manual for commanders of infantry platoons. - US Army Combined ...

MABNUA L FORP COMMAN~ DERS OF INFANTRY PLATOONS. 193
missible to~occupy constantly a continuous line. FinallyS, to!this
purrely dlefensive orgalnizaxtion must be adldedl all of the necess~ary
ranrem~n glents f-or maing.u azn offensive upon p~art of t~he -fronit.
It recsullts front)1 this thaCt;the orgaizaCZi~tionb of a sector-, th7ere:fore,
lin ach;CI par.1ticuZlarC:-Cisa as probl"0em7 df2ependling upon01 the3 m~.iitqry'1
s~ituantion andzc upon01 the terrai~niz (Fii~nders, 'Champagne, .the
Ylos~i'e;x,etc.). It .alsos dep~ends upgon the weather andithe amount;
of lazbor· andt k~ind andt amount of material azvailable.. .The
prinlci])les wrhich followr are th~ose wrhich wrouldi gov~ern in. the
dbefensive organization' of a position under the conditions xusully
found.
A / ~t /
Flo. 163.
It. It is unnelcessary to have a continuzouls %lneof fire, pr~ovlcled
the terranl · in front is comlpletecly swept by fir~eeither fromt' th1e
]1'roat 031 f;.'oai thle flankz, or, better still, fro~nt both ~fronzt anld
fhiuih·. Tlhe line w~ith inztervals w~ill generally be the r·ule. Figure!
163 show~s how a portion of the terrain maty be entirelyr
swept, either by a continulous line of fire AD or by a'line with
intervals comnposed of the eleiueats T, T1, T2 .
2. Ia a line wvithi intervals it is, h1owTever.,essential that the
obstaele be con7tinuzou~s andl, mloreover, that the intervals app~ear
to the enemy inst like· the parcts that are adjacent (fortifie~d),
in order· that the enemy mnay not be able to matke out our'plaln of
occupying :the p~osition. Fior this r'eason join up 'the trenches
and' strong points by means of dummy trenches and zigzags.
1i6-1713-l7 -7
/