The three-unit column of platoons is very broad for movements on the battlefield. It offers, when numbering 200 rifles, a target about 25 m. wide and only 15 m. deep. The four-unit column of platoons is better suited for movements. With a front of 17 m., its depth is only 15 m., when the distances between platoons are assumed to be 6 paces (Austria, France, Italy, Russia, 5 paces). (See p. 62). For a company consisting of 200 rifles, the following would be the forms: [Illustration] The other advantages praised by advocates of the four-unit company are: 1. That a smaller platoon is more suitable for field service--that a picket is perhaps only in the rarest cases to be made 60 men strong. 2. That a small platoon makes a better and more comprehensive employment of the company in action possible, as the company commander has an opportunity to use ¹⁄₄, ¹⁄₂, or ³⁄₄ of his company according to the requirements of the situation, while the three-unit company affords less favorable combinations, permitting only an employment of ¹⁄₃ or ²⁄₃ of its strength. These advantages can also be obtained in the German company by the employment of sections (¹⁄₆, ¹⁄₃, ¹⁄₂, ²⁄₃, ⁵⁄₆) so that the objections to the three-unit company would appear to be groundless. The platoons (in Italy called _plotone_, in France, _section_) are subdivided into sections (_demi-sections_, _Halbzüge_), in Austria into two skirmish groups (_Schwärme_) of 4-7 files each, and, when consisting of 16 files, into four skirmish groups (in Italy this is also done, the groups being called _squadriglio_). In Germany the platoons are divided into groups or squads of four files each, and in Russia the platoons are divided into sections of 8-15 files each and these again into groups or squads of 4-6 men each. If the squad is to have any importance at all in action, it must have a leader, and it might easily happen that a mobilized company lacks the number of leaders necessary to provide one for each group. The withdrawal from the line of a number of good shots for duty as squad leaders is compensated for, in our opinion, by the more thorough supervision over the men. This consideration has, however, apparently caused other states (Austria and France) not to count on the activity of the squad leaders in a fire action to the same extent as is the case in Germany. 4. LENGTH OF PACE AND MARCHING.