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Digging in


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I don't quite get why you think there is any large window required between newly won ground being taken, the guys instantly starting to dig in and consolidate as much as they can before any enemy action? They start digging in instantly to save their own lives! The author even mentions 'corporal Black? Killed by a bullet still bent over his shovel'

These guys were in a race against time to get these holes dug due to all the arty coming in and instant counter attacks.

No doubt they enlarged and improved them over night or if fixed for a day or so, but generally they dug a hasty slit trench as a matter of life or death, hence damn quickly! Pretty sure we'd all do the same in their boots.

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I don't quite get why you think there is any large window required between newly won ground being taken, the guys instantly starting to dig in and consolidate as much as they can before any enemy action? They start digging in instantly to save their own lives! The author even mentions 'corporal Black? Killed by a bullet still bent over his shovel'

These guys were in a race against time to get these holes dug due to all the arty coming in and instant counter attacks.

No doubt they enlarged and improved them over night or if fixed for a day or so, but generally they dug a hasty slit trench as a matter of life or death, hence damn quickly! Pretty sure we'd all do the same in their boots.

Perhaps yes, but the real question is how much this really applies to a CM scale scenario and whether it makes sense to spend the effort to make it inherently part of unit capability. Most CM battles are focused around taking the objective, whether their digging in on the objective took 5 minutes or 50 doesn't really matter if the scenario is already over.

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As a Bradley IFV Mech Infantry Platoon Sergeant I can state that when we did dismounted training as possible deployment as a straight infantry we practiced digging in if we were expected to be in one area for over one hour. Anything else was just a waste of effort.

It takes about a forty five minutes to an hour just to scrape out a "2 by 2 by you" (2 feet deep, 2 feet wide, the length of your body).

As far as security during the process, from each flank squad one man out front and one out on the flanks. The middle squad has 2 men out for rear security.

As soon as the squad finishes their hasty fighting positions the security is switched out. The men relieved from the security detail and their battle buddies proceed to prep a position for them and with two men it takes half the time to finish.

So under ideal conditions it takes roughly a hour and a half to dig in a whole platoon of men. Not including interruptions like enemy fire either direct or indirect.

My two cents,

Mech.Gato

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