Читать книгу Terrain Exercises - William H. Waldron - Страница 45

The Director: “There are several ways of disposing the infantry of a division for combat. I will outline them briefly in order that you may see what the formations are and the relation that our battalion has to them.

“The division may be deployed with the two brigades side by side, each brigade being echeloned in a column of regiments. The leading regiment of each brigade is in turn echeloned in a column of battalions, one as assault, one as support and one as local reserve. The second regiment (less 1 battalion) of each brigade forms the brigade reserve. The remaining battalion from each of these regiments is held out by the division commander as a division reserve. In this case the division commander is driving a two unit team with the units abreast. Under exceptional circumstances the division may be deployed with the brigades side by side with all four regiments in line each echeloned in a column of battalions. This formation uses up a division very rapidly and is only employed where an exceptionally wide front has been assigned.

“The third method of deployment is that indicated in the problem we have under consideration. There is an attacking brigade with the regiments side by side, each regiment echeloned in a column of battalions, one as attacking, one as support and one as reserve. This is a very good formation and has many advantages. It is one that was employed by many of the successful divisions in France. The Reserve brigade is held far back in order to reduce fatigue and casualties to a minimum, so that when it is called upon to relieve the attacking brigade it is in the best of condition and comparatively fresh and rested. In this formation the division commander drives his team of units in tandem. Now, I want every member of the class to visualize this formation and get it firmly fixed in your minds. Let us review it again:

“Our brigade, the 19th is the attacking Brigade. We have our two regiments abreast. Our regiment occupies the —— half of the sector which extends right up through here (indicates); the other regiment occupies the —— half of the sector which extends right along parallel to us along there (indicating). Our 2nd battalion has been the assault battalion and has carried the advance forward today. We have been following as support battalion, and at the end of the day’s work have arrived here. Our 3rd battalion has been following us at a distance of about 1,000 yards as the reserve.

“The 1st battalion has gotten as far forward as it possibly can today and has halted along the ________ (indicate the general line of the battalion) where it has been ordered to stabilize for the night in order to permit arrangements to be made for continuing the advance tomorrow morning. The problem of this Terrain Exercise has to do with those arrangements, in so far as the Infantry is concerned. We are the support battalion, it is up to us to relieve the assault battalion tonight and carry on the fight tomorrow. How are we going to do it?”