Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
NOTES
ON
TRAINING FOR RIFLE FIRE IN TRENCH WARFARE
The following Notes on Training for Rifle Fire in TrenchWarfare are published for the information and guidance ofall concerned.
[2582933, A. G. O.]
By Order of the Secretary of War:
TRAINING IN THE USE OF THE RIFLE FOR TRENCH WARFARE.
1. Training in the use of the rifle includes that of the bayonet.Fire action is alone treated in this paper, instruction in the useof the bayonet having already been discussed elsewhere.
2. The rifleman in the trenches, no less than in the open, requiresas preliminary preparation the courses of individual andcombat instruction prescribed in the Small Arms Firing Manual.The object of this paper is not to supersede any portion ofthis manual, but to supplement it by stressing those features oftrench rifle fire that the experience of actual war has shown tobe possessed of an importance that was not fully appreciatedwhen the manual was prepared. So far as rifle fire exclusivelyfrom trenches is concerned, the importance of individual aimedfire up to the range of 400 yards is the principal feature thathas been so developed by the peculiar conditions prevailing onthe “western front” during the present European war, andthe training that needs to be stressed naturally comes underthe head of “individual instruction.” There is also a secondfeature, essential to efficient collective firing either fromtrenches or in the open, that has never received the attentionin our authorized manuals that its importance merits, thoughthat importance has long been recognized and has been ablytreated at the School