The Major’s duties will be to designate very clearly the fronts assigned to each of his companies, the objectives they are to reach, and the itineraries they are to follow. An assault is usually made in several waves, so the order of departure, the distance to be maintained between the successive waves, the place to station the reserves, and, if need be, the instructions relative to the juncture and reforming of the elements of the various companies, form so many points that must be settled beforehand in their minutest details. The Major will have to decide beforehand how the battalion as well as the several companies will hold the objectives after capturing them, how they will organize these objectives in the shortest time possible, and how they will resist the counter-attacks. The officers in command of battalions and companies must not forget that, once the action has commenced, and often even before it is begun, all communications become difficult and frequently impossible, and that consequently all possible eventualities, within the orders received, must have been thoroughly studied in advance. So it is indispensable to give every man minute instructions. This extract from a letter found on a French captain who was killed on the Meuse will give to young and inexperienced officers a good idea of the thoughts that must absorb the mind of an efficient commander. “I am alone,” he wrote, “in this underground shelter, still permeated with the foul atmosphere of the Germans, where the evidences of a disorderly flight, biscuits, bloody rags, stained letters, a biography of Hindenburg, etc., lie scattered in every direction. I am alone after having relieved the company that made the attack. I am alone without counsel if I hesitate, without help if I weaken, in this captured trench which is half destroyed. My two hundred men are blindly piling in, ignorant of their surroundings, of what to do. The sight of them restores my waning energy. I have to think for them, and put everything in order before daybreak. I consult my watch: it is midnight.” Here is a Chief, a real leader! He goes out; until dawn he inspects his sector, he sets his men at work. To each he assigns a task; he stimulates them, prevents them from falling asleep, and does not spare himself. He can count on all his subordinates to do their best, and at the break of day, if the bombardment is resumed, if the counter-attack is launched, the trench will be ready; the losses will be lessened; resistance will have been made possible. It is by such methods, by the constant co-operation of the officer and his men, that the army performs marvellous feats. It is this constant co-operation, this comprehension of duty by the humblest leader, that enabled us to hold out at Verdun. The most difficult missions should be entrusted to those known to be the best qualified to fulfil them.