the development of the whole force will, after a few minutes, have progressed far enough to permit a deployment of skirmishers.
When the brigade takes up a combat formation, each regiment is assigned a separate task (attack of a point, or defense of a section). If the tasks assigned are definite and harmonize with each other, mutual coöperation will be assured. The brigade commander ordinarily sends his orders to the regimental commanders, but, when circumstances (haste, correction of errors) compel him to depart from this rule, he should inform those officers of the action taken. In a brigade consisting of two regiments, its commander, in order to be able to influence the action, will be compelled to retain at least one battalion as a reserve.
Brigades of three regiments[1] (each of three battalions) have an advantage in this respect. But if such an increase in infantry units were contemplated, it would be better, for reasons that will be given later on,[2] to form the additional troops into a third division in each army corps.
Base Units.
The possibility of regulating the movements of a body of troops by means of a base unit, depends upon a number of preliminary conditions which will seldom be fulfilled in war:
1. The leader of the base unit would have to remain unharmed to the very last. If he were disabled the command of the unit would devolve upon the next in rank who would perhaps not join it in every case. 2. The fresh organisation which imparts the impetus necessary for a further advance, would have to maintain the
- ↑ The British division consists of twelve battalions formed into three brigades. In the United States the three unit organization is most clearly marked. The division consists of three brigades, each brigade of three regiments, and each regiment of three battalions. The battalions have a strength of only 400 men.
- ↑ Taktik (Kriegsgliederung), III, p. 31, et seq.
