the captain explaining to the company the general line
of defense to be taken up, the portion allotted to the company, and
the probable direction of the enemy's attack.

The cooeperation of the artillery and infantry will have been pointed
out in the previous lecture: how some part of the enemy's advance will
be dealt with by artillery alone, some part by both artillery and
infantry, and some part by infantry alone.

This can now be pointed out to the men on the ground. Having
considered the assistance provided by the artillery, the next point to
decide upon is the exact position of the fire trench. The best way to
proceed is to allot a certain portion of the front occupied by the
company to each platoon and to let the platoon commanders take charge
of the operations. The platoon commander can direct one of his squads
to select a position for the trench, and that squad can lie down
there. The remaining squads will then select a position in turn. If
two squads select the same they can lie down together. The platoon
commander will then fall in his platoon, and make them lie down in the
most retired position chosen; he will ask the squad leader why the
squad chose that locality in preference to any other, why they did not
go ten yards further forward or ten yards further back; and he will
explain to the whole platoon the advantages and disadvantages of
selecting this locality. He will then move the whole platoon forward
to the next position chosen by another squad and deal with that
locality. Finally, he will select the position he thinks the best,
giving his reasons why he has decided upon it, and place the whole
platoon on it. When all the platoons have decided upon their line of
defense, the captain will move the whole company in turn from the
ground occupied by one platoon to that occupied by another, asking the
platoon commander in each case to explain why the position was chosen
in preference to any other.

He will give his decision as regards each platoon, and he will finally
arrange for the position to be occupied by the whole company. One
platoon, for some good reason, may have chosen a place which it would
not be safe to occupy, owing to the fire of another platoon on the
flank. Another platoon may have chosen a place which was very good as
regards the field of fire in a direction which was already adequately
defended by another platoon, but which had a bad field of fire over
ground which no other platoon cou