Reports cover a wide range of subjects. When a leader is in doubt as to whether an event is important enough to report, he had better take the wise course and send in his description of what has happened. Very few occurrences in the military service are so unessential as to be rightfully ignored.
They may take either one of two forms: either they may be dated, headed “Report on so-and-so” (see example on following), and inclosed with a letter of transmittal; or they may themselves be in the form of letters addressed directly to the person or office for whom they are destined.
Reports may consist of expository description on the one hand or of a narration on the other, but they usually consist of a combination of the two.
Here is an example of highly expository description. It is the report upon the German raid which was given us under Operation Orders.
In the field, 12th April, 1916.
Captain Wagener’s Report on the Raid on the Evening
of 11th April, 1916
At 4 p. m. the raiding party marched from Martinpuich through Pozières, then by the Lattorf Graben—Regimentstrichter—Krebs Graben to the Appointed dug-outs on the left of Sap No. 3, where the evening meal was found ready prepared.
At 8 p. m. the artillery preparation commenced as prearranged. Shortly after fire was opened, the whole of the enemy’s position from Windmühle to Besenhecke was wrapped in greyish-white smoke, which the wind drove back over Sap No. 3 into our lines.
By 8.10 p. m. it was impossible to remain in our trench east of Sap No. 3 without wearing a gas mask. This was still the case at 8.20 p. m., when the patrols moved forward from their dug-outs to the Hohlweg, in the order Stradtmann, Dumas, Böhlefeld, and Freund. Lieutenant Boenig followed close behind Lieutenant Stradtmann.