According to the figure, the Italian Company Column (German Column of Platoons) suffers the greatest losses; the least losses are sustained by the company formed in line of platoons, each in route column, at intervals of 15 paces. According to French experiments, this formation is said to be no longer suitable when subjected to infantry fire at ranges under 1300 m. According to French firing tests made in Châlons,[178] the following percentages of hits may be expected when using the Lebel rifle firing old model steel jacketed bullets: ==========================================+=================== | At a range of +----+----+----+---- |1200|1400|1600|1800 | m. | m. | m. | m. ------------------------------------------+----+----+----+---- Platoon (one rank) | 4.4| 3.4| 2.2| 1.4 Skirmish line, men at 3-pace intervals | 1.2|----|----|---- Platoon in column of fours | 6.6| 3.8| 2.2| 1.3 Platoon in column of twos | 5.6| 3.2| 1.9| 1.1 Company column (German column of platoons)|22.0|18.0|14.0|10.0 ------------------------------------------+----+----+----+---- [178] _Le Joindre, Petit Guide pour les tirs collectifs_, p. 15. Lieutenant-General ROHNE, in his work, _Schieszlehre für die Infanterie_, p. 117, computes values for the relative vulnerability of the several formations. At a range of 1200 m., purely frontal fire only being considered, we obtain with every 1000 rounds fired with the appropriate elevation, the following number of hits against-- ========+=====+=========+============= |Line.|Column of|Infantry in | |platoons.|route column. --------+-----+---------+------------- Standing| 116 | 160 | 98 Prone | 20 | 65 | 72 --------+-----+---------+------------- And against a company deployed in line of platoons: =========+================+==================+=================== |3 platoons, each| 3 platoons, each |6 sections, each in |in route column.|in column of twos.| column of twos. ---------+----------------+------------------+------------------- Standing | 57 | 39 | 29 Prone | 28 | 25 | 14 ---------+----------------+------------------+-------------------