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TRANSLATED AND EDITED AT THE ARMY WAR COLLEGE
[Illustration: (Seal of the 'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WAR OFFICE')]
WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1917
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, _July 23, 1917_.
The following notes on Use of Mines in Trench Warfare are published for the Information of all concerned.
TASKER H. BLISS, _Major General, Acting Chief of Staff_.
OFFICIAL: H. P. McCAIN, _The Adjutant General_.
WAR DEPARTMENT, THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, _Washington, June 19, 1917_.
You are advised that this and all subsequent documents of a similar character which may be furnished to you from this office are to be regarded as strictly confidential. They are to be kept at all times in your personal possession, and are not to be copied, nor are any parts of their contents to be communicated either directly or indirectly to the press, nor to any person not in the military or naval service of the United States. In Europe these documents are not to be carried into the front-line trenches, nor farther to the front than the usual post of the officers to whom issued.
Strict compliance with this injunction is enjoined upon every officer into whose hands any of these confidential documents may come.
(Secret and Confidential. For Official Use Only. Not to be Taken into First-Line Trenches.)
In sectors where the distance between the two lines is below 150 meters, mine warfare must be used. When the trenches are farther apart, underground warfare is seldom employed. In special cases, however, when there are strong ventilators and the line is stable enough to permit of it, advance may be made underground.
The most vulnerable points evidently are the following: The outposts in advance of the line, machine-gun positions approximately located by the enemy, and the junction points of the communicating trenches with the first line.
Underground activity, either offensive or defensive, is first observed from those points in our lines nearest to it. All enemy trenches facing a salient of our lines will be the object of particular attention and closest daily observation. This observation of the first-line trenches should disclose the presence of enemy underground works and their approximate location.