A sound provision against panic among young troops is to accustom them to regard a retirement as all in the day’s work, and not as an exceptional undertaking which their anxiety may invest with possibilities of disaster. The essence of successful retirement in face of an enemy lies in the continuous opposition, or appearance of it, offered to the enemy by one portion of the troops, while others draw off to take post to cover the withdrawal of the rearmost portion. I.T., 137, gives the idea in few words. It does not mention individual training in this, but it is useful to put men through the movements, both to cultivate cohesion in the ranks, and as a tactical exercise. It may happen in war that an extended line has to give ground when engaged with the enemy, and this under so heavy a fire as to make movement except over short distances impossible without great loss. Such a withdrawal would mean that the troops are in a very tight corner, and would test them very highly, but that is another matter. It may happen, and should be prepared for. A withdrawal under these conditions might perhaps be carried out by the alternate movement of men in files covered by the fire of the others, until such a distance from the enemy had been obtained as to allow sections or companies to take up the alteration. Up to that distance it will be simply a reversal of what was done in Exercise I., but worked by files—a front rank man and his rear rank man, one going back a short distance, and the other firing to cover the movement. Again, men on patrol or otherwise detached may have to retire to avoid capture, or for many other reasons, when they might not be under close and heavy fire, but still would be under the necessity of preventing the enemy closing in on them or surrounding them. In this case, the length of each withdrawal would be much longer than in the former case; one man would fire while the other made off perhaps two or three hundred yards at his best speed. Train for both contingencies; it can be done in one and the same parade. Skeleton enemy as usual. For the withdrawal under heavy fire, let the sections sit down and fall out at BB´ (Diagram I.), and put out the non-commissioned officers between BA and B´ A´ as before. Call out the men by files, tell them to work back to A and A´, one firing, the other retiring. As a rule they should retire past each other before halting. The same points must be observed as in Exercise No. I, and the quicker they are in movement the better, but they must be taught to go in quick time also when so ordered (I.T., 137 (4)).