Light infantry

“ When the light infantry companies are in line with their battalions, they are to form and act in every respect as a company of the battalion; but when otherwise disposed of, they may loosen their files to six inches
The open order of light infantry is usually two feet between each file.
The files may be extended from right, left, or centre; in executing it, each front rank man must carefully take his distance from the man next to him on that side from which the extension is made: the rear rank men conform to the movement of their file leaders. ”

“ The duty of the Light Infantry is the hardest, while in the field, of any troops in the army, if there is any hardest about it. During the time the army keeps the field they are always on the lines near the enemy, and consequently always on the alert, constantly on the watch. ”

“ Save under exceptional circumstances the light gun is always attached to the Machine Gun Company for the attack.
The essential role of the light gun is to destroy with direct fire the visible machine guns; they are employed separately and not grouped.
The infantry is divided into two classes: Holding troops—and attacking or shock troops. Holding troops are those doing routine or trench duty; shock troops are picked organizations of young and vigorous men and are kept in camps well behind the battle front. Holding troops are two weeks in and two weeks out of the trenches. ”

“ He pointed to the bodies of the Gauls scattered over the ground and said: "If the light infantry could fight as they have done, what may I not expect from the legions, from those who are fully armed, from the valour of my bravest soldiers? Surely after the light infantry have driven the enemy in confusion into their camp, you legionaries must storm and capture it." During this halt the light infantry had been busy collecting the missiles which were lying everywhere, in order that they might have a sufficient supply, and the consul now ordered them to advance. ”

“ That the improvements in fire-arms will not introduce any important change in the manner of taking troops into battle, but that it would be useful to introduce into the tactics of infantry the formation of columns by companies, and to have a numerous body of good riflemen or skirmishers, and to exercise the troops considerably in firing. Those armies which have whole regiments of light infantry may distribute them through the different brigades ”

“ Volunteer infantrymen, when associated with the compulsory militia, took the posts of honor and their units were consequently often referred to as flank or light companies. Sometimes they had special weapons and actually trained as light infantry. When war came they sometimes volunteered to go as units or they became a relatively trained cadre around which some provisional regiment was built. ”

“ During the whole of the operations on the rock, nothing could exceed the conduct of the second brigade, 28th, 34th, and 39th regiments, all of whom had made up their minds to give their bodies to the eagles that hovered over their heads, rather than permit the enemy to lodge on the summit of the mountain that night. The 71st light infantry rendered us good and efficient service on our right, till night's sable mantle wrapt every earthly object in impenetrable darkness. ”

“ Ask the gunners in the batteries of the April advance, as they work below the signalling planes; ask the infantry whom the gunners so marvellously protect, as to the truth of the prophecy!
"Our casualties are really light," writes an officer in reference to some of the hot fighting of the past month. Thanks, apparently, to the ever-growing precision of our artillery methods; which again depend on aeroplane and balloon information. So it is that the flying forms in the upper air become for the soldier below so many symbols of help and protection. He is restless when they are not there. ”

“ I immediately ordered a battery of field artillery to sweep the position, flanking and sustaining it by the 3d, 4th, and 5th regiments, deployed as skirmishers to the right and left. A heavy fire of artillery and of musketry was kept up for some time, until finally the enemy's batteries were carried in succession by a squadron of dragoons and the regiments of infantry that were on the ground. He was soon driven from his position, and pursued by a squadron of dragoons, battalion of artillery, 3d Infantry, and a light battery, to the river. Our victory has been complete. ”

“ There we found, in considerable numbers, masses of infantry and many guns in battery, ready to support us, and a part of the Light Division prepared to flank our advance, by taking at once the swamps and marshes, and so clearing the way for other troops to follow with the hope of turning both the enemy’s flanks and getting into their rear, while we, the storming party, at the double, with our powerful supports, should pass the causeway and storm and carry the enemy’s stronghold and batteries at the end of it. ”

“ For light arms afford sufficient protection against unarmed men, by whom victory is either lost or won at the first onset; where it is necessary that an active and retreating enemy should be overcome by a certain proportional quantity of moderate armour; whereas with a more complex sort, and with high and curved saddles, it is difficult to dismount, more so to mount, and with the greatest difficulty can such troops march, if required, with the infantry. ”

“ First, infantry—whose weapons are machine-guns, light automatics and rifles. They cannot attack the tank, because even if they had weapons that could penetrate the tank’s armour, the latter’s speed would enable it to avoid conflict at will. Similarly, infantry have no power to hit the aeroplane unless it swoops very low, whereas it can remain at a moderate height and bomb its helpless foes. ”

“ The French followed suit, and in 1759 formed Corps of Chasseurs (the equivalent word to Jägers) , and in 1805 raised light troops of small men, called Voltigeurs—that is, “men who can turn quickly,” from their agility. The British, too, began to form Light Infantry out of their newly raised190 Highland Corps about the middle of the eighteenth century. Later, in consequence of British experiences in America with the backwoodsmen—good shots using rifles—special Battalions of Rifles, like those of France and Prussia, were raised before the end of the century. ”

“ In 1755, when the aggressions of the French in North America led to acts of open hostility, the establishment was augmented one corporal and fifteen men per troop. Shortly afterwards a light troop was added on the same principle as light companies to infantry corps: and the regiment consisted of six heavy troops and one light troop. The light dragoons were sometimes styled hussars. ”

“ There will be another important necessity for very large forces of infantry and light artillery,—that is, large in the aggregate,— in the event of war with even a second- or third-class naval power: To protect our long lines of open coast and small unfortified harbors from destruction from the guns and landing-parties of the enemy's light-draft cruisers. ”

“ On this occasion the usual stoppages and checks were multiplied by a brisk artillery 'strafe' upon the front, accompanied by all manner of coloured lights and rockets. The noise soon dying down we were able to continue a bad journey with men frequently becoming stuck and a few lost. ”

“ Field-guns are always accompanied by an escort, sometimes of cavalry, but more often of infantry, for the gunner is admittedly helpless against infantry at close range or against charging cavalry. The charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava forms an instance of what cavalry can do against unescorted guns, and, though the pattern97 of gun in use has changed for the better, the projectile being far more powerful, and the number of shells per minute far greater, such feats as that of the immortal Light Brigade are still within the range of possibility. ”

“ The infantry are clothed and equipped but for the day—having neither boots nor underclothing, and in too many cases stamina, such as would enable them to undergo one week's exposure in bad weather or in winter before an active and terribly resolute enemy. The artillery are without guns, and ignorant of the use of field guns, nor have they the means of moving light guns or guns of position, even had they all been instructed in their use. The broken reed of trusting [Pg 101] to neighbouring farmers, brewers, omnibus proprietors, &c., for horseflesh is sure to fail. ”

“ Its fire, accompanying the infantry movement, requires its own movement and by its mobility it often becomes for some time the sole artillery protection in the preparation and holding of a position which has been taken.
Light Gun and Howitzer. The consensus of opinion of artillery officers is that the division artillery missions are best fulfilled by a light field gun and a light field howitzer having a range of at least 11,000 yards. ”

“ The viewpoint passed somewhere over a battlefield, dwelt lovingly on the nightmare scene below. There were dim flares of vitality radiating from every crawling figure below; a massing, of infantry was like a beacon. From the machinery of war there came a steely radiance which waxed as it discharged its shell or tripped its bomb, then dimmed to a quiet glow of satisfaction.
A file of tanks crawled over a hill emitting a purplish radiance which sent out thin cobwebs of illumination. They swung into battle formation, crept down the slope at the infantry mass. ”

“ The sharp edges of conflict are stationary—sunk in the muddy trenches and nailed down to machine-gun emplacements. But while the fronts of the great war machine are thus held, they are never still. The wear and tear of conflict go on day and night, week after week, month after month. Behind the infantry in their earthy strongholds the great guns of the artillery hide, long-sighted and tireless. ”

“ What can be more novel and inspiring than the aviators who fight their fantastic duels 3000 metres above the earth? Again, the sangfroid, the supreme devotion of the artillery, who amidst apalling losses and the heaviest bombardment, stick to their posts, regulating their fire and working their guns, taking every risk without a moment's hesitation. The infantry, that backbone of the army with their "élan" carry forward the banner of France or die heroically in no-man's land. ”

“ We were, however, sufficiently in the picture to have guns constantly firing around us and aeroplanes flying overhead, and could watch our friends being shelled in the front line and the daily anti-aeroplane shoots, both by our own and by the enemy's "Archies." Here we were able to carry out a certain amount of training, and to organize the battalion upon the lines of the new "normal formation," giving the platoon commander control over each kind of weapon with which the infantry are armed—rifle, bayonet, bomb, rifle-bomb and Lewis gun. ”

“ Up in the trenches the infantry heard the separate thuds and thumps quicken and close and run into one long tremendous roar, heard the shells whistle and shriek and howl and moan over their heads, saw the ground far out in front of them veil in twisting smoke wreaths, spout and leap in volcanoes of smoke, earth, and fire. Battery by battery, gun by gun, the artillery picked up and swelled the chorus. The enemy machines did little gun-spotting over our positions. ”

“ The sky quivers and reflects the flash of the great guns, as with the constant vibration of heat lightning. Flares and Verey lights of greenish yellow and white turn the night into ghastly day, and like the lurid flames of an inferno light up the battlefield, while the rifles crackle in the glare. Here a parachute-light like a great star hangs suspended almost motionless above us, lighting up the whole battlefield, and now a burning farmhouse or exploding ammunition dump illuminates the sky as from some vast subterranean furnace flung open upon the heavens. ”

“ A complete modern force should consist of a proper proportion of horse, foot, and artillery. The three form the whole, the perfect machine. The parts must fit into each other as the cogs of one wheel fit into those of another. In the war of the future infantry will be used for two purposes—to contain the opposing infantry, and to hold positions seized by the mobile portion of the force, be it cavalry or mounted infantry. There will be very little preparation by the artillery for infantry attack, for the simple reason that I am convinced that frontal attacks are things of the past. ”

“ The effect of this is to incline men to prefer the shallower formations, even in the attack. We cannot, however, forget the lessons of experience; and, notwithstanding the use of rocket-batteries, shrapnel-shot, and the Perkins musket, I cannot imagine a better method of forming infantry for the attack than in columns of battalions. Some persons may perhaps desire to restore to infantry the helmets and breastplates of the fifteenth century, before leading them to the attack in deployed lines. ”

“ We find early in the war complaints that the British forces had no adequate proportion of light troops—that the one light company per battalion, normally used, was wholly unable to prevent the French tirailleur swarm from pressing up to the main line, and doing it much harm before the real attack was delivered. ”