Night Operations for Infantry / Compiled for the Use of Company Officers

Night Operations For Infantry
COMPILED FOR THE USE OF COMPANY OFFICERS
BY Brig.-General C. T. DAWKINS, C.B., C.M.G.
LONDON: GALE & POLDEN, LTD.,
2, Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, E.C. Wellington Works, Aldershot, also at Nelson House, Portsmouth. Obtainable from all Booksellers.
ONE AND SIXPENCE (NET)
ALDERSHOT: PRINTED BY GALE & POLDEN Ltd. WELLINGTON WORKS. 1916.
P. 3,093. ( All Rights Reserved ).

For this reason it seems to me to be most important that we should establish a systematic method of training our men. It is an axiom that in order to master any subject properly the student must first be instructed in its elementary details, and it is in this respect that at present our system fails. During the annual course of training a few night operations are carried out by companies, by battalions, and by brigades, but during the rest of the year little attention is paid to night work, and, in many units, at any rate, no attempt is made during the winter to give the soldier that elementary instruction which is indispensable to fit him to take an intelligent part in operations in the dark.
It must be remembered that many of our men up to the time of their enlistment have passed their lives entirely in large towns, and have rarely been beyond the range of street lamps. Such men, when first taken out in the dark, are helpless; they start at every shadow, stumble even on level ground, make a terrible amount of noise, and are generally in such a state of nervous excitement that they are hardly responsible for their actions. Yet these same men, by a short course of careful, individual instruction, can be trained to work together with confidence on the darkest night, and when once they have gained confidence their further instruction is comparatively easy.