- vision at least an evil." The "combat unit"[1] consists of a
number of fighting units. "The commander of the combat unit (infantry battalion, cavalry regiment, or artillery battalion) should be able to lead it as a compact entity, and should have the power of employing its component parts independently for combined action against some point." General von Scherff has found imitators in Austria, where the term body of troops (Truppenkörper) is applied to an organization having the necessary means for feeding, clothing, and equipping the men, and which is composed of a number of "basic units."[2] Such "basic units" as can be supervised, handled, and controlled directly by one leader, who knows the individual men thereof and their characteristics, are the troop (Eskadron), battery, and company. Von Boguslawski[3] applies the term "fighting unit" to organizations from the company (troop) to the brigade, which act in accordance with the tactics of their arm, supported by the other arms, in the sphere assigned to them by orders or by circumstances. Divisions, which, by the coöperation of the three arms, are capable of independent employment on the march and in action, he calls "combat units." According to Boguslawski, army corps are "battle units,"[4] with which the commander reckons in battle, and which are strong enough to meet an energetic attack or to execute one themselves.
3. ORGANIZATION.
The basic unit of infantry is the company, from 200 to 250 men strong in the larger armies. It seems hardly practicable to exceed a strength of 150 men, as this is about the greatest number in which a relation based upon personal influence of the leader on his subordinates can still be ob-*
