OCR Text |
Show EUROPEAN- BATTLES ARE STAGED LIKEPLAY Attacking Troops Screened From Foe by Fire of Artillery. By Henry Wood I United Press Staff Correspendent. WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES, 'june t (By Mall I. Battles now being fought "in Europe are not only planned out In advance to he minutest detail, but are often staged and rehearsed In advance in precisely the same manner j that a theatrical performance or mov-ing mov-ing picture fTscene is staged and rehearsed re-hearsed before its actual performsnce. When a battalion, a regiment, a brigade bri-gade or even a division goea into a prepared action now, it Is not until every man has been made letter perfect per-fect In his part by a series of dally rehearsals that have been enacted un- der conditions resembling aa nearly aa possible those under which the actual battle Is to be fought. When the battle Itself takes place, this analogy to the enacting of a carefully care-fully rehearsed drama la even more striking. Up until the moment for the assault tin- niim hlnej tesups an 'screened from the enemy by curtain Iflre of artillery. When the pre- of a battle, efforts are made to secure ground where Just about the same conditions exist as those where battles will be fought. In the new Infantry tactics and arms adopted by the French since the beginning begin-ning of the war there Is such a variety of weapons, aa well as such extensive possibilities in their use. that it has been found the best results can be obtained ob-tained by a little preliminary rehearsal of the men. Every man In the French Infantry at the present time Is a speciallat Some are hand grenade throwers, some bayonet experts, some portable machine ma-chine gun men, others rifle grenades or baby cannon marksmen. Where before the present war soldiers sol-diers were merely drilled for fighting generally, the French soldier of today, in addition to bring given the moat efficient training possible for fighting In general. Is now drilled and rehearsed for some particular engagement that he Is to fight. arranged moment for the launching of ' the attack arrives, this curtsin fire lifts and the troops dash forward. From that moment on until the end of the battle, when the same curtain fire of artillery closes down and screens again from the enemy the troops in their newly captured positions, ever) soldier enacts his carefully rehearsed part. I When the plans for a modern engagement en-gagement have been fully prepared and are ready to give to the troops fur rehearsal, there is not a detail or a contingency that has been over-iaked. over-iaked. The performance, aa it were, muat begin at a scheduled moment and every detail must be enacted, down to the final curtain of artillery fire, as planned by the army staff. I have personally witnessed engagements engage-ments that never varied in any Important Im-portant detail, from the scenario that had been worked out in advance. This method of staging engagements In advance haa reduced the certainty of winning an attack almost to mathematical mathe-matical precision and It has .reduced to an amaxing extent the loss of life. Every soldier, knowing Just what he has to do and just how to do It, has vastly more chances of coming out alive than the man who ts merely launched to the attack with nothing more than luck In his favor to carry him through. In staying and rehearsing tn advance |