Part 7

In such circumstances, it is to be expected that the enemy will adopt the tactics, common amongst savages, of seeking the flanks of the troops, both to avoid fire, and to obtain the advantages of enfilade. It follows, then, that defensive measures should include all round protection, whilst a relatively large reserve should be kept ready to attack the hostile levies, as soon as any portion comes within charging distance.

Experience tends to prove that a compact body of even a section, if well entrenched and supplied with ammunition, has nothing to fear from Pathans, especially when the British leader is animated by the proper spirit of timely offensive.

CAMPS.

It is desirable for a column escorting a large baggage train--and this is essentially the predicament of civilised troops engaged in frontier mountain warfare--to be collected in camp before nightfall, otherwise the enemy may be given unduly favourable opportunities of employing harassing methods.

But it does not result that the situation of troops unable, for any cause, to reach camp, is at all desperate.

Strong and compact forces adopting the usual precautions, can probably, in many, if not in most cases, march in safety after nightfall, but small detachments and baggage can rarely do so without undue risk. These, then, should always park and intrench towards nightfall, wherever they may find themselves, when they will have little to fear, for experience, as has been stated, tends to show that even a section, securely intrenched, and with ample ammunition, can hold its own against heavy odds.

The form of camp, and the nature of the protection adopted, depend, as usual, on the topography, and on the character of the enemy.

A common method is to place transport, etc., within a perimeter occupied by the fighting troops, but this arrangement is by no means invariable, and it may be convenient to form two or more camps, or to separate transport from fighting troops.

The camp will, as a rule, be located in proximity to water, that is to say in a valley, and in such circumstances, if it can be sited well under one of the enclosing ranges of hills, protection from sniping will be afforded from this direction, though the overhanging heights must be securely held.

Sometimes a small basin is available for the bivouac, and in this case, the troops can, to a great extent, be secured from this favourite tribal device of firing into camp after nightfall.

As is the case in all war, the measures taken for the security of a camp include a system of picquets, and in frontier expeditions these are placed all round camp, either on the level, or on any commanding heights, within, at any rate, effective rifle range.

Picquets may be pushed even further forward, but when so situated, must be numerically strong, as they are liable to be rushed, though more for the sake of capturing their arms, than with the object of inflicting loss. No picquet should be of less strength than one section, all should be intrenched against attack from any direction. Their bearing from camp should also be taken, and they should be in signalling communication with the main body, so that assistance may be requested and despatched when necessary, or warning given of the approach of the enemy in force.

Bombs should be useful adjuncts to picquet defence, in case the enemy should succeed in forming a lodgment near the sangar.

Though a sedentary system of picquets may discover the presence of a large hostile body near camp, and may, in some degree, check sniping, the latter evil cannot, by this means, be completely prevented. Tribesmen, especially since they are aware that the British rarely risk troops, other than picquets, outside the perimeter, will often creep in and snipe from the area between the picquets and camp.

There seems, however, no valid reason why sniping should be passively tolerated, when it can probably be effectively combated by placing, in certain localities between the camp and picquets, small patrols of picked men, provided with grass shoes, whose duty will be to stalk and bayonet venturesome marauders.

Against this proposal it has been argued that the British, and especially the European soldiers, are unfit to cope, by night, with tribesmen, inured from childhood to move silently in darkness over rough ground. The contention is considered to be inadmissible, for though there is, and must be, risk in stalking snipers, picked British soldiers are surely now, as formerly, more than a match for Pathans, in all circumstances when the numbers are fairly even.

The form of intrenchment, if any, excavated round the bivouac, is conditioned by the character of the enemy.

If he is prone to adopt shock tactics, and to attempt to rush the camp under cover of darkness, a ditch to check his charge, backed by a parapet with head cover, will be the most favourable form of defence.

But if he is partial merely to harassing methods, such as firing into camp, the perimeter defences should be calculated to mitigate their effects, by providing, for all troops, trenches well traversed, and with parapets both to front and rear.

If both forms of attack are possible, parapets with trench and ditch should be made, the trench, or ditch, being first dug, according as a charge or sniping is most to be feared.

Naturally units protected by high ground on one or more flanks, need only make cover so as to secure themselves from the directions from which fire can be delivered.

Only infantry should hold the perimeter of a camp, machine guns being placed at the angles, and the defence of each confided to one unit, divided responsibility not being permissible.

Supports may, if necessary, be located in intrenchments behind the perimeter, and a homogeneous body of about half a battalion, allotted as reserve, and given a bivouac near that of the column commander.

In case of attack, the duty of cavalry soldiers is to stand to their horses, of artillery to man their guns. To neither, therefore, in normal circumstances, should a portion of the perimeter be confided, and both should be placed within its circumference.

At the same time, guns should be so disposed, in pits or epaulments, that they can sweep ground across which attack is most likely to be made; or they may be laid so as to search localities where tribesmen may collect prior to delivering an assault.

PROTECTION OF LINE OF COMMUNICATION.

The protection of a line of communication is secured by combination of passive and active measures, though the latter are of the greatest importance.

Passive measures include the provision of fortified staging posts, linked up by a series of road picquets, and supplemented by escorts to convoys. The active defence is by means of flying columns.