Robert Baden-Powell - Quick Training For War

Quick Training For War

Sir Robert Baden-Powell

1914

Kindle Edition

Ebook Production by Loose Cannon Enterprises

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TRAINING

FOR WAR

A FEW PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

ILLUSTRATED BY DIAGRAMS

BY LIET.GEN

SIR ROBERT BADEN-POWELL, K.C.B.

DEDICATED TO THE YOUNG OFFICERS

AND MEN WHO HAVE COME FORWARD

IN THEIR COUNTRY'S DEFENCE

MCMXIV

P LEASE do not think that this little book is intended as a substitute, in the form of Potted Tactics, for the excellent training manuals issued by the War Officebecause it is not.

The principles contained in these books require to be fully mastered by every officer and N.C.O. who wants to train his men and to gain their confidence, and therefore their obedience, on service.

But the present crisis demands a quicker development of some sort of efficiency for the field than is laid down in those books, and therefore I have attempted to give in the following pages a few suggestions from practical experience to this end, and towards developing that spirit which is described in those manuals as the essential part of military training.

Since the men are as keen to learn as the officers are to teach I should be glad if these hints may be found helpful, not only to the officers and N.C.O.s in training, but also to the men in learning their work as defenders of their country.

R OBERT B ADEN- P OWELL.

THE MAKING OF AN ARMY

The Raw MaterialsThe Inner Meaning of DrillMutual Sizing UpOfficers and Men'The Necessity for DrillSuccess in WarThe German Emperor on our Alphabetical Methods

THE FOUR CS OF SOLDIERING

1. COURAGE.

The Development of CourageConfidence in YourselfMarksmanshipJudging DistanceConfidence in your HorsemanshipConfidence in your PalsConfidence in your LeadersMachine-made DisciplineHealth as a Step to CourageHow to Inculcate CourageThe German Emperor on AttackSavinq Your Men

THE FOUR CS OF SOLDIERING

2. COMMON SENSE.

The Triangular FormationA Typical Cavalry FightThe Boers at MajubaThe Importance of Covering FireThe Common-sense Use of CavalryTrenches and Defence WorksThe C.S. TrenchSand-bag DefencesCommon-sense DodginessBridging RiversComfort in CampGiving Orders ClearlyConcealmentHow to Inculcate Common-sense

THE FOUR CS OF SOLDIERING

3. CUNNING

Where Cunning ScoresOut-Boering the BoerMasters of CunningHow to Inculcate CunningRuses of War

THE FOUR CS OF SOLDIERING

4. CHEERFULNESS

A Factor in SuccessHow to Inculcate Cheerfulness

HOW TO CARRY OUT TRAINING

General Scheme for TrainingParadesHow to Make the Training Practical and Interesting to the Men Minor Training Sandwiched InTactical War GameThe Attitude of the OfficerVerbal OrdersConclusion

What to Do with Bush in Front of Defenses Frontpiece

A Force Marching in Triangular Formation is Suddenly Attacked

Triangular Formation as Applied to a Patrol

The Triangular Formation and the Development of an Attack

The Attack on Majuba

The Common-Sense Trench

Loopholes and How to Make Them

Line of Trenches Open to Enfilade

A Group C.S. Trenches

Protected Camp How Not to do It

Protected Camp The Common-sense Way

A Very Usual Work, but Open to Aeroplane Bombs, Shrapnel, and Bullets in Reverse

A Very Usual Work also Open to Aeroplane Bombs, Shrapnel, and Bullets in Reverse

A C. S. Trench in half-completed state, but comparatively safe

The Defence of the House on the Cliff:

(1) How it was done in one case

(2) How it was done in two other cases

(3) How it might have been done

(4) How the Boers would have done it

QUICK TRAINING FOR WAR

I

T HERE was an argument a short time back as to how long it takes to make an efficient soldier out of the average recruit material, and a patriotic newspaper proved by experiment, what many of us already knew, that it was quite feasible to turn out the finished article in six months under favourable circumstances.

But it may be remembered that immediately before the South African campaign we had to take such material as we could find and turn it out efficient for the field in something nearer six weeks than six months. Men whom we enlisted in August were fighting, and fighting well, in October. This was not brought about by teaching them the goose-step, but rather by going straight to the point desired and teaching them to fight in the field. It is comparatively easy to turn out soldiers, if, by soldiers, you mean lads who can dress smartly and march past accurately and well; but these are not necessarily effective for the work of fighting battles against a fighting enemy. Drill is not everything. If it were the Germans would not lose the smallest combat, nor would the Boers, entirely undrilled as they were, have been able to put up such a good fight as they did for two years in the South African campaign.

THE RAW MATERIAL

One day in Hyde Park recently I watched for some time the young officers training their men for the war before us. Memories of my own subalternhood came vividly back to me. I knew their thoughts and I should like to help them. I saw myself back again with my squad of young soldiers, my pocket bulging with the over-sized drill-book of which I had endeavoured to assimilate a portion by heart, and was then trying to give out to the men. I cannot say I was highly interested in the jobnor were my men was probably thinking how my overalls fitted and how soon I might dismiss for breakfast, while I gave periodical parrotlike utterances of extracts from the book.

If only someone who knew could have given me an idea of the inner meaning and the possibilities which underlay the training, what a difference it would have made. How those long. dreary hours of dull routine would have shortened themselves, both theoretically and materially, for myself and my men. It was not until years later that light dawned upon me. I had thought that the letter of the book was the sure fetish to success in war. I never read the meaning which lay between the lines.

THE INNER MEANING OF DRILL

As regards squad-drill the under-meaning of it is that, while exercising your squad, you should get to know, not merely the name, but the character and the alertness of mind and capabilities of each one of your men. In the meantime each one of these, unconsciously it may be, is also sizing you up. His life is possibly going to be in your hands. When that time comes he is going to behave towards you as he knows you, and you ought to be inculcating that confidence in you which will bind your men to stick to you in a tight place. I remember an officer who was a bit of a martinet, who, by his cursing and punishing the men, had roused amongst them a thorough hatred for himself; but he was plucky, there was no doubt whatever of that. One morning when ordered on an expedition with his force, he formed the men up and said, I know you hate me, and you mean to shoot me in the back at the first opportunity. All I advise you is not to do so just yet. We have got a rough time before us to-day, and it wants a bold push. If you stick to me Ill take you through. You can shoot me as much as you like afterwards . Needless to say the enterprise succeeded and he was never shot.

MUTUAL SIZING UP

The sizing up of your men at squad or any other drill requires a close observation and quick eye. In my subaltern days I was lucky enough to make a success of my very first parade, the day after I joined, and in this wise. My troop was ordered to parade in double rank, and I was given by my captain the simple task of walking round to inspect the men and to see that each of them was wearing a cholera belt. Shirts were thrown open and I walked down the front rank, finding each man dressed as he should be. As I turned at the end to come up the rear rank with my eyes downcast from sheer shyness at commanding a parade, I just caught with the tail of my eye a movement at the opposite end of the troop, as a man stepped from the rear rank into the front rank which I had just examined. I only knew the name of one man in the troop at that time, because he had been detailed to bring me my horse, and this happened to be the man who stepped across. I took no notice of the move, as I had to debate in my mind whether or not it might be a bit of orthodox drill that, when the officer arrived at the rear rank, one of its number should step into the front rank. As I passed along the rear rank examining their belts I pondered the matter over, and came to the conclusion that I would risk matters and call this man out.