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) — John Shaqi
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)Radiguet, René-Louis-Jules
History
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)
Radiguet, René-Louis-Jules
Armies; Military art and science; World War, 1914-1918
France had to make great efforts to complete her armament in 1915.
Germany had already accomplished this in a great measure before the war
commenced.
It was reserved for German science, if not to render war more bloody
(the weapons used in 1914 sufficiently fulfilled this purpose), to
violate all the laws of warfare enacted by all the Governments, even by
the German Government itself.
German science has given birth to gigantic cannon which no law forbids
(we shall speak of these further on), but German science will bear,
in the judgment of History, the responsibility of having added to
the horrors of war an unprecedented ferocity and savagery by the
introduction of asphyxiating gases, tear-producing gases, and burning
liquids.
But we may add that Germany in her turn already suffers greatly herself
from her inventions; the Allies having been compelled to adopt and use
similar and often much improved weapons.
=3. Fighting units.= The fighting units are composed of a variable
number of tactical units. The tactical unit is the Division, the
composition of which will hereafter be described. It includes infantry,
cavalry, artillery, and engineers. It ought to possess also, and we
hope it will soon, a special service of aviation.
A group of two or three and sometimes four Divisions constitutes an
Army Corps. The union of three, four, or five Army Corps forms an
Army. In this war, two or three armies placed under one Command form
an Army Group. Four or five of these Army Groups exist on the French
Front. The general organization of the British differs but little from
that of the French armies. Whatever difference there may be exists
rather in the organization of the rear than in that of the front. The
British occupying a much shorter front, dispose of a proportionately
larger number of men. Though the bulk of their forces have been but a
short time in France, they have received from their women workers very
intelligent and valuable assistance, and, having at their disposal
larger appropriations of money, have been able to do much more than
France towards perfecting the organization at the rear.
The Army Corps and the Division must be organized so as to be entirely
and under all circumstances self-sufficient. They may, however, rely
upon any reserve forces that the surrounding armies may place at their
disposal, according to the work assigned to them.
A GLANCE AT THE NORMAL COMPOSITION OF A DIVISION
The real fighting unit is the Division. We purposely do not call it
a Division of infantry. The Division forms a whole by itself. It is
composed of all the different arms in the proportions that have been
deemed necessary to the efficiency of the whole body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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