An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir May / June 2025 www.military.ie/magazine www.military www.military A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PLATOON ATTACK INTRODUCTION I n modern warfare, a nation's efforts to raise, equip, and prepare its army for combat arguably tend to focus on one outcome: "to enable a platoon of riflemen to assault a clump of trees, a hillside, a pillbox or a city block."¹ While a stand-alone platoon attack is unlikely to be decisive in isolation, the cumulative effect of hundreds of such actions makes the difference between victory and defeat.² Occupying the thin end of the wedge of a larger formation, an infantry platoon's actions occur at the point where higher-level plans meet the enemy in close combat.³ Regardless of the size of an operation, be it a hasty light infantry company attack or a deliberate armoured brigade assault incorporating fire and air support, the infantry rifle platoon is the core of the offensive action. Whatever means by which an infantry platoon may enter the battlespace (armoured personnel carrier, infantry fighting vehicle, helicopter, etc.), they must be able to fight on their feet;⁴ thus, the light infantry platoon attack remains a critical capability that must be routinely practised. This September, driven by the Director of Training and Education, the Infantry Platoon Attack Competition will take place in the Glen of Imaal after a long hiatus. School Commandant of The Infantry School and Director of Infantry, Col Seán Ó Fátharta, is very happy to support the competition and the infantry battalions' efforts to develop the core tactical skills of our young soldiers. Paraphrasing General Sir Miles Dempsey's (Commander of the British XIII Corps during World War II) formula for success in battle, Colonel Ó Fátharta points to what the competing platoons will require for success: "You take your training seriously, you are well disciplined, you are physically fit, you are confident in your ability, you plan carefully, and you have the right spirit."⁵ With all that in mind, this article examines the origins of the light infantry platoon attack, its utility as a vehicle for leadership and command training in the Irish Army, and the history of the Platoon Attack Competition. ORIGINS OF THE PLATOON ATTACK Infantry platoon attacks are simple manoeuvres that require minimal coordination.⁶ Whether hasty or deliberate, they typically take the following format. One section suppresses the enemy with a heavy weight of rifle and machine gun fire, while another section uses all available cover to manoeuvre close to the enemy and then assault using grenades, rifles, and bayonets. The remaining third section is kept in reserve until launched to assault enemy depth positions. The platoon then repeats this cycle until the unit or formation secures its objectives. The origins of this basic tactic are found in the First World War's Western Front, where the deadlock of positional, trench warfare rendered close-order tactics typical of the previous century obsolete. Thanks to increasingly accurate artillery and the proliferation of the machine gun, frontal assaults were proving too costly. Thus, new tactics to close with the enemy using cover and then attack an assailable weak point were born. As is often the case during war, industrious commanders were experimenting long before the arrival of formalised doctrine. Innovative junior leaders strove to leverage the capabilities of new and improving weapons while learning to protect against those of their enemy. This ultimately took the form of tactics that favoured suppressing enemy positions before manoeuvring close enough to assault them. Doctrine finally caught up with practice in the latter two years of the war. A new British Army training pamphlet published in 1917 emphasised the role of the platoon in offensive operations and outlined techniques for two types of platoon attack: "trench-to-trench attack" and "attack in open warfare."⁷ As historian and former British infantry officer Jim Storr summarises: "By late 1917 it had developed into a simple drill. One section would attempt to suppress the enemy. That might have been machine gun fire, using the new Lewis light machine guns [LMG]. . . The Platoon commander would lead the rest of the platoon around the enemy's flank, and then lead it into the attack from there."⁸ By the end of the First World War, the platoon had established itself as the basic tactical unit whose three to four sections supported each other's advances by fire, which historian Anthony King refers to as a "seminal, historical moment in infantry techniques."⁹ The British were not alone in this shift to small-unit tactics. In his influential 1935 work, Infantry Attacks, Erwin Rommel recounts how, as a young platoon commander in 1914, he conducted a platoon attack in the small French farming town of Bleid. Rommel's description of the event demonstrates an understanding of platoon tactics that became more prevalent later in the war: "My attack plan was to open fire on the enemy on the ground floor . . . with the 2nd Section and go around the building to the right with the 1st Section and take it by assault."10 10 | ARTICLE BY LT COL GAVIN EGERTON 2019 Infantry Platoon Sergeants Course LFTT Platoon Attack All Arms Standard NCO Course Platoon Attack Training

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