Timely Information
This is Steven Petrick Posting.
One of the things that is often missing from films about the military is the importance of information. Soldiers do not have radios just so their commanders can tell them where to go, they have them so they can function as the Commander's eyes and ears. Information has to go both ways. And sometimes silence can be very telling.
If you position an observation post, you want to make sure they can signal you to tell you what is going on, but you do not in general tell them "do not call me unless you see something". You want them, if at all possible, to be in regular contact. This is because it is always possible that the only information they might manage to give you is that they are "no longer reporting". If outpost #5 was supposed to report at 0715 and did not, it could be because the enemy has made sure outpost #5 is no longer reporting. And if outpost #5 was watching for the enemy to try to slip through that isolated pass on your flank . . . maybe that is what is happening and you had better react now.
The problem is that maybe outpost #5 is not reporting simply because its radio has died (Murphy is an old, old friend and likes to visit at very inconvenient times). If outpost #5 reported at 0615 (assuming you asked for hourly reports but did not want every single outpost trying to call in at the exact same time), the fact that it has not reported now may mean the enemy has an hour to exploit the situation. How critical is that hour? Hopefully not too critical, as you really want enough time to get a patrol out to find out what is happening at outpost #5 before you start moving your reserves and adjusting your fighting line to something that may be nothing at all but a bad radio.
But that was one of the things you had to consider when you set up outpost #5, i.e., if they do suddenly go silent (as opposed sending an accurate message that they have seen the enemy and are displacing or continuing to observe, or etc.). As Napoleon Bonaparte said: "Ask me for anything but time." How much time do you have? Outpost #5 did not report on time, cannot be contacted, it has been an hour since their last report and more time is passing while you are trying to learn what happened. More time for the enemy to get around your flank through that pass, less time for you to strengthen the blocking force that is probably there. (But you will call them to put them on alert, right?)
Similar thing happen when you have a detachment out and your plan depends on them attacking an enemy position to support your attack. You need them to report that they are going to be in position to attack on time, or to tell you that some circumstance has occurred to make the plan no longer operable.
Still, radios have made it a far cry from the time when whether or not a given attack is to be committed depends on "hearing" the gunfire of another attack (several battles in the American Civil War, for example, came badly unhinged when an "acoustic shadow" prevented a force from hearing that another was engaged, resulting in attacks not being made, or reinforcements not being sent to a sector under assault).
One of the things that is often missing from films about the military is the importance of information. Soldiers do not have radios just so their commanders can tell them where to go, they have them so they can function as the Commander's eyes and ears. Information has to go both ways. And sometimes silence can be very telling.
If you position an observation post, you want to make sure they can signal you to tell you what is going on, but you do not in general tell them "do not call me unless you see something". You want them, if at all possible, to be in regular contact. This is because it is always possible that the only information they might manage to give you is that they are "no longer reporting". If outpost #5 was supposed to report at 0715 and did not, it could be because the enemy has made sure outpost #5 is no longer reporting. And if outpost #5 was watching for the enemy to try to slip through that isolated pass on your flank . . . maybe that is what is happening and you had better react now.
The problem is that maybe outpost #5 is not reporting simply because its radio has died (Murphy is an old, old friend and likes to visit at very inconvenient times). If outpost #5 reported at 0615 (assuming you asked for hourly reports but did not want every single outpost trying to call in at the exact same time), the fact that it has not reported now may mean the enemy has an hour to exploit the situation. How critical is that hour? Hopefully not too critical, as you really want enough time to get a patrol out to find out what is happening at outpost #5 before you start moving your reserves and adjusting your fighting line to something that may be nothing at all but a bad radio.
But that was one of the things you had to consider when you set up outpost #5, i.e., if they do suddenly go silent (as opposed sending an accurate message that they have seen the enemy and are displacing or continuing to observe, or etc.). As Napoleon Bonaparte said: "Ask me for anything but time." How much time do you have? Outpost #5 did not report on time, cannot be contacted, it has been an hour since their last report and more time is passing while you are trying to learn what happened. More time for the enemy to get around your flank through that pass, less time for you to strengthen the blocking force that is probably there. (But you will call them to put them on alert, right?)
Similar thing happen when you have a detachment out and your plan depends on them attacking an enemy position to support your attack. You need them to report that they are going to be in position to attack on time, or to tell you that some circumstance has occurred to make the plan no longer operable.
Still, radios have made it a far cry from the time when whether or not a given attack is to be committed depends on "hearing" the gunfire of another attack (several battles in the American Civil War, for example, came badly unhinged when an "acoustic shadow" prevented a force from hearing that another was engaged, resulting in attacks not being made, or reinforcements not being sent to a sector under assault).
posted by Federation Commander at 5:00 PM
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