Training in night movements, based on actual experience in war

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Название: Training in night movements, based on actual experience in war

Автор: Burnett, Charles

Издательство: Fort Leavenworth, Kan., U.S. Cavalry association

Страниц: 144

Формат: PDF

Размер: 24 Мб

Качество: Хорошее

Год: 1914

Язык: английский

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Translated from the Japanese.

The importance of night movements and night attacks in the military operations of the present day is so generally recognized, that any discussion on that point would be more than superfluous. That the Japanese army, from the standpoint of practical experience, is best qualified to discuss such operations, would seem to follow as a matter also beyond discussion. For this reason it occurred to me that the translation of this work of a Japanese officer who was a company commander during the Japanese-Russian War, might, and I venture to say, does contain much that will be of interest and profit to our own service.Night movements are admittedly among the most difficult operations of war ; the margin between victory and defeat is so small that it is a difficult matter to say to just what comparatively trivial reason success or failure may be due. Such being the case, it naturally follows that minute and painstaking training is absolutely necessary if success can be even hoped for. Military writers on this subject have usually recognized that fact, but their treatment of the matter has consisted so largely of vague generalities that they are not of much assistance to Captain Jones in the training of his company and are absolutely useless to Sergeant Smith in leading his squad. This work is not an academic discussion of night movements in general, but is full of valuable practical hints on the training of the small units that go to make up the great military machine; hints not evolved from the inner consciousness, but ideas stamped in the mind by actual experiences of nights on Manchurian battlefields. Due perhaps to national characteristics, Japanese army training of all kinds proceeds along more exact and minute lines than is usual in our own service. While many may consider that this work errs in that direction, it would be well to consider carefully the necessity for such careful training in the most delicate of all military movements. If Private Brown has not been thoroughly trained and accustomed to night movements, he is sure to make mistakes ; multiply him by a hundred or a thousand, and the margin of safety for success will become rather slim, to say the least. This work has been translated at odd times in the press of much other work of the same general character. For this reason there has been no time to spend on niceties of expression or in polishing up the English; and indeed I am not sure but that following the author's words rather closely does not more than compensate for faulty diction. If the meaning can be comprehended I shall be satisfied and beg indulgence for all the things lacking.

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