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Show INFANTRY ATTACK IS REVOLUTIONIZED except In the case of an attack on a fortress or strongly fortified field work. Not only the battalion but each company com-pany is , able to act independently, and the various smaller units are so composed that when acting together they form a complete whole without any confusion. Hand grenadiers, rifle grenadiers, marksmen with automatic rifles, bombardiers bom-bardiers with bombs and ordinary infantrymen in-fantrymen with rifle and bayonet conf-pose conf-pose each unit. The specialists have companions In action to carry their ammunition and able to replace them In case they sustain a casualty, while every man in the section, even the. simple rifleman, is trained to do one, of the special tasks. Result of Forty-Five Years' Training Train-ing Thrown Into Scrap Heap by French Army. NOW MOVE IN OPEN ORDER Neglected Lessons of the South African Afri-can War Are Recalled Companies Com-panies in France Now Operate Op-erate as Separate Units. French Front. The result of 45 years' infantry training has been thrown on to the scrap heap by the French army. At the beginning of the war the French infantry, like that of all other-continental other-continental nations, marched shoulder to shoulder to the attack. Soon, however, how-ever, the power of the very numerous machine guns with which the Germans were provided outnumbering at least four times those of other armies brought about the adoption of more open formations and recalled the lessons les-sons of the South African war, which had been neglected. Change Their Tactics. After the battle of the Marne, when the Germans dug themselves into deep trenches, the French found it impossible impos-sible to carry out successfully any infantry in-fantry attack in the formations until then in use without losing a number of men disproportionate to the advantage advan-tage gained. They increased the number num-ber of their machine guns, but those of the Germans were placed in positions posi-tions which enabled them to sweep away any frontal attack even before it had been properly developed. At the present no infantry officer of the old school would recognize an infantry in-fantry unit going into action, so much has everything been changed. The Associated Press correspondent was present recently at a demonstration demonstra-tion of the new infantry formation at a school. Instead of, as formerly, a battalion being composed of so many hundreds of men armed merely with rifles and bayonets and intrenching tools and dependent on artillery to clear the way for it during an advance, the battalion is now a little army perfectly per-fectly equipped for offense and defense de-fense and able at all times to take care of itself without any assistance |