THE LESSONS OF THE WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5314, 6 April 1878, Page 3

THE LESSONS OF THE WAR.

The first and most silent lesson of the war may be assumed to be the greatly increased importance which, infantry have acquired from the possession of breechloading arms of greatly increased range ; the next lesson is the paramount necessity for the use of the spade. The long-contiuued stand which the Turks opposed to the advance of Russia ; the defence of the open village of Plevna, and the maintenance throughout the whole war of the line of the Lom, are attributable almost entirely to the manner in which the Turkish troops are trained to protect themselves with sheltertrenches immediately they take up a position. Theoretically, the necessity has long been admitted in the British army ; actually, next to nothing has been done to accustom the troops to the use of the spade, or to teach them to look upon that implement as scarcely second in importance even to the rifle, or to place it in their hands for instant use whenever required. Our Horse Guards is the most intensely conservative body in the world in the worst sense of the word conservative. They were years in adopting the new tactics of open order, although every man in tho army was ready to admit that the breechloader had rendered the old movements in line or column wholly unsuited for modern warfare. We give one example only out of dozens which might be quoted, but the fact is too notorious to be questioned. For years this question of the spade has been discussed in a sort of dilettante manner, papers have been read at military institutions, patterns have been suggested, and some few regulations have been made for the supply of entrenching tools to troops in a campaign. The situation, however, remains in an eminently unsatisfactory state, and will continue so until it is provided that every soldier has either a spade, pick, or axe ready at hand whenever ho enters upon a campaign, and that he shall have received sufficient training in their use to put confidence in them, and to use them as naturally and as much as a matter of course as he does his rifle. There are two alternative schemes for managing this. The one that each company shall be followed into action by a mule or baggage pony, with its trenching tools ; tho other that each soldier shall carry a spado, pick, or axe. The objections to the former course are manifold. In time of peace the maintenance of ten baggage animals to each regiment would be an expense; no accommodation for them would be found in the majority of infantry barracks, and they would be an item of incumbrance whenever the regiment moved its quarters. Thus, in time of peace, the establishment would not be kept up, tho troops would not have their trenching tools at hand when they went out for peace manoeuvres or drill on a large scale, and would neither gain experience nor acquire a habit in the use of them. In war the inconvenience would be scarcely less. Tho trans-

ports for infantry would have no convenience for the animals, and upon arrival at the seat of war the chances are that every available animal that could be brought or purchased would be required for the; Commissariat arid Ordnance Departments. Even were this difficulty got over, iu the day of battle ten men would be subtracted from the fighting force, the animals might be scared and break away, or be killed, and so at the critical moment tbe necessary tools would not be at hand. To the other alternative, that the men should carry their entrenching tools, 'there is but one objection—nomely, that the soldier Js already over-burdened, and that any addition to the weight carried' is objectionable. This is a question of degree. There is no doubt that towards the end of a long march every additional pound tells upon a man in a manner which would hardly be believed even by those who have tried it. Still, the modern knapsack is lighter and more easily borne than was the cumbrous old pattern, and during a campaign it would-be possible to lighten its contents by dispensing with some of the articles which come under the head of the “ necessaries” ot barrack life. But if it were proved absolutely that the soldier carries at present the maximum of possible weight, we should not hesitate a moment in discarding the bayonet and adopting the entrenchment tool. Infantrymen cling to the bayonet, but it is, iu fact, an obsolete weapon. We might as well insist on carrying daggers or shields. Not one soldier in every hundred will, during a modem campaign, be called upon to use the bayonet; and in the rare, the very rare cases in which hand-to-hand fighting occurs the British soldier has a formidable weapon in his clubbed rifle.