Tactics, Volume 1 (of 2). Introduction and Formal Tactics of Infantry

Volume I.

INTRODUCTION AND FORMAL TACTICS OF INFANTRY.

TRANSLATED BY ~WALTER KRUEGER, First Lieutenant 23rd Infantry, U. S. Army, Instructor Army Service Schools.~

Fourth completely revised edition. With numerous plates in the text.

U. S. CAVALRY ASSOCIATION, FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS. 1911

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY WALTER KRUEGER.

=PRESS OF KETCHESON PRINTING CO., LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS.=

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

The translation of this book was undertaken at the instance of Major John F. Morrison, General Staff, who desired to make use of it in the course in tactics in the Army Service Schools.

It is an epitome of the interpretation and application of tactical principles in the various armies, discussed in the light of the tactical views and methods prevailing in Germany, and amplified by numerous examples from military history.

The professional value of this book to all officers of our Regular Army and Militia who are endeavoring to gain a working knowledge of tactics, is so obvious that any comment would be superfluous.

Army Service Schools, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, December, 1910.

PREFACE.

The first volume of “Tactics,” which appeared in its first edition in 1896, and for which the preparatory work reached back more than a decade, now appears in its fourth edition in a completely changed form. The lessons gained in war and improvements in weapons have corrected many earlier views. While the Boer war confused the views on infantry combat and brought forth more lessons in a negative than in a positive form, the Russo-Japanese war has had a great educating influence, in that it corroborated the soundness of the lessons gained in the Franco-German war, but also in that it amplified those lessons commensurate with the improvements in weapons. The fundamental principles upon which success depends have remained the same.

For a long time I hesitated to comply with my publisher’s wishes for a new edition. It would not have been difficult to publish long ago a new edition, based upon the many lessons of war communicated to me by members of foreign armies soon after the Russo-Japanese war. But, after an extended period of theoretical work, I was more inclined to avail myself once more of the opportunity of gaining practical experience by service with troops. Pure theoretical reflection is only too apt to depart from the requirements of practice and to overlook the friction appearing everywhere. The battalion commander, more than any one else, is called upon to act as the tactical instructor of his officers and knows best where the shoe pinches. Moreover, the proximity of the maneuver ground to my present station gave me an opportunity of observing the field training of a large number of battalions and regiments of infantry and artillery, and to compare notes with brother officers of the other arms. In addition, several trips abroad and, incidental thereto, visits to battlefields, furnished valuable suggestions. I postponed issuing the new edition until the publication of the new Russian and Japanese Drill Regulations, which, with our own excellent regulations, best illustrate the lessons learned from the war in the Far East. For this fourth edition I was further able to draw upon the new French (1904), Italian (1905), Belgian (1906), U. S. (1904), British (1905), and Swiss (1908) Drill Regulations. This enumeration alone justifies the statement, “completely revised,” appearing on the title page.

I have earnestly endeavored to make use of foreign experiences in detail. The words of Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton of the British Army, to whose writings I owe a great deal, deserve special attention in studying the drill regulations of foreign armies: “It is a blessing that the greater and prouder an army, the more immovably it is steeped in conservatism, so that as a whole it is finally incapable of assimilating the lessons gained by other armies. Military attachés may discover the most important points in the training and employment of foreign armies and urgently recommend their imitation, but their comrades will pay no more attention to them than did Napoleon III. to Stoffel’s reports on the Prussian army before the outbreak of the Franco-German war.”

The treatment of the subject matter has remained the same throughout; it represents, as in the first edition, the principle that tactical lessons must be deduced from human nature, from the effect of weapons, and from experience in war, proper regard being had for national characteristics and historical transmission. Tactics is psychology. My statements in regard to fire effect are based, as before, upon the works of His Excellency, Lieutenant-General Rohne. The publications of Historical Section I of the Great General Staff and the splendid works of the late Major Kunz, furnish the basis for examples cited from military history. An almost too copious literature is already available on the Russo-Japanese war. The monographs (Einzelschriften) of the Great General Staff, and of Streffleur, especially “Urteile und Beobachtungen von Mitkämpfern,” published by the latter, afford a rich field for research.

It is not difficult to cite examples from military history in support of any tactical procedure, but such examples require a very careful sifting before they can be recommended as worthy models for our action in front of the enemy.

The Austrians deduced the necessity of the most brutal shock action from the experience gained by them in their combats in Upper Italy in 1859, and the British were not very far removed from completely denying the feasibility of making an attack soon after the Boer war; but the desire to avoid losses was forced into the background by the necessity of annihilating the enemy. In the Far East the Russians finally had to learn again the same bitter lessons as at Plevna.

Simultaneously with this fourth edition, there appears in Athens a translation in Modern Greek from the pen of Captain Strategos of the Greek General Staff, well known to many German officers from his War Academy days.

It is hoped that the fourth edition may receive the same kind reception at home and abroad that was given its three predecessors. For all communications, suggestions or corrections, directed either to me or to my publisher, I will be sincerely grateful.

THE AUTHOR.

POSEN, March, 1908.

CONTENTS.

=INTRODUCTION.= PAGE

=1. War= 1 Eternal peace 1 War the ultimo ratio of state policy 2 Courts of arbitration 3

=2. Strategy and Tactics= 4 Definition of strategy and tactics 4 Relation of strategy to tactics 6

=3. The Method of Instruction= 7 Value of examples 8 Applicatory method 10 Advantages and disadvantages 10 Arrangement of the subject matter 12

=4. Drill Regulations= 13 Instructions for campaign 15 Regulations and the science of combat 15

=THE FORMAL TACTICS OF INFANTRY.=

=I. ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT= 19

=1. The Importance and Employment of Infantry= 19 Relative strength as compared to other arms 19 Élite infantry. Guards 21 Jägers and riflemen 22 Mountain infantry 23 Machine guns 24 Mounted infantry 25 Patrols and scouting detachments 27 Cyclists 28 Snowshoe runners 30

=2. The Tactical Unit= 32

=3. Organization= 34 The company 34 Peace and war strength 35 The battalion 36 The regiment 37 The brigade 37

=4. Intrenching Tool Equipment= 38

=5. The Load of the Infantryman= 39 Comparison of the loads carried by infantrymen in various armies 40

=II. THE FORMATIONS= 41

=1. The Issue of Orders= 41 Trumpet signals 41

=2. The Purpose of Formations. Comparison Between Line and Column= 42 Assembly and route formations 42 Maneuver and combat formations 43 Napoleonic columns 44 Comparison between line and column 44 The origin of column tactics 44

=3. The Company= 46 (a) Formation of the company 46 Number of ranks 46 Interval and distance 47 Front and facing distance 48 (b) Division of the company into three or four platoons 48 Losses among officers 50

=4. Length of Pace and Marching= 53 Comparison (table) 54 Double time 55

=5. Movements of the Company in Line= 56

=6. The Columns of the Company. Movements in Column. Formation of Line= 56 Column of twos 56 Column of squads 57 Route column 57 Column of fours 58 Double column of squads 59 Comparison of column of fours with column of squads 59 The importance of the squad 59 The employment of the column of squads 59 Company column 60 Column of platoons 61 Column of sections 61 Guidon flags 63 Posts of platoon commanders 63 Movements in column 64 Suggestions made by Colonel Fumet, French Army 65

=7. The Battalion= 67 Normal formation of the German battalion 67 The color 68 Formations in various armies 69 The value of double column 71 The battalion in route column 72

=8. The Regiment and the Brigade= 73 Formation in line or in echelon 73

=9. Extended Order= 75 Thin and dense skirmish lines 75 (a) The formation of the skirmish line 78 (b) Movements in skirmish line 81 Advance by rushes 82 Time required for making a rush. Strength of the force making the rush 83 Rising 84 Short or long rushes 85 Advance by crawling 86 Lessons of the Boer War 88 Lessons of the Russo-Japanese War 89 Provisions of the various regulations relative to the advance by rushes 90 Fire while in motion 92 Examples of the employment of fire while in motion 93 Examples of the employment of rushes 93 (c) Reinforcing the firing line 96 (d) Closing up. Assembling. Re-forming 97

Continue reading Tactics, Volume 1 (of 2). Introduction and Formal Tactics of Infantry free in the Wunder reader →