ssarily far in
rear and must be brought up through the open to repel successful
attacks, while a defensive scheme {86} composed entirely on the
pill-box plan is less suitable for aggressive action than
entrenchments, there being fewer facilities for assembling troops prior
to the attack.

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS.--Whatever the system of defence or phase of
warfare, every commander must guard his flanks and keep in touch with
neighbouring units. He must always be ready to assist a neighbouring
commander by enfilade fire or by a relieving counter-attack; or to
throw back a defensive flank in the event of a neighbouring post being
captured by the enemy. Each post, occupied for the Defence (except in
Delaying Actions, where manoeuvre takes the place of a settled
resistance), forms a self-contained centre of resistance, capable of
all-round fire, and the duty of the garrison is to defend the area
allotted to it to the last man and the last round.

THE ACTIVE DEFENCE.--The Active Defence may be considered according to
the reason which prompted the commander of the force to occupy the
position. It may have been deliberately chosen as a position which the
enemy must attack, and in the hope of delivering during that attack a
crushing and decisive counter-blow; or it may have been chosen of
necessity, to meet an attack by deployment on the ground of the
encounter, with the same hope of delivering a decisive counter-stroke
when the opportunity arrives.

There is little difference in the steps to be taken by the commander,
as in the first case a General Reserve is specially detailed for the
counter-stroke; and in the second, the position will be held with as
few troops as the tactical situation permits, in order to provide as
large a General Reserve as possible for the Grand Offensive. A
commander will be influenced by many considerations in his choice of a
defensive position:--

(i) _The position must suit the plan of operations_; it must be "in the
enemy's way," and this the commander must be able to judge from the
map. It is {87} to be noted that to bar the enemy's way it is not
always essential to get astride his lines of advance, as a position on
parallel lines, threatening his flank and rear, cannot be ignored by
the enemy, unless he is strong enough to detach a part of his force to
mask the defender's position, while he proceeds to his objective with
his main army. "It was a mistake to assume that in order to cover