The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-04-11
NEW ARMY MOVIES
TO DRILL RECRUITS
Series of Pictures Approved by Army
Officers to Be shown Throughout
Country.

NEW YORK, April Il. - For the |
benefit Of Major Gen. Leonard Wood, |
members of his staff. officers from |
Governors Island, and recruits of the !
Officers Training corps for newspaper |
men, a private view of the completed |
sections of a series Of moving pictures,
which have been prepared with the
sanction of the war department., illus
| trating the rudiments of military train
| ing, were shown Sunday afternoon at
the Worlitzer art rooms, 120 West 41st
street. The series of pictures, which
have been arranged for exhibition
| throughout the country, were intended
as a means of supplementing the work
of drill officers for civilians, in cases
where it was not possible to assign of
icers of the regular army for instrue
ton duty.
The new system of teaching drill by
pictures, prepared under the supervision
of Sherwood NJ. Hard, represents, by
accurate and specially posed examples,
the proper methods OF executing setting
up exercises, the manual of arms,
squad drill, the use of the bayonet, the
mechanism Of the army rifles, and the
use of frst-aid equipment.
The portions of the series which were
exhibited Sunday showed ''plebes
at West Point being put through reg
ulation calsthenics, and special pictures
of Capt Herman J. Koehler, for many
wears supervisor of athletics at West
Point, executing the prescribed ex-
ercises alone. A series of pictures IL
Illustrating the manual of arms took up
the major portion of the reel.
At the close Of the series of pictures,
Captain Kilbourne of the general staff
at Governors Island explained the uses
to which the pictures might be put in
: counteraeting our lack of sufficient
drill officers to make an army of vol
unteers fit for active service in d short
time, should the need arise. He said the
use of motion pictures to drill large
numbers of men in scattered parts of
the country, would insure the uniform
training necessary to enable bodies OF
fresh troops, whether trained in Maine
or California, to be drilled together
without reimbursement or loss of time
The use Of the photograph, to supple
ment the pictures would, he said, give
the accurate infection for commands
BY shortening the time required tC
make a soldier of a citizen, he said, the
picture method of instruction for re
cruits would prove of great advantage
although he admitted that the exac1
time saved by the new system of in
struction would have to be proved by
even a small shortening of the time
would be of inestimable service, h
said.
At the close of the meeting, Genera
Wood, in answer to a request for hi
opinion upon the uses of the new svs
tenn, said it had his hearty approval a
providing an accurate and uniform
method of instruction for the recruit
He advised, he said, that the picture
should be given slowly, in order tina
the various minutiae of the manual o
arms might be carefully studied. Gen
eral Wood also repeated the obviou
uses of the method in augmenting tn
work of the driII officer, mentioning tn
fact that the shortage of officers VIII
could be released from their regula
duties with the army for drill dut
made the adoption of the new metho
of double value.
In its completed form, the series c
pictures would be divided into section
for use in short lectures covering on
subject at a time. As each motion
executed several times in each postum
and a board on which the command
which are being followed, appears
each, the repetition Of the proper met
cd of executing the order will, it
expected, save the time which Is j
quired in the matter of correction du
ing the actual drilling of the recruit
further use for the films by the re
1rlar army has been suggested as
means of correcting carelessness
drilling among the regular troops.