As to the methods of holding the trench against an infantry attack, it will be evident that the men must take up their position on the firing step and fire as rapidly and as steadily as they can. Bombs should be kept and thrown only when the enemy has got well within range for them. Machine guns can do effective work of course and the artillery should be communicated with and they will open fire with shrapnel. Where ammunition permits, a barrage or curtain of fire should then be established behind the enemy's front line to prevent him bringing up reserves to take the place of those that have fallen, and also to weaken him for the time when a counter attack on him has to be made. Star shells, that illuminate the ground, will of course have been fired to give the machine gunners and the rifle marksmen a better chance to find their targets.
Obedience, steadiness and tenacity are required of the men, and only training and experience will develop these excellent soldierly qualities. The poor type of soldier will either forget to use his weapon altogether or else fire wildly and uselessly. An infantry attack is not a pleasant experience, but soldiers must be taught to expect it, and that it will probably give them the opportunity of using the final and greatest weapon of the infantryman—the bayonet.
CHAPTER XI
THE ATTACK—OFFENCE
Trenches can only be considered as devices for affording temporary protection during the time that preparations are being made for delivering an attack. No one wants to remain in trenches for ever. At the best it is a miserable kind of life, and from a military point of view, it gets nowhere. Nor is it capable of being maintained without great loss in men. So costly did it become to us, and so great was the monotony and the feeling of helplessness, that we welcomed the word when it came to us to deliver an attack. At least that would bring us action, and give a variety to life.
During the first year of the war, attacks had almost always to be made without sufficient artillery preparation. Even at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, where we assembled over 480 guns on a little more than a mile of front—a greater collection than had ever been got together in history—we had not sufficient artillery preparation for the attack that was to be made. There were enough guns but not enough shells to fire from them. The result was that much of the enemy's wire was still intact when the infantry rushed over, and the advance was held up in certain important points where we could be enfiladed.
We have learnt that the only method of delivering an infantry attack against prepared positions is to give them a thorough hammering with shells. Every particle of wire should be destroyed, so as to eliminate the risk of men being shot down as they attempt to pass through it. At the Battle of Loos our guns bombarded their lines from Monday morning to Saturday morning, and kept hammering at them so as not to give them a chance to repair either their wire or their parapets. An effective curtain of fire was established at the same time to render it impossible for them to bring food and supplies up to the line that we were about to attack. For the last ten minutes before the men actually went over the parapet, there was a perfect tornado of shells falling upon and behind their lines. Any one who remained at his post alive during the previous days would find it almost impossible to continue there during this deluge.
If the artillery preparation is adequate, the battle is half over. General Haig's successes on the Somme, and the consequent German retreat on a large scale, have been due, in the first place to the excellent work of the gunners. Of course the gunners themselves have been dependent on many other branches of the service pre-eminent among which is the aeroplane corps. Targets are seldom seen by the gunners who have to depend for their information on the men who can fly ahead and come back with actual photographs of the positions to be bombarded. Too great emphasis cannot be placed upon the work of these gallant flying men. During the battles of the Somme, they have not only been doing this reconnaissance work for the gunners, but they have been flying very low after they reached the enemy territory and using their machine guns on the advancing or retreating infantry. So low did they fly, indeed, that the enemy did not risk firing upon them with their guns for fear of hitting their own men. They were fairly safe as far as the opposing infantry was concerned for the man in the machine is well protected from below and at the sides from rifle bullets.
While the artillery is active, the junior artillery, the bomb gunners must also get to work to throw over as much H. E. as possible to break down the resistance of the enemy.