Infantry Tactics
Defensive Operations
| If an attack comes as a focused, or a concentrated assault on the weaker areas of your defense, it is probably going to penetrate your line. At this point, the attacker can reorient and outflank your forces, proceeding then to "roll up" your flanks and hence destroy your defenses piece meal. players who are considered "good" use this type of attack, however, they lack a crucial element: recon. While a concentrated attack can succeed against a weak point in the enemy defense, it will still fail to penetrate even a linear defensive strongpoint. Without recon, one can only rely on luck and 'intuition' to attack a favorable approach. The most detailed terrain analysis is not a substitute for knowledge of the enemy |
| When an enemy attacks with his main body along a narrow axis of approach, AND they conduct a reconnaissance to determine the best point of attack, you meet a very difficult situation as a defender |
| The first principle of beating the concentrated attack
was simple: Identify where it is coming from. The germens place great
importance on scouting and recon. On the defense, this means having a
security/recon element (SRE) forward of the defensive positions. The
effect is threefold: A) You gain great information on where the attack is coming from before it is too late to react effectively. B) You have opportunities to ambush enemy forces and fall back before he can react, without risk of critical breaches in your defense. C) If the enemy is smart enough to use recon, you can deny him that information or force him to commit support assets to his reconnaissance (leaving less for his main body) |
| By identifying the enemy early, we can begin long-range attrition through artillery and CAS (Close Air support) . This will certainly kill some of his forces, but more importantly it will slow him and cause chaos in his march. This means he is forced to: |
| A) Regroup for a better coordinated attack, which takes
time B) Attack you as is, with less coordination |
| Meanwhile, the defensive commander now has opportunity to shift reserves into defensive positions where the enemy is going to attack. In sum, with as little as a platoon out front in SRE role, one can significantly improve his chances for victory. |
| With this naturally come three levels of a defensive belt: The SRE, the Main Line of Resistance (MLR) and the Reserves or Second Echelon (SLR). This is the very basic of what is called a tactical defense in depth. Defending in depth simply means that your forces don't act on a single line |
| objectives for my security/recon element: 1) Identify the Enemy and Interpret his Intentions 2) Deny the Enemy Recon 3) Kill, Disrupt, and Funnel the advancing attacker |
| Purposes: 1) Allow for shifting of the Defense for Expected Attack 2) Prevent Enemy from determining optimum avenues of attack 3) A: Slow the enemy to buy time for reserves B: Disrupt the enemy formation and to un-coordinate the attack C: Destroy crucial portions of the enemy force |
the Main line of Resistance The MLR The Main Line of Resistance is designed to integrate fire support while leaving room for internal fluidity to deal with breaches. While carefully planned, there is less finesse and glory than in the SRE, yet it is absolutely crucial in its performance. The MLR is what it's all about. The SRE can't stop an enemy force, the MLR can. |
| Mass is the key to stopping an enemy force. If your forces cannot act as a unit, the enemy can isolate parts of it and obliterate them piece meal. A good Mission commander /player to see recognize and take advantage of opportunities when they arise. A good attaking forces will penetrate into a portion of first echelon of defense. It is absolutely critical that mission commander be able at the very least to make him pay for any penetration, and that favorably they contain or obliterate the penetration. My methods for accomplishing this are twofold: |
| A) All defensive positions are organized to be capable of
perimeter defense. a mission commander should assume the enemy
will manage to isolate each and every single one of their strong
points and should prepare for it. B)mission commanders use any free assets in the area to conduct counterattacks against the enemy just as they make it into the penetrated area. The enemy is almost always pinned or unprepared at this moment. In any case, it is crucial that local counter attacks are used to repulse the enemy breaches. If you have fresh reserves close at hand, they are useful in this role. |
| A useful method of company deployment in a front line is two platoons forward with one in rear. The rear platoon can be used to seal off penetrations and conduct counterattacks. It can also provide covering fire for withdraw of the forward platoons if need be. |
| Anti-Tank assets are placed against routes of suspected enemy armored advance. |
| Man portable AT assets are always moved into position based on reports from the SRE |
| Reserve employment is the simplest part of the engagement. For most commanders , there are only two questions: When and Where shall they commit their reserves |
| A reserve is simply a portion of your forces designated apart from the first echelon of defense. It is classically thought of as being used to reinforce the sector of expected enemy attack, since the enemy will rarely attack all sectors evenly. It is meant to help equalize the numeric difference at the main effort of enemy attack, and hence help the defender overcome the risk of breakthrough |
| When? The decision of when to employ a reserve is simple yet critical to the battlefield. Commit to early and the enemy may shift on you unexpectedly. Commit too late and the enemy may breakthrough before your reserve arrives, resulting in the destruction of your forces in a meeting engagement. This is why the attacker is always emphasizing speed in his maneuver. He wants to break through with such momentum that you have no time to reestablish a defense |
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The SRE is the critical means of determining when to commit. By keeping an eye on the enemy, you can tell (through experience) when it would be too late for him to change directions without taking significant time to do so (allowing your reserve to shift yet again). The SRE also must disseminate from the real enemy main effort and any deceptive moves he might make. Typically, deceptive maneuver is difficult to identify from the MLR due to distances. With the SRE, one can have no doubt. |
| Where? At the point of the enemy main effort usually. The only exception being if one sees greater possibility to "deny the flank" of your forces to the enemy rather than reinforce the possibly weak defensive area the enemy is ready to attack. The overall point however, no matter where you commit, is to stop the enemy main attack |
| Sometimes the terrain will make it much more favorable to use the reserves as a second defensive echelon to which your first echelons can fall back and continue the fight from there. In other words, A mission commander might discovered that a reserve does not have to be brought to the main body, but rather the main body can be brought to the reserve. |
| This is only possible if the first echelon can successfully withdraw to better positions in the second echelon safely |