Advice for Mid-War British forces vs Nazi or Soviet forces

- By Stephen Castle

British WWII armies are generally lighter gunners, lighter armoured, have smaller establishments of infantry and are a lot slower than these two opponents. Therefore, as the Duke said, “We must know our business tolerably”.

• Use maximum cover in defence and covered approaches in offensive operations.

• Fight strategically offensively but tactically defensively.

• Avoid obvious lines of greatest expectation.

• Fight on a short front but in greater depth.

• Get all the guns and mortars ‘down’ (ready to engage) on move and make sure O.P’s can see area of maximum effort.

• Move in short bounds. Walk your army forward from objective to objective. Take time to reorganise after each bound.

• Lead with your infantry infiltrating. Use the army like an amoeba – keep it concentrated.

• Hold armour back a little, use it as a fire brigade. Kill the enemy with H.E. (avoid tank vs. tank fights)

• 1. Establish one “firm base”;
  2. Move support weapons up quickly;
  3. Organise as much as possible for all units to “shoot” the next round on to the next objective.

• Move at the speed of the slowest units to avoid getting “strung out”. Move from the back of the army first, not the front.

• If enemy units (especially armour and artillery) are threatening one part of your front – organise for everyone to be directed to deal with that threat – don’t ignore the threat and carry on regardless.

• As the master said, “keep balanced” (Viscount Montgomery of Alamein). Patience wins impatience loses every time!

• Never disperse artillery fire. Choose the most threatening target and “layer” every available H.E. weapon on to it and always co-ordinate artillery fire to strike the battle’s current focus (first) before other targets.

• Consider how to section off the battlefield using smoke from the Battalion mortars to enhance cover offered by the terrain.

• Never fire directly forward always from enfilade or defilade. Use the terrain to hide the weapon from general view or lose it!

Conclusion: Better to be slow, boring and sure than to behave like Murat. Remember, the winners write the history, not the “brave”.