Having arrived at the piquet position, indicate a position on the right and on the left where other piquets are supposed to be and proceed with:—
(b) Duties of outpost sentries.—These are given in I.T., 152. Post as many groups as will use up the whole strength in places which would need watching on service; if there are not enough such places near by, then merely for the purpose of this semi-drill, post two or more groups close together. A group consists of one or two men on duty, and their reliefs, who lie down near them. These groups are relieved every eight or twelve hours. Let it be understood that the position of their own piquet is occupied by the reliefs of these groups and of patrols, and it is a good plan to show the position by a flag. The sentries must see without being seen, know where other groups are, where their own and other piquets are, be told to challenge and halt anyone approaching as in I.T., 152 (3), and what to do if attacked. Let them do this to you personally, as if you were someone not belonging to the troops, and impress on them that they must be careful to teach it to their men so that no stranger may ever be allowed to get close to a group, and to shoot if he does not halt. Neglect of this simple rule has led to many mishaps in all armies. Concealment is not easy, but must be got somehow—by artifice, if the ground is unfavourable. After putting all through “sentry go” close to the groups and teach them:—
(c) Patrolling, for which see I.T., 111 and 156. Patrols are not meant for fighting, but to get information or watch dangerous places. But they may have to fight to avoid capture, and they do no good by walking blindly into an ambush. To bring back information or news that the enemy are coming on, it is evidently essential that whatever happens to the rest of the party, one man at least should always be able to escape, and to avoid ambush the patrol should move in a formation which will prevent a surprise overwhelming the whole party. In short, one portion must scout, and the other be prepared to cover their movement and help them to get away, if possible, but in any case to get away itself and carry news of the enemy. But patrols must be limited in strength, or they will not be able to escape notice, and must make up for their weakness by cunning and stealthiness of movement.
For patrolling by day, tell off the whole strength into patrols of four or six men, one of whom will command in each patrol. Let each take up the formation it would usually adopt; that is, one or two files in advance, followed by the rest at a distance sufficient to prevent the surprise of the whole by one and the same opening of fire. Teach the method advocated for movement across country, i.e., a careful but rapid advance from one cover to another, also how to approach suspicious localities. The leading file halts and looks for any signs of the enemy; meanwhile the rear file comes nearly up to it; the leading file then moves forward while the rear file lies down with rifles loaded and sighted, ready to fire at once to cover the others if the enemy shows himself. If the locality to be searched can be outflanked, the leading files should move round one or both flanks before closing in on it. If it is one that cannot be outflanked, as, for instance, a straight edge of a large wood, they should approach it under cover, creeping up a hedgerow perhaps, and so get inside. If there is no cover they may try some ruse to draw the enemy’s fire before getting too close, halting as if they had seen something, shading the eyes with the hand, pointing and then starting to run back as if alarmed, which might lead the enemy to open fire to prevent their escape. But it is rather hard to get men to do this play-acting unless there is a real force of “Blue” or “Red” enemy against them. The commander of the patrol, when approaching any place, should tell his men what they are to do if it is seen to be held by the enemy, i.e., to lie still and watch, or retire. If the latter, he should fix some place in rear where the patrol could rally after getting out of harm’s way.
Show them how to look over a ridge, wall, or hedge, without attracting notice, taking off their headdress and raising the head slowly, keeping the rest of the body carefully under cover, and also to move unseen, keeping in the shadow of hedges or roadside trees, and covering up any polished metal work of their uniform; to lie up on any place that commands a good view, and look long and carefully all over the country to catch sight of anything. Finally to report what they see, and to do this at once, if there is need, by sending one, or better, if the patrol can spare them, two men back to the piquet with a written report, the rest still remaining in observation. Without having an actual force opposing you, you can only do this exercise with some appearance of reality by giving out verbal situations to the patrol. Thus: “Go and reconnoitre that wood which an enemy may be holding.” On this the patrol would get into formation and move forward. Then, when approaching the wood, “You have seen small parties of the enemy beyond the wood both on its right and left, and they are perhaps in the wood also; try and get into it unseen,” if there is any cover, or, if not, “show what you would do to draw their fire before getting close.” Then “the wood is held by the enemy, withdraw your patrol if you can.” As the patrol attempts to retire “a heavy fire is opened on you as you retire, showing that there is at least a company in the wood, your first duty is to send news of this to your piquet—how and whom would you send, and how would you frame your message?”
(d) Duties on piquet.—Close the platoon and take it to the place where the piquet is to be. A piquet on arrival at its position has at once to strengthen the position against attack, and this without waiting for orders (I.T., 151 (4)). But as we are here only training the non-commissioned officers in their duties we will not ask them actually to dig trenches or make loop-holes and entanglements; indeed, this, as one may term it, executive work, has its proper place in “Defence.” Bearing in mind, then, that we are dealing with a day outpost, ask or show the platoon how to strengthen the position. Bring out a few picks and let them spitlock on the ground the lines of any trenches that might be needed, paying great attention to the siting of the trench so that fire could be brought over all the ground in front. Let them indicate with exactness where and how they would improve and adapt existing cover. Great regard need not be had to the number of men in the piquet, as outposts, if attacked, should make as much show of force as possible, and it does good and not harm if there are alternative loop-holes facing in different directions; also accommodation must be provided for the support. The commander should look for ground outside the outpost line from which enfilade rifle or artillery fire might be brought to bear on him, and mark how he would protect his men from it by traverses, breaking the line of loop-holes into short lengths, keeping under lee of existing cover and so on. The strengthening of the piquet must be done with the aid of common-sense. It will seldom be enough to propose to dig one bit of trench all in one piece and hope the enemy will be good enough to come and knock his head against it. Cover may be made or adapted in several separate groups, if this is needed, so as to make it possible to bring fire to bear on any part of the ground in front. The piquet must be prepared to make as brave a show as possible, therefore the commander, while strengthening the point near which his piquet is to rest, must decide what he will do if attacked. Probably there will be within the limits of his piquet’s frontage one or two other points which might be useful for defence, and he must not expect attack just from one direction. With regard to such alternative positions he should settle when and how he will use them, and whether he can afford time and men to strengthen them, and, last but not least, whether he will be able to get men from one to the other if the enemy does develop a strong attack. If he can do all these he will have added immensely to his power of defence, provided he handles his men skilfully, as he will be able to hold one position till the enemy thinks he has defined its location, then dodge to another, while they will go on firing at the old one, and so make his piquet appear many times stronger than it is. Concealment of the defence is very important, and the non-commissioned officers should be reminded that this must be attended to. They may forget it as there is no actual digging.
(e) Duties in Piquet.—The position of the piquet and alternative defence positions having been fixed, and trenches or other defences marked out on the position, and on the alternative positions if any, assemble the platoon at the piquet and show the non-commissioned officers how to tell off reliefs and other duties. Each group furnished by the piquet consists of three to eight men, and mounts one or two men as sentry, as the circumstances of the post require (I.T., 152 (3)), the sentry, single or double, being relieved in turn by the others of the group. The whole group is under command of the senior soldier or a non-commissioned officer. The men who are to form the reliefs of the groups stay with the piquet, which usually is composed solely of the reliefs of groups and patrols. Extra men who have no specific duties are not advisable unless the position is very exposed. Suppose your group sentries are single, and the groups of three men each, and relieved every eight hours, then for every group posted and in position there will be six men in the piquet resting and waiting their turn, each group thus needing a total of nine men—three out, six in. Patrols start from the piquet or support, as the commander of the company directs, and the piquet commander may send them out on his own initiative, if he thinks it needful. As they are practically all on duty as long as they are out, a turn of four hours is enough for them, or, rather, a third of the daylight time. Take your patrols from this piquet to be four strong, there will be for each patrol eight men in the piquet and four out on patrol, a total of twelve needed to furnish each patrol.
In telling off a piquet on the above conditions of relief, and before dismissing the men to rest, the commander must pay attention to two main points. Firstly, he must tell off the reliefs, and give each relief a place to rest in. Men on outpost are usually tired and need all the rest they can get, especially if they are up all night. Therefore reliefs should be kept together and rest in one place, so that the commander can find them at once without stirring up the others to see who’s who. Secondly, the men must be told off to alarm posts, which they are to occupy in case of attack—each relief and each man of it should be given a position on the entrenchment which he is to hold. To ensure that they will do this at once and without confusion they should be made to go to these places and occupy them before being dismissed. There will then be no needless running about with consequent casualties if fire, either of artillery or infantry, suddenly opens.
Say you have sixteen rifles (non-commissioned officers and others) in your instructional piquet give out that it is to furnish—
1 Sentry over the piquet.
2 Groups of three men each, Nos. 1 and 2.
2 Patrols of four men each, Nos. 1 and 2.