Page:Tactics (Balck 1915).djvu/249

As the second line overlapped the first, the Füsilier Battalion of the 76th Infantry had to shorten its step until the 2nd and 3rd Companies of the same regiment had come abreast and until the 6th and 8th Companies of the 75th Infantry had also joined the line. The center half-battalion, (2nd and 3rd Companies of the 76th Infantry), the unit of direction, was ordered to march on the church spire of Loigny. All the units of the force, with the exception of the IInd Battalion, 76th Infantry, at once deployed lines of skirmishers. The 1st and 4th Companies, 76th Infantry, and 5th Company, 75th Infantry, covered the left flank and turned toward Ecuillon. Of the eleven companies launched in this flank attack, six were in the first line (approximately 1100 rifles on a front of 800 m.), and five in the second.

The bulk of the second line, in an endeavor to close with the enemy quickly, joined the firing line when 400 m. from the enemy. The attack came as a complete surprise to the French; their lines were taken in flank, and all their attempts to form new defensive lines to oppose the onslaught of the Hansards proved unavailing. The dense, unwieldy masses of the French were more and more crowded together by the uninterrupted advance of the Hansards and offered good objectives to the German marksmen. The advance of the brigade was supported by the artillery in position near Lumeau. This artillery followed the brigade to Ecuillon.

The Hansards traversed a distance of 3500 m. during this attack. The right wing and the bulk of the 2nd and 3rd Companies, 76th Infantry, which had been detailed as the unit of direction, with orders to march on the church spire of Loigny, strayed to Fougon; the left wing penetrated into Loigny.^[1]

4. The advance of six battalions of the IIIrd Army Corps against the Forbach Hill (Spicheren).^[2]

1. See Hönig, Volkskrieg, IV, p. 80; also Kunz, Loigny, p. 105.
2. Gen. St. W., I. p. 356.