"In my personal philosophy, the key to the best performance of a force is to use it in the right place at the right time. A standard armored reconnaissance company is characterized by excellent mobility and excellent communication equipment, so we will make full use of this to quickly find out the situation on the battlefield, focusing on the two bridges across the river! Lynn spoke in a detailed and unhurried manner, with appropriate gestures. Here, he does not see himself as a speaker or even a teacher, but from the beginning he lets everyone's train of thought follow his own rhythm - this does not change the judgment of principle, but after all, wargame deduction has a large subjective factor, and gaining a greater sense of recognition is sometimes more effective than adding a combat force on paper.

"If the bridges have not been destroyed by the defenders, we will find ways to capture them, including sending a small group of elite soldiers to control the bridge guards in enemy uniforms, and carrying out rapid raids with armoured combat vehicles and armoured personnel carriers, regardless of whether the bridge capture operation is successful or not, or the enemy defenders will blast before we cross the bridge, with one goal in mind, which is to get the armored reconnaissance company and mechanized infantry battalion to the other side of the river as quickly as possible!"

Speaking of this, Lynn stopped, and according to the pattern of wargame deduction, it was the turn of the opponent to "move".

"Our company and a platoon stayed in the villages and towns and strengthened the defenses, sent a small number of men to hold the heights and woods, and the rest of the troops, together with two anti-tank guns, were ambushed in the most suitable area for crossing the river. When the enemy forces cross the river, our troops in ambush on the west bank will rely on the terrain to block the attack, causing the enemy to suffer heavy losses when crossing the river. ”

The representative of the defending side used the phrase "heavy losses" at the end, which was a subjective preconceived judgment, and in fact the troops of less than two platoons might not be able to inflict heavy casualties on the opponent's position along the river, even if they tried their best.

Lynn thought for a moment and said: "When there is an organized defense of the enemy on the other side of the river, our side immediately puts in howitzers, heavy mortars and machine guns to suppress the fire. If it is a contest of attrition, it is worth it for our side to destroy the opponent even at the cost of a company. ”

When the defending cadets heard this, they hurriedly discussed, and then their representatives responded: "When the enemy concentrated its artillery fire, our ambush troops quickly retreated to the villages and towns with anti-tank guns, entered the defensive positions built around the villages and towns, and laid mines along the way. ”

Lynn knew that if the other party said that he had planted a mine, he would follow the detour, which would give people the feeling of opportunism. Therefore, he said very generously: "Because the enemy has planted a large number of mines on the road that our side must pass, we have lost some armored vehicles at the beginning, so we have to slow down the speed of mine detection by sappers, and divide the armored reconnaissance company into a number of small units to avoid the fire reconnaissance on the west bank of the river; Get in touch with your superiors to see if they can provide some reconnaissance intelligence for the Air Force. Combined, it can be basically judged that the enemy has a small number of troops stationed on the highlands and wooded areas, and the main forces are concentrated around villages and towns. Requests for air support from superiors and orders the baggage troops to concentrate on sending smoke launchers and smoke grenades across the river as quickly as possible. ”

The attacking side deployed a lot of troops, and the five students of the defending side got together for a relatively long time to discuss this time, and Lynn still stood on the podium confidently, only occasionally turning back to exchange glances with his companions, and most of the time he was scanning the students in the audience. Before I entered the officer class, these were unfamiliar faces, but with a fellow classmate, I will be an important network resource in the future.

After the discussion was settled, the defending cadets were announced by their representatives: "Taking advantage of the time when the enemy's advance was blocked, we have strengthened the defensive positions of the villages and towns, and laid out minefields on important sections of the roads on all sides of the villages and towns, and used up all the mines that could be used in the field." ”

After a little thought, Lynn said: "Because of the clearing of mines, our troops did consume some time on the road, and the reconnaissance troops just took this opportunity to find out the enemy's deployment on the west bank, and the intelligence and support that the superiors could provide also arrived at this time, our two companies with the strongest combat effectiveness and howitzer and mortar fire as support, in one fell swoop captured the southern flank high ground only 47 meters above the flat ground, and from here launched a tentative artillery bombardment on the villages and towns, and preliminarily judged the configuration of the enemy's fortifications. At the same time, the armored reconnaissance company was ordered to cut off the main road to the rear of the defenders with the strength of a platoon. ”

Although more than half of the troops were sent to ambush along the river at the beginning, by this time, the defensive side's combat strategy was no different from that of the cadet group that had won the first two rounds. Their representative said calmly: "Except for a small number of troops who took advantage of the terrain to conceal themselves and waited for an opportunity to attack the enemy's supply lines, the rest of our fighters concentrated on the village and town defense lines for resolute defense. With enough ammunition stored in advance, we were able to hold out for a long time even if the enemy cut us off from the rear. ”

Then it was Lynn's turn to "play chess", he walked quickly to the blackboard, pointed to the line representing the village and the surrounding defense line, and said loudly: "As we all know, ring defense requires the dispersion of troops on all sides, and a limited number of mines can only lay a limited minefield. Our troops took advantage of their mechanized superiority to carry out rapid maneuvers outside the effective range of the enemy's anti-tank guns, so that the enemy could not distinguish the real direction of our attack. After the smoke launchers and smoke grenades arrived, we chose the southeast corner of the village and town -- or the southwest or northeast corner, depending on the actual situation, to create a smoke screen with smoke grenades to interfere with the enemy's anti-tank artillery and machine gun fire, and it would be better if the higher authorities could coordinate air support. For the first hour, we cast a smoke screen every half an hour, and at the same time carried out artillery bombardment and a limited attack, and it was the mines laid by the enemy that could really cause us problems, but after two probes, we had a rough idea of the minefield, and the enemy could no longer make up the minefield because of our artillery bombardment. ”

Inspired by the classic battle in a small town in East Prussia where you witnessed your own armored forces winning more with less, the barrage cover is simple and authentic - normally, German tanks and artillery will be equipped with a certain number of smoke grenades, and the grassroots troops will probably be equipped with six-barreled smoke launchers, which will be more efficient in creating smoke screens.

After on-site discussion, Lynn's response from the defender's representative made Lynn feel sincerely disappointed, because they still only blindly emphasized "perseverance" and "mobilization" in this situation, but the conditions they relied on to stick to had been stripped away by Lynn layer by layer.

It was time to give the other side the final blow, Lynn left the blackboard and walked to the podium: "For the third attack an hour later, we are still creating a smoke screen in front of the enemy position, the artillery is still shelling the enemy position and the town, and a small number of troops from the armored reconnaissance company will interfere from the corresponding direction, the mechanized infantry battalion is fully concentrated, and the smoke screen cover is used to carry out the fastest attack, even if the armored vehicles are blocked, the infantry will attack and advance desperately after getting out of the vehicle, and mortars, machine guns and machine guns will also carry out suppressive fire at any cost!" ”

"We ......"

The student representative of the defending side wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Barn Finger's applause, and saw the general-level instructor with several scars on his face walking towards the podium: "In actual combat, the attacking side has a great chance of winning this battle, and it is very likely to take the villages and towns with small losses, so as to successfully achieve the follow-up outpost mission." Lynn. Second Lieutenant Gargo, I would like to know how you would respond to such an attack from the enemy if you were to be the commander of the defenses. ”

This is a question of attacking one's own shield with one's own spear, Lynn thought for a moment and replied: "If it is at the last moment, I am afraid that the only way to defend this road is to rely on the village and town buildings, and if it is evacuated, the infantry who have lost their positions will be easily severely damaged or even annihilated by the enemy with mechanized equipment." But...... If I were the commander of the defending side, I wouldn't have chosen this passive defense in the first place! ”

"Tell me about it!" Barn Finger stepped up to the podium and then stood in front of Lynn, surveying the first-day student before turning to face the audience, essentially standing side by side with Lynn.

The wargames were over, and Lynn boasted irresponsiblely: "In my understanding, woods, mountains, rivers, and bridges are all tools worthy of attention and use on the battlefield. You may have just overlooked one point: the combat value of a bridgehead is often not inferior to that of ordinary villages and towns. If our army has the strength to counterattack and the plan to counterattack, then it is likely that the higher authorities will keep at least one of the two bridges, and my forces are very limited, then I will order the one at the far end to be blown up, leave a combat squad with a radio station to lurk in the woods that can monitor that area, and then deploy the main force of the company around this bridge closer to the village and town, build bridgehead defensive positions at both the east and west ends of it, deploy two anti-tank guns on the west bank, properly build artillery bunkers and camouflage them. For the enemy, who aim to advance quickly, it is obviously more convenient to seize the bridge than to cross the river, so if the bridge is not blown up for a moment, they will try to seize it, but they do not have heavy tanks, and it is difficult to play the advantage of troops in the battle of attacking the bridgehead, and the armored vehicles will also be buried under the guns of our anti-tank guns in round after round of attacks. Even if we lose the bridgehead on the east bank in the battle, we can still rely on the west bank to defend until we cover the withdrawal of the main forces, and then calmly retreat with mine delay tactics. ”

Lynn's voice fell, and the classroom fell silent, and the students no longer exchanged heads, but thoughtfully pondered the combat modes listed by the newcomer one by one. Before coming to the "shelter", they were all sergeant ranks, and there was no lack of combat experience, but in the vast majority of cases, the non-commissioned officers were only responsible for the implementation of combat orders, thinking about how to complete the task well, and rarely had the opportunity to make decisions alone or even plan the overall situation. The change of habitual thinking often requires a long and gradual process. As for Lynn, not only did he have decades of knowledge, but he also spent years discussing strategic and tactical issues irresponsibly as a military fan, and he served in the command of the "Vampire" commando for a period of time, such an innate advantage was incomparable to other cadets.

(To be continued)