1. THE PASSAGE OF INFANTRY THROUGH ARTILLERY LINES.
The artillery of a mobilized German army corps with its twenty-four batteries takes up approximately 2500 m. of the front of about 4000 m. available for the corps. When the ground is unfavorable, the front available for the other arms may be still further reduced. All remedies suggested for reducing the frontage required by artillery offer no real solution of the difficulty; in fact, they have resulting drawbacks, such as the reduction to ten paces of the interval between guns, and the posting of artillery in two lines, one in rear of the other. On account of these drawbacks, a commander will avail himself of these remedies only in case of the most urgent necessity. The question as to how infantry can best pass through these long artillery lines is therefore of especial interest. While artillery will generally seek commanding positions and avoid covered terrain, infantry will make use of depressions and cover as the natural routes of advance for passing by batteries in action and for deploying subsequently in front of them. In this case the solution of the problem is simple. The difficulties are disproportionately greater when terrain impassable for artillery is lacking. Nothing could be more desirable for hostile artillery which has adjusted its fire upon our batteries, than for the intervals between our guns to become suddenly filled with infantry, whereupon our artillery, until now under fire, would have to cease firing so as not to endanger our infantry. This pause in the fire will be more noticeable, when our artillery has not yet succeeded in gaining a superiority of fire over the hostile guns; and its length will depend upon the
