(_c_) Passing orders and changing targets. Under heavy fire non-commissioned officers will not be able to move along the line, and orders must be passed either by word of mouth or by written messages passed from hand to hand; the former is apt to be slow, and the orders garbled en route unless practised beforehand; the latter is not very practical as men in action are too busy to read bits of paper or trouble themselves to see that they are passed on (I.T., 119 (4)). To practise the verbal method while the men are engaged in firing at any particular target, give orders to one man in a low tone (you would have to speak loud if ball cartridge were being used) to fire at some other target, and to pass the word. The man then tells his neighbours on each side, and yourself and a non-commissioned officer then follow the order each way, and when a man varies it admonish him to repeat just what he got from the last speaker, no more and no less. In a little time the men will become exact in taking and passing messages. This method should be confined to directions about firing; orders for movement should invariably be given by commanders by word themselves or signal, and men should not be allowed to repeat these, as it may lead to grave mistakes on service, as a signal may be seen and acted on by someone for whom it was not intended. (_d_) Besides firing at the skeleton enemy or bits of cover, let fire be directed at civilians who are moving about in the field of view. Call on some individual man by name to choose some such target, and tell him he has to pass the word to the rest of his squad what target he has chosen and to fire at it. This gives practice in target definition, i.e., describing its position so that other men can know just where to look for it. It is not easy in a landscape devoid of noticeable objects to do this quickly, but it is important, as the difficulty of locating a well-concealed enemy with smokeless powder requires that every pair of eyes in the ranks should be engaged in the search till all the positions of the enemy’s riflemen are seen, and the information given to everyone in the firing line. Until this is done, the affair is one of trying to neutralise aimed by unaimed fire, a pretty hopeless task. Hence train your men to use their eyes for seeing and their tongues for description.