attack from an oblique direction and thereby ensure the success of the attack, they should make the most of this advantage. (Par. 340 German I. D. R.).
When the enemy advances to the frontal counter-attack, as laid down in the Russian and British regulations, the skirmishers throw themselves down for the purpose of firing. The supports in the act of moving up continue their march. If the enemy faces about, all the troops press after him.
The French regulations (par. 270) also consider such a counterattack:
"If the attacker presses forward too hastily and if he threatens to carry the defender's position, fresh troops, which have been assembled in a place sheltered from view, attack him energetically, while the troops already engaged increase the intensity of their fire. This powerful and energetic counter-attack produces confusion in the enemy's ranks and compels him to retire, or at least to discontinue his forward movement until he has had time to recover. . . . The troops in the counter-attack should move forward without hesitation and regardless of the cost. When such a forward movement has to be discontinued, the commander must decide where it shall cease. The efforts of all should be directed toward one object, that of tiring and demoralizing the enemy by constant counter-attacks, until the moment arrives when the commander must order the offensive to be assumed."
The German Infantry Drill Regulations contain no further
rules for the conduct of the assault. If the physical and
moral power of the enemy is so broken by the preceding fire
fight that he commences to evacuate his position, it is quite immaterial
what sort of an assault is made; the men simply fire
and rush quickly after the retiring enemy. In this case the
assault is nothing but a postlude of the fire fight.
A brave and well disciplined opponent who is energetically led, will not allow himself to be forced to evacuate his position by fire alone; to compel him to evacuate his position will at the very least require that an assault be threatened.
Before the Boer war, the British held the view that the effect of the fire fight alone was so great that the assault would strike nothing but an evacuated or, at most, a feebly defended position. The assault was to commence after the enemy had
