er tactical success if we
can concentrate our own men with sufficient rapidity, whilst at the
worst we run no risk of seeing our own troops entangled with one
another.

It should be our constant endeavour to gain these positions on the
'outer lines' by previous strategical operations, in order to avoid
the danger of being compelled at the last moment to initiate wide
flanking movements in face of the enemy. Again, a further advantage
accrues if we can rest one flank on inaccessible or difficult ground.
This flank at least will be secure, so we can spare troops from it to
strengthen the other, and thus, perhaps, act with decisive effect.

Finally, when it is presumable that we shall have to deal with
considerable numerical superiority, we should direct all our efforts
to throwing the whole weight of our charge against the enemy's flank,
so as to compel him at the last moment to change his front to meet the
blow. The opportunity for such action will arise in cases in which,
thanks to our previous strategic direction, we can succeed in uniting
the mass of our forces more rapidly than our opponent is able to do,
and this may often be the case where the ground favours our advance
and conceals the direction of our march.

Generally, it may be laid down that a simultaneous attack directed
against the enemy's front and flank is justified when we have the
advantage of a considerable numerical superiority, or when our
opponent retains for too long a faulty distribution of his forces; but
in all other cases a blow with united force against his flank will
give the most far-reaching consequences, as it brings immediate
pressure against the adversary's line of retreat, and compels him to
employ his own forces in succession, not in a concentrated effort.
Hence this form of attack gives the chance of a success even to a
force in a numerical minority, as it will often afford it the
opportunity of beating the enemy in detail, whereas against a
concentrated mass there would be no hope of success at all.

It will be evident that for the execution of such an attack the forms
laid down in the Regulations to be observed in the transition from
rendezvous to attack formations are--one is almost tempted to
write--about as unfavourable as they well can be. It is true they
afford, as already pointed out, the possibility of presenting the same
fighting formation in succession to any required point of the compass,
an advantage which has no prac