ARMY 



379 



ARMY 



Army Organization 



An army organization is the most efficient 

 organization the world knows. When civilians 

 proved unequal to the titanic task of building 

 the Panama Canal, the army of the United 

 s was called in and rapidly and success- 

 fully completed that work. In the War of 



Nations, which began in 1914, the thorough- 

 ness of military methods was even more effec- 

 tively demonstrated in handling foodstuffs, 

 building railroads and organizing all the people 

 of a nation in their agriculture and manufac- 



, It is, in fact, because of this very 

 efficiency, gained at the expense of individual 



loin, that militarism is opposed, for it is 

 assumed to threaten the independence of the 

 people. 

 The principle of army organization is that 



i man is responsible to a superior in every- 

 thing, and that he must obey absolutely, no 

 matter what the command. Tennyson gave 

 this truth striking emphasis in The Charge of 

 the Light Brigade, wherein are the lines 



: -ward, the Light Brigade!" 

 Was there a man dism.. 

 Not though the soldier knew 

 Some one had blunder'd ; 

 Theirs not to make reply, 

 Theirs not to reason why, 

 Theirs but to do and die ; 

 Into the valley of . Death 

 Rode the six hundred 



Though all men are born equal, they cease to 

 be so whi-n they enter the army. Even officers 

 of the same rank are graded, generally accord- 

 ing to the length of their service. 



Spirit. In war times more than in peace the 

 effectiveness of an army d< j- nds upon moral i -, 

 the spirit of its men, and upon csjirit-tlt -corps, 

 which means loyalty of the men to the organi- 

 zation. For this reason the volunteer sy-tem 

 is believed by F.ngli-h. Canadians and Amer- 

 to produce a briter body of fighting men 

 than for volunteers fight to 



'.m a cause and not merely to obey tin ir 

 >r officers. 



ven in volunteer armies there is a vast 

 !( in tin degree of democracy 

 to be productive of the highest discipline. 

 Tin re are ordinarily three grades of soldiers, 

 nnmly .spoken of as Officers, N.C.O.'s and 

 are more correctly termed 

 missioned officers and include all between 

 the ranks of general or field marshal and lieu- 

 tenants; they are appointed, or commissioned, 

 by the government. N.C.O. means non-< 



missioned officer, a sergeant or corporal, whose 

 appointment comes only from his own regi- 

 ment. Men refers to privates, who have no 

 authority except, for instance, as they are 

 temporarily made sentries. British army offi- 

 cers never meet N.C.O.'s as .en when 

 off duty. For one to eat with the other or to 

 join him in amusements is considered de- 

 structive of discipline. In the militia of the 

 United States the other extreme is reached, 

 and the officers, though receiving their com- 

 missions from the government, are often 

 elected by those whom they are to command. 

 Canadian troops in theory follow the English 

 idea of the social separation of officers, but in 

 practice are democratic. That their indiffer- 

 ence to discipline while off duty did not ad- 

 versely affect their csprit-dc-corps in the des- 

 perate fighting of the War of the Nations is 

 well known. 



Supplies. In modern warfare the effective- 

 ness of an army often depends more on its 

 organization than on the bravery of its mem- 

 bers. Troops must be quickly transport ed to 

 their stations and must have a supply of arms 

 and ammunition at all times, and in trench 

 warfare food and sanitation win more 1> 

 than do bullets and shells. During the War 

 of the Nations hot meals were served to the 

 soldiers in the trenches, even during the 

 progress of violent battles, for it was found 

 that each man did his work with more xe:d if 

 his hardships wen- lessened. In the Serbian 

 campaigns cleanliness would have Keen more 

 valuable at times than re. nforeements in men 

 or munitions. 



The Parts of an Army. An army is made up 

 of units within a unit. A mob may be organ- 

 ized to the extent that it will follow a leader. 

 but its effectiveness i when it is 



divided. An army, on the other hand, can be 

 : into any number of pans to accom- 

 pli>h the work in h.md. Most of the military 

 - of the wmld are nearly alike in forma- 

 tion, the principal differences being in the 

 names of the units and of the oflicers com- 

 manding them, and in the number of men 

 within each unit. The three main nrtus of the 

 MM are tl and artillery. 



Tin- aviators. .-ign:il corps, ambulance 



corps and others are no less important but 

 .-mailer iii number. 



A nation may have several armies, each 

 responsible, through its commander, only to 



