December 15, 1917.

My dear Dick,—

Since the early days of the campaign there has been but little fighting in towns or villages which have not previously been so knocked about that they could better be designated ruins than habitable places, but in the event of an advance on a large scale towns and villages are certain to be the scenes of severe combats. I will therefore give you three little problems in street-fighting. When you have read them, the points I call attention to will probably seem to you so self-evident that you will wonder that I have considered it worth while to comment on them. Nevertheless, I am not quite sure that you will give what I consider to be the correct answers to all of them, if you do not turn over the page and look at the solutions I have given, before stating your own.

Problem 2

The brigade to which you belong has entered a town from a southerly direction, and you are opposed by an enemy who has entered it from a northerly direction.

The company of which you are in command has been allotted the ground between the roads BF, CG, both inclusive, your flanks are protected, the streets are about thirty feet broad with pavements five feet broad, houses run all along the streets.

Answer the following Questions.

(a) If you were to tell off a section to prevent the enemy advancing along the street BF from a northerly direction, which side of the street would it be best for them to occupy, and why?

(b) Your men occupy the streets BD and DC, but no man can show his face in the street AH, which is covered by machine guns and snipers firing from near A, and all men attempting to cross the road at D have been shot. Several houses in the street BD have been knocked down by shell fire.

In this street there are six empty wagons and in the houses in the street there is to be found furniture of all descriptions, as well as ropes, harness, and stables, with some horses in them. You are anxious to place a barricade across the street AH at D, so as to enable you to use the crossing at D. How should you set about making this barricade?

(c) There is a house at H looking right down the street AH. Whereabouts in this house should you put your Lewis gun, and why?

Solutions.

(a) On the western side, because your men, shooting out of the windows in a northerly direction, would then fire from their right shoulders without exposing their bodies.

(b) Fill the wagons with rubble from the houses which have been knocked down. Fasten sacking or sheets on to the wagon, so as to give cover from view between the body of the wagon and the ground. Throw a string attached to a brick across the street. By means of this, pull over a rope and attach the wagons to this rope, and thus pull them into the position you require.

(c) At the back of a room in the house, where you can see but cannot be seen, firing through the window. If you choose a window near the top of the house and put the Lewis gun on a table some distance back in the room, you will probably be able to fire over the barricade which you are thinking of constructing at D.

I have put you three definite and very simple questions with regard to street-fighting, for it may often happen that correct action on the spur of the moment when a village is first entered may result in ground being easily gained which would otherwise entail heavy fighting and serious loss to capture.

Street-fighting is a very big subject, and as a rule it gradually develops into underground warfare.

Villages entered during a battle often have snipers in the top stories or on the roofs of the houses, and these are places in which you may also place a few good shots with great advantage. This is an illustration of the advisability of doing to the enemy what you do not like his doing to you.

I will send you another problem next week.

Your affectionate father,
“X.Y.Z.”