Terrain ExercisesWaldron, William H. (William Henry)
History
Terrain Exercises
Waldron, William H. (William Henry)
Tactics
_Lieutenant Hunt_: “Except to secure the identification, I would not.
The men of the enemy who made their escape probably did not have a very
clear idea of where the fire came from and I would not want to surrender
any of the advantages I now possess with respect to position and
concealment. When the enemy learns of the disaster to his patrol he may
send out a strong detachment to secure their dead and wounded and punish
us. Our own main body is marching away from us and our position is
becoming momentarily more dangerous. I could do nothing for the enemy
wounded. They would have to stay where they are for the time being.”
_The Director_: “When do you estimate that you should leave here?”
_Lieutenant Hunt_: “In the absence of orders or other circumstances
which I do not now see, I will leave here when the time designated by
the flank guard commander is up.”
The Problem
The Director states the following situation orally:
“At this moment you hear quite heavy firing which you estimate comes
from the direction of the main body. There are a few shots from the
direction of the flank guard. The time you were ordered to remain
out here is about up.”
Solution
_The Director_: “Lieutenant Williams, how do you size up the situation
now?”
_Lieutenant Williams_: “Our original mission was to cover this road for
a certain number of minutes. That time is about up now when we will have
completed the mission. New conditions have arisen which could not have
been provided for when Lieutenant A gave us our original orders and a
new situation confronts us. It would seem to me that our mission would
now be to ‘continue to cover the road.’
“From the firing we have heard, it is possible that our main body has
run into a considerable force of the enemy on the main road. If this is
a Cavalry force covering one of Infantry it will soon transfer its
activities to the flanks and try and cut in on the flanks of our main
body. Under those circumstances our flank guard will have a very
important role to play. The road that we are on leads directly to the
flank and rear of our main body and must be guarded for the time being.
The fact that we have already encountered the enemy indicates that he
intends to make use of it if practicable and the presence of even our
small force here will make him more cautious and delay and hamper his
operations. If our main body has run into only a small Cavalry force of
the enemy it will be quickly brushed aside and the situation will be
cleared up in a few minutes.
“After considering all of these circumstances, I think Sergeant Wilkins’
decision would be to remain here and continue covering this road.”
_The Director_: “I think you are right. Now, having arrived at that
decision, what are you going to do next, Captain Hastings?”
_Captain Hastings_: “The men would be looking to me for instructions. I
would say:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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