Terrain ExercisesWaldron, William H. (William Henry)
History
Terrain Exercises
Waldron, William H. (William Henry)
Tactics
that come across his mind. He is just a human as you are. He is just as
much afraid. He has just the same feeling about the danger of the
situation as you have, only his situation is worse than yours. He must
sit and wait for something to happen while your activities and
preparations occupy your thoughts and attention. You have the
initiative, you lead and he must follow.
“When you consider all of these things you will see how it is possible
to go about the preparation process in a comparatively deliberate
manner. If you have fairly good cover from the fire and view of the
enemy it is not at all difficult.
“The greatest danger in all of this is from our own side. From the
impatience of our own higher commanders who think the preparations are
taking too much time. Brigade and regimental commanders who are to the
rear and cannot see what is going on get impatient with the apparent
delays and demand that the attack be delivered at once. Even the
battalion commander, who is up at the front and ought to know better,
cannot see how you can possibly consume so much time getting ready.
“That is one of the valuable features of these Terrain Exercises. They
illustrate and demonstrate to officers of all ranks that a certain
amount of time must be allowed a combat unit to get ready to launch an
attack and that they may as well sit down and take it easy until
everything is ready. The war is not to be fought in a day.
“Let us take our problem as an example. Our Company (C) could be brought
up and rushed into action in its attack on the enemy strong point. The
rifleman would have fought it out with his bare hands, so to speak.
There would be no supporting fire from machine guns, light mortars and
one-pounders. It would have been a direct frontal attack, with no
enveloping movement. The chances are that it would be a complete failure
and the whole affair would have to be reorganized and done over again.
Even if it were successful it would be accompanied by ruinous losses
that would render the company totally ineffective for further combat
service in the near future.
“By going about the preparations systematically, as we have done, the
chances for success are infinitely greater, the losses will be very much
smaller and in the long run, a lot of time saved. I hope you will all
consider these things when you give orders to a unit under your command,
be it a battalion or a small patrol, to embark upon a tactical
undertaking. Give the commander time to perfect his preparations. Do not
rush him into action until he is ready.”
Procedure
The class is now conducted up to the line of departure of the platoon.
The Director distributes the sheets containing Situation No. 3.
The Problem
=Situation No. 3:=
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