THE REFORM IN ARMY TRAINING.* [CONCLUDING NOTICE.]
THE manual of Imperial Yeomanry Training is a far less perfect book than the Infantry Training, and shows traces
of hasty and heterogeneous compilation. It is interesting for two main reasons. It is the first, if rather unsuccessful, attempt to define the role of the mounted infantryman. Hie main sphere of actionAs explained as follows :—
"The enlargement 'of the battlefield, consequent upon the adoption of a more open formation, will render it impossible for infantry alone to outflank the enemy with requisite rapidity ; for this purpose, therefore, mounted troops equipped with long- ranging rifles will have to be employed."
The Cavalry Drill Book of 1898 is much less emphatic. "Dismounted fire action may sometimes be employed" for various purposes which are detailed, but "the men are never to be dismounted in any position where mounted opposing
s (1.) Infantry Training (Provisional), I909.—(2.) Imperial Yeomanry Train. jag (Provisional). Published cavalry could attack them before they can remount to meet the attack." The idea of dismounted cavalry in South Africa mounting to meet a Boer attack instead of receiving it with a steady, dismounted fire sounds singularly absurd to-day, and clearly illustrates the changes that have taken place since the compilation of Cavalry Drill, 1898. But then Cavalry Drill, 1898, only devotes five pages to the dismounted action of cavalry altogether, as against some twenty pages to the mounted cavalry fight!
The classification of the various kinds of mounted troops in Imperial Yeomanry Training is somewhat confused. First comes the "cavalry soldier," whose precise functions, we are told, " neednot be specified" in this book. Second, "horse- men,—i.e., Imperial Yeomanry, Light. Horse, Mounted Rifles." Third, "infantry soldiers provided with the means of more rapid locomotion,--i.e., Mounted Infantry." We are then given the duties of Imperial Yeomanry :—" They must be trained to fight on foot in both attack and defence. They must also be able to carry out scouting and reconnaissance, and to insure against surprise the troops to which they are attached. Their efficiency depends upon their being expert rifle- shots, good riders, and careful horsemasters." We await with interest the publication of the new Cavalry Drill Book, and trust that it will throw some light on those "precise functions of the cavalry arm" which are not specified in this book. The Yeomanry are warned "not to aim at what they have not time at their disposal to become, i.e., efficient cavalry." By inference the cavalryman is not expected to be or do anything that his inferior, the Yeoman, is to do or be. We hope he is to do more than dress properly (ten of the earliest pages of the existing Cavalry Drill, 1898, are devoted to details of haber- dashery), and to be more than a beautiful creation who can cut lemons with- his sword -and transfix tent"-pegs with his lance, and "give a tone to' the proceedings" generally. Nor is it quite- Clear what is the value of a mounted infantryman, who, unlike the'Yeomaia, is neither an expert rifle-shot, nor a good rider, nor a careful horsemaster. In the text of the book, again, irt find the alternative phrases "the soldier," "the yeoman-1 and "the man." Thus, "soldiers will be taught to wheel fromt. the halt," "the yeoman will always turn to the r:ght on the left foot," "to change step when marking time a mItn will beat time with the same foot,' are phrases which all oeCur on p. 21. We do not quite understand this excessive fear of repetition, but trust there is no hidden purpose of con- sidering the Yeoman as a hybrid,—half "soldier," i.e., cavalry soldier, and half there civilian mounted "man." Hybrid to a degree is the phrase "a Battalion of Imperial Yeomanry," which; though it has disappeared; at least, from the definitions at the beginning of the book, lingers yet at the bottom of p. 79. There we are told- that "it is inevitable in the heat of battle that Battalions, Squadrons, and Troops will become mixed up." So apparently have the compilers of this book become, in the cool of their office room. A further point of ambiguity arises on p: 75. Here we are distinctly told that to drive a Well-armed enemy from his position he must eventually "be charged with the bayonet," and on p. 77 it is stated that "bayonets are to be fixed 350 yards. from an objective." But in point of fact the bayonet has not been issued to the 'Yeomanry at home; On p. 93 the phrase, Orderlies do not carry rifles but side-arms only," conveys the impression that the sword is the side-arm referred to; for a bayonet-without a rifle would be of very little use to a man on a horse. But neither has the sword been issued to theYeomanry, though those regiments which have them are allowed to retain them for the preient. We understand that the Whole question is really sub judice, and perhaps a reasonable compromise will be found in a light thrusting weapon, available at once as a sword for the mounted and as a. bayonet for the dismounted man. The point- is not, however, of great importance, as the occasions when eithersword or bayonet will be used in actual war must
tend tit become increasingly rarer.. . _
The really important matter is the deAtaition of the proper function of the Yeoman, 'not as distinct from the cavalryman, for the counsel of perfection towards which both will strive is surely identical, but as distinct from the mounted infantry- man. No doubt the book is merely provisional,—too much of Infantry . Training has been wedged in wholesale, too little of Cavalry Drill retained., We miss especially the excellent Part V. of . Cavalry Drill, -1898. It is true that detail is cut down to a vanishing point, and the Yeoman expressly informed that accuracy of drill is not required of him (though saluting is still called an "important military duty" as a concession to the generals of the old school). Moreover, as little time as possible is to be wasted on ceremonial and parade movements. But there is very little in the book which really brings out the distinctive roles of the Yeoman and of the infantryman on a horse. The only form of attack specified in the book is the attack on foot. Nothing is said of the horse as an engine of manceuvre under fire. He is merely regarded as a means of locomotion to convey his rider to the spot where apparently pure infantry tactics begin. Similarly escorts are told that their horses should never move out of a walk. In Cavalry Drill, p. 398, they are told to move from strategic point to strategic point "an fast as possible," and then take up a position to hold till the time comes for them to move on to the next. The walk is not the natural pace of the horse, and his strength is better pre- served if he moves always at the trot or wallop, and halts while his rider dismounts. By taking him at a walk mounted not only is he sooner exhausted, but no advantage is taken of the mobility which is the true weapon of the mounted man. .
We should have liked to see the Yeoman urged more plainly to emulate the Boer, who is admittedly the finest mounted rifleman in the world, but in no sense a mounted infantryman. He should have been told to consider his horse as his main weapon, and to manceuvre on him under fire, whether for the purpose of rapidly threatening the enemy's flank, or of gallop- ing under fire to within decisive rifle range, where he can pour in a destructive magazine fire. Instances are not wanting from the late war where the Boers at least succeeded in such tactics. The mounted infantryman, on the other hand, whether his mount be a bicycle or a horse, uses that mount merely as a faster pair of legs, and having got to the point where the fighting begins, reverts to his role of pure infantry soldier. But the Yeoman, like the cavalryman, should con- sider his horse as an inseparable part of himself; with it he must secure that tactical position where, if he opens fire, his enemy is at his mercy. So high a regard, indeed, had the Boer for his horse as a tactical weapon that he is known on many occasions to have driven to the battlefield in his Cape cart. his horse being sent on" to meet him. He was thus, like the hunting man, provided for the fight itself with a mount whose mobility was unimpaired by the fatigue of a march.
The use of the arms blanche is impracticable except on rare occasions; even when the charge succeeds in getting home, it is far less effective, both actually and morally, than the rifle. But the horse, if his strength be husbanded, remains the most powerful of all the weapons of war, and one mounted man with a rifle, who knows his strength and his limitations, is always a match for ten dismounted men. The infantryman mounted has his value too, especially in aid of marching infantry, for seizing positions, carrying meseages, and so forth, but his functions should not be confused with those of the cavalry soldier,—and it is as a cavalryman that the Yeoman has always been, and we trust always will be, regarded. Imperial Yeomanry Training fails, we think, to bring this out with sufficient clearness, though, as it distinctly classifies the Yeoman as a thing apart from the mounted infantryman, we have no doubt that the authorities would subscribe to our definition.
We will conclude with a brief reference to the other main point of interest about the book. It is the first manual that has ever been written for the use of partially trained auxiliary troops. We have already alluded to its wise differentiation between essentials and non-essentials; the cardinal requirements alone are insisted upon, and so far the book has our entire approval. We trust that the new Cavalry Drill will follow suit, for it is bard to see why, if everything is taught that is thought neces- sary for the purpose of defeating the enemy, it should be desirable to burden the Regular soldier with any of the were trappings of his art. Infantry Training has gone far in this direction: "The annual training in camp of the Auxiliary Forces is to be confined to tactical exercises and fire diseipline, and the spirit of the instructions is to be observed."
We do not see why in time the Regular Army might not be also expected to take this short road to efficiency. If the standard Which it is thought that the Auxiliary Forces may fairly be expected to reach were really lower for fighting pur. poses than that which 's demanded of the Regular soldier, it would be a different matter. But it is not so; the things omitted from the Auxiliary course are, in the main, details of routine and ceremony, and it is admitted that intelligence is everything and more outward smartness nothing. It walla, therefore, seem as if what is really to be aimed at is the educa- tion of the Regular soldier up to the standard already reached by the average civilian before he joins his Volunteer or Yeomanry corps. The new drill has taken a long step towards turning out the Regular soldier on the pattern of what the best Volunteers have been for years. Many of the faults attacked in the new manuals are peculiar to the Regular Army, —the over-drill which blunts intelligence, and the over-disci- pline which kills initiative. Many of the departures from the barrack-square view, which are now held out as virtues to be striven after, were the very vices quoted by the inspecting officer of the old school in support of the official view that the Volunteers and the Yeomanry were an armed rabble. We heartily welcome the change, and trust that the system and the soldier alike will more and more assimilate themselves to rational principles. We have every confidence that, under the men now at the head of our Army, with the lessons of a great war behind them, officers and soldiers will eventually rise to the high level of intelligence and resource which the new system presupposes as an essential preliminary. But we shall not be surprised if the old system dies hard, or, until educa- tion becomes more of a reality to the bulk of the population, if the formation of a New Model Army seems often a hopeless task, and the temptation to mistake smartness for efficiency irresistible. But the attempt is not the less worth making for that.
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