of them must be given definite rules for combat if they are to render any service at all.
Drill regulations should facilitate quick mutual understanding between leader and organization and lay down general principles for ordinary situations, for combat tasks, and for formations, but should not, by their rules, direct the actions of a leader from the very beginning into definite grooves. If the regulations contain a normal procedure, there is danger that it will be employed where inappropriate, and that the mental alertness of the leaders will relax and fail in war at the very moment when its presence is most vitally necessary.[1]
"Tactics will always vary according to the nature of the ground, therefore it is impossible to tell beforehand what might happen in each particular case." (Frederick the Great). Whether or not a particular normal procedure is appropriate does not depend upon the terrain but solely upon the tactical situation.[2]
While there is considerable unanimity of opinion as to the general manner of carrying out an attack, opinions differ radically as to details. "If all the advocates of a normal attack had to describe it in words, there would be about as many suggestions as there are advocates. Which of the many normal attack schemes is the most suitable for average troops? A conference called for the purpose of investigating this point would probably have the strange result that each representative would concede that what the others desire
- ↑ "Leaders who have been trained only in the mechanical part of drill and who subsequently have to act independently, fare like the lame man deprived of his crutches, or the near-sighted man deprived of his spectacles." von Seidlitz.
- ↑ It is only in cases where precisely identical situations may be presumed to exist that there can be any question of a normal procedure. The last stages of the infantry attack in fortress warfare present features of this nature and on that account a normal procedure has been formulated for it in almost all of the European armies.
