Fire and Maneuver - Winning the Firefight
The basic principle of tactics is to combine fire and maneuver so that the troops first ‘win the firefight’ that is, neutralize the enemy, and then go on to overrun the enemy’s position. Traditionally the idea has been for the `base of fire’ to be provided by a static force that keeps the enemy’s head down while a separate force maneuvers to exploit a covered line of approach.
But often the maneuvering assault force may have to provide its own massed covering fire as it moves. In General Patton’s World War II infantry tactics this was called ‘marching fire’, and more recently it has sometimes been called ‘prophylactic firepower’. It is especially useful in distracting the operators of wire-guided anti-tank weapons, who have to keep the crosshairs aligned on their target throughout the missile’s flight.
Until very recently it was technically impossible for tanks themselves to fire on the move with any accuracy at all, and a stationary tank would always have a great advantage over a moving one. With today’s technology, however, gyroscopically stabilised guns give a moving tank considerable accuracy potential. Artillery, on the other hand, cannot fire on the move, although it may well change position between fire missions (`shoot and scoot’), to avoid counter-battery fire.
A variation on ‘fire and maneuver’ is the concept that has sometimes been called ‘maneuver and fire’. This means that the infantry, rather than overpowering the enemy itself at close quarters, advances cautiously and goes to earth close to the enemy. Then it calls up artillery and support weapons not just to win the firefight, but to destroy the opposition utterly. This tactic is less risky for the assault troops, but may fail to eradicate the enemy unless the balance of firepower is massively in favour of the attack, thus bogging the artillery down in indecisive and expensive attrition.
Archipelago Defense system of defense was developed by the German Army during World War I after the First Battle of the Somme in 1916. The linear defensive system used in that battle had caused the Germans to suffer many casualties from the heavy British shelling of the front-line trench.
In archipelago defense , the forward defended localities are manned by infantry of about section strength, to give early warning of an enemy attack. Machine-gun posts firing in enfilade (at the flank of the enemy advance) disrupt the enemy attack. Any enemy that penetrate the line of forward defended localities are then engaged by fire from the company strongpoints in the main defensive position. Should one of these strongpoint’s fall, then troops from another company position will launch a counter attack to retake it.
Similarly, a company position will launch a counter-attack against enemy between the strong points who have been weakened. The depth positions provide a final line of defense in front of the artillery positions and force the enemy to spread his attacking troops and artillery over a much larger area. Between and behind the artillery positions are the mobile counter-attack forces. These destroy any enemy units that break through to the artillery positions.
