Tactics and duties for trench fightingBertrand, Georges Etienne
History
Tactics and duties for trench fighting
Bertrand, Georges Etienne
Intrenchments
The position of the battalion commander with his liaison group is
directly in front of the second echelon and between his support
companies.
=Disposition of Assaulting Battalion in the Departure Trenches.= We have
seen that for an attack the ground is specially organized for this
purpose and the attacking troops are disposed in _successive parallels_
or _places d’armes_. Usually this disposition is as follows:
The _two waves_ of the assaulting companies are placed in the first and
second parallels which under ordinary circumstances will be the fire
trench and cover trench of the first defensive line. _Consequently_, the
different lines of each wave will occupy the same parallel, but at the
moment of the assault the successive departures of the lines will permit
them to automatically gain the necessary distances to separate them in
the advance across “No Man’s Land.” _For example_, let us assume that
there are four lines (this is the maximum) placed in one parallel. The
men are numbered from 1 to 4 in successive groups of four each. Each No.
1 man belongs to the first line; each No, 2, to the second line, and so
on. The distance between similar numbers in the parallels is about four
paces, giving the proper skirmish intervals to the line. At the given
signal of the leader of the line, the No. 1’s go over the top. The No.
2’s follow at the prescribed distance ordered or at another signal given
by their leader. The other lines follow similarly, so that the
assaulting troops have the regulation interval in line and a prescribed
(not always regulation) distance in depth.
The two waves of the support companies are placed in a third parallel or
_place d’armes_. This third parallel is usually an intermediate trench,
or special work, executed for this purpose, located between the first
and second defensive lines.
Machine guns and 37 mm. guns are located on the ground in relation to
their places in the advance during the attack.
The battalions which are kept as reserves according to the plan of
battle of the sector commander, are disposed in _places d’armes_
organized behind the parallels of departure. The colonel and his
headquarters occupy a command post directly behind the assaulting
battalion from where he can witness the launching of the assault and the
crossing of “No Man’s Land.”
=Order of the Attack.= The attacking troops take the disposition that
has just been explained some days before the attack. This disposition is
laid down in a paragraph of the Plan of Battle. Each leader of an
attacking unit, with a map of the ground on which his area is specially
outlined, must study his disposition on the ground previous to the
arrival of his troops. Besides this, the leaders must pay special
attention to the hostile position, verifying the direction of the
attack, and identifying the successive objectives and the nests of
resistance that will be encountered.
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