Contact!

by Max Velocity

   The point squad will react as per squad battle drills. They will take cover, maneuver off the immediate killing area into cover, locate the enemy and return fire to gain fire superiority and win the fire fight. The squad leader will make a decision as to the strength of the enemy and whether it is possible for him to assault as per a squad quick attack. We will assume that he cannot.

   Simultaneously the platoon leader is moving up and to a flank to a position of observation where he can do a combat estimate on the situation. He will decide here that it is a platoon attack and he will assess the enemy and ground and make a plan for the attack, including whether to go left or right flanking.

   Simultaneously the platoon sergeant will muster the remaining two squads in a rally point and hold them there.

   The platoon leader will communicate a warning order to the squads. He will designate the point section as the fire support and at this point he can deploy any gun groups he has to fire support locations to assist the point squad and help to suppress the enemy. He can use the radio or if not then he will have to use a runner. He will then either move back to the rally point to brief the squad leaders and platoon sergeant, or if he thinks it is useful he will take the squad leaders up to his position of observation to show them the ground.

   The platoon sergeant will also deploy the light mortar, if you have one, at this point. High explosive (HE) can be used to help suppress the enemy and smoke on the enemy position will facilitate movement, either of the point section as it tries to sort itself out in the fire support position (which is on or close to the X) or the move to the flank or assault of the main body. (If you had any indirect fire support, then this is the time to have the fire controller call it in. Unlikely in a post-event situation, but possible.)

   The platoon leader will issue Quick Battle Orders (QBOs) to the squad leaders, who will quickly brief their men. This is a drill, so it should not take long.

  The Attack:

   The Approach: The two assaulting squads will move to the flank on a designated route and move into the FUP. The platoon leader can lead this move, but in case of contacting further enemy on the route to the FUP, or in the FUP, it is better if this move is led by a squad, with the platoon leader in the center, followed by the other squad and the platoon sergeant. A lot of this will depend on how professional the platoon is and how much ‘leadership’ the platoon leader needs to give them. He may have to do a ‘follow me’ type move, or if the troops are hardened professionals they will be able to move in formation as described. Remember that we are not in a military situation and the platoon leader is likely to be the most experienced person there, so it is not the typical military caricature situation with a ‘wet behind the ears’ lieutenant having to prove himself to his men. Once the platoon reaches the FUP they will deploy into it as designated by the platoon leader. It is likely that he will designate an echelon style attack with one squad responsible for the ‘break-in battle’ onto the enemy position, with the other squad following in reserve until they are called forward to exploit further onto the position.

   The Assault: If it is a two-up style attack then the platoon leader will situate himself between the two squads to control the fire and movement of the two formations. If it is a one-up echelon style attack the platoon leader will be behind the assaulting squad. The platoon leader should only become directly involved in the fighting if the attack reaches a critical point where it may fail and the personal example or leadership of the platoon leader is required to tip the balance. The assaulting squad will cross the line of departure and conduct a squad attack in microcosm onto the enemy position, whether it is a building, bunker or enemy in the open. The fire support squad and any additional gun groups remain at the fire support location continuing to provide support and escalating to rapid fire as necessary, followed by switching fire away from the assault to flank and depth positions.

   The Fight Through: once the first squad has conducted the break in battle and fought to the designated limit of exploitation (LOE) it will go firm and begin to suppress enemy in depth on the remainder of the position. The platoon leader will then push the following squad through in an echelon style attack to fight through the position to their designated LOE. Until that time the following squad is controlled by the platoon sergeant who is reading the battle and anticipating the needs of the platoon leader. He will release the squad to the platoon leader when required.

  The Reorganization: Once the position is captured, the two assaulting squads will go into all round defense while the fire support elements are called in to join them. Positions will be adjusted as they come in and each squad will be designated a slice of the clock face as their sector to cover. The platoon leader will be moving about the position allocating sectors of fire and ensuring that there are no gaps in the security. The platoon sergeant will be redistributing ammunition and making sure casualties are taken care of. The position will be checked and cleared for wounded and dead enemy as per the squad attack.

  Deliberate Attack

  The deliberate attack was partially covered under the patrolling section simply because a deliberate attack or raid is a form or patrol. It has also been covered under quick attack drills simply because the principles are the same. More detail will be covered here.

  A deliberate attack is a planned operation that will require reconnaissance and information to locate the enemy in order to plan the attack. You will have a reason for needing to conduct a deliberate attack, whether that is just to wipe out a particularly nasty group of marauders who have established a camp in your vicinity. Once you have that reason, you will seek the information you require to plan the operation and put it into play.

  You may have been attacked by a group, perhaps even several attacks by the same group, and you have followed them back to their base, conducted surveillance, and then you plan an attack to wipe them out. Potentially, you are also operating as an insurgent band and have located an enemy installation, perhaps a command and control hub, rebroadcast communication station or ammunition or fuel supply dump and you plan to attack it.

  Figure 41 - The Assault Cycle

  The assault cycle is how sub-units (i.e. squads, or platoons in a company level operation) will rotate through roles during an attack. They are the three main roles that will be played out during any attack.

  Figure 42 - Deliberate Attack Schematic

  Under patrolling we covered the move to an ORP followed by occupation of fire support and assault positions. Ideally, the assault forming up point (FUP), the forward edge of which is the line of departure (LD), will be at right angles (90 degrees) to the fire support position. Attacks from the rear are often talked about, and this is great as a more strategic option, but this is not advantageous tactically within the sphere of this single attack because this would mean the assaulting forces are advancing into the fire from the fire support position.

  Similarly, if the assault force advances from the fire support position, then it will mask the fire from the fire support position. This can vary depending on the ground and the availability of hard cover and dead ground to mask direct fires, but generally it should be adhered to. Attacks from the rear are very useful to unbalance the enemy, but they would have to be separate attacks occurring with their own integral fire support and assault teams.

  Fratricide

  A factor that is very important to consider is fratricide (‘blue on blue’) contact and the necessity for control measures to avoid this. During daylight this is not as much of an issue as at night, but it needs to be seriously considered. The fire support elements need to be able to switch fire in front of the approach of the assaulting teams, but they don’t want to do it too early and have the assault teams lose the benefit of fire superiority.

  Depending on the ground at the enemy position, and the real world is neither perfect nor a billiard table; it may not be possible to see all of the assault as it goes in. Control measures and communications are essential
. This is also an important factor when determining if you are going to conduct a day or night attack.

  A night attack would be great if you had sufficient night vision gear, but that is probably unlikely. The old school and probably most effective way of conducting a night attack, without night vision gear, is simply to ‘go noisy’ and attack with speed, aggression and surprise utilizing parachute illumination both from rocket type flares and also from mortar illumination if you have access to it.

  For daytime operations you could use some form of flags or markers that can be laid out to show the progress of the assault. For nighttime operations, and we are assuming here that you don’t have enough night vision IR capability to effectively utilize assets like glint tape, then you will need to think of other low tech ways. The use of illumination will light up the objective enough to see what is going on, while still providing shadow and darkness to not totally negate the advantages of a night attack.

  You could utilize partially taped cyalume sticks on the backs of certain personnel’s equipment, but this fails if the enemy has a view of them from the rear angle! You could also use cyalume sticks or flashlights to throw out or place down to show the progress of the clearance.

  A control measure that can be used is control lines or labeled objectives; so that progress can be reported over the radio and fire switches away to beyond the next phase line or to the next objective, but these must be identifiable to the fire support group and to the assaulting team. This works well with scattered buildings, perhaps in a compound (for instance on a camp attack), when the assault goes in on the buildings in a set manner with fire support switching from building to building as the assault progresses.

  Factors

  The dawn attack is an age old tactic that is effective because you can approach the objective under the cover of darkness and initiate the attack in the pre-dawn utilizing illum, hopefully when the enemy is unprepared (hence dawn stand-to!) and then it will get light to enable exploitation and control. A dusk attack is perhaps not as helpful because the enemy will still be awake and light conditions will be deteriorating. A full night attack at around 3am is very effective so long as you have night vision or illum capability because the enemy’s spirit is at its lowest ebb at that time.

  For a night attack tracer is useful to indicate positions and objectives to suppress and will give you some idea of where your personnel are. For this reason, to ensure that tracer is not a double edged weapon, NATO tracer does not light up until 100 meters from the barrel of the weapon, so you can’t trace the source all the way back to the firer. Check the manufacturer’s directions for any commercial stuff that you purchase.

  You will have to tailor your assault plan depending on the nature of your mission and also the type of location and the defenses that the enemy have. Assaulting a built up location with multiple buildings will be covered in more detail below. If the area of the enemy camp is generally an open area or with no significant buildings then it can simply be carved up into phase lines with squads attacking through to pre-designated LOE and then going firm to provide fire support and flank protection as the other squads push through.

  If it is defended with a bunker or fire trench system then these bunkers will need to be identified and allocated as objectives for each squad. Isolated small buildings can be treated like bunkers and cleared accordingly.

  If it is a linear ‘Soviet style’ trench system, then the technique is to place down your fire base and then conduct a ‘break in battle’ to establish a breach into the trench system. Ideally, this will be at the end of the trench system but this may not be possible. Therefore, once the squad breaches in to the system they will establish security and blocking positions; subsequent assaulting squads will push in one direction and continue the clearance while the other direction is blocked.

  Once one way is cleared, clearance can progress in the other direction. Squads will push through the trench system using grenades and explosives to fight their way around corners and destroy any bunkers. If the system splits, perhaps with communication trenches, then one way is blocked while the clearance continues down the other way. This needs to be communicated back to leaders via link men so that assets can be allocated to blocking positions and assault teams. Be aware to the possibility of enemy counter attack either coming through the trench system or over the open ground from a rear position.

  If a position is defended by wire and obstacles then you will have to consider how to breach those obstacles before you can get in and conduct the break in battle. A ‘Bangalore Torpedo’ is a length of metal pipe filled with explosives that is pushed out and fed under wire entanglements. It is then detonated and the shrapnel from the metal will cut the wire. Such devices can be made from two metal pickets taped together and filled with explosives. Push the device out from cover, utilizing inert extensions to get the device to where it is needed, and then detonate it. There will also be a partial shock effect from the explosion and if this is combined with rapid fire support and smoke you should be able to breach the obstacle and follow up by rapidly assaulting into the trench system.

  The problem is as always mutually supporting and depth positions and if you cannot adequately suppress these with your fire support base then you will either be unable to prosecute the assault without unacceptable losses or you will have to find a way to crawl up in some sort of dead ground in order to break in to the trench system. Smoke is a great asset, but be careful to use it sensibly so as not to mask your fire support – it can be a double edged weapon. If you don’t have smoke grenades then you could think of other ways to create masking smoke, such as brush fire or burning oil barrels if you can place them upwind of the objective.

  Recalling back to earlier in the text when we discussed the Hollywood and historical vision of running assaults against the enemy compared to what you actually want to be doing, you need to plan and drill to absolutely minimize losses. There cannot be any movement without effective fire support. There may be times when you have to rush across an area, but remember slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Think about an attack in terms of fire and maneuver with the pressure steadily increasing on the enemy as you maneuver to the flanks and increasingly closer, bringing down effective supporting and accurate fire and continuing to steadily maneuver closer and to the flanks, maybe crawling or moving steadily in the available cover and dead ground.

  When the German army broke the stalemate in the trench warfare in the First World War with their 1918 spring offensive, they had learned that to get across no-man’s land they had to do so in short rushes, the early learning stages of fire and movement that we do today. They trained units of ‘storm troopers’ whose job was to assault in such away and then clear Allied trench systems, breaking out and turning the previous four years of stalemate into maneuver warfare again.

  You cannot assault enemy defensive positions as a mob running at them. You will be shot down. You have to utilize momentum to bring effective fire support onto the enemy thus allowing steady maneuver and flank assaults to close with the enemy. Stop thinking about attacks as running about and charging, think about crawling and flanking and moving steadily with momentum.

  Cold Steel

  If you have the capability to utilize bayonets on your assault weapons, then do not underestimate it. Bayonets should be fixed in the FUP as a ritual prior to crossing the line of departure. Once in the FUP the leader will look left and right at the line, draw his bayonet and hold it up prior to fitting it to his rifle; the assaulting riflemen will follow suit.

  Statistics from wars show that actual numbers of deaths and wounds from bayonetting are very low. However, the secret to this is that the enemy will usually break and flee if they see you forming up to assault with the bayonet. The great thing about bayonets is that if you fix them and begin to prosecute an attack, you will likely not get close enough to actually have to use it because the enemy will flee. That is the secret of the bayonet.

  Bayonet training has been ta
ken out of U.S. Army basic training and bayonets are not issued for the current GWOT.. Apparently we will not have to close with and destroy any bad guys in the future?

  Bayonet training is usually conducted as an activity all on its own. It is a form of conditioning in savagery. Recruits will undergo a bayonet assault course which will be as muddy and horrific as possible, preferably utilizing any actual animal blood and guts you can get hold of. The recruits will run the assault course under a barrage of abuse from the instructors, with as many battle simulation explosions as possible. They will be crawling under wire and over obstacles and through mud. Think ‘tough mudder’ with bayonets. They will have to assault and stab both hanging and prone realistic dummies as they go, while preferably having to crawl through actual animal guts and have those guts hanging out of the dummies. Horrific, extremely tiring, great fun and training value!

  Gurkhas from Nepal, who have served the British Army faithfully as mercenaries for centuries, do not use bayonets: They have their traditional curved and wicked kukri on their belts and will charge with extreme ferocity when in close contact with the enemy. If you cannot use bayonets, consider perhaps utilizing some other form of weapon, like a machete or hatchet that you keep on your belts and can use in an emergency. Once this gets out, the enemy is not likely to want to engage in close range combat or stand up to a close range charge.

  This does not advocate the use of mechanical weapons over the use of your assault weapon or backup handgun at close range, but it’s something to think about in sowing fear amongst your enemies. The Native Americans back in the Revolutionary period utilized standoff weapons such as bows and muskets/rifles but I am sure their adversaries such as the British redcoats and the French had nightmares about a close range assault with a tomahawk.