If the authors of this text were requested to select for you the most important of all information that you will receive during your instruction at a training camp, they would advise you to take home that contained in this chapter. If you have learned fully so much you will have done well. If you have failed to comprehend as much as this, you will have returned to your homes lacking in important knowledge.
If you are on the battle-field and propose to crush the other side (defeat the enemy), you have got to do one thing: you have got to make your rifle fire better than his, and you have got to keep it better.
The proposition is this: The enemy is on the defense. He is in a number-one, first-class trench. It is constructed with steel, concrete, and sandbags. It has all the improvements that science can devise. Your business is to attack and crush the enemy. How can you advance over exposed ground against such a position? The man behind all those modern improvements has got to stick his head up more or less when he fires. If the volume and rate and accuracy of your fire is greater than his, he will grow timid about the matter. His fire will become less effective. That is to say, he cannot have fire superiority. When your side has fire superiority, it not only can advance upon such a position but it can do so without ruinous losses, and with hope of success.
To obtain this fire superiority it is necessary to produce a heavier volume of accurate fire than your opponent can produce. We can get a proper conception of the ideas involved by imagining two firemen in a fight armed with hose. One has a larger hose and a greater water pressure than the other. All else being equal, we can foresee clearly who will be the victor and who will be defeated. The more water one throws into the other's face, the less accurate and effective will the other's aim become. This is equally true with bullets. Put a man on the target range, where no danger whatsoever is involved, and he may fire with a nice degree of accuracy. Put him on the battle-field with a great number of bullets whizzing around his head, and he must be a trained veteran to fire with the same accuracy. This is true simply because we have been made that way.
The volume and accuracy of fire depend upon several considerations: (a) Of primary importance is the number of rifles employed. Let us imagine a battle-line one mile long. It is obvious that we cannot have one man firing behind another. We don't want to destroy our own men. They must, therefore, be placed side by side. Each man must have sufficient room to operate his rifle. Experience tells us that we must not have more than one man per yard. We thus see that our battle-line of a mile can only have about eighteen hundred rifles. (b) The rate of fire affects its volume; an excessive rate reduces its accuracy. If you were hunting tigers, you can easily imagine where one well-aimed and well-timed shot could be of more use to you and more harm to the tiger than half a dozen shots fired too rapidly. (c) If the target is large, is clear (can be easily seen), and is but a short distance from you, your fire, for reasons that do not require explanations, can be more rapid. Greater density increases the effect. Suppose a hundred deer were grazing on a hill; you would be more likely to kill some deer than if only a half dozen were there. (d) The position of the target influences the effect of fire. Suppose that ten men were lined up in a row against a wall and that it is your business to kill the lot with a rifle. If you are in front of them, ten shots at least will be required. But it is possible for you to take a position in prolongation of the line (on its flank) and kill the entire number with one bullet. (This also illustrates the extreme vulnerability of flanks.)
What are the important steps that must be taken if you are going to get this fire superiority? 1st, Fire Direction. 2d, Fire Control. 3d, Fire Discipline.
FIRE DIRECTION
A company that cannot start firing or stop firing, that cannot fire faster or slower, that cannot distribute equally its fire over an opposing target, that cannot switch its fire from one place to another and make bull's-eyes, would be as unsuccessful in battle to-day as Harvard's football team would be, without practice, in its final game with Yale. The team work in no department of athletics is as necessary or vital as that of a military force, the teamwork of a military machine. The first is a sport, a limited time being involved. The second is a question of life and death to the nation.
It requires a nice and cool judgment, under actual conditions of war, to point out and distribute properly the target to the different groups, to find the exact range, and give all these instructions (directions) that will be necessary to produce an effective fire upon the enemy. Who is responsible for giving these instructions (fire direction), and exactly what are all the conditions that must be fulfilled in order that each individual on the firing line may know exactly where and how to fire?
The captain (company commander) is responsible for all. In the military world there is no such thing as shifting responsibilities. The commander assumes full responsibility, whether things go right or wrong. He must handle his job through his subordinates (platoon leaders). 1st, He points out the target to his platoon leaders. 2d, He assigns a part of the target to each platoon, in such a manner that the entire target (objective) will be covered (fired upon). 3d, He determines and gives the men the distance to the objective (range). 4th, He indicates the kind of fire to be employed (that is, whether each man will fire as he pleases, fire five shots and then stop, et cetera). 5th, He indicates when the company is to commence firing. 6th, Thereafter the captain observes what effect his company's fire is producing, and corrects flagrant (material) errors. He prevents the exhaustion of his ammunition and distributes such extra ammunition as may be received from the rear.