7. On May 13, 1922, you are Major Gerald Pendelton of the 1st Battalion, 43d Infantry. You have been ordered by your regimental commander to establish by a line of your own troops a defensive position facing east from the 4 (exclusive) in 664 east of Hamilton, D-8, to the southeast corner of the orchard (inclusive), five hundred yards northwest of Stock Farm. At five minutes to ten at night you have formed your line as ordered and are beginning to entrench. You are proceeding with your work when a messenger from B Company on the left flank tells you that G Company of the 2d Battalion has arrived at the 4 in 664, and that at ten minutes to ten the right flank of that company was beginning to dig. Seven minutes later another messenger from A Company arrives with similar information concerning Company E, 2d Battalion, 47th Infantry; he states that the left flank of that company at thirteen minutes to ten started to dig twenty yards south of the corner of the orchard. You go over your lines correcting positions here and there and start to send a message at twenty-five minutes to eleven. The order of your interior companies is, left to right, C, D.
CHAPTER V
VERBAL FIELD MESSAGE
OBSERVATION—ATTENTION—EXPOSITION
There are occasions when it becomes proper not to write the field message, but to speak it. If the enemy is strong and active, so that a bearer of information runs grave risk of capture, the message is safer as a verbal one. In the case of the written one, both message and messenger are lost; in the case of the verbal one, only the messenger. Therefore, it is best to entrust the information to the care of the messenger’s mind. The facts deposited there should remain in readiness for the first opportunity of delivery.
There are times, too, when no chance is offered to write a message on account of the pressure of the enemy. The attention of a leader may be so occupied with warding off, or moving away from, strong hostile bodies, that work with pencil and paper becomes an impossibility.
The form of the written field message must be abbreviated. The gist of the Heading and Ending must be stated by the messenger upon his arrival at his destination; and the Body must be contracted into one or two sentences depending upon the accuracy and intelligence of the messenger. Where officers are messengers the message may be lengthened. For our purpose and practice we must attempt the shorter form.
The usual procedure in sending off a verbal message may be represented by the following dialogue:
Patrol Leader (or Commander): “Swinton, go back at once to the Commanding Officer of our Outpost and say,—