E. Kirkpatrick

“ A very laudable desire it is—this of wanting to close in—and one to be encouraged by every means, but however brave troops may be, they cannot in general indulge their desire to attain close quarters and the resulting facilities of fighting by the light of their natural instincts unless they have first been successful in the fire fight—the strife of the arms of artifice—which is waged by bullet and shell at distances which Nature never contemplated. ”

“ Unfortunately, there is little doubt that the possession or lack of suitable training grounds has a great effect on the readiness, or otherwise, of troops to give a good account of themselves when they come under fire for the first time in their lives. The lack of it takes away reality from the work of the men in the ranks and cramps the initiative of their officers, who are given no opportunity to exercise their wits in figuring out practical situations which might occur on service. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Your men will give you their confidence when they see, as they are quick to do, that you know your job. There is nothing more disheartening for a subordinate, be he private or colonel, than to feel he is under control of a duffer, whose mistakes he will have to correct. This feeling saps discipline, and quickly destroys the fighting value of a body of men. In peace training, the men become sulky at being “bothered about,” lose interest in their work, and wish themselves done with parade. ”

“ The fire fight begins when the attacking infantry have got as far forward as they can without having to reply to the enemy’s fire, and it is quite distinct from the preceding phase of passive endurance. Success in the fire fight is an absolute necessity for a successful assault. Possibly your enemy has prepared your success before war broke out by abstaining from training his men in musketry, but even if his shooting is inferior, the fire fight will call into play all the qualities and skill of which your men are possessed, both individually and collectively. ”

“ If you cannot arrange for a skeleton enemy, at least never fail to indicate some position as supposed to be held by an enemy. If your exercise ground is limited in extent, fix the enemy’s position outside it, regardless of whether you have, or have not, licence to traverse the intervening space, so as to avoid carrying out your exercise within impossibly close range of the enemy. In default of a skeleton enemy to provide you with a target, tell your men to aim at any members of the public who are about the enemy’s position. ”

“ A night attack may be delivered as a sequence to fighting by daylight, in the course of which the enemy has established himself sufficiently close to the defences held by his opponent to see clearly the way to reach the point against which he intends to lead his force. Or he may deliver an attack without previous fighting, hoping to get the better of the defenders by surprise, and basing his plans solely on the results of reconnaissance. ”

“ Thus, for training individual men, good ground would be that with an irregular surface, giving many places twenty to fifty yards apart, which each man could use in firing and taking cover. The usual seaside golf course of hummocks, furze bushes, and occasional watercourses, is good to teach individual men over—I say teach, for we must not imagine that an enemy will be so kind as to leave easy ground like that in his front, if he can help it. ”

“ Daylight defence is almost entirely a matter of fire, the immediate object being to make it impossible for the enemy to come to close quarters. Platoon and section commanders then must be able to dispose their men with this in view to the best advantage within the limits of the ground allotted to their units, and the men must be able to site their trenches or whatever form of cover has to be constructed so as to use their rifles to the best effect. It is no good to teach men to dig trenches and make loop-holes unless they know the proper places for them. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If men are not available, put up a few red range flags. Whichever are used, put them into some position that an enemy might reasonably occupy; do not simply dump them down on to the ground. The skeleton enemy must be told to show up occasionally, and to open a slow but regular fire as soon as they see your men advancing, but only to keep it up as long as your men show themselves in making their advance. A complete cessation of fire will denote that your men are making such good use of cover as to be invisible to the enemy. ”

“ A sound provision against panic among young troops is to accustom them to regard a retirement as all in the day’s work, and not as an exceptional undertaking which their anxiety may invest with possibilities of disaster. The essence of successful retirement in face of an enemy lies in the continuous opposition, or appearance of it, offered to the enemy by one portion of the troops, while others draw off to take post to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost portion. ”

“ But do not think the lessons learned at musketry instruction are to be forgotten and left behind by the men when they begin to work in extended order across country. Demand from your men that the rifle shall be deadly, and, by unceasing supervision, [Pg 10] breed a habit among them of aiming and firing in extended order, whether with or without blank cartridge, with the same exactitude as when firing their course of musketry on the range. Take the high standard—a hundred men’s lives in one man’s bandolier, instead of a hundred bandoliers for one man’s life. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [Pg 98] 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. ”

“ 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.
At some time in the course of this exercise the section must be practised in improving cover as if under fire, i.e., working lying down. The nature of the work depends on what tools you have, but it should be attempted if possible. ”

“ 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 [Pg 59] 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. ”

“ Against artillery fire from ranges or in positions at which you cannot reply effectively with rifle fire, your action at first, at all events, must be purely defensive, i.e., all you can do, will be to escape being overwhelmed by the shell fire, and even at effective rifle range, the shields of modern field guns, enable them to engage infantry on very equal terms, so long as the infantry is in front, or not far on a flank, of the line of guns. ”

“ Similarly, on reaching cover, men should fall down quickly, and not lower themselves slowly to earth.
Insist on a careful choice of cover, a very small depression or elevation, even six inches, is enough to give cover from view, and therefore helps in escaping aimed fire, but in peace time men will not take trouble over apparently trifling things like this unless it is rubbed into them by close supervision. Noticeable objects should be avoided as the enemy may have taken their range, and they help him to define a point on which to concentrate fire. ”

“ When the men have got their bearings in the matter of taking up a line for entrenchment, make them get into the way of changing from defence into attack. Take up a position as before, and as soon as the trenches are marked out, indicate a position at some distance as an objective for attack and start an advance against it, as done in the attack practices, forming a firing line rapidly of some named platoons and the support of the others. A skeleton enemy kept hidden till needed adds much to the realism. ”

“ Aerial reconnaissance may nowadays allow an enemy to locate the position held by the main body of his opponent, in spite of its being covered by outposts, but such reconnaissance does not admit of any hope of a successful night attack being made on that main body by eluding or passing through the outposts, because the surface of the ground cannot be sufficiently searched from above to discover the small obstacles which must be avoided or known if the advance of a large body of men is to be carried out at night. ”

“ If they have ever looked carefully at the large or small features of a bit of country, it has been from an industrial, sporting, or, perhaps, sentimental, but never from a tactical, point of view. They have everything to learn in making use of ground for fighting. Their ideas of using modern arms are equally crude; the primitive fighting instinct will be uppermost in their minds, and would express itself in an incontinent desire to get to close quarters with their enemy, when bayonet, butt or hand grips [Pg 7] would seem the proper way to settle the matter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Dead ground close to the trench gives the enemy a place in which to collect and organise an assault. Take the men in the same way on to other positions and repeat the lesson till they all understand that the first thing to be done is this aiming with the rifle to secure a good field of fire. At first halt them close to what you see is the best line, and afterwards halt them thirty or forty yards from it, and then give the order to choose sites. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ There is seldom any need to speak, as a push or pull is enough. The platoon commanders get the word from the flank men of the sections of fours, and from one another as well, as they are to follow the order along their own platoons, and go forward or back to the commander of the next platoon to whom they must repeat it, and then resume their proper places. The platoon commander of the leading, or rear, platoon is responsible for passing the word to the nearest platoon commander of the next company. ”

“ During peace training you may make men dread the public shame of misbehaviour by the aid of those means of supervision which I have suggested, but in war the power to supervise is greatly curtailed, and it is very desirable to find something to replace it, and, at the same time, to supplement a too absolute reliance on the stoutness of men’s hearts, for this may prove a broken reed when the troops are largely composed of unseasoned soldiers. ”