C. T. Dawkins

“ In our Army, with men enlisted for a term of seven years with the Colours, we have far greater opportunities of accustoming our troops to night-fighting than most nations have, and, if we choose to do so, we can bring our training to a high state of efficiency. It seems to me to be folly to ignore our situation, and not to take every pains to train our men to carry out operations by night, since, in view of our comparatively weak numbers, efficiency in night-fighting may be of the utmost value to us in any future war. ”

“ Personally, I am in favour of training men to deliver the assault at night in silence, for the following reason: Sudden outbursts of fire without any due cause occasionally occur in all armies, when the outposts are near those of the enemy, and it is quite possible that the enemy’s supports and reserves will not move until they have obtained information of what is happening. If, however, the assault is delivered with cheers they can be in no doubt as to what has occurred, and will, therefore, act at once. ”

“ The distance at which men talking, even in a low voice, can be heard on a still night is astonishing, and as it is a sound which cannot be mistaken for anything else, and which disturbs birds and animals more than any other, it is most important that the recruit should be shown the absolute necessity of keeping perfect silence. ”

“ Rifle Fire in Night Attacks.
It cannot be too strongly impressed upon all ranks that to fire during a night attack is not only useless, but to use the words of General Dragomirov, is absolutely criminal. The Regulations lay down that rifles are not to be loaded, but the magazines are to be charged and the cut-offs closed, and this order must be rigidly adhered to. Personally, I am against having the magazines charged; the proper weapon for the infantry soldier to use at night is the bayonet, and he should be taught to rely on that alone. ”

“ If in daylight the moral is to the physical, as three is to one, there can be no question that at night the proportion is many times greater. Indeed, I doubt if the true ratio can be estimated at all. ”

“ From the commencement of the training the instructor will not fail to continually impress upon the men that it is absolutely criminal to fire during a night attack, and that the bayonet is the only weapon the assailants can use with advantage to themselves and safety to their comrades. ”

“ The first thing to be done is to accustom the soldier to darkness, to teach him to overcome the nervousness which is natural to him, and to train his powers of vision and hearing to suit conditions which are strange to him. ”

“ During the annual course of training a few night operations are carried out by companies, by battalions, and by brigades, but during the rest of the year little attention is paid to night work, and, in many units, at any rate, no attempt is made during the winter to give the soldier that elementary instruction which is indispensable to fit him to take an intelligent part in operations in the dark. ”

“ The provision of a vanguard at night is undesirable—it lengthens the column without giving any practical advantage.
The scouts should be started two or three minutes ahead of the point, and should keep in the shadow on the side of the road. They will march at a quick pace, halting at cross-roads and suspicious places to listen, and will move on again when they hear the advanced guard approaching. They must be trained to use their ears as much, if not more than their eyes. ”

“ In the dark the natural tendency is to fire high, and the men must be trained to overcome it. Firing from the hip has been suggested49 as being likely to bring down the line of fire, but I have never seen it tried at night, and experiments conducted in daylight have not proved it to have any effect in that direction.
If adjoining bodies of the outposts are able to deliver an attack simultaneously against both the front and flanks of the enemy, it will probably be successful, as troops are quite as sensitive to flank attacks at night as in the day. ”

“ The men should be constantly practised in forming company, platoon, and sections in single rank to either flank, when moving in file or single file. In a close country like England it is constantly necessary to move in fours or file, and it is essential that the company should be able to form up with rapidity and precision. When moving in line in double rank it is advisable that a distance of about five paces should be kept between ranks, otherwise if a front rank man stumbles his rear rank man will fall over him. ”

“ History furnishes many instances of night fighting, in which the success achieved has been out of all proportion to the number of the victors, but it also teaches us that, in most cases, at any rate, the defeat of the beaten side was due to disorganization through panic. Now it is unquestionable that the best troops, if suddenly called on to face conditions to which they are not accustomed, are liable to panic, and it is to make sure that night fighting shall not be a strange occurrence in our Army that5 I advocate closer attention to training in it. ”

“ When the new moon is first seen it rises in the morning and sets soon after sunset, but as its hours of rising and setting become later each day, by the time it reaches its first quarter the moonlight lasts from sunset to about midnight, and at full moon all night. When the moon begins to wane, and its hour of rising becomes later than the hour of sunset, there is a daily increasing period of darkness between sunset and moon-rise. ”

“ They must be taught to turn into single file for the purpose of passing obstacles, and to form up rapidly in single rank again without noise or confusion.13 It must always be remembered that the rougher the ground, the darker the night and the longer the line, the slower must be the pace and the more frequent the halts. After passing any obstacle, such as a ditch, hollow road, etc., which does not necessitate turning into file, it is always advisable to halt and make sure that the alignment is correct. After passing an obstacle men instinctively line up parallel to it ”

“ In all operations which commence with a night march the selection of a suitable starting point is important. This point should be so situated that it is possible for the whole force to be drawn up in its order of march before the movement begins, and a staff officer must be detailed to ascertain that every unit is present, and in its proper place before the column moves off. ”

“ As sound travels a long way up a wire fence, great care must be taken to avoid jarring the wires.
Entrenching by Night.
If trenches which have been dug at night are examined in daylight, it will often be found that owing to the faulty shape of the parapet a good deal of ground close in front of the trench is dead. To obviate this it is advisable to place white objects or electric lamps about 30 yards in front of the trenches, in order that the men, when finishing off the parapet, may so shape it that when firing over it the line of sight will cut the ground at that point. ”

“ In carrying out the training of a company in outpost duty the strictest discipline should always be maintained, no irregularity, however trifling, should ever be passed over, and all duties carried out with great care and thoroughness. ”

“ In short, when the attacking column reaches the outposts it must be received with vigorous local counter-attacks delivered with the bayonet by the nearest bodies of the defenders. If a counter-28attack comes as a surprise, the chances of success are all in its favour, but any success gained must not be followed up, the outposts should be withdrawn to their original positions, and patrols sent out to keep touch with the retiring enemy. It is most important that all ranks should realise that to wait to receive a charge is fatal; the only course open is to advance boldly with the bayonet ”

“ No scout can be considered efficient if he cannot pass through any ordinary outpost line at night whenever he pleases; if he is really well trained, nothing short of a continuous chain of sentries can keep him out. ”

“ The selection and training of Scouts for work in the dark cannot be too seriously undertaken, since the success or failure of a night operation depends in a great measure on their efficiency. They must be men of good constitution, active, able to bear great fatigue, and to sleep at any hour of the day or night ”

“ An elementary knowledge of the names and positions of the principal constellations and stars is very useful in night work, as without such knowledge there will often be difficulty in pointing out the particular star chosen for the column to march on, and any mistake may have serious consequences. The Manual of Map Reading and Field Sketching states that the lateral movement of a star will not exceed 5° in 20 minutes, and that it is safe to march for about a quarter of an hour on the same star. ”

“ Unless a halt is to last at least an hour, its duration should not exceed five minutes, otherwise some men will certainly fall asleep, and the operation of waking them causes noise and delay. If a march is to last all night, a halt for a couple of hours, to allow the troops to sleep, is of great benefit, and will diminish but little the total distance covered. ”

“ Besides, even the opponents of night-fighting do not dispute the value of an attack delivered with the first appearance of daylight, and an attack at dawn necessitates an advance during what are often the darkest hours of the night, with the possibility of its interruption by a counter-attack at any moment. To carry out such an operation with any prospect of success, even in the6 most open country, it is essential that both officers and men should have the highest possible training. ”

“ To test a man’s ability to keep a given direction when moving at night, the following plan is useful. Having chosen a spot from which no prominent landmarks are visible, the instructor, accompanied by the recruit, will advance towards it from a distance of not less than 200 paces. While advancing the recruit must take his bearings. On arriving at the spot chosen the instructor will turn the recruit rapidly round two or three times, and then order him to continue his advance on the same line as before.
Moving in the Dark. ”

“ Training of Hearing.
To train their powers of hearing, men, placed a few yards apart, should be made to guess what a noise heard is caused by, and the approximate position of it. The rattle of a mess tin, the working of the bolt of a rifle, the movement of a patrol, the throwing down of accoutrements, low talking, or any noise likely to be heard on outposts may be utilised. Special pains must be taken to impress upon the men10 the penetrating power of the human voice. ”

“ Moreover, if we consider the results which are likely to follow from the facilities for the acquisition and the rapid transmission of information offered by airships and wireless telegraphy respectively, and from the increased efficiency of fire-arms, we are compelled to realize that in all future wars operations carried out under cover of darkness, not only for the purpose of massing troops in a favourable position for further action, but also for the actual assault of particular localities, will become a matter of constant occurrence. ”

“ Training of Vision.
Two or three men, under an instructor, should be taken out to ground with which they are perfectly familiar. The instructor will direct them to notice the different appearance which objects present at night, when viewed in different degrees of light and shade; the comparative visibility of men under different conditions of dress, i.e., in khaki, in a tunic, in shirt-sleeves, etc., when viewed against different backgrounds ”

“ If flanking piquets are used, and it seems to be the safest plan, they should be found by a special unit, and, having taken up their positions before the march commences, should not be withdrawn till it is over.
In open country at all times, and in close country in the case of night advances and night attacks, the only moving protection which can safely be given to the flanks is that afforded by scouts, who must keep quite close to the column. ”

“ At manœuvres I have often seen an entire piquet peacefully asleep, trusting to the protection afforded by one or two groups 200 or 300 yards away, and the single sentry over the piquet. Any one who has had experience of the heavy sleep which overtakes tired men will know the difficulty there would be in quickly rousing a piquet under these circumstances. ”

“ The success of all operations in the dark, up to the moment of collision with the enemy at any rate, depends on the care and thoroughness with which the preparatory arrangements have been18 made, and these arrangements are just as necessary in the case of a night march, carried out at some distance from the enemy, as in that of a night attack. ”

“ The maintenance of connection between the various portions of a force when engaged in night operations is a matter of supreme importance. The facility with which units go astray when connection is lost is extraordinary, and when once they have gone astray it is often very difficult25 to find them. ”

“ As the instruction progresses, each man in turn will take the instructor’s place on the directing flank, and the light on which they are marching should be obscured at intervals, in order to test their ability to maintain the original direction. ”