The jam-tin variety appeals more particularly to the sportsman,
as the element of chance enters largely into its successful use. It is
timed to explode about ten seconds after the lighting of the fuse. It
is therefore unwise to throw it too soon, as there will be ample time
for your opponent to pick it up and throw it back. On the other hand,
it is unwise to hold on too long, as the fuse is uncertain in its
action, and is given to short cuts.
Such is the tactical revolution promised by the advent of the bomb
and other new engines of war. As for its effect upon regimental and
company organisation, listen to the plaintive voice of Major Kemp:--
"I was once--only a few months ago--commander of a company of two
hundred and fifty disciplined soldiers. I still nominally command
that company, but they have developed into a heterogeneous mob of
specialists. If I detail one of my subalterns to do a job of work, he
reminds me that he is a bomb-expert, or a professor of sandbagging,
or director of the knuckle-duster section, or Lord High Thrower of
Stink-pots, and as such has no time to play about with such a
common thing as a platoon. As for the men, they simply laugh in the
sergeant-major's face. They are 'experts,' if you please, and are
struck off all fatigues and company duty! It was bad enough when
Ayling pinched fourteen of my best men for his filthy machine-guns;
now, the company has practically degenerated into an academy of
variety artists.
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