LAND AND WATER 
October 31, 1914 
violent exertion, it becomes quit« impossible to get steady 
enough to hit anything at even a moderate range. Eveiyone 
who has ever stalked game, particularly m mountain countries, 
wiU recall days *hen he has had to lie stiU for ten muuitea or 
more, till his breathing and pulses had become normal enough 
to make him sure of his shot. On one such occasion when 1 had 
to take running shots, standing, to see over the brushwood, 
it struck me that the accepted attitude of a sportsman, or soldier, 
SHKTCn OF KAM 
WITH BIFLH AT 
TUB FItESZNT AS 
OFFICIALLT 
AUTBOBISED, 
there appeared to be nothing to choose between the two systems, 
and as a few days afterwards I was offered the opportumty o! 
or'-anising the armv of the new Chinese Republic, where I could 
have as much active service conditions as I might require, 
I dropped the subject for the time. Unfortunately, my 
opportunity in China never materialised, but other mattei-s 
claimed all my time, and it is only within the last few days, in 
comparing the extraordinary parallelism which is noticeable 
in the w!^ our modern tactics in France are evolving with the 
old practice of our Norman ancestors, that its immediate impor- 
tance came into my mind. _ • , ■■ 
It is now too lat« to erpect official inquiry and trial, but 
the matter is so simple and practical, than anyone in the ranks 
of the new army or any commanding oflicer can satisfy himself 
forthwith. He has only to copy the position in the accompanying 
sketch to apply the practice at once, and once he catches the idea, 
everyone will immediately copy him. 
Its importance can hardly be exaggerated, for it is the 
fact that in war bullets almost invariably fly too high or too 
low— men generally pick up the line, but the elevation bothers 
them— and now that our rifles give a practically flat trajectory 
for 800 yards, or nearly so, if once that tendency to vertical 
jump, due to the mechanically false support the left arm gives 
was about the most unscientific and unmcchanical idea in the 
world, and, moreover, that with modern sporting or military 
rifles there was no longer the slightest reason for it, for the 
recoil is perfectly controllable. 
So I tried as an experiment grasping the sling of my rifle 
firmly in the left hand, extending the arm to its fuU extent and 
then leaving my trigger finger free, pulling with my right hand 
against the left as if I was straining a bow. The result was 
quite startling. The left arm now having become a rigid stmt 
all tendency to wobble vanished, and I found I could pump out 
lead with an accuracy as regards vertical error that I had not 
imagined possible. 
Subsequently, I tried the experiment with some of my 
volunteers, and the results astounded us all ; in a few rounds 
they had caught up the trick, and after running and doubling 
about till their hands were quite jumpy they made shooting 
which would have won any field-firing cup in the kingdom. 
Unfortunately, I failed altogether to get the authorities 
at Hythe to give the idea a fair trial in my presence. Instead of 
trying two teams against each other under the closest approxima- 
tion to battlefield conditions practicable, they insisted on trying 
a man whom I had not instructed against some of their crack 
mirksmcn at deliberate target practice on a dead calm day. 
Ab on such a day anybody could make a whole possible score. 
Fia 2. 
THS POSmON OT 
PBBSBNT WITH 
LIFT AKU RIQID, 
AS BUOOESTED BT 
" , TKB WWTKB, 
to the rifle, is'eliminated, our'fire'would sweep the ground like a 
very scythe of death — there could be no escape from it. 
In an attack resolutely pushed home, men must fire standing, 
there is no time to lie down, and, anyhow, men with their blood 
thoroughly roused and out to kill, don't think of themselves. 
Even the Boers, the coolest and most skilful takers of cover in 
the world, almost invariably stood up to receive a rush. Men 
don't like to die lying down, it is not in the racial strain. 
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