TRAINING METHODS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 113, 12 May 1917, Page 5

TRAINING METHODS.

NEW SYSTS3I IN FRANCS. COMPLEXITY OF MODERX WARFARE. 1, U The new offensive methods in ■which a our latest reinforcements are being r- trained illustrate very clearly the com.c plexity of modern warfare and the neei i- for individual intelligence and praetic". >i Thirty seconds after the assaulting ■c troops have left their trenches there is, c of course, a veil of smoke over every- : thin i. but what happens behind the veil has been clearly described 'by that very ? capable observer, Mr. H. Warner Alien, m who saw it all ha the practice schools of 10 the French army. No doubt the British. , 0 training is little different. The men advance no longer in long, close-packed. 0 -waves, but with a dense barrage before them. There are at least ten "paces be- ° t-.veea every man. and with this forma* "> tioa not only is there pleirlnr of room; h for bullets to pass between "them, tout g progress is far quicker, since the men can. pick their ground, and thread their •way between the shell holes. The -wild, exhilarating rush has disappeared:. j. everything is done in a. measured and- ® ordered manner. Every battalion, every company, every section, is well iahand, and every man has a welWefineds task to perform. Before the assault ■> the ground has been studied with meti-~ 1 culous care. Every tiny ■ such as a tree stamp or a mound of c earth, has been noted, and the amount" 1 of cover afforded by a slope that may be-*: 5 scarcely pereept3>le has i>eea and considered. the shamvt r attaeic from the position eupposed to be/1 in German hands," says Mr. Warnee*? c Allen, "one saw a line of men. .with widen c intervals between them- rise cw-er tie' parapet of the trench and approach, in - ' what seemed leisurely fashion. There-! was very little running, and the focma-** tion adapted itself to all the require-*! ments ox the ground. •witbxHrt <liso£ga3i- J *i 3 ising any of the units. Behind thafc/s rose line after line, for experience has--shown that the battle front should, be deep and in open order, and not as in the - Champagne offensive, thin, and tights packed. Ghenadiers led the assault. - During the engagement the specialists ot - any arm can be immediately 1 The fusils MrtraiQenrs during the advance can. render ■valuable service to dissuade "the enemy from his, *■ head above the trench.-* . j CLEARING ESEMX TRENCHES. 5 TJnder the new tactics of the offensive ; —-which have, of course, developed out ; of the old —the men who have the work ) of clearing trenches that have ifaeen - already taken in. an assault are given 3 just as much special training as are. 5 those who axe employed in attacking all " the time. "When a trench is carried and passed, a certain number of men re--5 main behind. They are the 4i trencht 1 scavengers,"-whose duty it is to see that not a German is left capable of doing: c harm behind the advancing waves o£ men. These specialists are grenadiers and picked men. It has been iodnd that the best way of clearing the enemy's trenches and making sure that the front lines ■will not. t>e attacked . from the rear by men and maehinaguns suddenly appearing from the dugouts in which they have been, lying con- ,_ cealed during the assault is to choose j these "trench scavengers" very carefully, and to prescribe to each man so many yards of trench which it t>lll be his duty to clear entirely of the enemy. The scavengers use grenades very methodically. First they spot a dug-out with some Germans in it, then they locate its various entrances. Down one of these entrances a number of honrbs are thrown, while the other scavengers gather round the other bolt holes and await events. They have not long to wait. As soon as the grenades explode in the enclosed spaces underground and fill them with smoke and flames, the Boches bolt like ra'brbits ior -fche surface, where they are received with their due. If, as rarely happens, the Germans, after the preliminary artillery bombardment, have still enough fight left in them to man their trenches, grenadiers and bayonets will press forward endeavouring to get to handgrips <wit>h the enemy. If possible the grenade rifles •will throw over their heads volleys of grenades to damp the ardour of the Germans in the trench, and will keep up their fire till the last minute before close-quarter fighting begins. Meantime the men who carry the light s machine-guns TO-hieh accompany the asr sault have dropped" 'behind and chosen „ points fixed beforehand as best suited f_ for use. These men fire with perfeet accuracy hundreds of rounds A _ minute on the German trenches. d DESENSIVB TACTICS. The newly-developed defensive tactics in trench warfare correspond with those ■> of the attack, ile stopping of the onr coming rush of the assault is attended a to first by magazine rifle grenade specialf ists. "When the assaulting troops have f <rot within 150 yards of the trenches the comparative ineffectiveness of rifle fire. or rather the immensely greater destructive an-i stopping force of the grenade, is said to be easily reliable. Measured oirlv hv the much louder report of tha explosion it is (says Mr. Warner Al\en\ obviously a far more murderous weapon, and the ground where the grenades have fallen is found to be pitted all over with little holes 6in in diameter. The grenade, in fact, makes of each man who throws it, or sets it in motion by the impact of the bullet from his rifle, a living cannon. It is so deadly a missile that, if only a sufficient sapply of the ammunition can be on hand—that i≤ the great difficulty because of its weight— a body of infantry can defend itself by putting up a barrage fire of its own •which no troops will get through, so that it can actually dispense with the barrage fire of its own artillery. After the rifle grenade the hand, grenade— another two minutes of deafening reports all along the line, and. at a much shorter range, the same impassable curtain fire to stop the supposed enemy, still advancing towards the trenches from the long, bare, shell-pitted slope, stretching • down from the distant horizon. And. after each period of firing— another of the realities of warfare —a heavy pall of blinding smoke, which drifts 'back towards ■us from t'na trenches, and, till the wind dispersed it, made it absolutely impossible to see a yard.