exercises, when working
on the drill ground they will have to be inserted between the pauses
in mounted movements necessary to rest the horses, but they must never
on this account be allowed to be treated as of any less importance.
When out in the country in larger and continuous movements, this
opportunity, from the nature of things, will not be available.

But it is precisely on the larger movements, if possible of whole
Divisions, that the principal stress should be laid. In these the
fight can be initiated under the most varied conditions, as a
consequence of the direction of approach, and after its execution
further operations arising out of the resulting situation can be set
on foot, which, as we have seen (Book I., Chap. VI.), will generally
entail the interaction of dismounted men with mounted reserves.

Such exercises must naturally be laid out quite independently, and
must take rank in the programmes for Brigade and Divisional drills on
an equal footing with the others. All Leaders must by degrees learn
to control the whole of this section, and find themselves as much at
home in every tactical situation on foot as if they were in the
saddle.

Hence great importance must be laid on the capacity for exercising
independent resolve in all ranks of the subordinate officers; but,
above all, they must be made to acquire that relentless tendency to go
forward which is the very soul of their service, and generally the
best adapted to its tactical requirements. Officers and men must
realize that, once dismounted, victory alone can restore to them their
horses. These latter must be so disposed that the impossibility of
making use of them to break off the engagement springs in the eyes of
every man. Only in this way can one get clear ideas: so long as the
men do not look on their action on foot as in itself something
serious, but are thinking principally of how to get back to their
horses, as long as the Leader himself makes his action dependent on
this possibility, for just so long will the men fail to put their
whole soul into their work, and we shall obtain only partial results,
with uncertain handling.

This point of view must be constantly kept in mind throughout the
training, and every effort be made to habituate the men to work up to
it. But we shall only then succeed in breaking with the old
traditions, and in fitting ourselves to meet the changed conditions of
War, when the superior officers in their inspect