Military defence

“ Assisted by your zeal, prudence, and intelligence, I entertain the pleasing hope of meeting with very considerable success, and of being able to establish the sound policy of rendering permanent to the end of the present war, a mode of military instruction little burdensome to individuals, and every way calculated to secure a powerful internal defence against hostile aggression.
Printed rules and regulations, for your future guidance, are herewith forwarded: the most simple, and at the same time the most useful, movements have been selected for the practice of the militia. ”

“ But the essential elements of defensive strength, fleets and armies, were mobile and equally available for offensive operations, and no efficient preparation for defence was possible that would not also serve for attack. Without a clear and true conception of the character of war as a conflict of national purposes, proper conduct of military operations and of defensive preparations was impossible, and to its absence was due the unorganized condition of the defence of the Empire. ”

“ As a practical corollary to this proposition we desire that this country should, as far as our military and naval preparations are concerned, be placed in a thorough state of defence, and that mainly with the view of keeping ourselves aloof from any complications which may arise. ”

“ In some nations the method has been to trust for defence and security to what is called a Standing Army; a number of men paid by the public, to devote themselves wholly to the military profession; while the body of the people followed their peaceable employments, without paying any attention to the art of war. ”

“ But some have said that even these skeletons of military and naval forces are entirely superfluous, and that a brave and patriotic people will make as good a defence against invasion as the most disciplined and experienced. ”

“ It is almost impossible to fix the miner to the face of a bastion, till the defences of the opposite one are ruined; that is, till the parapet of its flank is beaten down, and the cannon, in all parts that can fire upon that face which is attacked, is dismounted. See Fortification.
Active Defence, generally considered, means every species of offensive operation which is resorted to by the besieged, to annoy the besiegers. Such for instance, is the discharge of heavy ordnance from the walls, the emission of shells, and the firing of musquetry. ”

“ Lines of defence in strategy are either permanent or temporary. The great military frontiers of a state, especially when strengthened by natural and artificial obstacles, such as chains of mountains, rivers, lines of fortresses, &c., are regarded as permanent lines of defence. ”

“ The defence of every part should always be within the reach of musquet shot, that is, from 120 to 150 fathoms, so as to be defended both by ordnance and small fire arms; for if it be only defended by cannon, the enemy may dismount them by the superiority of their’s, and then the defence will be destroyed at once; whereas, if a work is likewise defended by small arms, if the one be destroyed, the other will still subsist. ”

“ The artillery must be well supplied with ammunition, and each soldier have a sufficient number of cartridges. The baggage, provisions, and treasure of the army, should, on the day of battle, be sent to a place of safety.
In battle, where the attacks are, there is also the principal defence. If an army attacks, it forms at pleasure; it makes its points at will: if it defends, it will be sometimes difficult to penetrate into the designs of the enemy, but when once found, succour succeeds to the discovery. ”

“ It may, perhaps, be said that the army estimates are increasing; and my reply is that as the Empire is expanding, it requires not only more men, but more numerous and costly armaments for defence, than in the past. ”

“ Having completed our examination of the ability of land batteries to cope, gun for gun, with a naval force, let us consider, for a few moments, the objection which is sometimes made to the use of fortifications for the defence of the sea-coast, viz.: that our maritime cities and arsenals can be better and more economically secured by a home squadron. ”

“ To Attack in front or flank, in fortification, means to attack the saliant angle, or both sides of the bastion.
This phrase is familiarly used with respect to bodies of men which attack each other in a military way.
Attack and Defence. A part of the drill for recruits learning the sword exercise, which is commenced with the recruit stationary on horseback, the teacher riding round him, striking at different parts as openings appear, and instructing the recruit how to ward his several attacks; it is next executed in a walk, and, as the learner becomes more perfect, in speed ”

“ He should examine the hollow ways that cover the approach of an enemy; and, in short, consider all the points from which he is most likely to be attacked, either by cavalry or infantry. He will, by these means, be enabled to take measures to prevent the possibility of being surprized; and should he be attacked during the night, from the previous knowlege he has obtained of the ground, he will at once form a just estimate of the nature of the attack, and make his arrangements for defence with promptitude and decision. ”

“ By these means a pretty accurate knowledge may be obtained of the natural features of the ground exterior to the works; their weak and strong points; and their interior arrangements for defence.
In an attack by surprise, the troops should consist of a storming party and a reserve of picked men. The attacking column is preceded by a company of sappers armed with axes, shovels, picks, crowbars, &c.; bags of powder are also used for blowing down gates, palisades, &c. All the operations must be carried on with the utmost dispatch. ”

“ If the governor be not sufficiently skilled in the systems of attack and defence, he should frequently converse with the officers of engineers and artillery who understand them; examine the works together, see what may be done to render the defence of the place as long as the circumstances and nature of the works will admit of; and to make it familiar to himself, he should set down a project of defence on paper, and have it canvassed by the most skilful officers of artillery and engineers about him. ”

“ I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of agression and conquest. ”

“ Her army and navy, therefore, constitute her principal means of defence. Her army numbers some three hundred and fifty thousand men, and her navy about three hundred and fifty vessels, [13] carrying about nine thousand guns and thirty thousand men. Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and other continental powers, have but little commerce to be protected, while their extensive frontiers are greatly exposed to land attacks: their fortifications and armies, therefore, constitute their principal means of defence. ”

“ The high character, skill, and bravery of the attacking force; their immense superiority in number of guns, with no surplus human life to be exposed; the antiquated and ill-managed works of defence, the entire want of skill of the Algerine artillerists, and the neglect of the ordinary means of preparation ”

“ A place to be in a state of defence, should be equally strong in all its relative directions; for the enemy would of course make the weak part his object of attack, and finally succeed in getting possession of the town. The body of the place must have a command towards the country, and no quarter in the outward vicinity of it must overlook, or command either the place itself, or its outworks. Those works which are nearest to the centre of the place, must have a greater elevation than the more distant ones. ”

“ One advantage is certain, that of being able to increase your efforts of defence, in proportion as the enemy advances; since it must be evident, that constructed as the flanks are, and enchasing one another, the execution becomes multiplied in every quarter. It may moreover be stated among other advantages, that as the salient points are double in number, and are flanked within half a distance of musquet shot, without stretching far into the country, they must of course be less exposed to the enemy’s approaches. ”

“ Events justify Jaures and go far to establish national service as the sound and necessary military system for a democracy at war. The feeling that the army necessarily constitutes a separate class is dying. So is the idea that only those who choose to bear arms are responsible for the national safety. Passing, too, is the notion which divides armies into free men and “conscripts” and regards compulsory [13] national service as destructive of individual freedom and personal independence. ”

“ Under National Service Republican France has had freedom from internal convulsions and Chauvinistic military adventures. In defence the French people have made sacrifices of blood and treasure beyond computation. But for nearly half a century, notwithstanding the brutal arrogance and avarice of Prussia in 1870, they kept the peace themselves and were among the active forces for peace in the councils of Europe. In Germany national service is not the “Will of the people,” but the instrument of rulers lusting for dominion and intolerant of the privileges and ideals of democracy. ”

“ A democracy chooses its rulers; an autocracy commands its subjects. In France and Germany we have the conflicting ideals of an autocracy organized for attack and a democracy organized for defence. A looser military organization in France would have ensured the success of the attack. Failure to arm the nation would have been equivalent to self-destruction. Where the power to command, without assent of the people, exists, democracy has not come to birth. Where democracy rejects the supreme obligation of citizenship it is not full born. ”

“ We hardly yet realize what a revolution in opinion was necessary before the draft could be applied in Britain or the United States. We have a new revelation in democracy which would have come slowly, if at all, if the war had gone more prosperously for the Allies. It would not have come had the war ended in one or two campaigns. Sheer military necessity chiefly explains the change in popular feeling. At least in Britain and Canada the demand for compulsion became so general and formidable that the Governments could not resist. ”

“ Under national service the State calls all its manhood to arms but relieves from odium and suspicion all those who can better serve its interests on the farms, in the factories, or in other necessary civil activities. The Military Service Act of Canada, as has been said, was passed by Parliament in obedience to a general public demand and in assertion of the Government’s deliberate conviction that only by selective draft could the necessary reinforcements for the army in France be obtained and the orderly continuance of production and industry assured. ”

“ There is, however, no provision that any occupation or industry shall be absolutely exempted. Each individual claim for exemption must be considered on its merits, but the general dispositions of the law are such as to ensure that civil occupation will compete successfully with military service in any case in which it is established that the withdrawal of the man from his civil occupation would materially diminish the output or production, or seriously impair the service necessary for the maintenance or [22] efficiency of the expeditionary force, or for the support of the people at home. ”

“ Under such conditions the pacific no longer represents manicing avenues of approach for a prospective invader it assumes instead the friendly aspect of a peaceful lake, our line of defence is a natural one and can be maintained with a minimum of military effort and expense. ”

“ Such inequalities will be avoided under the draft system, and the men will be taken who can best be spared. If in any occupation, be it that of the farmer, the miner, the skilled artisan or the mechanic, there be men available for military service who for the present are not needed in their ordinary pursuits, these will be required to serve; but it will be the duty of the tribunals, as much to uphold a natural title to exemption, as to reject a claim which cannot compatibly with the national interest be established. ”

“ Conscientious objections are apt to emerge as the demand for men becomes more searching and opportunities for escape from military service upon other grounds become more remote. And, in order to guard against imposition, since “having in your mind is nothing, for it is common learning that the thought of man is not triable,” conscientious objection has been made a ground of exemption in Canada only for [27] those who belong to some well recognized religious denomination which forbids combatant service by the articles of its faith in effect when the Military Service Act was passed. ”

“ The tremendous voluntary enlistment is only rivalled as a phenomenon in British history by the final adoption of the principle of compulsory service. It was not only in Canada that this method of recruiting was regarded with disfavor. For generations compulsion for military service has been repugnant to the genius of British institutions. [9] It was held to be the essential basis of the militarism of continental countries. The conviction or prejudice which obtained in England was as deeply rooted in the United States. ”