Physical combat

“ We have now reached a point from which we may survey the thrilling spectacle of the assault, as fencers call the mimic combat, in which desperate and brutal fighting is controlled by skill, the hazardous duel, full of fire and fury, between two combatants, who summon to their aid all that they know or all that they think they know. ”

“ As soon as they come to the mat, they suddenly stoop, seize the swords, and go through the movements of actual combat, crossing swords, advancing, retiring, cutting at each other, kneeling at one moment as if to collect force, and then springing up with renewed energy. ”

“ If a man, in hand-to-hand combat with another, could turn the force of his opponent's assault back upon him, adding to it the strength of his own spirit, why couldn't a machine, or even a defense field, do the same? ”

“ A company of picked men, famous in athletic exercises were selected by the countries in dispute and pitted against each other, armed with electrically-charged lances, very short, and silvered over to give them a more imposing appearance.
The object of each combatant was not to take life, or give serious injury to his adversary, but simply to temporarily paralyse his right arm, the combat being conducted according to certain stringent regulations and conditions. ”

“ The application of power implies effort, i.e., the exertion of strength. The mental, moral, and physical power at the disposal of the armed forces depends on the effort which can be exerted by the human and material components of their fighting strength.
The skillful employment of fighting strength, as a weapon more effective than the enemy's under a given set of circumstances, is the goal toward which the armed forces direct their effort. The elements of the material [9] component—arms, ammunition, and other equipment—are indispensable. ”

“ What happens in action? Does the rifle dictate tactics to the sword, or the sword to the rifle? What precise part does the question of weapons play in the ascription to Cavalry and the denial to Mounted Infantry of all the difficult and important duties of the major reconnaissance, duties obviously requiring many faculties, mental and physical, which have no connection with the steel weapon? Can a man ride quicker or better, be more observant, original, or intelligent because he carries a sword? Finally, how is training to conform to weapons? ”

“ In a hotly contested fight soldiers often shot fifty rounds of cartridges and their guns got so hot that they could scarcely grasp them with their hands.
Battles.—A succession of battles is by no means a monotonous repetition. Each battle has its peculiar phases. A battle is often an exhibition of the artistic skill of officers in arranging and maneuvering, and of men carefully executing, and may be a trial of physical endurance and the well trained handling of the weapons of warfare used. In any event a battle is a spectacular scene imposing and grand. ”

“ While vigor leaps in great tidal pulses along your veins, you stand in the thickest of the fray, and broadsword and battle-axe come crashing down through helmet and visor. When force has spent itself, you withdraw from the field, your weapons pass into younger hands, you rest under your laurels, and your works do follow you. ”

“ AS in boxing, fencing, saber and bayonet exercises, there are comparatively few postures, guards, thrusts and strokes, so in warfare, whether the numbers be large or small, the arms most modern or ancient, there are just a few principles to whose steady adherence and skilful manipulation all success is due. ”

“ The question of the relative position of the combatants in duels and the nature of the weapons used as shown by the wounds has sometimes come up, especially in other countries, to determine whether the combat was regular and fair. ”

“ The most laborious of the practices is probably that of carrying, at the top of their speed, all the implements of war, fascines, sand-bags, gabions, projectiles, &c., whose weight is progressively increased from twenty to fifty pounds. They must also practice carrying ladders, beams, caissons, dragging gun-carriages, &c., and they are equally habituated to carry rapidly and skillfully the wounded from the field of battle, by placing men on litters, or any substitute at hand, in the gymnasium.
Sword exercise, bayonet exercise, boxing and fencing are also taught, but only the rudiments. ”

“ War is almost reduced to a mechanical interchange of volleys and salvoes, and to the intermittent fire of rifles and machine guns, with short rushes at the last, in which there is no place for the dignity and grace of the antique battle of the standard. ”

“ The assault being the most severe phase of the combat, it is necessary, in order to face it and push it through, that the will of each individual be transformed largely by habits and reflexes. Therefore, hold each day an assault exercise over ground which resembles in detail that over which the real assault will have to be made. ”

“ A battle at close range between two huge modern dreadnoughts would be as deadly to both combatants as a duel between two men standing close together, face to face, holding pistols at each other's breast. ”

“ For the use of direct or indirect methods arises out of attack and defence, and the perception of weak and strong points depends again on the above methods. Hence the present chapter comes immediately after the chapter on Energy.”
1. Sun Tzŭ said: Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle, will arrive exhausted. ”

“ Picture for yourselves two men fighting.—You see them at one moment standing their full height, the next bent double, swerving to right and left, colliding violently, and entangled in a furious encounter; suddenly they break away, recoiling from each other with a bound, rest for a moment, panting and glaring, till suddenly they renew the struggle. Do you suppose that all these intricate evolutions, and the subtle application of muscular force that they imply, can be systematically analysed and taught? ”

“ ON THE DEFENSIVE WHAT an irksome, tantalizing business is defense! We may be quite ready to march and fight, both in morale and in material preparations, and yet we must wait until the right opportunity arrives. The sword hanging from the belt may moan from idleness, the muscles of the arm sigh from inactivity, and yet we have to wait till the proper time comes. ”

“ Combat—The clenched hands are held about as high as the neck, and five or six inches asunder, then waved two or three times laterally, to show the advances and retreats of the combatants; after which the fingers of each hand are suffered to spring from the thumb towards each other, as in the act of sprinkling water, to represent the flight of missiles. ”

“ In olden times, when weapon directly answered weapon, the act of defence was positive and direct, the blow of sword or battleaxe was parried by sword and shield; under modern conditions gun answers gun, the defence from rifle-fire is rifle-fire, and the defence from artillery, artillery. ”

“ The combat exercise, a form of field exercise of the company, battalion, and larger units, consists of the application of tactical principles to assumed situations, employing in the execution the appropriate formations and movements of close and extended order. ”

“ And, by relieving its inhabitants from the effects of gravitation, it renders rapid motion easy, with slight muscular exertion. Thus the easiest, most natural, and most effective means of assault and defense is by swift powers of swimming.
The same principle holds good in the case of the dwellers of the air. There is here no lying in wait for prey nor hiding from assault. Flight is the most effective and most ready means of attack and escape, and the only one available in the fields of open air. ”

“ To deliver a thrust or a blow with the bayonet, sword, or fist to the best advantage, requires training of the subsidiary muscles, and such scientific practice as places the body in the best position to aid and intensify the effect. ”

“ It is a question of mobility, transcending weapons, but 45at the same time hinging on weapons. I began this chapter by insisting on the pre-combat or non-combat phases of war as distinguished from the combat phase, in which alone weapons are useful. Nobody suggests dispensing with the rifle. Can we dispense with the sword and lance? Their weight alone is something, especially when both are carried. ”

“ And when, on the other hand, he or his comrade swooped down to within a few hundred feet of the earth, in order to co-operate in attack with infantry or Tanks, again intelligence came into play, inventing a special armoured machine for the protection of the new tactics. ”

“ Of course the main objects of war are offense and defense, the destruction of the opponent and the protection of one’s self. This first fighting was a hand-to-hand struggle which gave way to fighting at a distance as spears and arrows were invented. ”

“ When the reader passes on to descriptions of arm grips, leg tackles, throttlings, and holds in which a grip at the small of the back is employed, he should remember, when practising, to be at all times careful not to use these tactics with more force than is necessary for strengthening the muscles of both antagonists and for acquiring the victory.
When first starting in with the work it is always well for the opponents to arrange in advance who is to secure the victory. Then the one who is on the defensive employs only sufficient strength to prevent too easy a conquest. ”

“ Is the position selected a good one for defense? Is there a good field of fire? Is there cover for the enemy to conceal a formation for attack? Is the position naturally strong; if not, can it be made so? Can obstacles be so placed as to hold the enemy under effective fire of the outguard? Is there ground to the front or flanks within rifle or machine gun range that commands the position? ”

“ The procuring of such pleasure is the second purpose served by armies and navies. (§ 3 ¶ 7)
The third purpose of armaments--indeed their primary and original purpose, from which all others are derivative--is to satisfy the lust for blood. Fighting is an instinctive activity of males, both animal and human. Human males, being gregarious, naturally fight in packs. It has been found that the pack tends to be more successful against other packs when fighting within the pack is as far as possible prevented. ”

“ For all fighting, whether at long range or at close quarters, is very much alike, from schoolboys’ games to the most elaborate military operations; and all the advice of the world may be summed up in the eternal law of attack and defence, which is stated in these four words:—cunning, caution, energy, audacity. ”

“ Fields of battle nowadays are widely extended, and soldiers have to take advantage of every possible bit of natural cover. The instinct of the wounded is to use their last strength in seeking protection from artillery fire, cavalry charges, the wheels of guns, and the other horrors to which they are exposed. ”

“ In this effort we see, therefore, the FIRST immediate purpose in the combat, and one which is quite universal. No combat is imaginable in which this effort, either in its double or single form, is not to go hand182 in hand with the plain and simple stroke of force. ”

“ The survival of the fittest held good of defensive armour until that very fitness was found to be a source rather of weakness than of strength, owing to changed conditions of warfare; and then the mighty defences of steel, impervious to sword, lance, and arrow, passed away, to remain only as adjuncts of Parade and Pageant, or as examples in museums of a lost art in warfare and military history. ”

“ The Mode Of Action.—The machine gun acting only by its fire can prepare an attack or repulse an offensive movement, but it does not conquer ground. The latter role is almost exclusively that of infantry which is fitted for crossing all obstacles. When it will suffice to act by fire, employ the machine gun in preference to infantry, preserving the latter for the combined action of movement and fire. ”

“ One portion would seek to fight from rearward concealed positions, and use every device to delay the victory of the enemy’s guns and the development of the battle until it is too late in the day for a serious infantry attack. ”

“ To fight successfully from the chariot, to dismount and grapple with the adversary, necessitated not only muscular strength, but also unabating alertness of mind, an ability to seize instantly the advantageous opportunity, to dodge or fend instantly the deadly thrust. ”

“ Protect him in battle. Let neither the arrows nor the bullets of the enemy strike his body, or if they must strike it, let them not pierce his flesh, but turn them aside, so that they shall do him no harm. ”

“ The men would go in force sometimes to another city with the avowed purpose of cleaning it out. One battle I know of lasted nearly all night. Deadly weapons were almost never resorted to, unless indeed a hundred and eighty pounds of muscle behind a fist hard as iron might be considered a deadly weapon. ”

“ As soon as the one on the defensive has been swung around as far as can be done without radically changing the position of his feet, a moment's breath should be taken, and then the one lately on the defensive should swerve his late assailant back to where the affair started.
Care must be taken at all times to keep the arms rigid and the muscles tense. The combatant who is being moved must employ all the resistance that can be used without defeating the attack. ”

“ When the four had been drawn and their limbs lay o'er the field, then the attack begins; but all their toil is vain; for howsoever they may hurl and throw their missiles, they can avail nought. And yet they try hard; they throw and hurl a thick cloud of bolts and javelins and darts. ”

“ The modern war makes greater demands than ever upon the soldier’s physique. 210 I heard an observer, recently returned from the European War, state that the infantryman is now so loaded down with packs, steel helmets, hand grenades, and rifle that he finds it difficult to advance faster than a walk. ”