Now for the other side of the hill, the British. The basic source I am using here is the British official history fro the Battle of Cambrai as well as Paddy Griffith's book "Battle Tactics on the Western Front".
The division has three brigades each of four battalions and at Cambrai was attacking on frontage of about 2000 meters with two to three brigades in the line. The brigade itself would attack with two battalions in the first echelon and one each in a second and third echelon. The first echelon battalions would have two distinct functions half the battalion would be supporting the tanks while the other half would become the trench garrison or stops. The second echelon battalion would appear to act as support for the first echelon battalions rather than have a distinct mission of its own.
A British platoon at this time has four squads, two machine gun each with a Lewis Gun and two rifle grenade. This gives a company a RoF of 4 of which two can be indirect. The lack of LMG's for each platoon will for the moment at least means that the battalion deploys only company stands and not platoon.
Brigade headquarters
Next is to allow for Tank-infantry teams to be formed. This would allow for the increased co-operation which is said to have occurred at Cambrai except for the 51st Highland Division.Needs more research first as I think some modern research is challenging
Finally the use of one battalion as porters does open up the possibility of using the ammunition rules. Warfare on the Western front would normally not require any ammunition rules as there is no shortages of ammunition worth worrying about. What you do have is a difficulty in moving it forward to the front line troops. Hence only the attacker has to worry about supplies and only for those troops who cross no mans land.
That's it for the moment, time to paint up some figures and build more trenches.
The division has three brigades each of four battalions and at Cambrai was attacking on frontage of about 2000 meters with two to three brigades in the line. The brigade itself would attack with two battalions in the first echelon and one each in a second and third echelon. The first echelon battalions would have two distinct functions half the battalion would be supporting the tanks while the other half would become the trench garrison or stops. The second echelon battalion would appear to act as support for the first echelon battalions rather than have a distinct mission of its own.
A British platoon at this time has four squads, two machine gun each with a Lewis Gun and two rifle grenade. This gives a company a RoF of 4 of which two can be indirect. The lack of LMG's for each platoon will for the moment at least means that the battalion deploys only company stands and not platoon.
Brigade headquarters
- 1x Command stand
- 1x Command stand
- 4x Company stands
- 1x Command stand?
- 2x 3" stokes mortars
- 1x Command stand?
- 4x Vickers MMG's
Next is to allow for Tank-infantry teams to be formed. This would allow for the increased co-operation which is said to have occurred at Cambrai except for the 51st Highland Division.Needs more research first as I think some modern research is challenging
Finally the use of one battalion as porters does open up the possibility of using the ammunition rules. Warfare on the Western front would normally not require any ammunition rules as there is no shortages of ammunition worth worrying about. What you do have is a difficulty in moving it forward to the front line troops. Hence only the attacker has to worry about supplies and only for those troops who cross no mans land.
That's it for the moment, time to paint up some figures and build more trenches.
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