THE BATTLE OF FRANCE

eye on the sight, and shaken by the artificially-
produced vicissitudes, the gunner works under what
are almost the normal conditions of actual warfare.
True his gun does not fire real shells but it fires an
air-gun which enables him to judge of the accuracy
of his shooting. Tiny pellets struck the houses, the
trains, and the tanks. When, a little later, the young
soldier is shaken by real ground and his gun fires
real shells, surprise will be reduced to a minimum
and familiarity a matter of moments. In just the
same way the newcomer practises firing with a pencil
of light at fast-flying aircraft that are only shadows
moving across a white wall.

From the Table to the Ground
Then the tactical course. The youngsters sat in a
gallery that ran round a sand-covered table whereon
the instructor had modelled a contour to fit the
tactical problem to be enunciated. In this country-
side were three tiny tanks, to scale. From under the
table three of the pupils acted as commanders and
had been provided with magnets which enabled them
to steer the tanks across the sand.
*We have here/ the instructor said, *a group of
tanks on reconnaissance. They have been told in the
morning that their name for the day would be Argo.
The group-commander's tank is Argo A, the others
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