leave behind, in reserve and in rallying positions, parts of the troops launched to perform a certain combat task, "to detach parts to maintain communication (very often not at all endangered) with neighboring detachments", and to despatch others to a distance to cover a flank, or to make a wide turning movement for the purpose of enveloping the enemy's flank.
To prevent a battle from degenerating into a number of disconnected, local combats, and to ensure that the enemy will be actually subjected to the fire of as many rifles as the supreme commander intended, General von Scherff proposes that the battle formation, consisting of several echelons separated by fixed distances, be taken up outside of the zone of hostile fire, and that these echelons then advance simultaneously and as uninterruptedly as possible upon the enemy. In this movement the terrain is to be taken advantage of only so far as the orders permit. In view of the flat trajectory of the modern rifle, he concedes that fire while in motion, formerly considered permissible by him at long and medium ranges, may be replaced by an advance by rushes of the firing line, alternating with firing in a prone position, the ammunition to be expended at each halt being fixed by the officer charged with fire direction. He moreover considers it necessary to have a main firing position, located approximately at the outer limit of short ranges, for the purpose of gaining the superiority of fire. Base units must be designated in order to prevent weak detachments from encountering the enemy single-handed. Moreover, he intends to keep the advance going by increasing the fire, and by detailed and definite orders providing for the constant reinforcement of the firing line by men of the steadily following supports and reserves. Further, since according to his proposal, a halt by the rear echelons of an attack that has once been launched, is excluded on principle, it follows of necessity, that, for the fire effect of the firing line at the really decisive ranges, there can remain only a very brief period of time, measurable in minutes, which is amply sufficient, in his opinion, for the object to be accomplished.
It is charged that General von Scherff's proposal[1] (see p. 205 supra) favors a set scheme for conducting every fight. This is not true; there is quite a difference between "more definitely regulating the conduct of an attack", aimed at by the author of Kriegslehren, and the formulation of a normal procedure.
"Where a number of individuals are to coöperate for the purpose of performing a certain task, the nature of the case requires that each one be able to picture to himself beforehand the nature of the task, so that his share in it will appear clear and definite. Each one must know what he is to do, when and where he should engage, what his role is to be, etc. etc., or the result will be hopeless confusion."—"The drill regulations
- ↑ The 10th Supplement of the Internationale Revue 1900, gives General von Scherff's ideas on the infantry attack. See also his Reglementarische Studien, p. 58, and Ein Schlachtenangriff. p. 102. Vergleichender Rückblick auf die neueste Tagesliteratur über den Infanterieangriff, 1906
