Transcriber’s Notes Text printed in italics has been transcribed _between underscores_, bold face text =between equal signs=. Text printed in a different (sans-serif) type has been indicated ~by tildes~. Small capitals have been replaced with ALL CAPITALS. Footnotes [513]-[516] were not present in the source document text; please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text for more details. More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text. TACTICS BY ~BALCK Colonel, German Army.~ VOLUME I. INTRODUCTION AND FORMAL TACTICS OF INFANTRY. TRANSLATED BY ~WALTER KRUEGER, First Lieutenant 23rd Infantry, U. S. Army, Instructor Army Service Schools.~ Fourth completely revised edition. With numerous plates in the text. U. S. CAVALRY ASSOCIATION, FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS. 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY WALTER KRUEGER. =PRESS OF KETCHESON PRINTING CO., LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS.= TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. The translation of this book was undertaken at the instance of Major John F. Morrison, General Staff, who desired to make use of it in the course in tactics in the Army Service Schools. It is an epitome of the interpretation and application of tactical principles in the various armies, discussed in the light of the tactical views and methods prevailing in Germany, and amplified by numerous examples from military history. The professional value of this book to all officers of our Regular Army and Militia who are endeavoring to gain a working knowledge of tactics, is so obvious that any comment would be superfluous. Army Service Schools, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, December, 1910. PREFACE. The first volume of “Tactics,” which appeared in its first edition in 1896, and for which the preparatory work reached back more than a decade, now appears in its fourth edition in a completely changed form. The lessons gained in war and improvements in weapons have corrected many earlier views. While the Boer war confused the views on infantry combat and brought forth more lessons in a negative than in a positive form, the Russo-Japanese war has had a great educating influence, in that it corroborated the soundness of the lessons gained in the Franco-German war, but also in that it amplified those lessons commensurate with the improvements in weapons. The fundamental principles upon which success depends have remained the same.