_The Director_: “All right, let us assume that all of these things have been taken into consideration. How may the troops be disposed to best meet them, Lieutenant Wallace?”
_Lieutenant Wallace_: “We have three squads in the section. We are required to furnish our own outguards in addition to furnishing the garrison for the firing line. I should say that one squad employed on the outpost line would be sufficient. That would leave two squads for the firing line.”
_The Director_: “Now, there are two plans by which the outguards may be furnished. One is to have each squad cover its own front with an outguard and the other is to have a complete squad detailed as outguard for the section. Which of these plans do you prefer to use in this instance, Lieutenant Ralston?”
_Lieutenant Ralston_: “I think it would be better to employ one squad as the outguards for the section rather than have each squad do it.”
_The Director_: “What factors lead you to such a decision?”
_Lieutenant Ralston_: “If we have each squad furnish an outguard for its own front it would take half of the squad for that purpose. The least that could be sent out would be a cossack post of four men—a leader and three reliefs for a single sentinel post. I would not want to send our automatic riflemen on that duty and interfere with our arrangements for flanking fire. We would not desire to send our rifle grenadier under ordinary circumstances. This would leave only two rifles in the squad and one of these is the squad leader. If we send one squad out to furnish the outguards it can furnish two cossack posts, which are sufficient to cover our front, and it will leave the other two squads intact to occupy the firing line with all their weapons. If the enemy attacks and the outguards are driven in they will fall back on the flanks so as not to mask the fire of the squads on the firing line. This will enable them to drift toward an assembly point or trench in rear of the firing line proper where they will be available to the section commander as a small local support to be thrown in any of the squad firing positions where casualties have been relatively heavy or to put them in where they are most needed to repel the attack.”