From the commencement of the training the instructor will not fail to continually impress upon the men that it is absolutely criminal to fire during a night attack, and that the bayonet is the only weapon the assailants can use with advantage to themselves and safety to their comrades. Except during a brief period in the middle of summer, it is generally possible to carry out these elementary exercises before 10 p.m., and in the short winter evenings they can take place immediately after the men’s tea. It is always advisable that the men should have had a meal shortly before starting to work in the dark, and if the weather is cold, or they are kept out late, they should be given soup or cocoa on their return. CHAPTER III. GENERAL REMARKS ON NIGHT OPERATIONS. _Definitions._ In the Field Service Regulations, night operations are divided into three classes—night marches, night advances, and night attacks—which may be briefly defined as follows:— A night march is a movement along roads, or well defined tracks, in normal march formations, undertaken for the purpose of transferring troops under cover of darkness to some desired point. A night advance is stated in the Field Service Regulations to be a forward movement of which the object “is to gain ground from which further progress will be made in daylight, and not to deliver a decisive assault during darkness.” During the advance the troops will either be deployed or at any rate will move in formations which admit of rapid deployment. Night attacks are delivered for the purpose of gaining possession of some point or locality which is held by the enemy or of surprising “an ill-trained, ill-disciplined, or semi-civilised enemy.” (Field Service Regulations.) A night march may be a necessary prelude to either a night advance or a night attack, but in that case the march is considered to have ended on the arrival of the force at the position of assembly. _Importance of Careful Preparation._ Whatever may be the nature of the operation, the most careful preparation is essential. The success of all operations in the dark, up to the moment of collision with the enemy at any rate, depends on the care and thoroughness with which the preparatory arrangements have been made, and these arrangements are just as necessary in the case of a night march, carried out at some distance from the enemy, as in that of a night attack. It is impossible to lay too much stress on the importance of this preparation, no detail is too trifling to be considered, every eventuality, whether probable or improbable, should be thought out and provided for, and nothing must be left to chance.