II. Use of Specialists
The following table shows the evolution of infantry armament since the beginning of the war:
| At Beginning of War | |
| Rifle and bayonet | Nearly total personnel |
| Hand grenades | Nil |
| Rifle grenade guns | Nil |
| Automatic rifles | Nil |
| Present Time | |
| Hand grenadiers per Co. | 48 |
| Rifle grenadiers per Co. | 24 |
| Automatic rifles per Co. | 16 |
Outside the company is the 37 mm. gun in the battalion and trench mortars and engines, permanent equipment of the trenches.
In the Defensive
Hand Grenades. Hand grenades are used to produce a short-range defensive barrage at a distance of about 30 yards in front of the trenches. For this purpose one grenade thrower is required for from 10 to 16 yards of frontage.
They are also used to establish centers of resistance; to protect important features of the lines, such as salients, machine gun or automatic rifle posts, command posts, listening posts, etc.
They are used to defend a barricade in a communicating trench. In this latter case the grenades may be thrown from a special bombing post established for that purpose or from an adjoining trench.
Rifle Grenades. Rifle grenades are employed to establish a barrage at a greater range than that of the hand grenade, being used up to as great a distance as 300 yards. The great advantage of the rifle grenade barrage is that it is under the control of the platoon leader and can be called into service immediately, which is not always true of the artillery barrage.
Several grenade rifles concentrated on a trench will stop hand grenade throwing from the same. Rifle grenades are usually shot from the cover trench immediately in rear of the fire trench.
Automatic-Machine Rifles. In the defensive the A.M.R’s are usually employed to obtain flanking fire from the firing line, but may be used in the cover trench and sometimes in shallow holes out in front. In interior fighting they are used to cover stretches of communicating trenches against an enemy that has penetrated the first line.
Riflemen. The riflemen are placed in the intervals between the specialists in the firing line. They are also used as snipers and as sentinels. These sentinels are not to be confused with watchers, who may or may not carry rifles.
In the Offensive
Hand Grenades. In the offensive, hand grenades are used to reach the enemy under cover in trenches, etc., by high-angle throwing. It is an excellent weapon to clear out the trenches that the assaulting columns are advancing against. The H. G. and the R. G. break the resistance, so to speak, of the line that the attack is to capture and the assaulting troops are to occupy and hold. The places of the hand grenadiers in the assaulting column are seen in the diagram.
The hand grenade is the principal weapon in trench combat—that is, to obtain progress laterally and in depth in the trenches after a breach has been made at one point, as every foot of trench has to be fought for. Each section of trench, between traverses, is cleared of the enemy by throwing H. G’s into it. It is then occupied and the next section cleared and occupied in a similar manner.
In a raid on the enemy’s trenches hand grenades are used to clear up the particular stretch of trenches before the raiding party jumps into them. This will be taken up in detail later.
Rifle Grenades. The rifle grenade in the offensive is employed similarly to the hand grenade, to reach an enemy under cover, but at a greater distance.
It is used to help reduce all nests of resistance that the assaulting infantry runs up against, and when the artillery barrage is not obtainable for that purpose.
They may be used as a barrage to cut off the retreat of a small group of the enemy that is being attacked in front.
Rifle grenades are very useful against counterattacks, especially before machine guns can be brought up and the defensive artillery barrage obtained.
The A. M. R. The A. M. R., with its great mobility and ease of control, makes it possible to carry this weapon in the assault and to be used immediately the wave is halted for any reason. In this connection, it can be instantly employed against a nest of resistance.
It is used in the assault to protect the flanks of the assaulting waves, especially when stopped.
As the A. M. R’s are brought up in the first wave, they are immediately available against counterattacks upon the captured position. In a similar manner they are employed to hold ground gained until an artillery barrage can be obtained to support it and before the machine guns come up.
The Riflemen. The riflemen, with bayonets fixed, do the necessary fighting in the interior of the enemy’s position. As was stated before, the H. G. and the R. G. break the enemy’s resistance and the rifleman does the hand-to-hand fighting required to occupy the objective lines of trenches.
To make a little résumé, we may say that the best results will be obtained by the proper combination of all of these weapons. The low trajectory weapons (rifle, A. M. R., H. G., and the 37 mm. gun) concentrate on everything that shows itself above the trenches; while the high-angle missiles (H. G. and R. G.) seek out the enemy under cover. The riflemen complete the success of the specialists by rushing forward and occupying the enemy’s position and fighting hand to hand for it if necessary.