COLUMN OF THREES

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1933, Page 5

COLUMN OF THREES

NEW BRITISH FORMATION V An illustration on this page, today; shows British troops inarching mi * column of threes —an innovation whic'i I must have caused much surprise tpj: spectators used to the march in. fours*. Tho ■■ Englishman, notoriously, . paya / little attention to what "furriners'^ are doing, writes Captain B. H. Liddey Hart in the London " Daily Telegraph,' *v but it is just possible that rumours maflhave percolated round British'barackal, that the chief Continental armies, not«( ably the French and German, have- iarecent years adopted a marching forma-1 tion in threes. v ßut whoever would hava<j thought that a day would come when the British sergeant-major, could n« longer shout "For-r-r-m Fours'?? I ' The practical conveniences o£ march- | ing only three abreast are, of course, manifest. On narrow roads it is the only; way in which other traffic can pass or overtake without delay to themselves and without being a nuisance to th« marching troops. . . . Such freedom of passage is essential for staff cars, reconnaissance cars, dispatch riders, and all the other mobile; means of intercommunication and cfirec. tion. As mechanisation extends it becomes more important, since units move at varying rates of speed, and it iB far more economical to bring forward fast units as Tequired than to keep them crawling in tho midst of a foot marching column. ''■'.'' For the infantry themselves cplunm of threes is pleasanter, especially in hot weather. Moreover, as adopted in th« French Army, it saves much time ; <iu shaking out or taking cover;_ i Those moments saved may be vital in theso -• days when aircraft attack is an ever-