Infantry Tactics in Combat Mission
Article by: Christopher Hall

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INTRODUCTION

I've noticed a focus on tank tactics among the articles on CMHQ so I've decided its time to get back to basics and focus on the infantry platoon, using it to illustrate some basic battlefield tactics regarding movement, offense and defense. First off I will refer you to Fionn Kelly's excellent article on tank platoon tactics, many of the principles shown there definitely apply to infantry. However, lets start by examining the differences between armor and infantry in terms of what they bring to the battlefield. These differences can be grouped under a number of categories: stealth, firepower, survivability, and mobility.

Stealth - An infantry platoon is much harder to spot than a corresponding tank platoon. The auditory signature of a tank, engine noise combined with the noise it makes moving through (and often damaging) terrain, is orders of magnitude greater than that of an infantry man, even a large group of men. Additionally, the large profile of a tank and its inability to reduce that profile is contrasted with the infantry man's ability to stand upright, crouch, crawl and hide. A tank can really only hide behind buildings and hills. The tank's ability to go into hull defilade and turret defilade partially offset this weakness, but for a grunt in woods, every tree or shrub gives him the option of full defilade.

Firepower - It has been said of the M1 that it has the firepower of a full platoon of infantry. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but tanks do tend to have more firepower than their organizational equivalent (the squad) in the infantry. The M4, with its 75mm gun, bow MG and coax MG probably can be thought of has having a capacity to chew stuff up equivalent to 1.5 to 2 squads. More important than the quantitative "firepower" considerations are the qualitative considerations of how that firepower is delivered. Infantry lacks long range weapons (with the exception of their mortars and MG) while tanks have nothing but long range weapons. Not to say their weapons are ineffective at short range, just that a tank is approximately equally effective at long or short range while an infantry platoon must be moved to short range to perform anything besides harassing fire.

Survivability - On the surface it seems that the tank, with its thick layers of armor is much more survivable than infantry is. And in some ways it is. A tank can ignore small arms fire and MGs (as long as it is buttoned up) and can ignore most artillery, except for lucky shots. Tanks and infantry seem equally vulnerable to anti-tank weapons, tanks being susceptible to AP while infantry suffer from the HE that can often be fired from these same weapons. Consider, however, a large caliber round, of the appropriate type, striking a both types of unit. A tank will likely be destroyed, its combat effectiveness gone. An infantry unit will likely suffer casualties, perhaps even run from the threat, but it will retain most of its fighting ability. An AT shell will likely kill a tank, but will probably kill less than one third of an infantry squad. The tank, despite its perceived durability, is a complex machine that will quickly cease functioning if anything breaks. An infantry squad (to complete the analogy) is made up of up to twelve complex machines and will continue to work even if half of them "break," all be it at reduced effectiveness.

Mobility - Baring mechanized transport, infantry greatly lacks battlefield mobility. This is partly because a platoon is so vulnerable to fire when it is moving and partly because the infantry man's transport provided by legs. A platoon will wear out after a run of 300-500m depending on terrain. A tank will keep going for a hundred miles (or more) on a tank of gas. (On the other hand, it's often a lot easier to produce food for the grunt than gas for the tank, but such concerns are best left to the generals). On the other hand, an infantry man can move through forests no tank could dream of. While tanks are confined to roads and fields for fear of throwing a track, infantry can go anywhere. And is often asked to.

So now we've seen the strengths of the infantry: their stealth, their intense short range firepower, their ability to receive lethal damage and continue to function, and their all-terrain mobility. Let's discuss the basics of moving that infantry unit.

MOVEMENT

Infantry must always be alert and ready to deal with threats. As we have seen, because of his lack of armor, movement is perhaps the most dangerous activity an infantry man engages in. Conflicting with this desire to stay safe is the desire of the commander to move his troops to the battle, where they are needed most. As such, there are three main methods of movement available to the commander, traveling, traveling overwatch, and bounding overwatch.

Traveling - A unit that is not expecting contact with the enemy will often move by a traveling drill. This formation minimizes security to provide speed of movement, ease of organization and peace of mind for the soldier. A traveling unit merely decides where to go and goes. There is no stopping to overwatch and little concern given for the enemy. This form of movement is generally not applicable in Combat Missions situations as the units are already at the battlefield. But if in rear areas, or moving towards the front along the path of previous units, traveling can be a useful form of movement.

Traveling Overwatch - A unit that is not certain it will face the enemy, but still needs to move quickly, often uses traveling overwatch. This is a balance between bounding overwatch and plain traveling. The lead unit moves forward at a constant rate while a trailing one pauses periodically in good overwatch positions, following about 50-200m behind. These positions afford good fields of fire as well as good cover against enemy fire. If a situation develops, the trailing unit will be in or near such a position and can suppress the threat from afar, or maneuver to counter the threat. 

Bounding Overwatch - A unit that is advancing to contact will use bounding overwatch. This is an extension of traveling overwatch designed so that the trailing unit is always stationary and in an overwatch position while the forward unit is moving. There are two types of bounding overwatch: alternate and successive bounding.

Alternate - When the two units take turns being the lead and overwatching units they are practicing and alternating bounding overwatch. The first unit moves up while the second overwatches. The first then finds a position where it can overwatch the second unit as the second unit moves up past the first and into new overwatching positions. 

Successive - When one unit is consistently the lead unit and the other is the overwatching unit they are practicing successive bounding overwatch. The first unit moves as it is watched by the second. The second then moves up to positions adjacent to the first and the first moves off to new positions, again, overwatched by the second unit.

Alternate bounding is perhaps more typically used and is appropriate in most situations involving two equal units. If one unit is stronger than the other, a veteran platoon vs. a green platoon, it is probably more profitable to successively bound the units, leading with the stronger one. If one unit has greater long range fire power, an infantry platoon and a section of tanks, successive bounding is preferred, with the long range unit overwatching.

OFFENSE

Now that we have the basic abilities to maneuver, we can begin to think about attack. In the attack we must emphasis the advantages of the infantry while minimizing the disadvantages. Unfortunately, we are forced to give up some of our stealth on the attack because we are forced to move. As we have seen, infantry is at its most vulnerable when on the move, it is more exposed to enemy fire as well as being much easier to see. None-the-less, by utilizing our mobility and moving through areas of thick cover we can maintain stealth. These areas of thick cover also enhance the short range firepower of infantry, the terrain will shield us from long range fire. The final advantage we have on the attack is local superiority. Local superiority in firepower will make up for the disadvantages imposed by movement.

There are several methods available to us to achieve this local superiority. The first and most obvious is concentration of units, allowing them to focus on a much smaller enemy force while the rest of the enemy force cannot attack them. Surprise is also vital, for local superiority can not be achieved if the enemy is aware of where you plan to achieve it. The speed of an infantry units advance is limited, but the unit must advance as fast as possible as speed will prevent enemy reinforcements from countering local superiority. Finally, the infantry unit must be unpredictable, even if surprise is achieved and the unit is not spotted moving to the attack, if the attack route was anticipated local enemy forces will be strong. Consequently the attacking commander must disregard the other methods of achieving local superiority to some degree to attack along an unanticipated route.

When looking for routes of advance the above methods should be taken into account. The route must be large enough that it cannot be bottlenecked by an enemy force, preventing concentration by limiting the number of units that can fire on a position at a time. This "size" of the route takes into account the width of the route in terms of how many platoons can be placed in it as well as the topography. Friendly units on a hill can project fire into a route, increasing its "size." Conversely, enemy units on the reverse slope of a hill limit your concentrated forces to only those troops over the hill. Cover should be plentiful along the route, providing plenty of overwatch positions for an advance. This also emphasizes the infantry's strengths in firepower, as engagements will most likely begin at short range. The routes flanks should be protected from enemy fire by woods or hills, this will impede enemy observation of the assault, maintaining surprise, while preventing any enemy units but those the you are specifically attacking from fighting back, aiding concentration. Cover on the flanks and within the route can be created by use of HE and smoke artillery. Consequently, the ideal route of advance is flanked by hills or forest, contains forests, rough ground, or buildings for cover, contains no rises or depressions in which an enemy can effect a reverse slope defense, and is backed by a hill from where supporting fire can be based. Interestingly, the southern valley in Valley of Trouble provides just such an advance route.

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This illustrates the problems of unpredictability however. Because the southern valley is such a ideal route, it is always heavily guarded.

Before moving on to the defense, I will say a word about the benefits of maintaining a reserve. It would seem that the principle of concentration would argue against maintaining such a body, for a reserve plays a minor part in the fighting, denying the attacking force up to 1/3 of their total strength. The reserve serves many useful purposes including, providing a force to exploit an successful offensive, keeping the enemy unsure about your true strength (unpredictability), providing protection from flanking attacks against your support elements (MGs, mortars, FOs), covering a withdrawal by your main force should the attack fail. Reserves give an attack flexibility and that advantage should not be discounted.

DEFENSE

A defensive operation seeks to deny the enemy local fire superiority and (if possible) achieve friendly fire superiority. As the defender does not have to move (though this can be advantageous) the infantry's advantage of stealth is maximized. Also, when fighting from prepared positions, even foxholes, the survivability of infantry is maximized. One disadvantage is that if static positions are held, the enemy will determine the range of the combat. Against other infantry both sides have primarily short ranged weapons and this is not much of a problem, but when faced with long ranged fire support the infantry can be at a severe disadvantage.

To counter the enemy's surprise, observers should be setup. These should be either in front of the Main Line of Resistance (MLR) or behind it, in good observation positions. In areas with good cover, observers should always be placed in front of the MLR, ready to move back upon contact with the enemy. Concentration can be difficult to breakup, artillery, if available can be used, as can mobility. If the enemy is trying to isolate one unit, move the other units into contact, preferably on the flanks. Additionally, by using the stealth inherent in your freedom to avoid maneuver, the enemy will remain ignorant of your disposition, making concentration upon one single unit more difficult. The enemy's speed can be controlled with obstacles such as minefields and barbed wire. Tanks can be controlled through the use of impassable ditches. In a hasty defense, such barriers are not available and the enemy's speed must be countered with speed of your own. The speed of defensive units will almost always be less that that of the enemy as the enemy will have greater access to AFVs and will have greater supporting fires. The primary counter to enemy unpredictability is maintaining a reserve. The reserve can be employed to counter enemy advances along unexpected fronts.

There are two main types of defenses, the standard, forward slope defense and the reverse slope defense. In a forward slope defense friendly forces are place in a position that affords them good fields of fire and good visibility to as many likely routes of advance as possible. Likely positions are along the crests of hills on the edges of woods. The defender can then fire at the attacker as he tries to move along the open ground in front of the position. In general, this is a good defense against infantry as the attackers forces are most vulnerable when moving in open ground, as this defense is intended to catch them doing. This defense can be setup with an ambush or fire at will drill. The advantage of fire at will is that it subjects the enemy to sustained fire for as long as possible, forcing him to take casualties as he advances. The advantage of an ambush is that is preserves the unit's stealth for as long as possible, making the unit less susceptible to suppressive fire and it maximizes the impact of the first volley of weapons at very short range. This first volley is often enough to break the opposing unit.

A reverse slope defense is set up deep within woods or on the reverse slopes of hills. The defender ambushes the attacker as he comes into view. This is best used against tanks as the terrain protects the infantry from long range HE that they can not counter and brings the tanks close enough to the defending infantry that they can be killed. In the same manner as a forward slope ambush, the first volley of the defender is quite effective as it is done at very short range. The disadvantage of this defense as opposed to a forward slope defense is that observation is greatly reduced, allowing the enemy much greater opportunity for surprise.

In either case it is vital to provide several alternate firing positions for the defending unit to fall back on. After a minute or two of firing on the attacker, the defending unit will come under heavy suppressive fires both IF and DF. Before this occurs the defender should move to an alternate position. If circumstances allow (there is enough space and the defender has enough speed) the defender should completely break contact and set up another ambush. Standing ground in the face of a determined assault is senseless and dangerous. The infantry unit should use its survivability to ensure that it can inflict more damage on the enemy.

The key to utilizing infantry effectively is to know its strengths and weaknesses. Using the stealth, firepower, survivability and maneuverability of your units to their utmost will give the commander the greatest chances for success.