THE NEW WARFARE IN THE WEST

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3188, 12 September 1917, Page 8

THE NEW WARFARE IN THE WEST

HOW FRENCH " GRADUATES " DEFEATED THE BOCIIE GRENADE THROWERS AND BAYONET SHARKS (By Mr. Henry Wood, special corMpondeut of tKo U.P.A.; with tho French armies ill Champagne.) This is t'he sorry story of a German battalion that made Hie regrettable error, on Juno 21, .of attacking a graduating class of thp French Grenade School, just at tho moment when the graduates ivero all lined up for their final graduate exercises. When the French grenade graduates had succeeded in imposing tranquillity on the part of tho Germans until their graduating exercises could be completed, 200 German dead could bo counted 011 the field -of operations, whilst tho French lines on a 000-inetre front, had been advanced 300 metres. Tho graduates had three killed and seventeen wounded for their total lossos. Tho custom of the French to hold graduating exercises in their front-lino trenches hns arisen from tho necessity of changing their whole system of infantry tactics, as a result of t'he !( exigencies of the prosonfc war. When the recent conflict developed French infantry, like that of all tho other belligerents, was drilled meruly in the use of the rifle and bayonet. This proved entirely inadequate as tho war developed, and France found herself facing the necessity, not only of developing [ an entirely new system of arms and tactics, but of drilling t'he entire fighting strength of the nation in them while tho ■war was still in progress. Instruction camps -were established bjick from tho front lines, and aa fast as possible troops were withdrawn from the fighting ranks and given a month or two of schooling. All old-time infantryman knew but tlio use of the rifle and bayonet, but tlie men now come out of the schools highly developed specialists, either as liand or rifle grenade throwers, portable macliino-gun experts, baby cannon sharpshooters, or bayonet sharks. When a class has completed its full course of instruction at one cf its schools it is taken to the front line trenches, and for its final graduating exercises makes an attack on the Germans—usually for the purpose cf cap< hiring a trench observatory or some 6mall fortified position. It was one of these graduating classes that, was ill the act of undergoing its final graduating exercises that tho Germans accidentally attacked. The class in question consisted of grenade-throw-ers, portable machine-gun marksmen, together ft few rifle grenadiers, baby cannon sharpshooters, and bayonet experts. In all, the class numbered less than one hundred. They had just taken up their positions in the fn-nt- | line trenches on the north-eastern elope of Mount Corniljet, tho final praduating exercises wore to bo performed.

A Choice Piece of "Pie." The Germans still held one observatory on this side of the ridge, and graduates were to demonstrate their fitness to pass from the school period of new infantry tactics into that of actiial war by storming and capturing tho observatory. The last preparations for tho assault were being made when, just 'a half-hour before the attack -was scheduled, the Germans suddenly launched an attack of their own, against the trench being held by the grenade graduates. It is doubtful if a bigger piece of "pie" was ever offered to I 1 ranee 6 new infantry specialists. _ Loaded to tho teeth as they were with grenades and munitions for their own attack, they merely lay back in tleir trench until the German .assaulting column was within 6tone's throw, and then opened with all tho perfected weapons of modern infantry, tactics. In less than two minutes thero was not a German standing. Although it was still all of the fii teen minutes before tho grenade graduates were scheduled to launch their own graduating attack, tho moment was too propitious, and they, went over the trench rampart across tho dead, bodies of the assaulting troops and captured the last remaining German observatory on Mount Cornillet in precisely tho manner they had been taught to do it at the school of new tactics. Only four prisoners were taken by the graduates—and all four of tliese wounded—but when tho attack was finished there were over 200 German, dead on the ground to be buried. At least one of the Rrenadc graduates had tlio jrednille Militaire conferred on. him on the field of battle, whilßt several others received citations for the Croix do Guerre.

All in all, it was about the most successful gaduating' exercises that any class in the now infantry tactics has yet enjoyed. It is in tliese new infantry tactics that tho American troops are to be drilled. Well-trained American troops from the Regular Army and the Militia are expected, like the French soldier of to-day, to master one' of these specialities—either hand or rifle grenadine, portable machine-gun firing, baby cannon marksmanship, or expert bayoneting—in a very short time. The new recruits, however, will require longer training.. One of the remarkable results of these now infantry tactics, as perfected and adopted liy the French is the small proportion of losses sustained in comparison with those inflicted on the enemy. In the course of four small operations on the slopes of Mount Cornillet during the middle of June, and which wcluded the one detailed above, the French had only nine men killed and fifty wounded, while 400 German dead could be counted on the field. ■ ,