Tactical Decision Game #97-3 Solution B
Tactical Decision Game Solution #97-3 B March 1997
Meeting at 'The Mounds'
by Maj Mark H. Bean
View a map of the solution
Squad Leader's Orders
"Squad: Break contact left. We're going to flank them on the left, cross the stream, and get in behind them. Follow me!" Spot Report to Platoon Commander:
Contact front; enemy in streambed. I am breaking contact to flank deep left across the stream and get behind them."
Explanation
My squad has been tasked to maneuver to fix the enemy so they can't escape. I'm faced with an enemy who likes to bring fires to bear, establish a fixing force, and then maneuver to assault a flank. I'm not going to play his game. I choose to break contact and use speed to get in behind him while he is still trying to adjust fires, give orders, and maneuver on me. There's good cover and concealment to my left so I go that way. I know that I've got the whole company behind me so I don't waste any of my combat power by continuing to fire at the enemy. There will be plenty of Marines here in a couple of minutes to do that for me.
I don't know what exactly will develop from my actions, but I accept that uncertainty to seize a fleeting opportunity that seems to be presenting itself in the initial moments of this contact. If I can orient, decide, and act faster than the guy across the stream, I might be able to seize the initiative and create some conditions that either my platoon or company can exploit. In short, I opt for a response that puts pure maneuver warfare theory to the test.
For more detailed information on the structure
of Marine Corps units, Marine Corps equipment, and
symbols used in Tactical Decision Game sketches, see
Marine Corps Gazette, October 1994,
pp. 53-56 and the modification reported in the
January, 1995, edition on page 5.
