Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad - Sakai

Fundamentals of Tactics
Figure 1-9. Reinforcing effects.
Effective Leaders Confront the Enemy with Dilemmas, Not Problems
1-106. Leaders always seek to present the enemy with a dilemma, not just with problems. There are many
ways to do this including, using combinations of weapons, different types of units, tactics, and terrain.
1-107. In Figure 1-10 a moving enemy Infantry force makes contact with a stationary friendly Infantry
force. There is an exchange of direct fire weapons. The direct fire contact poses a problem to which there is
a solution. The universal reaction to direct fire contact is to get down and return fire. Once the situation
develops, the direct fire effects, by themselves, tend to diminish as the enemy gets behind frontal cover and
returns direct fire.
1-108. Instead of making contact with direct fire, the friendly force may call for indirect fire. This, too,
poses a problem that can be solved with a solution. The universal reaction to indirect fire is for the
receiving unit to move out of the indirect fire burst radius. Once again, as the situation develops, the
indirect fire effects, by themselves, tend to diminish as the enemy moves out of the burst radius to an area
with overhead cover.
1-109. Regardless of how lethal the effects of either direct fire or indirect fire are, by themselves they
only pose problems that have solutions as their effects tend to diminish. Suppose the friendly force makes
contact using both direct and indirect fire systems. What can the enemy do? He has a dilemma—if he gets
up he gets shot, but if he stays down, he gets blown up. The enemy’s dilemma results from the
complementary effects of direct and indirect fire. This is the essence of combined arms warfare.
28 March 2007 FM 3-21.8 1-23