Night Operations for Infantry: Compiled for the Use of Company OfficersDawkins, C. T.
History
Night Operations for Infantry: Compiled for the Use of Company Officers
Dawkins, C. T.
Infantry drill and tactics
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.
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