. Any surplus sections should accompany you from this piquet, and you and they then go along the line to the other piquets which you arrange similarly, using the surplus to reinforce those piquets that need them, and if at the end you have still a surplus of men you may either form them as a support in rear or dismiss them to remain with their own platoons. For purposes of messing on service the latter is convenient, but, tactically, a support is often needed, in which case the men’s comfort must take second place.

You must make a clear distinction between day and night outposts, though you practise the latter by daylight. Infantry outposts by day and until the enemy advances, are firstly patrols and look-out men, whose business is to look for any movement on the part of the enemy, and to prevent his seeing their own side’s doings, and to report what they see of the enemy’s, and, secondly, a line of piquets who occupy the line decided on as the line of resistance, and who may fall out and rest while things are quiet, with supports and sometimes a reserve behind them. The patrols are active agents in getting information in front of the outpost line, and they will mostly consist of mounted troops except in close country or thick weather. The look-out sentries are passive obstacles to the enemy’s patrols or scouts penetrating the line; the piquets are the reserve of force ready to be called into action when needed. But a line suitable for observation and resistance by day is seldom suitable by night also. Fighting by day is done by shooting, and rough ground affording cover is likely to be chosen for the advance of the attackers. By night, however, the attack will be made with the bayonet, and the attacker will avoid broken country, which will confuse and delay his advance. Choose your outpost line accordingly. By day seek for a good field of fire, mutually supporting positions, and good facilities for observation, and strengthen the position you mean to fight on. By night close the likely ways by which an enemy may advance by putting piquets on them in strengthened positions with obstacles prepared in front, and patrols lying out on intervening ground to intercept scouts. Thus, in an undulating hedge-covered country with many roads, by day your piquets would be behind the crests of the undulations, sentries only on the look-out, and patrols scouting in front. By night your piquets would be on the roads, which they would block with barbed wire or abattis of cut hedge stuff, and your patrols in the fields between and lying out along the road in front at some place where they could watch anything passing, and get back to the piquet line without running risks of being shot by their own side. We will see below what training is required for non-commissioned officers and men in their duties on piquet, patrol and sentry. When you have trained them in these duties, take up an outpost line as a tactical exercise with your company, acting as an outpost company by day, and then as by night, and if you have scouts send them out to act as an enemy’s patrol in front to see how much of the operation of taking up the line is visible to them; then, after a certain hour, let them try to make their way through the line unseen. They must not work round the flanks as _ex hypothesi_; these are held by other outpost companies; finally, let them start sniping the outposts as if ushering in an attack, and let your piquets take up the line of resistance, your patrols falling back on the firing beginning.

II.

_The Training of Men and Platoons in Outpost Duties._

An outpost company will more often consist of two or more small piquets of one or more platoons with a support, than simply of one large piquet with its support, so that when you come to train the whole company, as above, in taking up a part of an outpost line, the performance of the work will depend largely on the ability of your platoon and section commanders to direct the men in their duties. Unless they are capable of doing this, time will be wasted as you will be occupied with one portion of the line while the rest are doing nothing and awaiting your arrival, for in this class of work the instructor must remain for some time with each piquet while the men are being put through the various duties, and cannot supervise concurrently at all points. Therefore, it is best, before taking the men out for instruction, to give a day or two solely to the instruction of subalterns and non-commissioned officers. When they have got a knowledge of what is required, have the men out, divide them into piquets under subalterns and section commanders, who will put them through the duties, and the work will go on on proper lines, and you will be free to go round and supervise each in turn.

You will have four subalterns, sixteen section commanders, and other non-commissioned officers, a total of twenty rifles or so, but if you are short of non-commissioned officers, have out enough privates to give you sixteen or twenty rifles. Form them up as a piquet and make the supposition that it has just received its orders to break off from the company and go to a certain point in the outpost line and take up its duties there.

_Day Piquets._

Indicate some such point as a day piquet position at a reasonable distance from where the piquet is when you give it its orders, and let the senior non-commissioned officer march it there, as on service, the point chosen being, if possible, such a one as would be occupied on service.

(_a_) This advance to the piquet is the first duty. In spite of the company covering troops being supposed to be somewhere in advance, the piquet on its march should be protected by a small patrol (F.S.R., 64 (1)). In taking up the position, it must not let the enemy see it; that is, neither the men nor their commander should show themselves. Very often the men are kept under cover, but the commander wanders about fixing places for sentries in full view of everyone. He should lie down and peep over the crest or whatever it is while making his plans.

Having arrived at the piquet position, indicate a position on the right and on the left where other piquets are supposed to be and proceed with:—

(_b_) Duties of outpost sentries.—These are given in I.T., 152. Post as many groups as will use up the whole strength in places which would need watching on service; if there are not enough such places near by, then merely for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two or more groups close together. A group consists of one or two men on duty, and their reliefs, who lie down near them. These groups are relieved every eight or twelve hours. Let it be understood that the position of their own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of these groups and of patrols, and it is a good plan to show the position by a flag. The sentries must see without being seen, know where other groups are, where their own and other piquets are, be told to challenge and halt anyone approaching as in I.T., 152 (3), and what to do if attacked. Let them do this to you personally, as if you were someone not belonging to the troops, and impress on them that they must be careful to teach it to their men so that _no stranger may ever be allowed to get close_ to a group, and to shoot if he does not halt. Neglect of this simple rule has led to many mishaps in all armies. Concealment is not easy, but must be got somehow—by artifice, if the ground is unfavourable. After putting all through “sentry go” close to the groups and teach them:—

(_c_) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and 156. Patrols are not meant for fighting, but to get information or watch dangerous places. But they may have to fight to avoid capture, and they do no good by walking blindly into an ambush. To bring back information or news that the enemy are coming on, it is evidently essential that whatever happens to the rest of the party, one man at least should always be able to escape, and to avoid ambush the patrol should move in a formation which will prevent a surprise overwhelming the whole party. In short, one portion must scout, and the other be prepared to cover their movement and help them to get away, if possible, but in any case to get away itself and carry news of the enemy. But patrols must be limited in strength, or they will not be able to escape notice, and must make up for their weakness by cunning and stealthiness of movement.

For patrolling by day, tell off the whole strength into patrols of four or six men, one of whom will command in each patrol. Let each take up the formation it would usually adopt; that is, one or two files in advance, followed by the rest at a distance sufficient to prevent the surprise of the whole by one and the same opening of fire. Teach the method advocated for movement across country, i.e., a careful but rapid advance from one cover to another, also how to approach suspicious localities. The leading file halts and looks for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile the rear file comes nearly up to it; the leading file then moves forward while the rear file lies down with rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire at once to cover the others if the enemy shows himself. If the locality to be searched can be outflanked, the leading files should move round one or both flanks before closing in on it. If it is one that cannot be outflanked, as, for instance, a straight edge of a large wood, they should approach it under cover, creeping up a hedgerow perhaps, and so get inside. If there is no cover they may try some ruse to draw the enemy’s fire before getting too close, halting as if they had seen something, shading the eyes with the hand, pointing and then starting to run back as if alarmed, which might lead the enemy to open fire to prevent their escape. But it is rather hard to get men to do this play-acting unless there is a real force of “Blue” or “Red” enemy against them. The commander of the patrol, when approaching any place, should tell his men what they are to do if it is seen to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still and watch, or retire. If the latter, he should fix some place in rear where the patrol could rally after getting out of harm’s way.

Show them how to look over a ridge, wall, or hedge, without attracting notice, taking off their headdress and raising the head slowly, keeping the rest of the body carefully under cover, and also to move unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges or roadside trees, and covering up any polished metal work of their uniform; to lie up on any place that commands a good view, and look long and carefully all over the country to catch sight of anything. Finally to report what they see, and to do this at once, if there is need, by sending one, or better, if the patrol can spare them, two men back to the piquet with a _written_ report, the rest still remaining in observation. Without having an actual force opposing you, you can only do this exercise with some appearance of reality by giving out verbal situations to the patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that wood which an enemy may be holding.” On this the patrol would get into formation and move forward. Then, when approaching the wood, “You have seen small parties of the enemy beyond the wood both on its right and left, and they are perhaps in the wood also; try and get into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or, if not, “show what you would do to draw their fire before getting close.” Then “the wood is held by the enemy, withdraw your patrol if you can.” As the patrol attempts to retire “a heavy fire is opened on you as you retire, showing that there is at least a company in the wood, your first duty is to send news of this to your piquet—how and whom would you send, and how would you frame your message?”

(_d_) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon and take it to the place where the piquet is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position has at once to strengthen the position against attack, and this without waiting for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are here only training the non-commissioned officers in their duties we will not ask them actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes and entanglements; indeed, this, as one may term it, executive work, has its proper place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind, then, that we are dealing with a day outpost, ask or show the platoon how to strengthen the position. Bring out a few picks and let them spitlock on the ground the lines of any trenches that might be needed, paying great attention to the siting of the trench so that fire could be brought over all the ground in front. Let them indicate with exactness where and how they would improve and adapt existing cover. Great regard need not be had to the number of men in the piquet, as outposts, if attacked, should make as much show of force as possible, and it does good and not harm if there are alternative loop-holes facing in different directions; also accommodation must be provided for the support. The commander should look for ground outside the outpost line from which enfilade rifle or artillery fire might be brought to bear on him, and mark how he would protect his men from it by traverses, breaking the line of loop-holes into short lengths, keeping under lee of existing cover and so on. The strengthening of the piquet must be done with the aid of common-sense. It will seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit of trench all in one piece and hope the enemy will be good enough to come and knock his head against it. Cover may be made or adapted in several separate groups, if this is needed, so as to make it possible to bring fire to bear on any part of the ground in front. The piquet must be prepared to make as brave a show as possible, therefore the commander, while strengthening the point near which his piquet is to rest, must decide what he will do if attacked. Probably there will be within the limits of his piquet’s frontage one or two other points which might be useful for defence, and he must not expect attack just from one direction. With regard to such alternative positions he should settle when and how he will use them, and whether he can afford time and men to strengthen them, and, last but not least, whether he will be able to get men from one to the other if the enemy does develop a strong attack. If he can do all these he will have added immensely to his power of defence, provided he handles his men skilfully, as he will be able to hold one position till the enemy thinks he has defined its location, then dodge to another, while they will go on firing at the old one, and so make his piquet appear many times stronger than it is. Concealment of the defence is very important, and the non-commissioned officers should be reminded that this must be attended to. They may forget it as there is no actual digging.