. How armies fight. e the German general, and make him think thatWays Ridge is the real position of the British. Theresult of this plan you will see later. In front of the false position, the 2nd Battalion ofMounted Infantry is occupying the villages which liealong the Dyle between Fonteny and Noirhat. Thesappers of the 1st Field Troop have destroyed all thebridges (marked with red on the map), except one ateach village. These are kept for the retreat of someof the cavalry scouts who are still across the river 164 THE BRITISH POSITION. looking out for the enemy; but they are prepared fordemoli
. How armies fight. e the German general, and make him think thatWays Ridge is the real position of the British. Theresult of this plan you will see later. In front of the false position, the 2nd Battalion ofMounted Infantry is occupying the villages which liealong the Dyle between Fonteny and Noirhat. Thesappers of the 1st Field Troop have destroyed all thebridges (marked with red on the map), except one ateach village. These are kept for the retreat of someof the cavalry scouts who are still across the river 164 THE BRITISH POSITION. looking out for the enemy; but they are prepared fordemolition with charges of guncotton, so that the mountedinfantrymen in the villages can blow them up if theyare forced to retire. (See Fig. 12.) The colonel of the 2nd has been ordered to holdon to the villages as long as possible, but not to riskcapture. When he does retreat, the Germans will beprevented from pursuing by the fire of the cavalry onthe ridge. These, again, have been ordered not to risk ,A> fl-^r»V. Fig. 12.—Destroying a Bridge. This is a stone bridge with a high wall on each side, over which you can just see theheads of men and horses on the march. Two trenches (b, b) are dug across the roadwayof the bridge. At the bottom of these are placed charges of guncotton (a, a). You canfire these either with a fuse—one end of which you light, and which burns long enough toenable you to get safely out of the way—or by electricity. You get the electricity by meansof a field dynamo —a machine carried by all companies of Royal Engineers in a smallwooden box. capture or heavy loss, as General French does not wishto exhaust his cavalrymen by making them fight againstinfantry. If they can hold out until night, well andgood; if they cannot, they must retreat behind theBritish infantry, and let them bear the brunt of theattack. Having taken a general view of the two positions,let us now see where the different regiments havebeen placed. THE BRITISH POSITION. 165 The re
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