Organization: How Armies are Formed for WarFoster, Hubert
History
Organization: How Armies are Formed for War
Foster, Hubert
Armies -- Organization
The Germans have adopted the Battery formation. The _Mounted Section_,
for use with the Cavalry Division, consists of 6 guns on four-horsed
carriages, with 3 ammunition wagons. The strength is 1 Lieutenant, 130
men, 90 horses. The officer and sergeant are mounted, and the men are
carried on the gun carriage. The _Foot Section_ forms an extra Company,
the 13th, of each Infantry Regiment. It has 6 guns on two-horsed
carriages, with 3 ammunition wagons. The strength is 1 Lieutenant, 83
men, 28 draught horses. The officer and 3 N.C.O.’s are mounted; the men
march on foot, and are armed with pistols.
In Japan, there is to be a 6-gun Section to each Infantry Regiment,
with a strength of 1 Officer, 1 W.O., 6 N.C.O.’s, 36 men. Guns and
ammunition are carried on 30 pack horses. There will be an 8-gun
Section to each Cavalry Brigade, with a strength of 3 Officers, 87 men.
In Switzerland a Machine-Gun Battery takes the place of Horse Artillery
with Cavalry. It consists of 8 guns, and is carried on pack mules, with
its personnel mounted.
5. CAVALRY PIONEERS
In the Austrian Service a few men from each Cavalry Squadron have long
been trained to perform Engineers’ duties, such as demolitions and
repair of bridges, railways, and telegraphs, and hasty field works.
This plan has been adopted to a limited extent in the British Cavalry,
where a corporal and four men of each Squadron are trained in Pioneer
duties. The German Cavalry Regiment has a Bridging equipment of 4
Pontoons, to form small bridges, or rafts, and a Demolition equipment
carried in the Pontoon wagons, with men of the Regiment trained to use
both.
6. CYCLISTS AND MOTOR CARS
Cyclist Infantry have been introduced into some armies, to carry Orders
and messages. They will relieve Cavalry of part of their orderly,
scouting, and patrolling work, as they can move as rapidly as mounted
men, as long as the roads are good. Besides these duties it is claimed
that Cyclists can also be used for fighting. Being armed as Infantry,
but more rapid in movement, they could be used like mounted Infantry,
to surprise the enemy with rifle fire from distant and unexpected
places, or to seize and hold important tactical points, such as
bridges, defiles, and hills, before the Infantry can reach them. As
yet, however, it cannot be said that any decision has been arrived at
as to the organization, equipment, and sphere of utility of Cyclists,
or their employment as fighting troops.
In the British Service it is expected that each Unit will furnish a
few Cyclists, and there are bicycles allotted to each Head-Quarters,
to every Unit of fighting troops, and to telegraph companies, for
inter-communication purposes. The Territorial Army has, besides 12
Cyclists per battalion, ten Cyclist Battalions.
The French, who were the first to form Military Cyclists, have a few
companies, each of 4 Officers and 175 men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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