With this oral instruction there should be work on the relief map or
sand table. This latter is one of the most important aids in teaching
this subject. The instructor with a small group at the table gives
a simple situation and then, turning to one of the men, gives him
an order as patrol leader to make a certain patrol on the ground
represented by the map. Allow a short time for the section to think
it over then question the leader. First get his idea of his mission
and plan of action, question the others as to what they think of it,
then the instructor gives his idea or concurs in that already given
by the men.
Next the leader should be required to tell what he would do up to the
time of moving out, the inspection he would make, what men must have
and what they must not have, all the instructions and information
he would give his patrol. The other members are called on in turn
to point out any errors or omissions, then this part is discussed.
The leader then points out his general route and gives the formation
of his patrol along this route under the supposition that no enemy
is encountered. The others are questioned as to their ideas of the
correctness of the leader’s decision.
The instructor should then take up the march in detail, something as
follows: When you reached this point what would you do? How would
you get from here to there? When you reached the bottom of this
little hill what did you do? And so on, bringing out carefully and
thoroughly how woods, bridges, defiles and villages are traversed,
etc.
At the conclusion the instructor should go back to the start and at
various points along the route have them see various hostile patrols
and bodies of troops, bring out what should be done in each new
situation, what messages sent, whether by one man or more, whether
written or verbal, requiring in every case the reasons. The problem
should be worked out once on the assumption that the patrol is in
hostile territory and once as in friendly territory, the instructor
bringing out clearly the difference in conduct. The mission should
then be changed, as for instance from a patrol seeking information
change the problem, on the same ground so as to give it a mission of
screening.
The various phases of patrolling, in friendly and hostile territory,
with a mission to gain information and then to prevent the enemy’s
gaining it should be worked out carefully on the same ground
with only the necessary changes in the problem to bring out the
differences in their conduct. It seems to impress these differences
on the men the more lastingly, the more closely the problems
resemble each other in other respects and when they are on the same
ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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