528 
TACTICAL PROBLEMS. 
more simple manoeuvre than watching the Serre above Agnicourt. 
This last measure would necessitate a more excentric deployment with 
regard to the direction of the retreat, and would require a greater 
force, as four bridges would have to be watched in place of one—the 
two at Chaourse and the two at Montcornet. 
V. —The expressions Eastern and Western Columns are employed 
in the order in place of the terms right and left, by design. Although 
frequently used, the latter only give rise to confusion when, as in the 
above problem of a retreatiug force, the troops face sometimes towards 
the enemy and sometimes towards the objective of the march, and 
have, so to speak, no proper right or left. 
VI. —The issue of detailed orders ceases when the brigade again 
becomes a single column. 
It would be easy to indicate fresh positions for the rear-guard. For 
example, one about two-and-a-half kilometres south of Burelles, be¬ 
tween the point marked 184 and the Belimont Farm, which commands 
the principal exits from the Yal Saint Pierre Wood. But it is unneces¬ 
sary to develop indefinitely the already long series of detailed orders. 
