In a modern approach to modern warfare,
Which had had never seen such a scale -
With battles on different fronts - across many
Different frontiers, any single
control over
Any single battle, proved all but
impossible.
Within this twentieth century war, a
chain
Of command was set to organise
openings
Followed by unfolding fighting - starting from
Central point of General
Headquarters down
To the staff of each divisional
headquarters.
Faced by separation of
distances, how might
Then great battalions be controlled
– where
Generals once rode on horseback, to
stand
On high hills over valleys, directing
battle
Lines below, was suddenly a thing of
the past.
How then does the modern war system
work?
Prior accounts had already roughly
sketched
Out the commanding chains – yet a
more
Detailed emergence of operations
could
Give a command overview, as Neuve
Chapple.
Standing back from panoramic
viewpoints,
Of Generals picturesque commanding
fields
Of cavalries in charging, hitting
and charging
Again - changed to commands sat
remotely
Back in safer headquarters armed
with maps.
A commandeered farmhouse sets a Neuve
Chapple scenario in rooms to house General
Staff, set back some hundred yards behind
The lines of fire and gunnery commanders
Of Brigade within a short distance of
the field.
Officers based in cellar shelters or
dugouts,
In coordination of communications, to
pass
To their battalion HQ by methods of
runners,
Orderlies and telephone lines that
trail out
To Divisional army and corps headquarters.
The only way for unit commanders making
Significant marks in any battle, is
to deploy
Reserved fresh troops - the practice being
To hold back such soldiers in
readiness -
Modern war situation disallows direct
control.
The hails of iron and lead that fell
as curtains
Over their men, prompt needs for self-reliance
In operations - confusion of
fighting in pocket
Sized country –outcomes became
reliant on
Soldier resourcefulness and officer
initiative.
Once troops charge and set in a
direction
Makes for almost an impossibility to
change
Their course – communications
proving
Problematic - runners and orderlies
are shot
As susceptible telephone wires can
get cut
With men in midst of heavy fire
precise
Situations are quickly unknown - only
then
Can commanders engage reserves to sway
Battles to fill gap or flank a
resistant strong
Hold or a force to push weary troops
forwards
All is test for officers to make
rapid decisions.
From theory to actuality was a
picture to show
The practice of command of Neuve
Chapple -
In a commandeered large farmhouse a
mile
Behind the lines of fire – sat the headquarters
Close by a road stretches up to the
house
Named HQ outside stand despatch
riders
Next to their waiting machines in
readiness
To convey messages - now and then one
Leaves as another arrives with a
message.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. A Modern Battle – Great
Responsibility by Regimental Leader – Control by Telephone. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 9 Apr. P.9.
Col.7. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11514486/Daily-Telegraph-April-9-1915.html
[Accessed: 9 April 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 9 April 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Neuve Chapple
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