demonstrate that determined troops will hold a position until the attacker has massed sufficient troops to charge, or at least until he threatens to attack with the bayonet. Examples: Terrayama, on October 11th, 1904. Assault made by the 2nd Division on March 1st, 1905, at Mukden, on Redouts 17 and 18.
Training in bayonet fencing has by no means lost importance, irrespective of the fact as to whether or not bayonets will ever be crossed in future. "Bayonet fencing is one of the most important means of strengthening the moral force of the individual soldier; of developing in him energy, initiative, and courage for making a dashing advance."[1]
Since the armament of the different armies is almost the same, good individual marksmanship, coolness, fire control and fire direction, and firmly rooted fire discipline, are the deciding factors in an action in which two equal skirmish lines contend for the superiority of fire.
2. FIRE CONTROL AND FIRE DIRECTION.
The principal object of fire control and fire direction is to bring about a superiority of fire at the decisive point by suddenly concentrating the fire of a large number of rifles upon it. This is the only way in which a moral effect may be produced on the troops against whom the fire is directed, while, at the same time, their losses attain such proportions as to become unbearable. At mid and long ranges, the efficacy of fire depends more on fire control and fire direction than upon good individual marksmanship.[2] Whenever the appropriate rear
- ↑ Introduction to German Bayonet Fencing Regulations.
- ↑ See Rohne, Schieszlehre für die Infanterie, 3rd Edition, p. 85. "The importance of the line shot (i. e., a hit on the vertical stripe through the center of the German bull's-eye target) in the marksmanship training of the soldier should by no means be underestimated, but rather appreciated at its true value. The line shot forms the basis of known distance firing, just as the latter forms the basis of field firing. Instruction in line shooting (i. e., hitting the vertical stripe of the German bull's-eye target) becomes a moral factor of the highest value in field firing. It cannot be denied, however, that the importance of the line shot, as such, decreases with the range. Likewise all attempts to transfer the zone of the line shot from short to long ranges have completely failed." Captain Krause, Die Gestaltung der Geschoszgarbe der Infanterie, Berlin, 1904, p. 1.
