Reconnaissance must be an uninterrupted effort; frequently the most useful information is gathered through night reconnaissance. During the hours of darkness friendly patrols are able to penetrate deep into enemy territory to points from which they can observe enemy movements during daytime.

In darkness reconnaissance patrols can usually determine only whether or not a specific area is occupied by the enemy. To gather more detailed information about the strength, composition, and weapons of the enemy forces, reconnaissance in force must be carried out by patrols that should return with prisoners of war.

As in daytime, patrols advance by bounds. During very dark nights, when the enemy is within close proximity of the friendly lines, reconnaissance and security activities may coincide.

Every effort should be made to carry out reconnaissance during daytime in order to obtain essential information for launching a night attack. The reconnaissance elements will then be able to guide the attack forces across the intermediate terrain at night.

Motorized patrols are generally unsuitable for battlefield reconnaissance because of the noise they make. If, however, motorized elements must be employed, they should be sufficiently strong to be capable of fighting their way back to friendly lines. Engineer detachments should accompany them on such missions.

Collecting information for use by the artillery at night is especially important and is the responsibility of the observation battalion. Evaluation of the elements of information should be performed at an evaluation center located near the artillery command post. When operations progress at a rapid pace, it will rarely be possible to employ the entire observation battalion in properly surveyed positions.

Short-range communication intelligence operations performed by radio intercept and direction finding teams may be effective, particularly in a defensive situation or during a retrograde movement.

The closer the co-operation between all ground and air reconnaissance elements, the more accurate will be the commanders' estimate of the enemy situation.

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