Evening star., 1917-11-18
Americans TO Fight Germans
S. bu LOnq-Estab blished Methods
Dcsnite Manu- Innovations in Warfare Rifle and
J. !. Bayonet Are to Be Chief Reliance of
Gen. Pershings Forces.

| ed to a high degree Of skin as a marks.
man, both on the target range and In field
firing. With the bayonet he will be train
ed and trained and trained until he re,
CARDS himself invincible with cold steel
in battle.
As said before, the American infantry
man will learn to throw bombs as ac-
curately as any one. or to fire machine
rifles, but his main reliance Will be on
bullet and bayonet. for he Is an infantry
man and those are the infantryman's q
weapons.
Superiority Of Weapons.
for these two reasons. among others: The
rifle is accurate beyond any weapon an
infantryman can use. and proficiency in
the bayonet gives him greater confidence
Furthermore. the German does not like
cold steel The whole subject Of bayonet
fighting is not one for the sQueamish to
study. but 1t is not for nothing that the
American soldier Is taught to grunt
when he lunges. even in practice, at a
boche dummy
Gen. Pershing has emphasized that
fact repeatedly. He knows that the
French infantrymen have got SO far
away from bedrock that sometimes they
run after fleeing German. trying vain
ly to get within the forty-five yards
grenade range instead of stopping and
picking him on with the far more ac-
curate rifle. He knows that when. in the
battle of Arras. retreating Germans be-
came entangled In ueir own barbed
wire and some Australians fired their
whole hundred rounds apiece of rife
ammunition at them the craftsmanship
was not good because the Australians
had got the same habit Of bombing too
much. He knows that the Germans de-
pend even more than the allies on bombs
and machine guns and trench mortars.
There Is the "Great Hope"
Then there is the great hope-the Ger
man may break and run some day. One
will never give up that hope and will
always be trying for its realization. He
is determined that when that time comes
the Americans shall not lose the oppor-
tuntty and the enemy shall get on scot
free.
So. when the new troops come here
to France for their final training before
they go up toward the sound Of the guns
they will have got good sound ground
work at home, a groundwork that will be
American in principal, upon which can
easily be superimposed the new Develop
ments of this war.
But beyond planning the nature Of the
instruction for combat it is necessary
training. handling and conditioning
troops in order that they may property
carry out what has been taught them.
First and foremost, troops arriving
here will find that they must conform
to the most rigid discipline. Peace-time
discipline and wartime discipline are
two different things, and. above all, dis
cipline for an ordeal so soul trying as
the American soldier Is to endure must
absolutely insure the execution OF every
command with utmost exactitude.
And for the new officers, who, after
all. will constitute two-thirds, at least.
of the officers Of the Army, II they can
not enforce such discipline It will be
capasi.y to create in their men the In
tensiI, Of purpose and willingness to
acospt hardships which are necessary
t. .Aecess In battle.
sound Leadership Is Aim
j. its general principles the training
in succession in the squad or
group, the platoon, the company and
dnaiiy the higher units. TO this end
commanders will be required to lead
their respective units In person In the
most energetic manner. and response
bility for satisfactory performance OF
their work Will always rest with the
unit commander.
As soon as th4 troops have attained
proficiency in elementary methods the
applicatory system Of training viii be
employed-that is, having learned each
individual task, the troops will put them
into practice with the groundwork OF
the main principle. Some of these
maneuvers or, as they are termed,
"problems," have been already de-
seribed-
They are all based upon an assumed
situation, and are executed in the
trenches. Commanding officers will re-
Quire their subordinates to dispose
their troops in accordance with the
situation assumed. The adoption Of cut