74 NOTES ON GERMAN MANGUVRES, 
back of the knapsack under the flap ; it is intended to hold a few small 
articles of clothing and the compressed ration with which the German 
soldier never parts. When in use, the bag will be carried on the back, 
attached to the person by the ordinary knapsack straps. The mobility 
of the infantry when relieved of their heavy packs should be consider- 
ably increased; till now the German infantry have never been free 
from the weight of their knapsacks, and all the fighting during the war 
of 1870 was done by men carrying more than half-a-hundredweight ; 
relieved of a portion of this crushing weight, fighting power will be pro- 
portionately improved. Some very thorough system must be worked out 
which will enable a man to recover his knapsack on the conclusion of a 
fight; even in the case of a victory this would be no easy matter, while 
should a reverse take place, it would be an impossibility. Warning 
might well be taken from the facts recounted in a recent article in the 
Fortnightly Review, which tells how some of the regiments, which 
landed in the Crimea without their kits, did not recover them till six 
months later, a most severe winter having meanwhile been spent 
without them. 
Besides his kit, the infantryman now carries a share of a tent, the 
smallest number of portions which can be put together is four, but 
twenty pieces, or more, joined together afford the most economical 
arrangement of shelter. The tents are made from a light kind of 
waterproof material, dyed khaki colour ; each portion is about 5 ft. long 
by 44 wide, and is carried folded round the knapsack outside the great- 
coat. Hach man carries a light tent pole made in three parts, which, 
when required for use, are fitted together with a socket joint; each 
stick is about 18 inches long, and the three are carried at the back of 
the knapsack under the straps, the waterproof tent and jointed pole 
weighing about six pounds all told. To put the tent together the 
various pieces of canvas are layed side by side on the ground, and 
buttoned together, the edges being arranged so as to overlap about six 
inches and so prevent the rain working through. The buttons are 
made of alluminium for the sake of lightness, a very important matter 
where every possible ounce of weight must be saved. ‘The buttons are 
well sewn on, as the difficulty of reattaching them to the canvas would 
be considerable. The canvas portion of the tent forms at other times 
a most practical waterproof cape, buttoning across the man’s chest and 
held round the waist by the small piece of tent rope, which each man 
carries. In wet weather sentries and men on out-post duty always 
wear these canvas coverings, and they all speak most highly of the pro- 
tection which they afford. Under the old system of bivouacking, tents 
were not provided. A screen of canvas or straw, about 34 ft. high, was 
erected inacircle, whose area was sufficient to give lying down space to 
about sixty men, the camp fire was built up in the centre, and the men 
slept shoulder to shoulder with their feet towards the fire. This wasan 
excellent plan in dry weather, the screen was a perfect shelter from the 
wind and the men kept each other warm, there was, however, no head 
cover against rain, so the screen was abandoned for the present system of 
tents. The tents are good, and the men say that they find them very 
comfortable, but the comfort is at times hardly earned under the extra 
