a) make sure that the men are fully equipped and provided with full allotment of ammunition; b) appoint and parade connecting files (runners) to await orders. 113.--Distribution of Orders. The company commander having received his orders from the battalion commander, will then call his subordinates and issue his own orders accordingly, including the formation to be adopted. 114.--Combat patrols. He will make sure that there are combat patrols on the exposed flank or flanks and to the front and rear if need be. It is well to have combat patrols detach automatically. It may be understood, once for all, that, without further orders, the first squad will cover in front, the second to the right, the third to the left, the fourth to the rear, whenever needed. Still, the officer in charge should make sure that this arrangement is carried out. A combat patrol, if not a full advance guard, will thus always precede a unit and be the first to take contact with the enemy. 115.--Officers as guides. The officers serve as guides to their units, until deployment, a mounted officer in liaison with the advance guard or advanced combat patrol checking up the itinerary. 116.--Keep Close Order as long as possible. The advance of a company into an engagement is conducted in close order, preferably columns of squads, until possible observation by the enemy or encountering of hostile fire makes it advisable to deploy. Deployment should not be premature and should always follow upon the conditions arising during the progress of the advance. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST HOSTILE ARTILLERY. AGAINST SILENT ARTILLERY. 117.--Nearing artillery which may open fire. About two or three miles from the positions liable to be occupied by the enemy's field artillery, precautions should be taken against the possibility of its opening fire. 118.--Deployment. Deployments should be adopted best suited to escape observation: 119.--To escape direct observation: March in single or double file, the whole section[D] keeping closed up so as to diminish the number of files seen from the front. 120.--Under aeroplane observation: Avoid especially the center of roads as they show white, utilize on the contrary the spaces between cultivated fields of different colors, make use of all possible cover, trees, shrubs, ditches, embankments. Always walk in the shade when possible. If hostile aeroplanes are flying low, halt and lie down on left side, hiding face in elbow. FOOTNOTE: [D] The French "section" comprises 54 men. It is thus equivalent to 7 squads, and may be considered as 2 platoons. CROSSING A BOMBARDED ZONE. 121.--Case I. Artillery opening fire to register. A registering fire is easily recognized as the German artillery registers either with a single percussion shell at a time, or with two time-shells at three seconds interval. In the German field gun, the setting of the angle of sight[E] and of the elevation[F] involves two operations.