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Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull
It also goes to show that not all Reserve/National Guard Officers and their staff think "inside the box" as most in the Regular Army have been taught. As with many modern battlefield it not the General and his Staff that win the battle, it some Team Leader, Squad Leader, Platoon Leader, Company Commander, and/or Battalion Commander/XO/S-3 that happens to be Johnny on the spot and makes a decision that their opponent hadn't account for. By the time they realize they are in trouble it way too late.
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Don't know about thinking inside the box, but there are several units (the armored cav regts especially) that were trained to "wing it" as necessary. We were always taught that the doctrine was just a base and that the units had to key off of the individual track commander, if necessary. In several REFORGERS, for example, the 2nd ACR was famous for its end runs as well as its ability to find that special weak spot. We had scout tracks launching what turned out to be a regimental-sized attack just because they found a gap that the OPFOR wasn't watching. Regulars blindly following doctrine....not in any unit that I served in!
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In modern Mechanized/Armor/Motorized warfare as we have seen these days it takes only little incidents like these to change things. In WWII there was this minor attack that led to the Battle of the Bulge. In which the German main attack had happen to strike at a point of the battle field that was held by green US Division that broke with none to little resistance against a force that no one was expecting to strike there.
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Hmmm, first time I've every heard of a minor attack launching the BoB?!?! I study/read about the BoB and I've walked most of the ground that was fought over. The Germans went into the fight knowing that they were going to hit a thinly held sector, held by a mix of green and worn-out troops. Fifth Panzer Armee's attack was actually modified from Hitler's plan to take advantage of just how thinly the 28th Division held the front. As for the 106th...the main attack was keyed for the Lorsheim Gap, a major avenue of approach into St. Vith that was held by a single cavalry squadron with an attached battery of towed tank destroyers. Seeing that the Germans threw in a Fallschrimjager Division...the cav tried but failed to hold the line.