(See sketch reverse side.)
Caution.—Remember that “your own troops” means friendly supporting troops and not the troops of which you are in immediate command.
CHAPTER III
PROBLEMS IN THE COMPOSITION OF THE FIELD MESSAGE
“An intrinsically good tactical exercise,” says Griepenkerl,[2] “loses by faulty composition and careless or illegible handwriting.... A rambling mode of expression, a long-winded, elaborate style, is unmilitary. Therefore, test your order to see whether you cannot cross out some superfluous word, or whether you cannot think of some shorter and more suitable mode of expression; grudge every word.”
But he goes on to say in another place that clearness takes precedence over brevity; “therefore, rather use a long expression where a shorter one might be misunderstood. Brevity must never lead to superficiality.”
Griepenkerl was speaking of orders. Yet our Field Service Regulations state that “most of the rules adopted to secure clearness in orders apply equally to messages.”
In the following problems which are designed for practice in framing field messages, we should adhere not only to Griepenkerl’s advice, but also to the hints, forms, and cautions of Chapters I and II. Remember that each time a faulty form or expression is used, some commanding officer is halted or hindered, retarded or confused. The highest premium should be placed upon correct form and expression.
With the selection of material from the purposely misleading and sometimes ill-stated problems below, you may, however, have difficulty. Certainly all of the long narrative, often in soldier jargon, cannot be placed in the message. Some facts must be eliminated as unessential. What you should let your commanding officer know can be determined sometimes only by technical experience. However, Major General Morrison’s[3] caution along this line should be repeated here for your help: “We all recognize the fact that, as a rule, the sooner information reaches headquarters, the more valuable it is. But this applies only to information which really has value. If you are in doubt as to whether or not information would be valuable, give headquarters the benefit of the doubt and send it in.” So you see that if you are not quite decided about stating a detail, it is better to give the information than to withhold it. Therefore, exclude only those items which would on the ground of common sense be pointless.
In extracting and writing your messages from the problems given, it will be assumed that you do not know whether or not the recipient is provided with a map similar to your own. It may be taken for granted, however, that he is acquainted with the names which appear on your map.