1966 US Army Vietnam War ARMOR ... - Survival Books

WWW.SURVIVALEBOOKS.COMCHAPTER 6THE OFFENSESection I.CONSIDERATION OF THE OFFENSE110. Doctrine of the Offense For a detailed discussion of guerrilla warfareoperations, see FMa. Armor units31-21 and FM 31-20.employ firepower and maneuverin the attack to dominate, neutralize, ordestroy enemy forces; to control terrain; or to111. Fundamentals of Offensive Actiondisrupt enemy rear areas. Armor plans boldlyand thoroughly and attacks aggressively anda. Armor units participate in offensiveoperations by attacking with fire and maneuver.violently to gain maximum shock effect in de- Fire and maneuver are accomplished by a basestroying the enemy, including his materiel and of tire and a maneuver force.will to resist. This violence contributes to suc- (1) Base of fire.cess by weakening the enemy to the pointwhere he can no longer resist effectively.(a) Mission. The base of fire pins theenemy to the ground and neutralb.Current trends in military tactics tend to izes his weapons, thereby permitmovemore and more into the tridimensionalting freedom of action by the mabattlefield.In modern warfare, the airspaceneuver force. The base of fireover the combat zone must be considered an-normally does not close on the obotherdimension of the ground commander'sjective.sphere of action. The armor commander must (b) Composition. The base of fire mayemploy air cavalry, Army aviation, Air Forceconsist of mortars, attached antitacticalaircraft, and Army air artillery de-tank weapons, supporting artillery,fense not only to seize the objective andtactical air, and naval gunfire.further extend his sphere of influence but alsoTanks and air cavalry normally areto protect his attacking force from the effectsnot included in the base of fire beofan aerial counterattack.cause this role does not take maximumadvantage of their characc.Friendly guerrilla forces directed by U.S.teristics.teristics.However,However,whenwhennecessary,necessary,Army Special Forces may be encountered duringoffensive operations. These lightly armedrarily support by fire the other eleunitsnormally will have detailed knowledge ofthe terrain and enemy dispositions in theirments of the maneuvering force.areas. While not organized or equipped for sus- (c) Employment.tained infantry combat, they may be utilized to1. The base of fire should be assignedproduce immediate effects against enemy corn-specific targets and target areasbat forces and reinforcement capabilities, andon which to fire during the adtooccupy key terrain for short periods of time.vance of the maneuver force,An understanding of their capabilities and lim-during the assault, and duringitations is necessary to achieve maximumcontinuation of the attack or thebenefit from the employment of guerrilla consolidation of the objective.forces in conjunction with armor operations.Signals for lifting or shifting63