It has very forcibly been brought home to me that not only young officers joining their units from training establishments, but also those who have been in France and have come back wounded, are often very ignorant on those points in minor tactics which they have not learnt through actual experience on the battlefield, and that this is especially the case with regard to the proper control of fire. The battlefield is an expensive place to acquire knowledge which can be gained elsewhere, and it behooves us to do all we possibly can to train our young commanders under peace conditions for the ordeals they will have to encounter in the presence of the enemy.

Training which in ordinary times would form the course of study for years now has to be crammed into a few months, and it stands to reason that much which is essential remains unlearnt.

I have generally found that the best way to train young officers in minor tactics is by giving them as realistically as possible little problems to solve, and afterwards in the presence of their comrades to discuss their proposed dispositions and then to tell them clearly what they ought to have done, giving reasons for every step taken.

Where it is possible actually to carry out the exercise with troops, this is still better, so long as it is all done quickly, as this impresses the lesson to be learnt more strongly on the minds of the students.

Many men who are in other ways excellent instructors have not the facility for constructing problems with a point, and this being the case, it has occurred to me that I may be generally helping the training of young officers by publishing these letters which are written in continuation of those I addressed to my son on obtaining his commission. The importance of the subject with which they deal is self-evident. Unless the arrow-head, the platoon, be sharp, that is, unless the leader be skilful as well as brave, the little combat will not be won, and it is the sum of the little combats which spells the result of the battle.

There is not a word in this little book which transgresses the spirit of the training manuals and official instructions now in force.

“X. Y. Z.”

      A GENERAL’S LETTERS
       TO HIS SON
       ON MINOR TACTICS

Table of Contents

LETTER I

Table of Contents

December 1, 1917.

My dear Dick—

It is now nearly nine months since I wrote the last of my letters of advice to you, and since then you have yourself been in France and have had many experiences and hairbreadth escapes.

I am very thankful that your wound is only a slight one, and am glad that within a couple of months you will probably once more be able to take your place in the fighting-line, for that is where your country demands your presence. It behoves you, in the meantime, to seize every opportunity of studying your profession and familiarising yourself as far as possible with the different positions in which you may be placed, so that when you meet a similar situation in the field you may recognise it for what it really is, in spite of the surroundings in which it is dressed, and may thus be more likely to solve it properly than would be the case if you were dealing with a problem which you had never thought over before. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the results which may depend on your correctly answering the questions put to you on the field of battle. These questions become more complex and more varied as the responsibility of an officer’s position increases, but in the case of a junior officer they are seldom

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