Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Cavalry of the Army / of the United States 1917. To be also used by Engineer Companies (Mounted) for Cavalry Instruction and Training

by United States. War Department

Firing stops; rifles not already there are brought to the position of load, the cut-off turned down if firing from magazine, the cartridge is drawn or the empty shell is ejected, the trigger is pulled, sights are laid down, and the rifle is brought to the order.

Cease firing is used for long pauses to prepare for changes of position or to steady the men.

140. Commands for suspending or ceasing fire may be given at any time after the preparatory command for firing whether the firing has actually commenced or not.

TARGET DESIGNATION.

141. In the training of men in the mechanism of the firing line, they should be practiced in repeating to one another target and aiming point designations and in quickly locating and pointing out a designated target. They should be taught to distinguish, from a prone position, distant objects, particularly troops, both with the naked eye and with field glasses.

Owing to the invariable custom of attempting to conceal fire trenches, it is necessary to have some ready method of indicating the exact location of an indistinct pit or trench occupied or supposed to be occupied by an enemy in order that effective fire may be opened. The so-called clock system furnishes one of the simplest devices for so doing. Two methods of applying this system are indicated below.

First method: That in which an imaginary clock dial is assumed to be horizontal, its center at the firing point and the center-XII line of the dial perpendicular to the front of the firing line.

To designate a target the commander announces, for example: Target at 11 o'clock, range 800 yards, a trench. Each man looks along the center-11 o'clock line of his imaginary dial, estimates the distance (800 yards) along that line, and thereby locates the trench.

In this method it is necessary that the target be visible to the naked eye and that each man be able to estimate distances with fair accuracy.

Second method: That in which an imaginary clock dial is assumed to be vertical, its center being at a prominent, distant point selected by the commander and called the reference point.