Breaking Off
Breaking off (Ger. abbrechen; diminishing the front), a movement, by which the front of any military unit is diminished, where one sub-division of a unit marching in line moves sideways and falls in behind the other. The manner of breaking off depends on the formation in which the unit is in and other circumstances.
In the infantry. 1) From battalion line. In this case either the files break off, namely the even or the odd files, by falling in sideways behind the men next to them; or an entire platoon is to break off. The designated platoon halts, and, once it is behind the front, inserts itself behind the neighbouring platoon. It is obvious where a flank platoon will go in this way; the other platoons fall in behind that platoon, which is nearest to them toward the flanks.
2) From a column. If it is a column with intervals, where the tête has only one section in the front, breaking off is effected by putting oneself in files; if the tête consists of several sections, they fall in one behind the other, whereby the sections of the right wing of the platoon continue forward when marching to the right, or those of the left wing when marching to the left. Even if the tête consists of several sections, one may immediately put oneself in files, where, following the previous principle, either the right or left wingmen continue forward, their rear men placing themselves in the front, and all other files falling in behind them. – In the case of closed columns one proceeds in one way or the other, but the rear platoons have to halt, to make room for the sections or files that are inserting themselves. In the case of an attack column, the flags and NCOs between the two platoons of the tête carry on ahead; the column faces right and left; the platoons at the tête pass the defile at a faster pace, and then quickly deploy in files at the distance of one platoon length from the same; the other platoons follow in the same manner. If such a column marched off to the right, breaking off is effected by the inner platoons passing the defile at a faster pace, and the outer ones attaching themselves to these.
Cavalry and artillery act similarly in all these cases, but with the modifications which correspond to their nature. – Pulling through (Durchziehen) is a special way of breaking off from the line.
Source: Rumpf, H. F.: Allgemeine Real-Encyclopädie der gesammten Kriegskunst (Berl. 1827)