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ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT The organization of See also:infantry varies rather more than that of other arms in different countries. Taking the See also:British See also:system first, the See also:battalion (and not as elsewhere the See also:regiment of two, three or more battalions) is the administrative and manoeuvre unit. It is about woo strong, and is commanded by a See also:lieutenant-See also:colonel, who has a See also:major and an See also:adjutant (See also:captain or lieutenant) to assist him, and an officer of lieutenant's or captain's See also:rank (almost invariably promoted from the ranks), styled the quartermaster, to See also:deal with supplies, clothing, &c. There are eight companies of a nominal strength of about 120 each. These are commanded by captains (or 1 In See also:February 1910 a new Infantry Training was said to be in preparation. The I.T. of 1905 is in some degree incompatible with the later and ruling See also:doctrine of the F.S. Regulations, and in the See also:winter of 1909 the See also:Army See also:Council issued a memorandum See also:drawing See also:attention to the different conceptions of the decisive attack as embodied in the latter and as revealed in manoeuvre See also:procedure.by junior majors), and each captain has or should have two lieu-tenants or second lieutenants to assist him. See also:Machine guns are in See also:Great See also:Britain distributed to the battalions and not massed in permanent batteries. In addition there are various regimental details, such as orderly-See also:room See also:staff, cooks, cyclists, signallers, See also:band and See also:ambulance men. The See also:company is divided into four sections of See also:thirty men each and commanded by sergeants. A See also:half-company of two sections is under the See also:control of a subaltern officer. A See also:minor subdivision of the See also:section into two " squads " is made unless the See also:numbers are insufficient to See also:warrant it. In administrative duties the captain's See also:principal assistant is the See also:colour-sergeant or pay-sergeant, who is not assigned to a section command. The lieutenant-colonel, the See also:senior major and the adjutant are mounted. The commanding officer is assisted by a battalion staff, at the See also:head of which is the adjutant. The sergeant-major holds a " warrant " from the secretary of See also:state for See also:war, as does the bandmaster. Other members of the battalion staff are non-commissioned See also:officers, appointed by the commanding officer. The most important of these is the quartermaster-sergeant, who is the assistant of the See also:quarter-See also:master. The two See also:colours (" See also: In the See also:home battalions of the See also:Regular Army such detachments are very large, what with finding drafts for the See also:foreign service battalions and for instructional courses, while in the Territorial Force, where it is so rarely possible to assemble all the men at once, the company as organized is often too small to See also:drill as such. On the other See also:hand, the full war-strength company is an admirable unit for control and manoeuvre in the See also: For reasons mentioned in ARMY, § 40, non-commissioned officers, of the type called by See also:Kipling the " backbone of the army," are almost unobtainable with the universal service system, and the lowest unit that possesses any See also:independence is the lowest unit commanded by an officer. But apart from the rank of the fire-unit commander, it is questionable whether the section, as understood in See also:England, is not too small a fire-unit, for See also:European warfare at any rate. The regulations of the various European armies, framed for these conditions, practically agree that the fire-unit should be commanded by an officer and should be large enough to ensure good results from collective fire. The number of rifles See also:meeting this second See also:condition is 5o to 8o and their organization a " section " (corresponding to the British half-company) under a subaltern officer. The British army has, of course, to be organized and trained for an infinitely wider range of activity, and no one would suggest the abolition of the small section as a fire-unit. But in a great European See also:battle it would be almost certainly better to See also:group the two sections into a real unit for fire effect. (For questions of infantry fire See also:tactics see See also:RIFLE: § Musketry.) On the See also:continent of See also:Europe the " regiment," which is a unit, acting in See also:peace and war as such, consists normally of three battalions, and See also:Defence. 1836 of the Home and Colonial School Society for the training of teachers in See also:infant See also:schools; this in turn reacted upon other countries, especially See also:Germany. Further impetus and a new direction were given to the movement by See also:Friedrich W. A. See also:Froebel, and the methods of training adopted for See also:children between the ages of three and six have in most countries been influenced by, if not based on, that system of directed activities which was the See also:foundation of the type of " See also:play-school " called by him the Kinder Garten, or " children's See also:garden." The growing tendency in England to See also:lay stress on the See also:mental training of very See also:young children, and to use the " infant school " as preparatory to the elementary school, has led to a considerable reaction; medical officers of See also:health have pointed out the dangers of infection to which children up to the See also:age of five are specially liable when congregated together—also the See also:physical effects of badly ventilated class-rooms, and there is a consensus of See also:opinion that formal mental teaching is directly injurious before the age of six or even seven years. At the same See also:time the increase in the See also:industrial employment of married See also:women, with the consequent difficulty of proper care of young children by the See also:mother in the home, has somewhat shifted the ground from a purely educational to a social and physical aspect. While it is agreed that the ideal See also:place for a young See also:child is the home under the supervision of its mother, the See also:present industrial conditions often compel a mother to go out to work, and leave her children either shut up alone, or See also:free to play about the streets, or in the care of a See also:neighbour or professional " minder." In each See also:case the children must suffer. The See also:provision by a public authority of opportunities for suitable training for such children seems therefore a See also:necessity. The moral advantages gained by freeing the child from the streets, by the superintendence of a trained teacher over the See also:games, by the See also:early inculcation of habits of discipline and obedience; the physical advantages of cleanliness and tidiness, and the opportunity of disclosing incipient diseases and weaknesses, outweigh the disadvantages which the opponents of infant training adduce. It remains to give a brief See also:account of what is done in Great Britain, the See also:United States of See also:America, and certain other countries. A valuable See also:report was issued for the See also:English See also:Board of See also:Education by a Consultative See also:Committee upon the school attendance of children below the age of five (vol. 22 of the See also:Special Reports, 1909), which also gives some account of the provision of See also:day nurseries or creches for babies.
United See also:Kingdom.—Up to 1905 it was the See also:general English practice since the Education See also:Act of 187o for educational authorities to provide facilities for the teaching of children between three and five years old whose parents desired it. In 19o5, of an estimated 1,467,709 children between those ages, 583,268 were thus provided for in England and See also:Wales. In 1905 .the objections, medical and educational, already stated, coupled with the increasing See also:financial See also:strain on the See also:local educational authorities, led to the insertion in the See also:code of that See also:year of See also:Article 53, as follows: " Where the local education authority have so determined in the case of any school maintained by them, children who are under five years may be refused See also:admission to that school." In consequence in 1907 the numbers were found to have fallen to 459,034 out of an estimated 1,480,550 children, from 39'74% in 1905 to 31%. In the older type of infant school stress was laid on the mental preparation of children for the elementary teaching which was to come later. This forcing on of young children was encouraged by the system under which the See also:government See also: 4d. was fixed as the grant for all children above five, and the grant for those below the age was reduced to 13s. 4d. Different methods of training the teachers in these schools as well as the children themselves have been now generally adopted. These methods are largely based on the Froebelian See also:plan, and greater attention is being paid to physical development. In one respect England the early years of the 19th See also:century, loading to the foundation in I is perhaps behind the more progressive of other European each battalion of four companies or moo rifles. The company of 250 rifles is commanded by a captain, who is mounted. In See also:France the company has four sections, commanded in war by the three subalterns and the " adjudant " (company sergeant-major); the sections are further grouped in pairs to constitute pelotons (platoons) or half-companies under the senior of the two section leaders. In peace there are two subalterns only, and the peloton is the normal junior officer's command. The battalion is commanded by a major (commandant or strictly chef de bataillon), the regiment (three or four battalions) by a colonel with a lieutenant-colonel as second. An organization of 3-battalion regiments and 3-company battalions was proposed in 191o. In Germany, where what we have called the continental company originated, the regiment is of three battalions under majors, and the battalion of four companies commanded by captains. The company is divided into three Zuge (sections), each under a subaltern, who has as his second a sergeant-major, a " See also:vice-sergeant-major " or a " See also:sword-See also:knot See also:ensign " (aspirant officer). In war there is one additional officer for company. The See also:Zug at war-strength has therefore about 8o rifles in the ranks, as compared with the Freud' " section " of 50, and the British section of 30. The system prevailing in the United States since the reorganization of 1901 is somewhat remarkable. The regiment, which is a tactical as well as an administrative unit, consists of three battalions. Each battalion has four companies of (at war-strength) 3 officers and 150 rifles each. The regiment in war therefore consists of about 'Boo rifles in three small and handy battalions of 600 each. The circumstances in which this army serves, and in particular the See also:maintenance of small frontier posts, have always imposed upon subalterns the responsibilities of small independent commands, and it is See also:fair to assume that the 75 rifles at a subaltern's disposal are regarded as a tactical unit. In sum, then, the infantry battalion is in almost every See also:country about moo rifles strong in four companies. In the United States it is 600 strong in four companies, and in Great Britain it is t000 strong in eight. The captain's command is usually 200 to 250 men, in the United States 15o, and in Great Britain 120. The lieutenant or second lieutenant commands in Germany 8o rifles, in France 5o, in the United States 75, as a unit of fire and manoeuvre. In Great Britain he commands, with relatively restricted See also:powers, 6o. A See also:short account of the infantry equipments—knapsack or valise, See also:belt, See also:haversack, &c.—in use in various countries will be found in See also:UNIFORMS, See also:NAVAL AND MILITARY. The armament of infantry is, in all countries, the See also:magazine rifle (sec RIFLE) and See also:bayonet (q.v.), for officers and for certain under-officers sword (q.v.) and See also:pistol (q.v.). See also:Ammunition (q.v.) in the British service is carried (a) by the individual soldier, (b) by the reserves (mules and carts) in regimental See also:charge, some of which in See also:action are assembled from the battalions of a See also:brigade to See also:form a brigade reserve, and (c) by the ammunition columns. Manion RAPHY.--The following See also:works are selected to show (I) the See also:historical development of the See also:arm, and (2) the different " doctrines " of to-day as to its training and functions:—Ardant du Picq, Etudes sur le combat; C. W. C. See also:Oman, The See also:Art of War: See also:Middle Ages; Biottot, See also:Les Grands Inspires—Jeanne d'Arc; See also:Hardy de Perini, Batailles francaises; C. H. See also:Firth, See also:Cromwell's Army; German See also:official See also:history of See also:Frederick the Great's See also:wars, especially Fester Schlesische Krieg, vol. i.; Susane, Ilistoire de l'infanterie francaise; French General Staff, La Tectique an X PIII"'e—l'infanterie and La Tactique et la discipline Bans les armies de la Revolution—General Schauenhourg; J. W. See also:Fortescue, History of the British Army; Moorsom, History of the 52nd Regiment; de Grandmaison, Dressage de l'infanterie (See also:Paris, 1908); works of W. v. Scherff; F. N. See also:Maude, See also:Evolution of Infantry Tactics and Attack and Defence; [Meckel] Ein Sommernachtstraum (Eng. trans. in United Service Magazine, 189o) ; J. Meckel, Taktik; See also:Malachowski, Scharfe- and Revuetaktik; H. See also:Langlois, Enseignements de deux guerres: F. Hoenig, Tactics of the Future and Twenty-four See also:Hours of See also:Moltke's See also:Strategy (Eng. trans.); works of A. von Boguslowski; British Officers' Reports on the Russo-See also:Japanese War; H. W. L. Hime, Stray Military Papers; See also:Grange, " Les Rcalites du champ de bataille—Woerth" (Rev.d'infanterie, 1908-1909) ; V. Lindenau, " The See also:Boer War and Infantry Attack " (See also:Journal R. United Service Institution, 1902-1903); See also:Janin, Apercus sur la tactique—Mandchouric " (Rev. d'infanterie, 1909); Soloviev, " Infantry Combat in the Russo-See also:Jap. War " (Eng. trans. Journal R. U.S.I., 1908); British Official Field Service Regulations, See also:part i. (1909), and Infantry Training (1905); German drill regulations of 1906 (Fr. trans.); French drill regulations of 1904; Japanese regulations 1907 (Eng. trans.). The most important See also:journals devoted to the infantry arm are the French official Revue d'infanterie (Paris and See also:Limoges), and the Journal of the United States Infantry Association (See also:Washington, D. C.). (C. F. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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