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Show !nyiEnFni;TOB THAT WEAPON AND FlfcXD O.UNS, IT HA8 BEErT PREDICTED, WILL WIN THIt WAR. DISUKED BYi THE GERMANS r A'-V Thsy Apt Net Quite Quick EiWMfh4jf: IU Use British Bayonet Drill to Be Taught Rtcfulta In trje New American Amer-ican Army. By EDWARD B.' CLARK. Washington. A day or two ago an order was Issued, or an Intimation was given that It was to be Issued, that the recruits of the new American nrmy would be taught the British bayonet drill Instead of that which has been In uso In the American nrmles for a good many years. Tho reason Is quite plain. The lessons of the present war, In which there has been an Immense amount of hand-to-hand fighting, have taught the British that new feints and cuts nnd thrusts with the bayonet-tipped bayonet-tipped rifle are on essentlnl to success, Tho war has brought n good many changes, In fighting methods, and the chnnge In the uso of-tho bayonet has not been the least of them. "Field guns and the bayonet will win the wur for America and for Its allies." This Is tho word frequently spoken by nrmy men In Washington. Of course, It takes no thought of the possibility pos-sibility of success of the Gcrninn sub-murlnu sub-murlnu campaign, nor of the possibility possibil-ity of a great German nnvnl victory, for these two results, vital from the German point of view, are considered so remote of accomplishment thnt they do not enter Into tho military man's calculations. Bayonet by No Means Obsolete. It was only a few years ago that the military authorities of the world came to think that the bayonet ns a weapon of offense was becoming obsolete. There bus been n complete reversnl of opinion. The British, nnd the French have won many u trench and many n hand-to-hand conflict in the open by the use of the bayonet Bayonets are gruesome weapons, but they quickly put an end to an opponent's ambition to fight If he finds thnt he is outpointed out-pointed by his adversary in the use of this particular Implement of warfare. When the present war began an American who had seen service In the regular army, and who during the tlmo had been instructor of recruits, sold thnt soon reports would begin to come In thnt the Germnn troops did not "like the bayonet" The German nrmy drove Its Wny" Into France nnd there was comparatively llttlo opportunity for n few weeks to judge of the comparative com-parative merits of the men of the opposing op-posing nrmloH ns bayonet fighters. After Af-ter the buttle of the Marne hand-to-hand fighting became more common, nnd as the British nnd the .French advanced ad-vanced the bnyonet entire more and more Into use. The prediction of the American soldier was borue out Frequent Fre-quent cable messages said : "The Germans Ger-mans do not like the bayonet" It Iq only due to an enemy to say thnt the German Is Just ns brave as any other fighting mnn. The reason for his dislike of the bnyonet Is thnt ho has been trained to fight, not as nn Individual, but ns part of a machine. He Is taught tho bnyonet exercise, but the mncblne-llke mofement Is evident In his use of parry, thrust, lunge and butt to the front. Why Germans Dislike It The man who In the American array had Instructed recruits In tho bayonet exercise gave his reasons for faying that the German would be found to be "shy" when bayonet met bayonet He said thnt In the day that be taught recruits In the American army thero were no restrictions on enlistments en-listments except physical restrictions, and that among men entering the service serv-ice were many recently landed Germans Ger-mans who had served their time In the army of the empire. It was found that It was difficult to tench the German recruits the uso of the bayonet so that they could handle the wenp'on with the lightning-like lightning-like speed that the mnn of virtually every other nation oould handle It The German was ulways a fraction of a second lute. He came to "a guurd" without tiny of the lltheness of the men of other nationalities, and while ho feinted nnd thrust nnd lunged perfectly per-fectly so far as movement was concerned, con-cerned, thoro wns mi appreciable slowness slow-ness nhout tho thing which would be deadly In conlllct. Of course, the. Germans In the American Amer-ican army soon overcame the results j of their mncblne-llke trnlnlhg nbroud, I but It took time to make them as expert ex-pert ns their comrades of other nations were. When u man realizes thnt his op. IMinent In n htind-to-hunu conlllct with the bnyonet Is his superior In quickness, quick-ness, ho loses heurt nnd, losing heart, loses the light. Tho American troops nre to be taught the uso of tho bnyonet and they will bo taught It In a lurgo f-enso individually, indi-vidually, ludlvldunl Instruction Is one of the marked methods of the American Ameri-can service. It gives u man Inltlntlve. Kclf-rellnnce, aggressiveness, and a spirit which no other ktad of Instruction Instruc-tion can give him. The American soldiers, sol-diers, with tho form of luktructlon which they receive, supplemented by tho knowledge) of the lessons which the war has taught, will become formidable for-midable with the baonut, and It may be tru that "the bayonet and th & Hilary will wla ta tHM," |
