It really is a commander's worst nightmare, you get a influx of green-as-grass replacements, your brigade is committed to heavy fighting an the line units have taken a mauling...do you use the replacements to bring the reserve up to strength and then rotate a mauled battalion out of the line, or do you parcel out the FNGs, knowing that most of them won't make it their first week.
When I was still in service, my time was split in between tanks and scouts, I know that tank crews were trained to operate with a minimum of three men, but the effectiveness of the crew in that case was down almost 30%. Toss in a brand new loader and the average crew as down to 50%. The scouts could operate short 2-3 men in the sections and were a lot more effective.
To think of a infantry company, understrength by 30%....ouch!
|