War Games by Leo Murray

Author:Leo Murray [Leo Murray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781785903649
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2018-06-03T04:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

PROXIMITY

COLONEL ARDANT DU PICQ, FRENCH WARS OF THE 1800S

Physical impulse is just words. It is the worst mistake to believe in the physical impulse. If the head of a column wants to stop then it will fall to the ground rather than be pushed forward. Anyone who has truly experienced and understood the infantry battle of today knows that this is what happens. The physical impulse was dominant in the days of the Empire and still is today, so strong is the force of routine and prejudice, yet the attacks in close column are absolute disorder, outside a leader’s control.

This is what happens. If your battalion is eager and the men fresh from barracks, if their load is light and they think only of the manoeuvre, then I have to admit, it marches in narrow columns with its sub-divisions separated by four measured paces as the companies shape and order their men. However, as soon as the pace increases or the ground becomes uneven or the guide stops marching with mathematical precision, is it not true that your narrow column battalion will become, in the blink of an eye, a disorganised herd of sheep?

But let us move on. Though no one will ever see this order in the days of the rifle, let us assume that your battalion is now 100 feet from the enemy and in good order. What is going to happen? Nothing: it is ten to one that your enemy will already have fled the field.

But let us again assume that the enemy does not flee. Man, naked against iron and lead, cannot control himself. The instinct of self-preservation has absolute power and there are but two ways for the man caught in the middle to reduce the risk: to run away or to rush forward. Let us rush forward!

Oh well! Even if the distance is short and the enemy only a moment away, it is again the instinct that takes over. We rush forward, but most of us will rush forward with caution in the back of our minds, allowing the rash to pass us and the daring to rush ahead. It is peculiar but absolutely true that the closer we get to the enemy the further we get from each other. Goodbye to the theory of surge. And if the head of the column is stopped those who are behind it will fall to the ground rather than push it forward. Even if this stopped head were pushed it would itself fall to the ground. I make no outcry; this is just the way it is. There is a surge but it is to the ground and to the rear.

But the enemy does not stand, the moral pressure of approaching danger is too strong for any waiting, any force that can stand in the aim, even with empty rifles, will never see the enemy charge reach them. The first rank of any attackers would feel dead and no one wishes to take a place in that first rank.

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