Page:Tactics (Balck 1915).djvu/81

 groups or squads of four files each, and in Russia the platoons are divided into sections of 8-15 files each and these again into groups or squads of 4-6 men each. If the squad is to have any importance at all in action, it must have a leader, and it might easily happen that a mobilized company lacks the number of leaders necessary to provide one for each group. The withdrawal from the line of a number of good shots for duty as squad leaders is compensated for, in our opinion, by the more thorough supervision over the men. This consideration has, however, apparently caused other states (Austria and France) not to count on the activity of the squad leaders in a fire action to the same extent as is the case in Germany.

4. LENGTH OF PACE AND MARCHING.

An extended, swinging step, without haste and without unduly taxing the lungs, is advantageous in all movements. When accustomed to this pace on the drill ground, the men will march with practically the same step on varied ground, and this appears more desirable than to shorten the step, while at the same time increasing the distance to be covered in a given time. The length of the pace depends largely upon the height of the individual, but even small men can maintain a step of 0.80 m. without undue exertion. In Switzerland the cadence has been fixed at 116-120 steps per minute "with a view of suiting the peculiarities and the varying degree of mobility which characterize the inhabitants of the different cantons."(!) For purely practical reasons it is advisable to fix upon some even number of paces in order