Tactical Drill Manual

Just looking at my father's manual: Defence Forces Regulations. Tactical Drill. Published 1926, price 1/9 Net. Signed into force by Peadar O hAodha, Minister for Defence. 21 April 1926. Interesting read.
In the section on the Platoon in Attack, The Assault (p.65, section 102), point (4), we learn that "The Assault will be but rarely delivered on the front." We are open to foreign views: "An eminent German Tactical Authority expresses it this way:-- 'The idea must be got rid of, or combatted, that as soon as the artillary shall have extended their range of fire forward the assailant rises up and throws himself forward in long lines. A single machine-gun would stop the lot...'"

In section 181(Battalion Commander's role in the Approach March) are pointed out various methods that may be employed as precautions against aerial observation by aircraft and captive balloons:
".... Mist is also useful."

Roods and Perches

p.57 (8) A meadow contains 3 acres 2 roods 20 sq. perches, and yields 2¾ tons of hay per acre. Find the yield of hay from the whole field.

Here is the area table:
144 sq. inches = 1 sq. foot;
9 sq. ft. = 1 sq. yard;
30¼ sq. yd. = 1 sq. perch;
40 sq. pers. = 1 rood;
4 rds. = 1 acre;
640 acres = 1 sq. mile.


This derives in part from the length table:
12 ins. = 1 ft.
3 ft. = 1 yd.
5½ yds. = 1 perch
40 pers. = 1 furlong
8 furs. = 1 mile.

Price of Apples

p115 (62) I buy 208 apples at 16 for 1s. 8d. and 280 at 14 for 1s. 3d. After 12½% have gone bad I sell the remainder at 1½d. each. What do I gain? What is my percentage gain? (Ans. correct to the nearest whole number).


From this and other problems, I gather that the current retailer's rule of pricing to make 50% profit was not current in those days. Either that, or the CB's were trying to promote the expectation of a moderate return in future entrpreneurs.

Wages of men, women and children

p114 (59) A business man employing 16 men, 10 women and 6 boys pays 1½ times as much weekly to each man as he does to each woman and each woman receives 1½ times as much as each boy weekly. If the total weekly wage bill amounts to £133 19s. how much does each man receive weekly?

Price of Flour

p.92 (3) A grocer bought flour at £ 16 3s 4d per ton. At what price per stone must he sell it so as to gain 15 per cent?

(1 st. = 14 lbs; 1 cwt. (a hundredweight) = 8 st; 1 ton = 20 cwt.)

3/4 (3s. 4d.) was popular in sums: It is exactly one-sixth of a pound.

Chains and Links

p. 106 (20) A rectangular field is 12 chains 60 links long and 9 chains 35 links wide. Find, correct to the nearest shilling, the value of the crop obtained from this field at a rate of £ 11 17s. 6d. per acre.
(100 links= 1 chain; 10 sq. chains = 1 acre).

A chain is 22 yards. So a link is exactly 7.92 inches -- curious. This was a small eruption of decimality in a world dominated by factors of 2 and 3.

I'm interested in where they put the full stops, in relation to the brackets. I would have put the last one inside the right bracket.

Sugar Rations

p.112 (39) "A lorry containing 5 tons of sugar, valued at £233
and representing a weekly ration for 18,520 people was stolen."
From this statement find, to the nearest oz., the weekly ration of sugar per person and the cost of this ration to each person (Ans. correct to nearest &half d.).

(1£ = 240 d.; 1 ton = 2240 lb.; 1 lb = 16 oz. lb.stands for pound, oz. for ounce)

When I was very young, we had the farthing coin, one quarter of a penny, as well as the ha'penny.

Rationing continued here for a few years after the war (WW2) ended.