Produced by Brian Coe, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Note: Italics and underling are indicated by _underscores_; when both were used in the advertisements, just one pair of underscores is used here. Boldface is indicated by =equals signs=. Small-cap text is shown in ALL-CAPS, except in the Table of Contents, where it is shown in Title Case. [Illustration: Général de Division René Radiguet Former Commander of the 21st Division (Marne), French Army] THE MAKING OF A MODERN ARMY AND ITS OPERATIONS IN THE FIELD A STUDY BASED ON THE EXPERIENCE OF THREE YEARS ON THE FRENCH FRONT (1914–1917) BY RENÉ RADIGUET GÉNÉRAL DE DIVISION, ARMY OF FRANCE TRANSLATED BY HENRY P. DU BELLET FORMERLY AMERICAN CONSUL AT RHEIMS G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1918 COPYRIGHT, 1918 BY RENÉ RADIGUET The Knickerbocker Press, New York A L’HONORABLE NEWTON D. BAKER, Ministre de la Guerre, Washington, D. C. EXCELLENCE: Vous avez bien voulu m’autoriser à vous dédier cette étude. Veuillez y voir l’hommage d’un vieux soldat de France pour le talent et l’énergie que vous avez deployés depuis cinq mois pour hâter l’envoi sur le front français des troupes Américaines. Veuillez agréer, Excellence, l’expression de mon plus profond respect. GÉNÉRAL RADIGUET. NEW YORK, _November, 1917_ FOREWORD Divers missions sent to the United States by the Allied armies are now giving the benefit of their practical experience to the American army. These missions are imparting to the officers of every arm the knowledge of the details it is necessary for them to acquire. The purpose of this book is to show to the American officers, and also to the civilians who take an interest in war matters, how a large army on the European Front in the last quarter of the year 1917 is made up. In the course of general considerations we have explained what is meant by the words “strategy and tactics”; we have described those interior lines which have been of such powerful assistance to Germany; we have dwelt on the composition of the large units of an army, and more especially on that of a division as a fighting unit. We have next examined the question of the command, and we have attempted to define its duties as well as those of the staffs. We have then devoted special chapters to the study of Aviation, the Field Fortifications, the Artillery, the Supply of Munitions, and the Infantry. It is not at random that we have placed the various topics in this sequence. It will facilitate the comprehension of the last chapter, in which we describe, with examples, how an attack is to be prepared and by what means its success can be assured.