NEW METHODS AT THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2986, 25 January 1917, Page 6

NEW METHODS AT THE FRONT

WENCH ARMY NOW ALL SPECIALISTS RIFLES IN A NEW ROLE (From H. Warner Allen.) With the FrencluArmy, November 20. A visit to an infantry training school is a rcmarkablb object-lesson of tho profound changes in military methods that have resulted from two years' experienco of war. The new French system lias already been, partially tested in tho "Sommo offensive and the Verdun - victory. It'is still too early for it to lavq given anything liko its full re- • but experience has shown that " 'it ensures, the maximum of efficiency ■with the minimum of loss. The starting from their quality of -initiative, in which tho German soldier, however great his qualities as a disciplined machine, is . notoriously lacking, nave devised a system wliich takes advantage in the highest degree of all tho weapons that the present war lias shown to be most effective. Just •after tho Champagne offensive on September 25/1915, a French officer said io me: "Our army has become an army of specialists." If tho generalisation was true then, it is. infinitely more true to-day. Modern infantry tactics are bound to centre round what the French call the "specialties." The " riflo in trench and shell-holo warfare has but an insignificant part to play ■as a propeller of bullets. It still holds 'its place as a- fighting handle to ■ the bayonet, and it has found a new use as a prppeller of grenades. But the essential weapon of the infantry is the grenade supported by the "fusil mitrailleiir" (automatic rifle) and the bayonet, The Old and the New. The exposition of the new tactics that wo -witnessed yesterday opened with a defensive manoeuvre according to the old system. - A company in .a trench received an attack with riflo fire. Tho firing was heavy and continuous, . and would no doubt have stopped any charge across open ground. But by _ hypothesis the ground was riddled w;ith shell holes, capable of providing the advancing infantry -with shelter. Moreover, the riflemen firing over the parapet would in a real' engagement have been exposed to a barrage fire. Then an attack was received in accordance with the new methb'u by half a company of specialists in the new weapons. It was obvious to the merest novice that their fire was far more deadly than the rifle fire, of the whole company had been. In front of the trench was a zone of death thatthe.best troops in the' world could scarcely, pass. The fusiliers, that is, the men armed with the grenade rifle, were the first to open fire. They threw a screen of grenades along the-front of tho trench at a distance of between - 150 and 2SO yards,, firing a surprisingly large number of grenades to the minute. Thirty seconds later everything had disappeared in thick waves of smoke. There was one perpetual rattle of explosions. There was a clearly marked zone, as /we saw when, we went, over -.the ground afterwards, in which no man could have' lived.' Shell-holes offered but feeble protection, for the grenades u ere shot into the air as though from a mortar, and would have' promptly disposed of any men who had taken shelter. The fusiliers thomselves could fire from their trench without exposing "themselves at all. A Line of Volcanoes. In the next phase of the action it ■was supposed that the enemy had succeeded in passing the zone of the'rifle grenades. The hand grenadiers were ready for him, and for' a Eecond Or two i ' we had a vision of men industriously tapping their grenades as a man might crack a hard-boiled egg, to set tho fuses, and then hurling them with a swift automatic; motion thirty or forty yards-in front of their trench; Then the explosions and the smoke started i , again, and a fresh line of miniature volcanoes opened across the ' enemy's v path. K seemed inconceivable that any German could ever have come •through that firo alive, and if he did thero. were tho trusty bayonets of the ■ voltigueri waiting for him. ' It might almost'be said that the grenadier is the foundation of the in'fantrv of to-day. Tlib French grena'dicrs arc- picked .men. They are organised in small: groups, each commanded hv a non-commissioned officer, - so that all their movements may be as elastic as possible and that: each man .mav have that confidence in his comrade which can only come from intimate acquaintance. In close quarter fighting the revolver has its part to play, and, as a goncral nile. it is the secondarv armament of the specialist troops. The bayonet is still indispensable, -and it is still the principal woauon of a larp» proportion of the infantry, though , everv infantryman..under the new trainJiie is a specialist in -ev.erv weapon ■that is used. ' ;