Captain Harvey: “Under those circumstances, I would have my patrol take cover and let the enemy patrol go on by.”
The Director: “That would be the logical thing to do. Now, let us assume that the enemy are the point of an advance guard. What would you do?”
Captain Harvey: “In that event I would open fire on them immediately.”
The Director: “What would be your object in doing that?”
Captain Harvey: “By opening fire I give warning to our outpost that the enemy is advancing and I delay him because he will have to stop and make more or less reconnaissance before proceeding.”
The Director: “Captain Hodges, do you agree with that solution?”
Captain Hodges: “No, sir. This is a reconnoitering patrol. Its mission is to get information of the enemy’s strength and composition. If we fire on the point of this advance guard, all hope of getting any information of what is behind it is gone. It will not take the advance party commander very long to discover that we are only a patrol and he will simply run over us. Sufficient patrols will be sent out to the flanks to keep us away and we will get no information of any value to our own commander. I most certainly would not fire on the enemy at this time.”
The Director: “What action would you take?”
Captain Hodges: “I would wait a few minutes to try and determine the strength of the enemy’s advance party. This would give me a general line on his strength. I would then send my leading man, who has seen the enemy himself, back to the support commander as fast as he could go with the information we have. This would be a verbal message. I would have no chance to write it out. I would then conduct the rest of my patrol off to the —— flank under cover with a view to working around abreast of the enemy’s main body to secure information of his strength and composition. I would keep in contact with him to try and discover the direction of his deployment and what his intentions are. I would make strenuous efforts to get all of this information back to my support commander.”
The Director: “Those are the points I wanted to bring out. I do not think our patrol would be justified in opening fire on the enemy under the circumstances. We will assume that the enemy troops are a patrol, and that we have decided to avoid them and let them go on by. Just how would you go about that task, Captain James?”