Re: Historical Company Level Cross Attachment?
Did some rummaging around in my 'library' and found what I was thinking of. In the case of a Motorized Rifle Division in a 'typical march' formation in circumstance where hostile contact was possible, the late Soviet Army doctrine called for an "Advance Guard" to head the march. This would be composed of:
1) Combat Reconnaissance Patrol
* Motorized Rifle Platoon + chemical/radiological & engineer assets
2) Advance Party
* Motorized Rifle Company + Tank Plt + AT Det + Arty Btry + Eng Det +
chemical/radiological Det
3) Advance Guard Main Force
* the rest of the battalion
4) Rear Party
* a Motorized Rifle Platoon
It was the Advanced Party that I was remembering as being a company-sized combined arms team of a non-US army.
Having read that much of the later soviet military doctrine was based on a close study and sometimes imitation of WW2 German doctrine, I went looking to see if the Germans had done something similar. They had. In Wolfgang Schneider's Panzer Tactics, page 93, I found support for my suspicion. Although not as clearly expressed as I would have like (odd coming from a German officer-however I am working from a translation and sometimes translators get their pronouns confused), it was stated that the Germans on the march employed a Advance Guard (Vorhut) and a Leading Company (SpitzenKompanie) serving as advance guard support. The SpitzenKompanie would always be supported by attached engineer troops and self-propelled artillery with PanzerGrenadiere and recon troops frequently also assigned.
So there you have it, a historical example of an intentional German combined arms company-sized unit. Now I plan to take liberties and setup a combined arms company reinforced that is armour heavy, but at least I'm not being totally anachronistic.
I must admit that having just received the book I have not read it completely, but a skimming does not seem to refer to a combining of armour and infantry below the homogeneous company in the tactics discussed, which I find a bit surprising. Need to read more.
|