AS WE OUGHT TO BE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1199, 7 August 1911, Page 6

AS WE OUGHT TO BE.

THE "FOOTIES"" CAPTAIN, FEOil DUSK TILL DAWN: Tho following article by LioutenantColonel J. T. Burnett-Stuart,-; D.S.O.(lrnuanal General Stall'), Director of Military Operations aud Intelligence l , iuiutury deiUs 'Wost interestingly and instructively with' tho' hundred and one little details which it is good that every company commander en marehc should know, but-which are auito struingo to- many. Colonel Stuart imagiues an ideal company of "footies," commanded by n company olhccr who is just tho Kind o£ captain'lio ought to bo, with a-u ideal compauy. under lus eye, aind accompanies tho littlo baud of 1-0 from the hour ot. dusk'till dawn, noting everything that every 'detail of routmc, 'lor tho infoi'mation of every citixen officer who is imbued with tho ideal of efficiency, but does not quite know how. to reach tho standard, partly becauso ho is not fully cognisant of it a . is tliat makes ior ctiiciency. Ho says:— , . , Let us take a typical company trained on the very best methods, and lollow it ior a few hours on'manoeuvres on active service. If wo study it closely, noting its behaviour and its 'methods, wo should bo able to form a mental picture ot that ideal after'which wo are seeking. Wo will pick, up our company .about an hour boloro dark, marching along. ,the roadA lolloped by the rest of the battalion. It is 20 miles from the bivouac, which the brigade left soon after dawn that morning. Tho day has. been a hard one—somo fighting, some rain, many delays. Ilut look carefully.. The men are stepping our vigorously, tlio ranks are well .closed up, tho sections of fours well dressed, the captain and the colour-sergeant walking in front, cno of the subalterns behind; at the head .of each section , is its section commander; very , man who start? Ed that morning is . there; the company is marching easy—some of the men are talking quickly, some are whistling, some" arc smoking (only pipes you notice, cigarettes aro not allowed).* l-he company has been detailed for outposts that night. As the columns approach their new bivouac you will see tho field officer ■who is to command the outpost line come up to' tho captain and rido alongside him for a few minutes, giving Ins orders for the night. The orders are brief: 1 The section for which tho company is responsible, the available news of the evening and of the-situation generally,- with the probablo plan. ior. the morrow,' and the spot to which reports, '•aro to be sent. About half a mile further "the bivouac is reached. But' our company continues its march down' the .road, and you will - notice now that', as tho result of a quiet word of command, the talking and whistling havo ceased, pipes arc put ■out, and buckles aro tightened up. It is now nearly dark. About; one-third of a ,mile further on there is another clear lowword of command, and the company halts at a fork in the road. When they halt •every man stands perfectly still, with his Tille at tho order, until another word from tho captain gives him hmve to - stand easy. Still thero is no sound, and in the dusk you would hardly know they ' woro-there, as they are.not in. the iniddlo of the road,. but under the- shadow of the' hedge on the loft. You begin to realise how that thero are other men about, 'and that tho captain is talking to an offi■ccr of another regiment who has stepped -out from Ihe side of the road. -This is the captain of one of tho advanced guard • companies which the outposts aro to relieve.

Posting the Pickets, o • After i a minute -or . two, our captain, passes down word for the colour-sergeant, the bugler, and two of tho company •ecouts, hands over the. command of the company..to tho senior subaltern, and sets out down tho right-hand xoad with his email'escort. Some 200 yards further on he comes to a suitable placo for a picket —a small clijinp of trees in- the anglo between'tho main road and a small by- . road which crosses it. Ho examines tho rarroundings ai well as he can in tho dusk, and then goes'" on to tho left down tho by-path till he- strikes the other, road. Hero "he dccides to .put' another picket'. Then ho turns to the two scouts and gives •them tho orders they aro to take back to tho company. Quite short orders, which tho scouts repeat' word for word to mako Kiiro tliey have understood them; one section to form the picket at each selected spot, and the- left half company to stay where they aro ill support. Tho messengers having gone, t'lio captain continues his investigations to the left until lie gets into touch with the nest company, for tho information of the commander of which' ho details his own dispositions. Then he goes back to the placo where he left his own company. On the way he passes ono of his pickets coming tip, guided by ono of the scouts, who took back the orders. ~ Arrived at tho forked roads; lip finds'tho company of his advanced guard friend quickly assembling. ■ Let us pause , and look at it a minute. Wo see littlo bodies qf men, varying from a complete section to a file, dropping in from all directions: But, however small theso bodies aro, they aro all obviously under control, and they aro marched to their placo in the ranks and halted there properly by a low word of command. Soon men ceaso coming in, and you seo tho colour-sergeant passing down the sections collecting the reports; then lie goes up to the captain, and with a taluto reports tho company present. /

In the Watches of tho Night. Another low word of command, and tho company-vanishes down tho'road in tlio direction of the bivouac. Our captain finds- his support already disposed lor tho night in a . little' padnoek close to the Toad. The arms are piled by sections. A sentry is posted' on'tno edgo of'the-road, iBo that ho can see and hear up and down ■the road, and keep an eye on the arms as ■well. Pour little fires are burning in 'trenches under a hedge, .where they can't 1)3 seen from the front, and over each lire ace ; piled the mess tins of each separate ; squad, 'tended by tho section cook. The rilles' Jiiive been pulled through and wiped •over, and all tho water bottles have been filled from a stream close hy. His own ■servant has found some dry bracken, and made him a bed under a hedge cloje t6 tho sentry, and is now cooking him some "i'ood at one of tho squad lives. . Everything is in order. As tho captain sits down to write by tho light,- a little electric torch, his short report of his tlispositions for the'officer commanding tho outposts, let us take a look into .some of tho mess tins. We shall find that by their contents they group themselves into threes; in each group one has tea in it, another vegetables, another moat—not much, only what, is left of tho day's ration. " Tne men have found by experience that by "pooling" their rations in this way they get tho best results. Our captain now sends off liis report, and divides tho night up into watches of one hour each between himself, his subaltern, and his colour-sergeant. Then ho sets out again to visit his pickets, taking his busier with him. As he approaches his Tight picket ho gives the low distinctive wliistlo which is his company's signal. 'The sentry answers him, but does not challenge; l challenging is reduced to a minimum, in this company, which seems to hate noise, of any kind. He finds tho i picket disposed in much tho same way 1 as tlio supports; but there is somo difference. The arms are not piled, but grounded. The sentry post is doubled. A hinall entrenchment has been thrown up so as to command tho road to the front, and on the paraput of it 'peeled twigs liavo been laid so sus to assist in tho aiming of the rifles in the dark. Behind this trench tho men are lying with their equipment on, but covered by their great coats, and each man is lying with his arm or his leg through tho sling of his rifle. There is no fire, and their supper has been eaten cold; and about f>o yards in front of the treiich somo barbed wire, taken from tho fen.ee, has been stretched across the road. Satisfied, he visits his other picket, and finds that similar precautions liavo been taken. His section commanders a_ro no fools, and ho doesn't believe in infantry reconnoitring iintrols at night, this particular captain. And so ho goes baek to tho support, find his slipper. Twice during the night ho has visitors; at midnight tho field officer appears, and i is personally taken round the pickets by the captain; arid at 1 a.m. a battalion wagon arrives with tho company's rations for tho next day, which are distributed at once. ! The Dangerous Hour. An hour beforo dawn tho whole com-pany-is roused, and stands to its arms. It is an uncomfortable and dangerous t.imo that hour before dawn, on outpost, and tho section cooks do what they can lo improve it by making tea. With the daylight up ponies .the. advanced. .guwA,.

of the column. As sona as it--ha3 pa?; 1" cd through our captain withdraws his pickets and assembles liis company reaily to' join in at the rear , of his battalion as it-passes by. anil .thero we will leave liiiri at tlwVrcgiinmifi ot' another hard day's work. . 1 think that tho points that will havo struck yon most in following the company arc: (1) Its silenco and orderliness. . (2)- Its faculty ot-doing tho right tiling without beinff' told. , , (3) Its discipline, cheerfulness, and endurance. . , (1) Tlio organisation, which seems to endow it with the power of splitting up nt will into ail infinite number ot small, capable, and. indepeiidont parts. _ (5) The way in which every man m it is used to tho best purpose, and tho number'of men in it who arc trained for special duties, as signallers, scouts, cooks, judges of distance, tlml what not. (G) And, above all, tho case with winch the captain appears to control it. it leaves. vo,u with a-sense of latent power under perfect control, and reminds you of a high-powered car being quietly and faultlessly driven through traffic by a man with on« hand on the steeringwheel and the too on tho accelerator. Nothing is forgotten in its equipment. You will even notieo that someone in the supernumerary rank of each section carries over his shoulder a. coil of rope, •always useful in the field. In a company such as this what docs the soldier expect (and get) from his oflicer? Ho demands a good deal:— -' (1) Efliciencv. Before ill, and above all, the soldier will like to follow the officer .who knows his job and docs it. lie hates walking two miles when one would have answered the purpose: lie lmtes being killed unnecessarily; he hates missinff liis food "vvlion, with a littie inoro arrangement, he miglit havo had-: it;v and lie: likes to be' worked to death if lie is sure of the necessity of it. (2) An officer must -never bo tired, or, at least, lie must not show it. It does not enter \ into the soldier's philosophy that his should be as tired as ho is himself. > ' (3) An officer must he scrupulously just and fair, and consistent withal. The soldier likes' to know that if he commits, a certain offence he will get a. certain and adequate punishment. It is his right. (4) All officcr should be considerate and careful of his men's health and comforts. Never familiar, never sarcastic, never slovenly: In return ".the, officer demands from the soldier implicit and willing obedience, endurance, fair, return for the training given. '°And lie gets it. Whether we phall ever r'oa'tdi. the pitch of perfection which' jj liave ■ tried to present to you'ean be decided only by the lapse of time! We can 15ut try to get as near it as oiu - circumstances will allow.