Rommel quickly observed that the new section of the line had not been molested by German artillery and appeared to be unmanned. The common tactic of the war was a preemptive artillery bombardment prior to any major assault by ground troops. With this knowledge, Rommel assumed that the new enemy positions did not have a clue to his detachments proximity to their lines and noted that the situation presented was reminiscent of the early stages of the assault on Mount Cosna. Rommel now had the tactical advantage of surprise and did not want to waste this opportunity and placed his machine guns and infantry without raising the suspicion of the enemy. With his unit ready to conducted a frontal assault, Rommel noticed a hidden path leading towards the enemy line. Instead of risking an engagement with a fortified enemy with a frontal assault, Rommel decided to send a small assault party of eight troops to try in infiltrate the enemy position. As a leader he had complete trust in his units ability to complete the mission of taking the enemy positions without shots being fired. He gave this very order to the eight men and they successfully took a fixed position without a shot being fired. With the mission success, Rommel’s decision to not use the common tactic of a frontal assault saved lives of on both sides that would have been lost. Rommel successfully broke through the second defense line and this time without firing a shot. The Rommel detachment poured through the secured
Major General Lord Cornwallis beat Major General Gates and The American Revolutionary Army in Camden. His intention was to invade North Carolina and Virginia. Major Furguson had an outpost to the west of the British Army. He had a small force of riflemen and a larger amount of Tory Milta.
The battle of King’s Mountain is the topic that I have chosen. The battle was between the Patriots and the Loyalists. The Patriot’s militia was called the Green Mountain Boys and the Loyalist’s militia was the Hessians. The war happened in King’s Mountain, South Carolina on October 7, 1780. This battle was a great triumph for the American Patriots. That area was the death of the British militia leader Patrick Ferguson.
“Commanders direct all aspects of operations by establishing their commander’s intent, setting achievable objectives, and issuing clear tasks to subordinate units.” During the battle, McClellan personally “directed the actions of his generals from his headquarters, two and one-half miles from the front lines, visiting the field only once.” McClellan issued orders to his generals through couriers and flag signals; in addition, kept apprised of the action by telescope even though parts of the battle were not visible. This distancing potentially clouded his judgment, reducing his ability to achieve success. Since McClellan did not consult with his generals about his operations process, due to the lack of trust, there was no coordination between the McClellan’s adjacent
General Pershing, in command of the U.S. 1st Army, set the rail line near Sedan, France as the main objective. This was a vital supply route for German forces (Stewart, 2005), and the direction of attack to the north of the front line through the Argonne Forest would expose the flank of German forces being attacked by the French from the west. Support for the American forces consisted of over 800 aircraft, nearly 190 tanks, and approximately 2,700 pieces of artillery, and over 600,000 men (Stewart, 2005).
The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir was a pivotal battle in the Korean War. The battle was a brutal 17 day fight in bitterly cold weather fought from 27 November to 13 December 1950. [1] During the battle the United States X Corps was attacked by the Chinese 9th Army in the vicinity of the Chosin reservoir. The Chinese forces quickly surrounded the US troops and forced them to fight a retrograde attack in order to fight their way out to friendly lines to the south. Due to poor Chinese intelligence on UN forces and logistical shortcomings the UN forces were able to evade total annihilation and were able to retreat to safety with the majority of their men and equipment intact.
and consisted of 16,500 IX Corps Union soldiers and approximately 9,500 Confederate soldiers.1 Ambrose E. Burnside lead the IX Corps soldiers but
In one of the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army, with just over 600,000 Soldiers involved, it was very difficult to place any location or unit ahead of another in order of importance. The reality is that two crucial stands on the front line are what doomed the German attacks to complete
3000 guns were used to fire 4.25 million bullets and many bombs were set off, this was a mistake because it made the battlefield harder to fight on, and it informed the Germans that an attack was coming, giving them time to prepare. As Britain’s second army seized Messines ridge led by General Sir Herbert Plumer, which signaled that Britain could engage at Passchendaele allowed Germany to prepare themselves even more. This is because 6 weeks passed between the win at Messines and the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele.Since the Germans found out about the battle coming soon, they prepared. Germany’s Field Marshal Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht devised a defense strategy where concrete pillboxes that protected against bombardment were placed in front of the german line. These pillboxes were protected by machine gunners so that the British could not approach the Germans, allowing them to concentrate on other
could not assault these positions due to foliage and inability to see the trench lines the enemy had
The deployment of Field Artillery has been the deciding factor in almost every major conflict since the inception of Field Artillery. The Battle of Pea Ridge is no different. This conflict serves as a perfect example of how the proper use of terrain and well-placed artillery can alter the course of battle. Despite overwhelming opposition, the Union Army was not only able to stop the advancement of enemy troops but forced their retreat.
This paper will examine the British and American Southern Loyalist defeat in the Battle of Kings Mountain and discuss the assumptions the British made including loyalist support, logistic support, and terrain advantage.
On 17 December, 1944, five German divisions were able to push through the VIII Corps’ defensive line 100 miles east of Bastogne nullifying
Sadly, their weapons did not have the ability to cut all the wire and destroy deep German trenches or knock out all enemy guns. It also could not provide a useful bombardment for the infantry attack. On July 1, the artillery drifted away from the German front trenches and left the infantry unattended. Nobody was
at German lines which scattered the very land that the allies needed to storm with
To avoid being flanked, I ordered my companies to side-step paces to the left and Companies A, H, C, G, and the F, the Colors Company to refuse to the left at a right angle, doubling the original regimental front . Although our maneuver led to a single rank in some places, it did not allow for a gap between the right-wing companies and the refused left wing companies . Our men also piled a few rocks from boulder to boulder and concealed behind them. When the 15th Alabama first appeared from the northeast, they were surprised by our concealed positions and staggered back among the rocks and low trees in the valleys after initial intense volume of fire from our refused companies. In spite of this, the 15th Alabama pushed back again and again and during some moments, they were merely a dozen yards away. Left Companies C and G were pushed back and upward by pressure from the right companies of the 15th Alabama . Over a ninety-minute period, the companies of the right wing of the 15th Alabama made a series of five attacks against the five companies of the refused left wing of the 20th Maine which under the command of Major Spears . Small squads of the 15th broke through the lines of the 20th with hand-to-hand fighting but each time, we counterattacked and as a result, the line of fighting forged back and forth up and down the hillside. The fighting was so severe and there were dead and wounded in our front and in our