MODERN WAR PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 75, 26 September 1916, Page 3

MODERN WAR PROBLEM

MEANS OF INTERCOMMUNICATION "Intercommunication in Modem War" formed the subject of a, lecture delivered by Major J. Sleeman, Director of Military Training, to members of the Wellington Garrison Officers' Club on Friday evening. There was a large attendance, and the lecture, which was most instructive, was followed intently. Major Sleeman explained how, upon taking the field at the beginning of the war, it was found necessary to considerably add to the services of communication within a battalion and brigade. He dwelt at length on the necessity for teaching the soldier to repeat messages with the utmost accuracy, and, when this has been obtained, sustaining a system of communication between small units by means of the ordinary methods of communication, supplemented by clear and definite "preliminary instructions, the use of which considerably limits the necessity for sending back orderlies when forces are in close proximity to each other. Passing on to the very complicated system of field telephones in modern war, he dealt most clearly- with the necessity for teaching the soldier the use and care of instruments, wire, etc., and the extreme necessity for commanding officers to carefully select their positions for headquarters. This, he said, was necessary because, once selected, the commanding officers were tied to their ground within a very few minutes by numerous telephone wires, radiating to the one common centre, from all isolated detachments in front, the'Vrtillery batteries in the rear, and from Brigade Headquarters. The commanders who became expert in controlling their units by means of a good system of communication rather than by relying on obser- j cation would certainly be'the most successful Therefore, it was extremely important not only- to maintain the pre-' sent; system of Morse, semaphore, heliograph, and lamps at its present standard of efficiency, but to add to this a most careful system of individual instruction in inter-communication on the part of the'men, and all officers and n.c.o.'s should be . accustomed to writing out clear and concise messages to help to this end. In trench warfare, telephone operators should be regarded as being equally as much on duty as the sentry guarding a body of troops; their work was just as valuable. In conclusion, the lecturer outlined many of the methods found necessary in France to maintain efficient services of communication, and also the method used for still maintaining communication even when all telephone wires have been cut during a bombardment, which frequently happens.