and oxen; remount depots; training of army horses; marching, (b) Diseases met with specially on active service, (c) Military etiquette and ethics; accounts and returns; administration and organization; veterinary hospitals, mobilization, map-reading and law. At the end of the course he is examined, and if found satisfactory, is retained in the service. Before promotion to captain he is examined in the duties of executive veterinary officers and in law: before promotion to major, in medicine, surgery, hygiene, bacteriology and tropical diseases, and in one special subject selected by the candidate; and before promotion to lieutenant-colonel, in law, duties of administrative veterinary officers at home and abroad, management of epizootics, sanitation of stables, horse-lines and transports.
Army Pay Department.—Officers are appointed to the department, on probation for a period not exceeding one year, after serving for five years in one of the other arms or branches of the service. At the end of this period the candidates are examined in the following subjects: examination of company pay lists and pay and mess book; method of keeping accounts and preparing balance-sheets and monthly estimates; knowledge of pay- warrant, allowance regulations and financial instructions, book-keeping, by double entry and the duties attending the payment of soldiers; aptitude for accounts, and quickness and neatness in work. On completion of five years’ service, officers return to their regiments, unless they elect to remain with the department or are required by the Army Council to be permanently attached to it.
Schools and Colleges.—The training of the officer in his regiment is necessarily incomplete, owing to a far wider knowledge of his profession in general, and of his own branch of the service in particular, being essential, than can be acquired within the comparatively confined limits of his own unit. Accordingly, schools and colleges have been established, in which special courses of instruction are given, dealing more fully with the generalities and details of the various branches of the service.
There is a cavalry school at Netheravon.
Mounted Infantry schools have been established at Longmoor, Bulford and Kilworth, which train both officers and men in mounted infantry duties. The officers selected to be trained at these schools must have at least two years’ service, have completed a trained soldier’s course of musketry and should have some knowledge of horsemanship and be able to ride. The instruction consists for the most part of riding school and field training.
The School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness gives five courses of instruction per annum; one “Staff” course for Ordnance officers, lasting one month; two courses for senior officers of the Royal Artillery, lasting a fortnight each, and two courses for junior officers of the same regiment, lasting one month each. For Royal Garrison Artillery officers there is one “Staff” course lasting for seven months (this being a continuation of the previous “Staff” course), and two courses, lasting four months each, for junior officers. There is also a school of gunnery at Lydd, where two courses, lasting for three weeks each, in siege artillery, are given each year.
The Ordnance College at Woolwich provides various courses of instruction in addition to those intended for officers of the Ordnance Department. There is a “Gunnery Staff Course” for senior officers, in gunnery, guns, carriages, ammunition, electricity and machinery; two courses for junior officers of the Royal Artillery in the same subjects; a course for officers of the Army Service Corps in mechanical transport, which includes instruction in allied subjects, such as electricity and chemistry. It also gives courses of instruction to officers of the Royal Navy.
The School of Military Engineering at Chatham trains officers of the Royal Engineers, compiles official text-books on field defences, attack and defence of fortresses, military bridging, mining, encampments, railways.
The School of Musketry at Hythe (besides assisting and directing the musketry training of the army at large by revising regulations, experiments, &c.) trains officers of all branches of the service in theoretical and practical musketry, the courses lasting about a month each and embracing fire control, the training of the eye in quick perception, fire effect and so on. Courses in the Maxim gun usually follow.
The Staff College (see also Staff) at Camberley is the most important of the military colleges. Only specially selected officers are eligible to attempt the entrance examination. The course lasts two years, and is divided into: (a) military history, strategy, tactics, imperial strategy, strategic distribution, coast defence, fortification, war organization, reconnaissance; (b) staff duties, administration, peace distribution, mobilization, movements of troops by land and sea, supply, transport, remounts, organization, law and topographical reconnaissance. Visits are paid to workshops, fortresses, continental battlefields, &c., and staff tours are carried out. Officers of the non-mounted branches attend riding school, and students can be examined in any foreign languages they may have previously studied. They are also attached for short periods to arms of the service other than those to which they belong, and attend at staff offices to ensure their being conversant with the work done there.
The Army Service Corps Training Establishment at Aldershot gives courses of instruction to senior officers of the corps at which a limited number of officers of other corps may attend, provided they have passed through or been recommended for the Staff College. Other courses, in addition to the nine months’ course for officers on probation for the corps are, one of twelve days for senior officers of the corps in mechanical transport; two (one long and one short) in the same subject for other officers; one for officers in other branches of the service in judging provisions; and one for lieutenants of the Royal Army Medical Corps in su])ply and transport.
Other colleges and schools are: the Balloon School at Farnborough, for officers of the Royal Engineers; Schools of Electric Lighting at Plymouth and Portsmouth; the School of Signalling at Aldershot, for officers of all branches of the service; the School of Gymnastics, also at Aldershot; and the Army Veterinary School, where a one month’s course is given to officers of the mounted branches in the main principles of horse mastership, stable management and veterinary first aid, in addition to the one year’s course for officers on probation for the Army Veterinary Corps.
To encourage the study of foreign languages, officers who pass a preliminary examination in any language they may select are allowed U> reside in the foreign country for a period of at least two months. After such residence they may jiresent themselves for examination, and if successful, receive a grant in aid of the expenses incurred. The grant is £80 for Russian, £50 for German, £24 for French and £30 for other languages. The final or “Interpretership” examination for which the grant is given is of a very high standard. In the case of Russian, £80 is paid to the officer during his residence in Russia, in addition to the grant. Special arrangements are made with regard to the Chinese and Japanese languages; three officers for the former and four officers for the latter being selected annually for a two years’ residence in those countries. During such residence officers receive £150 per annum, in addition to their pay, and a reward of £175 on passing the “Interpretership” examination.
There has been a tendency of late years to give officers facilities for going through civilian courses of instruction; for example, at the London School of Economics and in the workshops of the principal railway companies. These courses enable the officer not only to profit by civilian experience and progress, but also to form an opinion as to his own knowledge, as compared with the knowledge of those outside his immediate surroundings.
Promotion from the Ranks.—In several armies aspirant officers may join as privates and pass through all grades. This is hardly promotion from the ranks, however, because it is understood from the first that the young avantageur, as he is called in Germany, is a candidate for officer’s rank, and he is treated accordingly, generally living in the officers’ mess and spending only a brief period in each of the non-commissioned ranks. True promotion from the ranks, won by merit and without any preferential treatment, is practically unknown in Germany. In France, on the other hand, one-third of the officers are promoted non-commissioned officers. In Italy also a large proportion of the officers comes from the ranks. In Great Britain, largely owing to the chances of distinction afforded by frequent colonial expeditions, a fair number of non-commissioned officers receive promotion to combatants’ commissions. The number is, however, diminishing, as shown by the following extracts from a return of 1909 (combatants only):—
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1885–1888 annual average 34 (Sudan Wars, &c.) |
Quartermasters and riding masters are invariably promoted from the lower ranks.
Officers of reserve and second line forces are recruited in Great Britain both by direct appointment and by transfer from the regular forces. In universal service armies reserve officers are drawn from retired regular officers, selected non-commissioned officers, and most of all from young men of good social standing who are gazetted after serving their compulsory period as privates in the ranks.
Foreign Armies
The training of the officer of a foreign army differs very slightly from that of the British officer. Each country specializes according to its individual requirements, but in the main the training is much the same.
Germany.—The Germans attend more closely to detail—being even microscopical—and it has been said that a little grit in the German military machine would cause a cessation of its working. Unfortunately for this argument, the German army has not yet given any signs of cessation of work, so few deviations from the smooth working of the military machine being permitted that the introduction of grit into this air-tight casing is practically impossible. At the same time, the German officer is trained to have initiative and to use that initiative, but he is expected to be discreet in the use of it and consequently undue insistence on literal obedience to instructions (as distinct from formal orders), and undue reticence on the part of senior, especially staff, officers is held to be dangerous, in that the regimental officer, if ignorant of the military situation, may, by acts of initiative out of harmony with the general plan, seriously prejudice
