One learns to adapt one’s self even to quick-firing guns and incredible rifle-ranges. It has been mathematically demonstrated that, with the rifles now in the hands of the German infantry, a bullet fired from a distance of three hundred yards will pass right through five men standing closely one behind the other and lodge in the body of the sixth. But men in battle line no longer stand closely one behind the other, nor even closely side by side. Even in what is considered a thick firing line they stand about three feet apart.
Infantry Embarking
I have said that the modern idea is to give more play to the individual. Within certain limits the men choose their own position, find the proper rests for their rifles, get each the range for himself, determine the speed of their own fire and use their own judgment in the economizing of ammunition. They are expected to advance according as they see their opportunity.
A glance at the methods of training the infantry will give some idea of the care and thoroughness with which the Germans have made their preparations for war. The old drill has not been entirely abandoned—indeed, some military critics think that there is still too much of the goose-step marching and of the parade tricks. But these have lost their old importance and the tendency of late years is toward the most realistic representation of the circumstances and problems of actual combat. The parade-ground has given place to the maneuvering field, acres and miles in extent. For the first time in Germany, this autumn, whole army corps were to have engaged in mock combat with one another.
Building a Pontoon Bridge
In the ordinary rifle practise the men are taught first to shoot well individually, then in groups and detachments, next in whole troops and companies and finally in conjunction with cavalry and artillery. They are made to adapt themselves to the most unfamiliar and unusual surroundings. Even the targets are of the most varied description: targets that fall to the ground when hit, targets that burst, targets surrounded by smoking objects or colored fires so that there will be some of the semblance of battle, fixed targets and targets that move or that float in the air, targets that have been lying flat on the ground but that suddenly appear here and there like an enemy issuing from the bushes. The rifleman must learn never to be surprised at anything, but to keep his eyes open in all directions.
The German army rifle is of a type first introduced in 1888, and so much improved in 1898 that it is now known as the ninety-eight gun. All the infantry carry the same, for there is no longer any essential distinction between musketeers, fusileers and grenadiers. It is a quick-loading rifle which renders it possible to take aim and shoot as many as twenty-five times a minute. The caliber is seven and nine-tenths millimeters, a fact which may not at first seem to the American reader of great importance, but which becomes more interesting when it is realized that this is the smallest caliber which will inflict sufficient injury on an enemy to make its use profitable. In other words, if it does not kill him at once it will put him out of the fight and keep him out for a reasonable time. It was found in the Russian-Japanese War that a smaller bullet could, and in a number of cases did, pass through a foeman’s body without rendering him hors de combat, and that no less than forty per cent. of all wounded were back with their troops in three months.
