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ARM I E S
more and more to substitute this for what used to be known as “ setting up ” drill, which was too formal for modern requirements, and did not combine the suppleness with the smartness needed for military purposes nearly so well as the modern gymnastic course. Moreover, since one of the great objects of modern training, both for officers and men, is to carry organization in working down into the smallest fractions of an army, the training of comparatively small gymnastic squads in orderly movement by their own company officers affords important facilities for this purpose. Shortly before the beginning of the Boer war, in the course of 1897, the cavalry underwent a new organization. Two cavalry regiments had been despatched to ^ion^nT South Africa. There were then left in the United special Kingdom eight regiments on a higher establishtraining ment and eight on a lower, which were each by of cavalry, organization made up into three service squadrons and one reserve squadron. The higher establishment regiments had 670 men and 465 horses each, the lower 555 men and‘343 horses. The 1st cavalry division was composed of five regiments on the higher establishment and a composite regiment of household cavalry. The 6th regiment of line cavalry was detailed as corps cavalry for the 1st army corps. Each squadron was 140 strong including officers. The object of this reorganization was to enable the regiments to start on a campaign without drawing on other regiments for non-commissioned officers and men. When the regiments went abroad the “ reserve squadrons ” left behind became in fact each regimental depots. There are always about 200 “ nongrooming ” men in a cavalry regiment required for various purposes, so that this proportion of horses to men was deliberately arranged. During the war a great strain was thrown on the “ reserve squadrons.” As recruits and remounts were poured into them they virtually came to be, in point of men and horses to be trained, equal in numbers to a cavalry regiment. The supply of officers and noncommissioned officers and the “ office ” were wholly inadequate for dealing with such numbers. There can be little doubt that considerable modification will necessarily be made in this provision for any future emergency. The Boer war, in which the power of the new weapons made itself so conspicuous, has naturally led to much discussion as to the future r61e of cavalry. There is a disposition to assume that cavalry should abandon its old position of looking upon manoeuvring facility and the arme blanche as its ruling metier, and should become, like the American cavalry of the civil war, a manoeuvring mounted infantry. It is, however, premature to draw conclusions from the incidents of a very exceptional struggle, and until the question can be more fully discussed it should not be prejudged. On one point all the experience of the past may doubtless be trusted. It is necessary to decide definitely whether cavalry is to rely on a knowledge of ground, on horsemanship, skill in manoeuvring, and the arme blanche, or whether it is to trust to dismounted fire. To train men both to charge home and to believe in victory in so doing, and at the same time to think that their only safety lies in dismounted fire, is a contradiction in terms. It would be wholly contrary to human nature if such training proved successful. That cavalry, if in the proper use of their arm they are to act effectively, must be supported and aided by mounted infantry, is not a new experience, though it has been much emphasized by the South African war. The immense numbers of mounted men ultimately employed were a necessary consequence of the peculiar nature of the contest, and not necessarily a certain element of future war under normal conditions.
[BRITISH
The changes of late years both in the organization and training of artillery have been very numerous. In the first place the old “royal regiment” has been divided ArtiIle into two distinct branches, so that the promotion of officers is no longer carried out in one long list. The officers for the field and horse artillery stand now on one seniority list for promotion, the garrison and mountain batteries on another. Within each branch important changes of organization have been also made. In the field branch of the regiment, both for “ field ” and “ horse ” artillery, the battery is no longer the one “ unit ” for all purposes. A lieutenant-colonel’s command, which for the present bears the anomalous name of a “ brigade division,” has been created. It consists of a group in the horse artillery of two, in the field artillery of three batteries. As yet, the organization is not carried to its logical conclusion. The lieutenant-colonels belong to particular stations, the batteries move from station to station. Thus the elements composing the “ brigade divisions ” are continually changing. Moreover, the “staff” of the brigade division is only formed by taking officers from the batteries temporarily attached to the command. It is much to be hoped that this may soon be modified, and a beginning has been made by the appointment of warrant officers as sergeants-major of the brigade division. For the training of the horse and field artillery a large area of ground on the wild open country of Dartmoor, near Okehampton, has for some years been utilized. A similar school has been started at Glen Imaal in Ireland. There it is possible, to a large extent, to combine the actual firing with service ammunition, the bursting of shells and the practice at dummies representing artillery, cavalry, and infantry, with training in rapid changes of formation and field movements. For these purposes the brigade divisions move together and are trained together. An elaborate system of “fire discipline” has been worked out in order to bring the whole fire of a battery completely under the control of the officer commanding the battery, so that the officer commanding the brigade division may be able to use his unit for such purposes as may be required by the general’s combinations. During the winter and early months of the year the batteries are trained in elementary work at their own stations. During the summer the brigade divisions give practical effect to the training either by preference at Okehampton, or if there be not time for all to go there, then some have hitherto been sent to Shoeburyness. A new training ground has been opened on the area recently purchased at Salisbury. There also actual firing with service ammunition is combined with field movements. This promises to become the most valuable field artillery school the army possesses. Similarly, with the garrison artillery, a much more perfect system has been devised for the regulation and practice of the fire of a fortress. The whole personnel of the artillery within coast fortresses is now organized so that the fire can be brought to bear upon the positions likely to be taken up by a hostile fleet. The invention and adoption of instruments known as “position finders” and “depression range finders ” enables the fire to be directed with great precision upon given spots likely to be passed by ships. To a large extent the actual organization of the defence depends on the special nature of the fortress. The organization of the defence of a fortress like Gibraltar or Malta must obviously differ from that of a tortuous channel such as gives approach to the harbour of Harwich. In general terms the manning of the sea-board guns of the British islands depends upon militia and volunteer artillery, with only a small stiffening of regular garrison artillery and a proportion of officers of the royal garrison artillery. The
