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ОглавлениеCHAPTER II
THE FIGHTING TROOPS
Military Forces are of two distinct categories: Fighting Troops, which carry out the actual operations; Administrative Services, whose function is to provide the Fighting Troops with all that they require to keep up their strength and efficiency.
The Arms of the Service
The Fighting Troops consist mainly, as they have for centuries, of what are known as “The Three Arms of the Service”—Cavalry, Artillery, and Infantry. Besides these, however, the introduction of warlike inventions and the increased complexity of modern war have brought into being a fourth Arm—Engineers—as well as varieties of fighting troops for special purposes, which are virtually new Arms, such as Mountain Artillery, Machine Guns, Cyclists, and Mounted Infantry.
Characteristics of the Arms
The continued existence of the Arms of the Service for centuries is due to a gradual differentiation of their mode of fighting, owing to changes in weapons, and progress in the Art of War. Each Arm has its peculiar fighting characteristics and its own sphere of action in war, which will be discussed in this chapter. In the next will be described the organization which each Arm has evolved in order to enable it to carry out its functions in war.
1. CAVALRY
ITS SPECIAL FUNCTIONS
Cavalry has been termed “The Arm of Surprise,” owing to the rapidity with which it can move. This gives it the power to act with little warning, and from an unexpected direction, against the enemy, and thus to take advantage of the fleeting opportunities which occur in war for sudden attack and surprise. It is par excellence the mobile Arm, and the one best adapted for taking the offensive.
Its power of making long and rapid marches enables it also to be thrown far to the front, so as to give to the Army protection from surprise, and to gain the information as to the movements and dispositions of the enemy, without which the Commander will be at a loss in forming his plans.
Cavalry is required too for the effective pursuit of a beaten foe who would elude the slow-moving Infantry. It is also the best Arm to cover a retreat, as it can check the pursuit and then effect a rapid withdrawal before being completely over-powered.
ITS WEAK POINTS
The disadvantage of Cavalry is that it is very dependent on the nature of the country for its action. It is useless in steep, rocky, or marshy ground, or among enclosures, and in woods. Cavalry is also costly to raise, and requires long training for efficiency. It suffers too from great wastage of horses in war, due to unavoidable fatigue, short rations, and bad weather, from which causes horses suffer even more than men.
ITS MODE OF FIGHTING
In the combat, Cavalry acts both by shock and by fire, the latter action being now more developed than of old. Indeed the main difference between the horse-soldiers of the different armies of to-day is whether their training is directed rather to mounted shock-action, or to fire-action dismounted; in the latter case, their rapidity of movement is mainly helpful in getting them to the right place at the right time to use their fire. The ideal Cavalry would be equally capable of shock and fire action, and could be employed either mounted or dismounted, as circumstances and the judgment of the leader might dictate. The British is perhaps the only Cavalry (as General Négrier, Chief of the French General Staff, once said) which is trained to this ideal. The Cavalry of Russia, Japan, and the United States tends rather to action by fire on foot; that of most Continental armies to shock action mounted.
EMPLOYMENT OF CAVALRY IN WAR
The use of Cavalry in modern war lies less in its action on the battlefield than in the all-important work of reconnoitring the enemy, and protecting its own army—that is, of providing Information and Security. The tendency of the employment of Cavalry in modern war is towards an entire separation of these two duties.
For the first duty, Reconnaissance, Cavalry must try to find out the strength and situation of the enemy’s forces, and the direction in which they are moving. For the second duty, Protection, Cavalry must form a screen along the front of the Army, so as to shelter it from being observed by the enemy’s Cavalry, and to give early notice of the direction of any attack.
These two duties of Cavalry cannot be performed by the same body. To get information Cavalry must be able to break through the enemy’s screen, which can only be effected by beating his Cavalry, and requires concentration of force. Reconnoitring Cavalry will often also have to work round the flanks of the enemy. Both these modes of action must necessarily leave a large portion of the front of its own army uncovered.
On the other hand, protection demands a dispersion of the Cavalry along the whole front of the Army, which is exactly opposed to the concentration generally required for effective reconnaissance.
Again, reconnoitring Cavalry is only concerned with keeping in touch with the enemy, while protective Cavalry must remain in touch with its own army.
The distinction between these functions of Reconnaissance and Protection has become recognized of late years, owing to the increased importance of the Strategical direction of the large masses of troops now in the field, which are not easily diverted when once set in motion, and are more than ever dependent on their Lines of Communication. Their Commander needs constant and recent information about the enemy, by which to direct his movements and secure his flanks from attack. Hence has arisen the practice of providing two distinct bodies of Cavalry—the Independent Cavalry, for reconnaissance by independent action at a distance in front of the Army; and the Protective Cavalry, spread over a wide area along the front of the Army so as to form a screen.
In both cases the Cavalry effect the object by sending out squadrons, which furnish patrolling parties. The duty of these is not only to discover the enemy’s movements, but to make such arrangements for transmitting the information gained that it shall reach Head-Quarters with rapidity and certainty.
2. ARTILLERY
Artillery is the most powerful and far-reaching of the Arms in its fire effect, but cannot act by shock. It is the only Arm that can strike the others at such a distance that they cannot retaliate, and can injure material objects. Its morale is less liable than that of the other Arms to fail in battle, as Artillery is more dependent on the mechanical than the human element for its action. The guns, too—to which the personnel is attached by sentiment and duty—give a definite point to hold to when other troops are falling back. It is on all these grounds a valuable auxiliary to the other Arms.
DISADVANTAGES OF ARTILLERY
Artillery, however, is incapable of independent action—it must always be associated with the other Arms, as it is easily avoided or turned, and, when moving, is helpless against attack. It takes up a great deal of space in the column of march, as well as on the battlefield, where it requires advantageous positions to fire from, and cover for its horses and ammunition, both often difficult to find. Artillery is also very dependent on the weather and the nature of the country for its action, as it requires clear air and good light, and an absence of hills and woods, to allow the object and the effect of its fire to be observed. It also needs good roads, and is more obstructed by mud, ice, or snow on the march than are the other Arms.
3. ENGINEERS
Engineers, as a body of officers with men, were only introduced towards the end of the eighteenth century, but officers of that name had been employed for centuries on the Staff of Armies, especially at Sieges.
The Engineers are now sometimes styled “The Fourth Arm of the Service,” not so much because they are Combatant Troops, armed and trained like Infantry, as because their work on the battlefield is of interesting tactical importance.
The work with which Engineers with an Army in the Field are charged presents great scope and variety. It may be catalogued under the following headings:
(a) WORK WITH THE FIGHTING TROOPS
Pioneer Work on the march—i.e. making roads and removing obstacles; water supply; bridging of every sort; collecting, making, and using boats and rafts for ferrying.
Field Work on the battlefield—i.e. clearing the communications and field of fire; marking ranges; demolitions; obstacles; special earth-work (ordinary trench-work and gun-pits being made by the troops who use them).
Searchlights in the field.
Inter-communication Work—i.e. use of telegraphs, telephones, wireless, visual signalling, kites, captive balloons.
Aviation by balloon or airship.
Printing and lithography for Orders and Maps.
(b) WORK IN REAR OF THE FIGHTING TROOPS
Engineers are also charged with the following important work on the Lines of Communication:
Construction, repair, maintenance, and working of railways and telegraphs; provisional fortification of posts; camping grounds; formation of workshops and depôts of Engineer Stores; hutting and housing troops; providing hospitals, offices, and storehouses; water supply; roads. At sea bases, piers, wharves, and tramways will have to be provided, and perhaps dredging undertaken, and buoys, beacons, and lighthouses kept up. Engineers will also have to run any plant needed, such as that for providing ice for hospitals, cold storage, electric light and power, gas for balloons and lighting.
Engineers are employed in surveying, or mapping the country passed through by the Army, when this is required in the wilder theatres of operations, like the Indian Frontier.
Besides their duties with the Field Army, Engineers are as necessary as ever for the conduct of Sieges, and the defence of Fortresses, in which services they have constantly been employed for centuries.
4. INFANTRY
Infantry, now the principal Arm, has in modern times recovered the place which it held in the armies of the Ancient World, but lost in the Middle Ages when Horsemen were the Men-at-Arms, or the only fighting men worth considering.
Infantry has for three centuries formed the bulk of every army, being the easiest to raise and train, and the cheapest to equip and keep up, as well as the most useful, of all the Arms. On Infantry falls the brunt of the fighting, and the greatest toil in marching, while it endures the hardships of a campaign better than the mounted Arms. It can be used for attack or defence, in close or extended order, on any ground, and in any weather. Infantry can fight with its fire, at a distance from the enemy, like Artillery, as well as by shock, at close quarters, like Cavalry.
But Infantry is slow in movement, and without Cavalry cannot ascertain the operations of the enemy, and will therefore be ill-directed in its own; it is helpless in pursuit, and unable either to complete a victory or cover a retreat. The action, too, of Infantry fire is limited to the range of the rifle and the effect of the bullet, so that it finds in Artillery a useful auxiliary, owing to the greater effect of fire from guns, and the distance at which they can act. Hence Infantry is greatly assisted in its fighting by associating it with Cavalry and Artillery, just as Cavalry is aided by association with Artillery. It is essential, therefore, that not only every Army, but every Body of Troops which may have to fight independently, should have a due proportion of all Arms. This is the reason for organizing Armies in the higher Formations, provided with more than one Arm, as contrasted with the Units composed of one Arm only. The latter, however, are the basis of the higher Formations, and their composition and strength must be considered before describing how they are grouped into larger bodies. Therefore the Organization of the Units of each Arm will form the subject of the next chapter.
