Training and Employment of Scouts.

The selection and training of Scouts for work in the dark cannot be too seriously undertaken, since the success or failure of a night operation depends in a great measure on their efficiency. They must be men of good constitution, active, able to bear great fatigue, and to sleep at any hour of the day or night; they must also have acute powers of vision and hearing, be able to make a rough map, to find their way by the compass and the stars, and be absolutely without “nerves.” They should be thoroughly well acquainted with the appearance of the moon in all its phases, and have a knowledge of the rate of its movement, so that they can at any time form an estimate of the time the moonlight will last. They must be capable of moving across country in line with considerable intervals between them, and of consistently maintaining the direction of their line of advance. Each scout should carry a luminous compass and a piece of card, covered with luminous paint, for use under a tracing of the map. If possible, they should be supplied with rubber soles to their boots or, at any rate, the heel pads, which are to be found in most shops.

No scout can be considered efficient if he cannot pass through any ordinary outpost line at night whenever he pleases; if he is really well trained, nothing short of a continuous chain of sentries can keep him out.

This power of traversing the lines at will affords great opportunities not only of obtaining information, but also of harassing the enemy’s outposts. Two or three small parties of well-trained men can keep a whole section of an outpost line in such a state of nervous tension that sleep will be impossible, and the resulting fatigue will greatly diminish the efficiency of the troops composing it during the next day.

In night attacks selected men should be employed to surprise and disable the sentry groups on the line of advance. They should attack the groups from the rear, and the best weapon for them to use is an ordinary life preserver, well weighted and covered with rubber, or a small leather bag filled with sand and securely fastened to the end of a short stick. A blow on the side of the head from either of these makes very little noise, and, as the injury caused by them is not necessarily fatal, they can be used with less compunction against an unsuspecting man than more lethal weapons.

In addition to disposing of the groups, scouts should be detailed to creep close up to the enemy’s piquets and supports, and to remain there ready to throw hand grenades among them when the attack develops.

Suitable men soon become keenly interested in their work, for the sporting chances offered by night operations have an undoubted fascination for adventurous spirits.

Searchlights in Attack and in Defence.

Even in open ground it is rarely possible to arrange searchlights so as to illuminate the whole of the area covered by their beams since small irregularities in the surface of the ground produce patches of shadow. When fixed lights are exposed the attackers must endeavour to utilise these dark patches when crossing the zone of light; if travelling beams are used they must lie down before the light reaches them and remain perfectly still till it has passed. Unless their clothing affords a marked contrast to the colour of the ground it is difficult to detect troops if only they remain motionless.

Should the enemy’s artillery open fire on the area covered by the light, the attacking column must continue to advance, and if necessary assume more open formations. The guns will probably have been laid by daylight, and it is not easy to make accurate alterations in the dark, consequently the quicker the attackers advance the less loss they are likely to suffer.

In the defence, if searchlights are provided, the officers on outpost duty must endeavour to ascertain what portions of the ground in their front the beams do not light up, and take special measures to watch them.

Flares, etc.

When piquets are protected by obstacles an arrangement of flares for lighting the ground in their immediate front is often useful. Empty barrels, with both ends knocked out, are stuffed with straw, rags, or even paper, which has been saturated with paraffin or covered with tar; they should be placed about 50 yards in front of, and a little to the side of, the piquet, and if a bold man is available to wait till the enemy is close up before lighting them, they will prove of great assistance. I have seen short sticks, with rags dipped in paraffin, tied round one end, used with effect; when set on fire they can be thrown 25 or 30 yards, and are hard to extinguish, but there is always a risk of the enemy throwing them back again.

Hand Grenades.

These ancient weapons, having been improved, are likely to be largely used in future, and would be specially suitable to issue to scouts. A well-trained scout would have no difficulty in getting close up to hostile piquets, and the sudden explosion of a hand grenade could not fail to have considerable moral effect even if it did little material damage. Against columns advancing to make a night attack they would also be very useful weapons.

The confusion which is caused among troops at night manoeuvres by the explosion in their ranks of a few ordinary crackers is strong evidence of the advantage to be gained from the use of hand grenades at a critical moment.

Luminous Discs.

Luminous discs are required to mark the directing flank of companies; they should be made of thin board, coated on both sides with luminous paint, and mounted on a pole about 5 feet long. In shape they may be either round or square, but it is useful to have one of a special pattern to mark the directing guide. They may be from 12 inches to 15 inches in diameter.

Pocket Electric Lamps.

The pocket lamps used by many officers for reading maps at night answer well as points to march on. They should be provided with a cardboard hood extending about three inches beyond the bulb, to check the lateral spread of the rays.

Connecting Ropes.

If ropes or tapes (entrenching tapes do well) are used for keeping connection, they must be held up by men placed at intervals of three or four yards. Unless this is done the rope is sure to catch in bushes or stones, and will probably break.

Passing Fences.

When possible a gateway will be used for the passage of the troops, and if the gate cannot be taken off its hinges a man should be detailed to hold it open till the column has passed; if no gateway exists a gap must be made.

To make a gap in a hedge, choose a weak place, and cut away the wood with saws or knives; axes and billhooks should not be used, as the sound made by them can be heard a long way. Walls, if built of loose stones, must be carefully pulled down and the stones piled up at the sides of the gap; if the stones are laid in mortar the wall must be climbed. Wire fences should have a length of wire between two posts cut right out and removed; the cuts should be made about two feet from the posts, and the ends of the wires twisted back round the posts. Before cutting a taut wire see that it is firmly grasped on both sides of the point where the cut is made, otherwise the wire when cut will spring back with a loud, ringing noise. As sound travels a long way up a wire fence, great care must be taken to avoid jarring the wires.

Entrenching by Night.

If trenches which have been dug at night are examined in daylight, it will often be found that owing to the faulty shape of the parapet a good deal of ground close in front of the trench is dead. To obviate this it is advisable to place white objects or electric lamps about 30 yards in front of the trenches, in order that the men, when finishing off the parapet, may so shape it that when firing over it the line of sight will cut the ground at that point. It must also be remembered that in the dark men instinctively fire straight to the front, i.e., at right angles to the parapet, consequently if it is desired to bring fire to bear in an oblique direction some means of marking the required direction are necessary.

Wire Entanglements.

In making wire entanglements for the defence of posts any attempt at neatness or regularity is to be avoided; the stakes should be unevenly spaced, and the wire left rather slack with occasional loose loops in it. An entanglement made in this way is harder to pass and to cut than one of the regulation pattern.

Halts at Night.

Unless a halt is to last at least an hour, its duration should not exceed five minutes, otherwise some men will certainly fall asleep, and the operation of waking them causes noise and delay. If a march is to last all night, a halt for a couple of hours, to allow the troops to sleep, is of great benefit, and will diminish but little the total distance covered.

Recognition of Friends at Night.

In repelling a night attack the defenders are always embarrassed by the difficulty of distinguishing between friend and foe, and a previously arranged code of signals is essential if collision between bodies of our own troops are to be prevented. The Russians for this purpose adopted the practice of chanting their National Anthem, and, although the tune of “God save the King” may perhaps be too well known to be safely used, it would be easy to select some simple English song which could not be sung by our enemies.

Knowledge of the Moon and Stars.

An elementary knowledge of the names and positions of the principal constellations and stars is very useful in night work, as without such knowledge there will often be difficulty in pointing out the particular star chosen for the column to march on, and any mistake may have serious consequences. The Manual of Map Reading and Field Sketching states that the lateral movement of a star will not exceed 5° in 20 minutes, and that it is safe to march for about a quarter of an hour on the same star. If neither the tables given in Appendix III. of the Field Service Pocket Book, nor an Almanac are available, it will be impossible for the ordinary man to calculate accurately the times of the rising and setting of the moon, but a rough knowledge of its phases enables us to estimate approximately the duration of moonlight. When the new moon is first seen it rises in the morning and sets soon after sunset, but as its hours of rising and setting become later each day, by the time it reaches its first quarter the moonlight lasts from sunset to about midnight, and at full moon all night. When the moon begins to wane, and its hour of rising becomes later than the hour of sunset, there is a daily increasing period of darkness between sunset and moon-rise. Consequently, when the moon is growing, moonlight may be expected in the early hours of the night, but after the last quarter not till after midnight.

The number of well educated persons who cannot distinguish between the moon when in the first and last quarter is astonishing, but I have found the old plan of taking a biscuit to represent the moon, and biting pieces out of it to show the different phases, a simple means of explaining the matter to recruits. They soon realise that if, as you look at the biscuit or the moon, a piece is wanting on the left side, the moon is growing; if on the right side, it is waning.

Constant Practice the only Means of Acquiring Knowledge.

The old proverb, that an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory, is specially true of night operations; neither intuition nor books can ever replace actual experience. The accidents that may, and do, happen are so numerous, and the consequences of trivial mistakes so far-reaching, that unless they have been seen they cannot be realised. The only means of gaining knowledge is to constantly practise Night Operations on all sorts of ground, and in all sorts of weather. My own experience of night work, both on service and in peace, is probably above the average, but I do not believe that I have ever returned from any night operation without feeling that I had acquired some fresh item of knowledge.

Conclusion.

In conclusion, I wish again to lay stress on the fact that although in planning any night operation it is necessary to proceed with the greatest caution, yet, when once the undertaking has been commenced, it must be carried through with the sternest resolution. In the dark the boldest course is generally the best, and every moment of hesitation diminishes the chances of success. To the junior ranks of the Army night fighting affords chances of gaining distinction which cannot occur in daylight, but these chances are fleeting ones, and must be seized the moment they occur. The secret of success lies in acting boldly and in acting promptly, and young officers, when engaged in night operations, will do well to adopt the motto attributed to the great leader of the French Revolution, Danton:—

De l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace.