I am aware that in the foregoing problem I have made the task of the platoon commander a very simple one. I wished, however, to avoid any points of controversy. If the ground should not be so advantageous for your attack as that above depicted, the principle, viz. movement combined with fire, still remains the same. You should bring a converging attack to bear and advance your men under cover of the fire of your rifle grenades and Lewis guns, and by pushing men forward from one shell-crater to another, you should generally be able to achieve your object if your plan be evolved on sound principles. It is also possible that smoke bombs could be used with advantage if the wind be favourable. The above problem is one which has often been put to young officers on the battlefield, and they have not by any means always given a satisfactory answer to it, simple as it is. Your affectionate father, “X. Y. Z.” LETTER III [Illustration] _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 _B F_, _C G_, 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 _B F_ 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 _B D_ and _D C_, but no man can show his face in the street _A H_, 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 _B D_ have been knocked down by shell fire.