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REVUE MILITAIRE BE L’ETRANGER, 
(1st Jan., 16th Jan., 1st Feb., 1881.) 
TRANSLATED BY 
LIEUT. R. M. BOND, R.A. 
INFANTRY FIRE IN FORTRESS WARFARE, 
BY 
LIEUT.-COL. BOGUSLAWSKI. 
Lieut.'-Col. Boguslawski lias just published an appendix, “Die 
HauptwafFe in Form und Wesen,” to his well-known work, “Die 
Entwi.cklung der Tactik.” 
His ideas on the subject of long range fire are still the same ; he still 
remains the champion of a vigorous offensive and bold advance, and of 
rapid fire at short ranges preceding the assault with the bayonet. 
According to the Colonel, infantry will no longer be reduced, as in 
former fortress warfare, to direct its fire exclusively against the 
sapheads of the besieger, or the embrasures of the ramparts in order 
to harass and decimate those serving the guns. Its role will be of a 
more extended nature. It will be able by combining its fire with that 
of the siege artillery to assist in sweeping the ramparts, and to render 
them, at times, untenable by the garrison. This employment of 
infantry fire seems destined to give important results against detached 
forts, and more especially so against isolated works. It will nearly 
always be possible to surround such works on two or three sides by 
large detachments of infantry, who will rapidly obtain cover. If this 
infantry can be placed in such a manner as to be able to enfilade the 
prolongation of the faces, the effects of its fire will in great measure 
surpass those of the ricochet fire of Vauban, and will with far greater 
certainty oblige the garrison to get under cover. 
The defence of the rampart by infantry is exceedingly weak, at least 
in the new German forts, for the numerous hollow traverses which we 
find there absorb the greater part of the available space. The fusillade 
can only be effectively answered from the covered way, or from the 
shelter trenches situated in front, unless a low rampart is placed in 
front of the principal one, which give infantry the necessary space for 
deployment. 
A body of troops intrenched in the prolongation of a face will be 
able to deluge it in its entire length with bullets if they fire at two or 
three elevations, according to the length of that face. Four companies 
of 250 men distributed around a fort will be able to discharge into it 
200,000 bullets in the space of two hours. At 700 metres the angle 
of descent of the trajectory of the Mauser rifle is 2° 30', at 1000 metres 
5° 4 ' 4 "; between 1200 and 1500 metres it varies from 7° to 10°, and 
at that distance the bullet still retains a considerable power of pene¬ 
tration. Consequently, besides enfilade fire, it will be possible to direct 
straight on the parapets of the fort a plunging fire causing enough 
