The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-21
British Military Expert En-
dorses U. s. Training Camps.
Importance of Infantry Super
sedes Other Divisions.
STRAIGHT SHOOTING FIRST
Poor craftsmanship SapS Sol
dier's Courage in Battle.
Small Number of British Crack
Shots Stop Large Army.
BY SPENCER WILKINSON.
professor of Military History, Oxford
University

professor of Military History, Oxford
University
Here is the second of the series of ar
ticles on Americas part In the war written
by Professor Spencer Wilkinson OF OXFORD
university for the United Press.
London, July 21.-The officer
should be the teacher and the leader
of his men. Therefore the rule should
be rigidly enforced that for an officer
the indispensable qualification is
strong character and a liberal educa-
ton. He must be a person whom the
men will respect for the private SOL
dier gauges instinctively the spiritual
quality of those who are set over him
The military education of the Of
ficer must aim at making him tact-
clan. All the rest is of slight I'M
portance. The routine of the army,
its methods of administration, the
necessary rudimentS of military law
are picked up by the officer insensl-
bly, in the course of his military Ire.
But unless he starts with clear and
sound ideas of the essential points OF
tactics, of the art of fighting, of max
ing the best of his mems weapons
and the ground, he viii be hampered
turnout his career
Cites U. S. System.
The United States government in
forming a series of great schools for
the tactical instruction of young men
seeking to become officers is thereby
LAYING the best foundation for its fu-
ture army. Neglect of this matter at
the beginning cannot possibly be rem
edied by any subsequent measures
Napoleon said: THE ideal army
would be that in which every officer,
according to his rank, should know
exactly what he ought to do in any
situation in which he might find
himself.
In the training of the men it is i'm
possible to exaggerate the Importance
of good shooting. Prince Hoheniohe,
a great Prussian artillery commander
of the last generation, was asEI-. what
are the three great functions of artll-
lery and replied:
THE first is to hit, the second is to
hit, and the third is to hit"
In spite of the immense develop
ment of the power of the gun which
has marked the 10th century, in spite
of the return to hand grenades, bombs
and trench mortars, the most deadly
weapon is always the bullet-the
weapon of the infantry soldier.
For one man who fails to the bay
onet, for ten men who fall to the shell,
hundreds fall to the bullet. But the
bullet does not hit because the man
pulls the trigger. 1t hits because Ne
knows how take aim This is the
more potent spiritual fact. During
the ten years in which I was the
trainer of a company of infantry I
discovered, as other had done before
me, the relation between the bullet
and the soldiers soul
Requires Much Practice.
1t is not an easy thing for a man
lying down with a rifle in his hand to
hit the figure of a mans head 500
yards away. 1t requires a great deal
of learning and a great deal of prac-
tice.\ If the young recruit is not care
sion that it is impossible for him to
hit the mark and that when he does
it is pure accident. Take a man in
that frame of mind into the front of
battle, where the enemy bullets are
whistling in his ears and where men
ar falling about him, and he will be
terribly anxious to be somewhere else
But if a mans practice has proved
to him that he can hit the mark with
two bullets out of three, he will be in
very different state of mind. He
will be very sorry for the enemy not
his magazine is emptied that particu-
lar enemy will be off the board.
The infantry soldiers of the small
British army which Lord French took
to France at the beginning of the war
were able to check the assaults of
many times their number of Prussians
The men could shoot straight and
they knew it. When the Prussians
came on they moved them down. If
they had not been good shots their
courage would have availed them
nothing.
On the first day of the battle of
Gettysburg, General Doubleday was
very anxious to hold a forward posi-
ton athwart the Chambersburg pike.
He ordered up Stones brigade of
Pennsylvania troops and Stone formed
his men behind a ridge sheltered by
stone fence. 1t was a hot place
The whole ground was alive with
bursting shells. The men said, Gen
eral, we've come to stay" Those men
died where they stood