October 17, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
Now we get to the first difficulty. The closer you can get 
your eye to the ground level, the safer and more invisible you 
become. 
The ideal trench, which is only a hole laterally extended, 
would, therefore, be something like this. The earth dug out 
Fig. I. 
Rg. ni. 
boin;; thrown a.v/ay behind down a convenient slope or otherwise 
distributed so as to be quite invisible, a ver}' difficult condition 
to satisfy. Still, heaped up bracken or heather, transplanted 
turnip tops, etc., will suffice to liide the firer's head almost 
completely, and his body has the whole thickness of the hill 
as protection against the bullets. 
But now you have practically sacrificed your best chance 
of kilhng the enemy first — admittedly the best defence in 
principle — for ground is seldom absolutely level, and any bush, 
stone, or even a homely cabbage may intervene to break your 
line of si.','ht, and even in a trench you cannot move sideways 
to clear it, for there are other men alongside of you who want a 
clear field of view just as badly, and they will not give way. 
So from the very first your personal interest begins to clash 
with your neighbours, and you are up against the first lesson of 
co-ordinated action, viz., the necessity of self sacrifice for the pood 
of the community which runs through all warUke action from 
start to finish, and invariably, in the long nm, brings Victory 
to the Race in which this instinct of self-sacrifice rules higher than 
the instinct of self-preservation. 
Again, even if no obstacles of the above nature intervene, 
one seldom, in Northern Europe, finds ground sloping uniformly 
towards the enemy. Generally, the section of the hill-sides on 
which we arc now fighting, and shall continue to fight for a long 
time to come has this section, viz. : Convex towards the enemy. 
Line of Fire 
Fig It 
and clearly, if you bring your eyes down to ground level at A, 
an enemy at B, perhaps only twenty yards away, will be quite 
invisible, and if he rushes forward you have no second chance 
to stop him. Again and again positions have been lost because 
this elementary fact has been forgotten by men trying to solve 
other problems to which I shall hereafter allude. 
The common-sense solution of the difficulty will obviously 
be to Ujse a profile shewn in Fig. III. This, at least, extends 
the field of fire very considerably. But it introduces at once 
new complications for it is practically impossible to hide the 
fresh earth of this higher breastwork, it takes, generally, longer 
to make and does not give equal protection. 
Now it happens that the prevailing section of the ground 
in South Africa was ahnoat invariably concave towards the 
enemy : Hence a man in a trench at the top of a slope 
could see indefinitely out to his front, a fact of which the Boers 
at once took every advantage, and we, as usual in South Africa, 
quite rightly at once copied their example. But when we came 
back to England and began teaching the deep Boer trench 
as applicable to the very different circumstances, we blundered 
into a very bad hole indeed. Fifty years ago we had gone to the 
other extreme. Our teaching staff for the Army when I joined 
had all learnt their work practically before Sebastopol, where the 
rock cropped up close to the surface, the slopes generally convex, 
and as a consequence they had taught us to rely more on the type 
of trench in Fig. IV., precisely as their successors after South 
Africa taught Fig. I., and what we now have to do is to avoid 
both extremes, except where suitable conditions prevail, and 
generally to choose the best working compromicc between them 
on each occasion.probably something hke Fig. III. above, fitted out, 
of course, with head cover and so forth as I shall explain here- 
after. For the moment all I want to make clear is the essential 
compromise between fire power and cover which has to be made 
in every case, and to suggest to the many men under training 
or waiting for appointment how much they can facilitate 
their own progress in the future by bearing this simple 
"duality" in mind and going out into the country and training 
their eyes to appreciate the points involved in obtaining a 
workable compromise between the two. 
Fi3. IV. 
To dwellers in London, I recommend a walk over Wimbledon 
Common, dipping down towards Kingston and across Richmond 
Park. For those who can spare time to go farther, I suggest a 
walk over the North Downs, or any chalk country in the 
neighbourhood. Our troops are fighting principally in chalk 
districts now, and as I continue these letters I shall call attention 
to the different characteristics in the countries we shall have to 
traverse. I will only now add that, whereas in the chalk downs, 
one is constantly driven to the use of the type in Fig. IV. ; in the 
Eifel — a volcanic district I expect many of our troops will 
traverse — the concave type of ground prevails, and Fig. I. will find 
its application. 
A DIARY OF THE WAR. 
SYiNOPSIS. 
July 23bd. — AustroHungarian ultimatum to Scrvis. 
July 25rH. — King Peter of Servia's appeal to Russia. 
JlTLY 27th. — Sir Edward Grey proposed a London Conference 
between French, German, Italian, and Great Britain's Ambassadors. 
July 28rH. — Austria-Hungary declared war on Servia. 
July 29rH. — A partial Ru.ssian mobilisation was signed on receipt 
of the news of the bombardment of- Belgrade. English block Exchange 
closed. English Uank Rate, 8 per cent. 
August 1st. — General Russian mobilisation ordered. German 
mobilisation ordered by Emperor. Germany declared war on Russia 
and followed up this declaration by invading the Grand Duchy of 
J..uzemburg. 
August 2.nd. — Germany's ultimatum to Belgium. 
August 3Kn. — Sir Edward Grey statod British policy and revealed 
Germany's amazing oiler, in the event of our neglecting our obligations 
to France. Mobilisation of the Armv. Ultimatum to Germany. 
German and French Ambassadors left Paris and Berlin. 
AcfiU?T 4th. — Germany rejected England's ultimatum. English 
Government took over control of railways. War declared between 
England and Germany. 
August Sth. — I»rd Kitchener appointed Secretary of State for 
War. H.M.S. Amphion struck a mine and foundered. 
August 6th. — House of Commons, in five minutes, passed a vote of 
credit for £100,000,000, and sanctioned an increase of the Army by 
500,000 men. State control of food prices. 
August Si-h. — Lord Kitchener issued a circular asking for 100,000 
men. 
August 9'i~a. — The enemy's submarine, U15, was sunk by H.M.S. 
Birmmgham. 
August 10th. — France declared war on Austria-Hungary. German* 
advanced on Namur. The new PrMs Bureau established by the 
Government for the issue of official war news. 
August 11th. — England declared war against Austria. 
August 15th. — The Tuar addressed a Proclamation to the Polish 
populations of Russia, Germany, and Austria, promising to restore to 
Poland complete autonomy and guarantees for religious liberty aad 
the use of the Polish language. 
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