. The warfare of to-day. attack doesnot manage to reach the first line. At that mo-ment the defenders resort especially to the gre-nade and the bayonet. The attackers, furtherreduced by this hand-to-hand fighting, are some-times so much exhausted by their efforts anddemoralized by their losses that they are readyto surrender. If groups of the enemy have man-aged to seize one element of trench and endeavorto go forward, the defenders of the adjacentelements attempt a retour offensif at this point,before the new occupants have had the time toorganize. The defence of the first line does not?, at
. The warfare of to-day. attack doesnot manage to reach the first line. At that mo-ment the defenders resort especially to the gre-nade and the bayonet. The attackers, furtherreduced by this hand-to-hand fighting, are some-times so much exhausted by their efforts anddemoralized by their losses that they are readyto surrender. If groups of the enemy have man-aged to seize one element of trench and endeavorto go forward, the defenders of the adjacentelements attempt a retour offensif at this point,before the new occupants have had the time toorganize. The defence of the first line does not?, at allresemble a regular combat spread along a defi-nite line, but a struggle composed of a thousandlittle incidents. As on the offensive, it is unityof aim which establishes the most certain liaisonamong all the troops. Every fighter knows thathe must resist at all hazards and preserve theterrain which he occupies. It is this thoughtwhich tells him at any moment what to do. The struggle in the interior of the position 292. IZ 4) o a t-H H (D »—4 n (/) o >. Pm <ij U i. J THE DEFENCE OF A POSITION presents certain analogies to the defence of thefirst Hne, since it consists in defending successivetrenches. It has, however, one different charac-teristic, owing to the fact that the assailant,instead of appearing in the open, finds numerousmeans of shelter, such as elements of trenches,sections of boyaux, or shell craters; barrageshave become difficult, because the position of theattacking line is hard to determine; in the confu-sion of the fight they might produce deplorableresults. The combat tends more and more tosplit up, and is the work of small groups of menfrequently employing high trajectory arms. There are, nevertheless, many occasions to usethe flat trajectory arms also. Machine guns,echeloned in depth and placed in advance intransversal trenches or suitably chosen emplace-ments, may fire obliquely or in enfilade uponthose passages which the e
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