THE BACKBONE OF THE ARMY.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BACKBONE OF THE ARMY.

A PItOKEKSIOXAL TIMIiI'TF TO Til K X.C.O. ISATTLKS THAT ARK WON HV BKAIXS. Il is written that I'll tlii' sovontli day 111; 111 sliaJl do no manner ol work, nor bis servant, nor his ox, nor anything that is Ins. I iiis law is in 1 lie main rigidly observed by iimn and w <>llu 11 in all .stations of life. There is, however, one. notable exoepi ion. The Hi it isli iion-roniniission-cd otiicer works not only 011 the seventh day, but very otteii far into the night of it. lie must work, and work, and when lie has finished one job he must look for another. It is not often that one finds the X.C.O. looking for work. Work Hies to him -as il lie were a magnet.. But- lie is very ol ten to be found looking for trouble —trouble for kilo hands, that is. There never was n truer saying than that the sergeant is the backbone of the British Annv. lie always has been, and he alw ays will be. I sually drawn from the same classes .as the men lie commands, in all eases having undergone the sanio experiences in the ranks a.s they have, he is naturally fitted to be the gobetween of his officers and his men. A good X.C.O. is just as valuable to a company as an efficient colonel is to a battalion; an time, ho will be promoted to company sergeant-major, when his position will he very much the same toward his company commander as the adjutant's is to his colonel. From company sergeant-major there is only one step to regimental sergeant-major, whose post is usually filled by that X.C.O. who combines all the qualifications necessary for the various ranks through whiclr*lie has passed. The duties of a regimental sergeant-major are not light. He is the stopping-stone between orderly room and battalion; lie is a foreman of works, a master of parades a chief of police, and a walking King's Regulations rolled into one. If a regimental sergeant-major is fittod for the rank he holds, what he does not knowis not worth learning. He is the evolution of the god X.C.0., the finished product. OLD STYLE AND NEW. The sergeant of to-day must use his brains as well as his hands. There was a time when quick hands and feet were the principal qualifications of the X.C.O. Some years ago, at an inspection, the general called for the oldc\st sergeant in the battalion. "What are your duties?" said he; and the greyheaded old man replied, "Work 'aid, fear Gawd and the colonel, sir." That was the old type of army sergeant. The modern X.C.O. still "fears Gawd and the Colonel," hut he lias many other maxims to bear in his mind. Battles are won by brains to-day. Sheer pluck alone w ill not save a ticklish situation. in the Egyptian campaign of 1881, the soldier was first taught to think for himself. Before then it was firmly impressed ou the. recruit that he must never think, that he. had 110 brains, and that other people were paid to do his share of thinking. All he had to do was to obey. In the last twenty years, and more, especially since the outbreak of the present war, these ideas have not only become obsolete but they reversed Xow the soldier is taught to do his own flunking, and it is tile sergeant of his platoon, who teaches him to make use of his brains.

When a young officer joins his unit for the first time, there are certain N.C.O.s detailed by the adjutant of his regiment for the purpose of instructing him in the duties of his profession, hut chiefly in how to handle the men he has to command. It is a true saying that bad officers make their N.C.O's bad; when the position is reversed, the result in a good many instances is the same —bad N.C.O.s inefficient officers. The sergeants of platoons and companies are the people who keep the men in check. They are with them day and night, on the parade ground and off. They know their men. That is the great point. A sergeant, no matter how keen, will never be really a "good N.C.0." in the sight of his officers until he knows every man in his platoon from A to Z. Hemust study their points, good and bad; hi' must sort the "brainy" men from tin l dullards, the hard workers from the slack; he must know, in fact, all the qualities of every man under his charge, so that when his officer asks him "What sort of a man is Private Smith?" he can tell him all he wants to know about his character as a man, his popularity among his fellows, whether he is a good or bad shot, and if he is a clean or dirty soldier. THE DIRTY SOLDIER, 1 lie dirty soldier is the sergeant's bug bear. In the first place a sergeant is trained to be clean. The sight of a dirty man is naturally repulsive to him. A dirty soldier means a dirty kit, and a dirty kit is a sure guarantee of a foul rifle. There are two tilings which no officer or sergeant will forgive a man—untidy clothing and gear, and a badly kept and dirty rifle. The rifle is—or should he —the soldier's companion. In war it. is his best friend. Consequently it can never be too clean, nor to gently handled. Continually to ho chasing a man for the same faults becomes* irksome to the hardworked N.C.0., who has other and more urgent duties to attend to.

A lino battalion N.C.O. lias not much time tor recreation. He is out of his cot at reveille, superintends the cleaning of liis room, and before he sits down to bis breakfast puts in a good hour 011 the square, either drilling his section or teaching musketry to the uninitiated. After breakfast he must superintend the cleaning and scrubbing of the mess tables, the floors, and. the lockers of his room, and at the same time see that his men are cleaned and ready for the morning's parades, or route march, as the case may be. If he is doing "orderly sergeant" he must visit his company's rooms and acquaint the other N.C.O.s with the orders of the day, and attend outside the orderly room until the C.O. has held his morning "judgment." The afternoon, if the battalion is in training, is* a repetition of the morning work. It is only in the few hours before bedtime that the N.C.O. can sit down in peace to do as he will. Hi.s life is one long hustle from dawn till dusk. "Panics" are of daily occurrence, but the good, reliable N.C.O. overcomes them. The British sergeant lias been called the Tommy's wet nurse. The name is not an appropriate one, but there was never a wet nurse that had more than two babies to look after, whereas the sergeant of to-day has fifty full-grown men with all the vices of men and boys intermingled to keep in hand.