A company marching alone on a road should move in the same formation as when forming an advanced guard, but will also cover its rear with a few scouts.
Night Advances and Night Attacks.
The formations adopted in night advances and night attacks will vary with the ground, the nature of the operation, and the activity of the enemy; it is, therefore, necessary to train the company to move at night in all possible formations, both in double and single rank. The men should be constantly practised in forming company, platoon, and sections in single rank to either flank, when moving in file or single file. In a close country like England it is constantly necessary to move in fours or file, and it is essential that the company should be able to form up with rapidity and precision. When moving in line in double rank it is advisable that a distance of about five paces should be kept between ranks, otherwise if a front rank man stumbles his rear rank man will fall over him.
When a company is acting alone, even in open country, it is best to keep it fairly well concentrated until the position of deployment is reached, and in a close country, where fences have to be passed at intervals, it is generally necessary to move in fours or file.
The following formation has proved to be handy, and, if the men have been well trained, they will have no difficulty in forming up rapidly on the darkest night. Two platoons, each in single file, advance side by side, followed at about 20 paces distance by the other two platoons in the same formation. In the event of alarm, the platoons form up on the right and left respectively, and the company then stands in column of half companies in single rank at about 60 paces distance.
Whatever formation is used, the front, flanks and rear must be covered by scouts, whose distance away will vary with the light. Protection in rear is very important, yet is often neglected. I have on more than one occasion seen a night operation completely disorganised by a bold attack delivered against the rear of the column by a party of the enemy, who, in the absence of scouts, had approached unnoticed.
The Field Service Regulations direct that before the position of assembly is quitted the orders are to be clearly explained to all ranks, so that everyone may know:
1. The object in view and the direction of the objective.
2. The formation to be adopted at the position of deployment.
3. The part he has to play.
4. His action in case the enemy is not surprised; also that the warnings against firing, talking, striking matches, smoking, etc., are to be repeated two or three times.
In training a company the prohibitions here alluded to will, of course, be most rigidly enforced at all times. It must always be remembered that as men are trained in peace so will they act in war, and the officer who, from carelessness or good nature, allows his men to disregard these obvious precautions may inculcate habits of slackness calculated to have most serious results on service.
The situation of the position of deployment will depend on the strength of the attacking force, and the alertness of the enemy; the smaller the force the nearer to the enemy’s position will this point be fixed. A company can usually get within 300 yards of the enemy’s posts without difficulty.