Omaha daily bee., 1920-03-18
FOREIGN Terms,
USED BY ARMY, TO
60 IS The ORDER
"0ver the Top" "Liaison''
And Other Borrowed Ex-
pressions Left Out of
New Manual Of Arms.

Washington, March II. - Sucl,
phrases as "over the top" and
'iiaison," which were common part
OF the parlance of war literature and
conversation, are doomed to disap-
pear from American military phrase
ology ard will not be included in
the army text books Of the future
The new field service regulations oi
the United States army and the
manuals of the various arms Of the
service, now being prepared by the
general staff, will differ in but minor
details from the regulations in force
4 before the world war, and will show
practically no traces of the passing
vogue Of foreign methods.
The formulation OF a strictly
American doctrine OF tactics, and
the establishment of a system of
uniform instruction in all military
schools is the aim of the training
section of the general staff, accord
ing TO high officers here. So-called
trench warfare" was only passing
episode in military history, in the
view of the officers, while the funda-
mental principles OF war are the
SAME as those employed by Napo-
leon at Pena and by Grant at Gettys-
burg.
This policy was stated to students
OF the present class at the army
service schools at Fort Leaven-
worth Kan, by Brig. Gen. Hugh A.
Drum, director of the line school,
who was chief of staff of the First
army overseas.
Foreign Terms Go.
"Our experiences in the Euro
pean war have been sufficient and
the results so creditable," General
Drum said, shat we have little or
70 need to borrow tactical doctrines
from a foreign country" General
Drum said that such termin6logy as
open" position" Stabilized" and
trench" warfare would not be rec
ognized or employed, as the same
tactical principles apply to all Of
those so-called classes of warfare.
just as General Pershing insisted
on training the American expedi-
tionary forces for "open" warfare,
so at the service schools, General
Drum said, "the inculcation of an
offensive spirit, which must be the
primary object of the course. is best
obtained by the study of open war
fare offensive situations"
! At the same time, it is the plan
OF the general staff to make due
allowance for new weapons devel-
oped in recent years. especially in
fantry weapons such as the one
pounder, guns, automatic rifles and
machine guns. These weapons have
made necessary the creation of sew
eral new units and slight modifi-
cations OF old infantry formation.
"Liasion" Must Go.
Foreign words will be eliminated
from the termology of the manuals.
For example, information" will
take the place of .iaison." "Liaison
officers" a war product, will be
known hereafter as information Of
ficers."
The service schools will compile
their own text books, General Drum
said, and German authorities studied
before the war will be discarded.
While the use Of new weapons
has caused some changes in organ
ration, it must not be forgotten,
officers emphasize, that infantry re-
mains the principle branch of the
army and that other services are
auxiliary arms. In this conaection
It was recalled that General PERISH
ing, in letter to the chief of the
air service commenting upon func-
tions OF airplanes, said that ian air
force by itself cannot obtain a de-
cision against forces on the ground"
IAN air force" the general added,
acting independently, can of its
own account neither win a war at
the present time, nor, SO far as we
can tell, at any time in the future"