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ОглавлениеCHAPTER IV
NEW VARIETIES OF FIGHTING TROOPS
It was mentioned in Chapter II. that of late years there have been added to modern armies a number of new varieties of troops, which it is not possible to group under the old heads of the Three Arms.
These varieties may be described under the following heads:
1. Mounted Infantry.
2. Mountain Infantry.
3. Mountain Artillery.
4. Machine Guns.
5. Cavalry Pioneers.
6. Cyclists and Motor Cars.
7. Scouts.
8. Field Orderlies.
9. Military Police.
A short description of the functions and organization of these troops will now be given.
1. Mounted Infantry
Mounted Infantry is to-day what Dragoons were when first introduced—that is, Infantry mounted only so as to be quickly moved to a point where it is to fight on foot. Mounted Infantry is armed only with the rifle, and is neither trained nor armed for shock action on horseback.
The introduction of Mounted Infantry was advocated long ago by Jomini in his “Art of War” (Vol. ii., chap. viii., sect. 45), but up to now this Arm only exists in the British Service, and there it is only organized in war, when Mounted Infantry Battalions are formed of men from Infantry Battalions trained for the purpose in peace.
British Mounted Infantry is organized in Battalions of 3 Companies with a Machine-Gun Section, Units of identical strength with the Cavalry Regiment, Squadron, and Machine-Gun Section.
Mounted Infantry is employed in two capacities in the British Service:
(a) In the Mounted Brigades, in which it acts with Cavalry, whose shock action it supports by its fire.
(b) As Divisional Mounted Troops, which are used as Advanced Guards and Outposts for protection; as Patrols for reconnaissance; as Escorts for Head-Quarters, Batteries, and Trains; for keeping connection, both with the Cavalry in front and with adjoining Divisions; for internal communication in their own Division.
2. Mountain Infantry
Infantry Battalions specially trained and equipped for mountain fighting, like the “Alpine Troops” of France and Italy, are kept up in foreign countries, where warfare may, as often in the past, be carried on in difficult mountain regions. Switzerland and Austria have Mounted Infantry Battalions formed into Brigades, to which Mountain Batteries are attached. Austria has organized Mountain Transport Squadrons for these Brigades.
3. Mountain Artillery
The Arm is described under the head of Artillery, in Chapter III. It is provided for mountain fighting in India, France, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States, and in the “Highlands” Division of the British Territorial Army. In Austria there are Mountain howitzers as well as guns.
4. Machine Guns
Every nation has now introduced Machine Guns as a valuable auxiliary to Cavalry and Infantry. The intention, not as yet fully carried out, is to form a Unit of two Machine Guns in every Cavalry Regiment and in every Battalion (or at least in every Regiment) of Infantry. In the German and some other armies these guns will be taken away from their Units and grouped by sixes into “sections,” which will be virtually independent batteries of machine guns.
In the British Service a Section of two Machine Guns is provided by every Cavalry Regiment and Infantry Battalion. These guns, which fire from tripods, are carried in wagons with four horses in Cavalry Sections, for rapidity of movement, and with two horses in Infantry Sections. The Section is commanded by one of the Lieutenants, with a Sergeant, a Corporal, and the necessary drivers. To each gun there are six men, who are of course mounted in the Cavalry Section.
The Germans have adopted the Battery formation. The Mounted Section, for use with the Cavalry Division, consists of 6 guns on four-horsed carriages, with 3 ammunition wagons. The strength is 1 Lieutenant, 130 men, 90 horses. The officer and sergeant are mounted, and the men are carried on the gun carriage. The Foot Section forms an extra Company, the 13th, of each Infantry Regiment. It has 6 guns on two-horsed carriages, with 3 ammunition wagons. The strength is 1 Lieutenant, 83 men, 28 draught horses. The officer and 3 N.C.O.’s are mounted; the men march on foot, and are armed with pistols.
In Japan, there is to be a 6-gun Section to each Infantry Regiment, with a strength of 1 Officer, 1 W.O., 6 N.C.O.’s, 36 men. Guns and ammunition are carried on 30 pack horses. There will be an 8-gun Section to each Cavalry Brigade, with a strength of 3 Officers, 87 men.
In Switzerland a Machine-Gun Battery takes the place of Horse Artillery with Cavalry. It consists of 8 guns, and is carried on pack mules, with its personnel mounted.
5. Cavalry Pioneers
In the Austrian Service a few men from each Cavalry Squadron have long been trained to perform Engineers’ duties, such as demolitions and repair of bridges, railways, and telegraphs, and hasty field works. This plan has been adopted to a limited extent in the British Cavalry, where a corporal and four men of each Squadron are trained in Pioneer duties. The German Cavalry Regiment has a Bridging equipment of 4 Pontoons, to form small bridges, or rafts, and a Demolition equipment carried in the Pontoon wagons, with men of the Regiment trained to use both.
6. Cyclists and Motor Cars
Cyclist Infantry have been introduced into some armies, to carry Orders and messages. They will relieve Cavalry of part of their orderly, scouting, and patrolling work, as they can move as rapidly as mounted men, as long as the roads are good. Besides these duties it is claimed that Cyclists can also be used for fighting. Being armed as Infantry, but more rapid in movement, they could be used like mounted Infantry, to surprise the enemy with rifle fire from distant and unexpected places, or to seize and hold important tactical points, such as bridges, defiles, and hills, before the Infantry can reach them. As yet, however, it cannot be said that any decision has been arrived at as to the organization, equipment, and sphere of utility of Cyclists, or their employment as fighting troops.
In the British Service it is expected that each Unit will furnish a few Cyclists, and there are bicycles allotted to each Head-Quarters, to every Unit of fighting troops, and to telegraph companies, for inter-communication purposes. The Territorial Army has, besides 12 Cyclists per battalion, ten Cyclist Battalions.
The French, who were the first to form Military Cyclists, have a few companies, each of 4 Officers and 175 men.
The Germans provide 19 Cyclists from each Infantry Regiment, 9 from each Artillery Regiment, and 6 from each Cavalry Regiment. The latter will probably be massed as one body in the Cavalry Division, for transmitting intelligence.
Austria has a Volunteer Cyclist Corps for each Army Corps, and two Companies of Cyclists are to be attached to each Cavalry Division for use as fighting troops.
Italy has 24 Cyclists per Infantry Regiment, and two Battalions of Bersaglieri (or Rifles) are organized as Cyclists.
MOTOR CAR SERVICE IN WAR
Motor Cars will be much used in war for conveyance of Generals and Staff Officers on the march and in action, as the power of covering the ground rapidly is of great advantage to Command of Troops, enabling what is passing at a distance to be seen, and decisions to be made and communicated without delay.
There will be great scope for Motors in carrying supplies to the troops from railhead, thus rendering the daily supply far more certain, and obviating blocking the roads with long trains of wagons. This system is being organized on the Continent.
7. Scouts
Scouts are men whose function is to reconnoitre the ground, or the enemy, without fighting. They are soldiers selected for intelligence, activity, self-reliance, and powers of observation. (“Infantry Training,” 1905, p. 73.)
Scouts are taken from Infantry Battalions, Cavalry Regiments, or Batteries, and work in the neighbourhood of their own Corps and for its immediate benefit. They move out generally in pairs, so that one man may take back information, if signalling is not possible.
In the British Service the numbers of Scouts are:
Infantry: 1 N.C.O. and 6 men per Company, of whom 1 Sergeant and 16 men per Battalion are First-Class Scouts.
Cavalry: 1 Officer, as Scout Leader, 1 Sergeant, 24 men, per Regiment.
Artillery: One or two “Ground Scouts” in front of the Battery when it is manœuvring. Two “Look-out Men” close to the Battery in action.
German Cavalry has 1 N.C.O. and 2 men per Squadron as Ground Scouts, and 1 Officer per Regiment in charge of them.
In France 12 mounted Ground Scouts, “Eclaireurs de terrain montés d’infanterie,” are to be attached to each Infantry Regiment.
The Russians in Manchuria used volunteers from Infantry Regiments as mounted Scouts, with good results.
Corps of Scouts and Guides have been formed from time to time, as in the American Civil War, and lately in Canada. They cannot, however, be said to have any actual existence in organized armies, but will probably be extemporized in war.
8. Field Orderlies
Wellington organized in the Peninsula a Corps of Guides and a Mounted Staff Corps, who acted as despatch riders and police. Napoleon had similar corps, and their usefulness is obvious. But it may be doubted if the multiplication of small special corps is not objectionable and wasteful of men and horses. Modern practice tends to allot the carrying of messages and Orders to orderlies furnished at Head-Quarters of Commands, either by Cyclists, by the men of the Cavalry escort, or by the Mounted Police.
The Germans have always had at Head-Quarters a small corps of Feldjägers, or mounted orderlies, for carrying despatches, and have now formed a body of motor-cycle volunteers for this purpose.
In the British Cavalry Division, four men from every squadron are trained as despatch riders, and Officers of the “Motor Reserve,” with their cars, are attached to every Head-Quarters, for carrying Orders and messages.
There is a Courier Corps in the Russian Service, which provides one section of 4 Officers and 6 N.C.O.’s for each Army Corps Head-Quarters. Two sections are allotted to Army Commands.
9. Military Police
A body of Police is now a necessity for an Army. They comprise Mounted, as well as Foot Police. Their duties are to enforce sanitary regulations, to preserve order, especially in rear of the Army, and to carry out sentences of Courts-Martial. They ensure regularity in allotting billets and enforcing requisitions. They control sutlers and civilians with the Army, protect civil property, prevent marauding, and arrest stragglers, deserters, and spies. During action they will be useful in clearing roads, and maintaining order in rear of the fighting, and later will keep off the ghouls who infest the battlefield to plunder the dead and kill the wounded.
Small detachments of Military Police are in the British Service attached to all Head-Quarters, under the orders of the Assistant-Provost-Marshal. Foot Police will be attached to General Head-Quarters and those of the L. of C.; Mounted Police to all other Head-Quarters; while at Base Head-Quarters there will be both.
