THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT OF MILITARY TACTICS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3763, 7 August 1883, Page 4

THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT OF MILITARY TACTICS.

Lord Wolseley presided last week, at the Royal United Service Institution, over a lar"'-e and influential m«t : .ug, which had assembled to hear Col. C. B. Brackcnbury, R.A., lecture on "The Latent Development of the Three Arms " of the service—namely, cavalry, artillery, and infantry. Col. Brackcnbury, who was warmly cheered on ri.-iiii" , , .bc'-an by defining the word "tactics," which, lie said, was sometime* confounded with strategy on the one hand mid with drill on the other. x.Lc considered it as the art of bringing a superior force of one's own—" superior" either physically or morally —in contact with an inferior force of the enemy. The present system of fighting, he remarked, appeared to bo a conccsssion to irregularity. In fact, however, it was but an effort, more or less satisfactory, to re-introduce order under conditions of weapons which tended to introduce disorder. Ho held that the tactics of the dny, as he proposed to demonstrate, were the natural development of an art which had been progressing gradually in a definite direction during the whole period of European history. _ After touching upon the plan of battle in the Punic wars, and glancing at the changes in tactics adopted by Marlborough, ho said: — " See, then, how wo have advanced from the Creek phalanx and the Roman legion, more flexible than the phalanx, omitting the desultory, slow Avars of the Middle Ages, through Maryborough's strokes with armies almost immovable on the field of battle, to a time when, under Frederick, small armies were handled close to the enemy with considerable ease : then to the revolutionary clouds of skirmishers and heavy columns, armies being broken up into corps, divisions, and brigades. Field artillery enters the arena as an offensive arm manu;uvring outside the infantry, and creating μ-reat effects by acting in masses. It is unnecessary to waste time in giving instances of this. All soldiers know the Napoleonic system, and that there were battles, as, for instance Friedland and Hanau, which were distinctly won by the advance of masses of guns to close quarters ■with the enemy." lie followed up this resume by saying: "We have now arrived at a period when those great changes in weapons began which have since modified profoundly the Avholo scheme of tactics. First eiiino the iiifantry rifle with its sudden increase of range, fivefold, from 200 to 1,000 yards. Many a prophecy was made that tho days of cavalry and artillery were numbered. Certainly the relations between tho three arms were altered ; but before long rifled artillery was introduced, doubling the effective range of the guns, and since then there have followed breechloading rifles Avitli range still further developed and improved rifled ordnance. How have these weapons affected modern tactics, and what is the general result as forced upon the minds of tacticians by actual war r , ' . On the position thus stated the lecturer discoursed for an hour, presenting interesting matter for reflection. Ho pointed out that the first effect of the increased range, accuracy, and rapidity of firearms would be, undoubtedly, to delay tho final shock which deciues the combat. It used to be common to reserve infantry fire till the enemy was within 100 or even fifty yards, and "over such a shurfc space if Avas o.isy to charge. .But. infantry could not charge over 1000 or even 100 yards, to Bay nothing of the extreme ranges advocated of 2000 or 3000 yards, lie contended that the first idea of a soldier should be to get at the enemy, and deprecated trusting to long-range infantry fire in attack, for this long-range fire would never drive away the enemy's troops. Nothing but the actual contact, or the fear of its imminence, Avould make the enemy run away; there must be either tho physical struggle or the moral eft eft produced by it. Tho Russians bombarded Plevna without effect, and it was not to be supposed that the Egyptians would have broken up as they did if our lads had contented themselves Avith fighting at long range. He afterwards dwelt upon artillery tactics. The discussion upon the points raised lasted for some time, and eventually was adjourned.