JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2428
FRENCH CAPTAIN ARRIVES AT FT. SHERIDAN TO TEACH TRENCH WARFAREFort Sheridan, Illinois (JFK+50) One hundred years ago this evening, September 10, 1917, Captain Georges Bertrand of the French army arrived here at Fort Sheridan prepared to "teach the candidates for commissions wrinkles in trench warfare*".
The captain, who was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Marne, was co-author of a book on tactics and duties of small units in trench fighting.
The book specified the different battle lines of a sector as follows...
First Line--Line of Resistance
Second Line--Support Line (reserves and HQ of battalion command)
Third Line--Covering Line of the Artillery
*Trench warfare employed occupied fighting lines consisting of trenches to protect soldiers from enemy small arms fire & shelter them from enemy artillery barrages.
SOURCES
"FRENCH CAPTAIN AT FT SHERIDAN AS INSTRUCTOR", Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1917.
"Tactics and Duties of Small Units in Trench Fighting," by Captain O.N. Solbert, C. of E. USA and Captain Georges Bertrand, French Army, Infantry Journal, Vol. 14, July 1917-June 1918, The United States Infantry Association, Washington, D.C.
Studying French in the Trenches
The Literary Digest
October 20, 1917
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