CO's Study of a Flanking Manoeuver: Rolling Thunder Oct 20

[E-Male]

CO Study of High Risk Flanking Manoeuver

The following should be read in conjunction with CO's Screen Video of Rolling Thunder Oct 20 available at:

http://www.tacticalsites.com/~e-male/

There was a lot of interesting action in this round. Note to SL of squad five, twice Windmills flag was lost due to not keeping men on the flag and watching your rear flank. You did great work regaining the flag, but keep an eye on your flanks and ALWAYS leave a fire team on the flag.

I will leave the explanation of the battle senerio to the CO Screen video itself and limit my comments here to an explanation of a successful flanking exercise. I have edited the video so that it starts two minutes before the operation described below.

My intent here is display the tactic and demonstrate the SL's vital role in using an indirect approach to the target and then maintain a spawn point well back from the enemy's position while a fire team advances on the enemy flag.

A few minutes prior to the move out order, CO contacted the squad leader of squad four, 1stMIP JohnC and explained the operation. CO contacted SL3 at the forward position (Train Yard) to explain need to keep enemy engaged at the bridge.

The following operation was executed by Squad 4 under the command of 1stMIP JohnC (hereafter SL4).

CO provided SL4 with a target spot to move to at 23:40. Initial move-to target was West side of river at waterfalls, North of Train Yard.

23:00 SL4 was moving out of Village on foot heading North East to river below Train Yard, to pick up light jeep at the boat docks. Our forces held Train Yard throughout this operation.

This movement occured via two fireteams of squad four -- a brilliant move by 1stMIP JohnC. Note that at 22:58 a jeep is moving South out of the Lumbermill UCB. Follow the jeep as it makes its way to the marked spot North at rivers edge, dropping three men off, who then make their way across the river to secure the Eastern bank.

Meanwhile at 21:22 SL4 is in light jeep at boat docks and moving North West.

19:31 SL4 and all squad members are in place on Eastern bank of river. CO provided spotting service to confirm that the river was secure for SL's passage. CO spotting services continued to provide intell on forward positions which were then marked on the map.

19:58 CO provides first move-to spot East of enemy flag after verifying area via zoom.

NOTE: SL4 used two fireteams to take the flag, one stayed with the SL while a team of three executed the following attacks:

18:46 initial move-out by fireteam fails, but SL4 is secure at river's edge.

18:28 second move-to spot provided, this time North of enemy flag. Fireteam moves out, flanks East of flag, captures tank, then flag.

17:01 Farm flag captured -- operation a sucess.

Total time elpased: six minutes

Comments:

CO did not specify HOW to move to flag (aside from using a Western approach). CO did not specify use of two fire teams.

By dividing the squad into two fireteams the SL was able to send one out in light jeep in advance of the SL and second fireteam. The first fireteam secured the move-to spot and scouted out the opposite bank.

This was a high risk operation, as I put Village at risk of enemy capture.

I selected 1stMIP JohnC to do execute the operation as I knew he is skilled at flanking, the use of two fireteams, and uses extreme caution to stay alive as SL when attacking a flag.

Note also that I provided SL JohnC with apporx two minutes warning of the move-out order. This may have allowed JohnC to plan his approach and send a fireteam out in adnace while he moved out on foot (JohnC -- any comments on this?).

I believe all SLs could benefit from studying this operation.

E-Male

[RocketPunch]

E-male this is awesome!

[Dick Blonov]

Great! Thanks for sharing!

DB

[John CANavar]

Thanks for sharing this sir. It is great to be able see our movements and flow of operation after the battle.

Without a great CO like you, able sergeant like Drunk and disciplined soldiers whose names are mentioned in my AAR, this op wouldnt succeed.

It is pure pleasure to play the game with guys like you all who know what teamwork and discipline really mean. In these last couple of nights, I played with people I had never had a chance to play before and all of them (except one) put a sincere effort to understand and use the procedures we were trying to apply. That's all I could ask for; a sincere effort to follow directions...

Originally Posted by E-Male

Note also that I provided SL JohnC with apporx two minutes warning of the move-out order. This may have allowed JohnC to plan his approach and send a fireteam out in adnace while he moved out on foot (JohnC -- any comments on this?).

That helps tremendously E-Male. Gives some time to think about waypoints to objective and work out transportation issue.