1. Distribute sheets containing situation No. 2. Read and explain. Point out boundaries of area assigned to the platoon and indicate positions assigned to machine gun and special weapons. Mark with flags if practicable.
2. Question as to whether platoon should be brought up now; nothing for men to do yet; no necessity for exposing them. Have platoon sergeant, section leaders, and platoon and section guides report at once. Leave platoon in charge of one section guide.
3. Size up situation. Determine upon dispositions, component parts of combat group, methods of deploying a platoon. Decide to deploy sections side by side. Outguards.
4. Factors that govern selection of position; field of fire to front; mutual support with adjoining units. Front that platoon may cover. Depth of section area.
5. Have class go over ground and decide on dispositions. Allotment of sections to platoon area. Location of C. P. observation and communication.
6. Question of intrenching tools and wire for obstacles. Platoon sergeant to company commander about tools and wire.
7. The order. Information of enemy and own troops. Plan: Platoon to organize and hold front from —— to ——. Orders for each section. Supply outguards. Make orders short. Little detail. Let every man work out his own salvation.
8. Explanation: Visualize what is happening. Section leaders and guides go to section area; dope out situation and decide on disposition. Platoon commander sends platoon sergeant to see about tools and wire, then joins section leaders on the line.
The class will be conducted to the area assigned to the 2nd section of the platoon.
You, Sergeant K, commanding the 2nd section, have been ordered to organize and hold the front from —— (indicate) to —— (indicate).
The section is to connect up and cooperate with the 2nd platoon on the left.
Your section is to furnish its own outguards along the general line —— (indicate).
_The Director_: “While it is not expected that any member of the class will ever be called upon to command a section of Infantry, it is nevertheless important for you to know what happens when you issue an order which requires the action of a section leader.
“Let us visualize this situation. Let us consider ourselves as being Sergeant K. He is the fellow that all the orders finally get down to and the one that has to do the real job out here on the line. You hear the claims of certain staff corps, from time to time, about the necessity for having high-class men for the key positions in their enlisted personnel. Can you show me in any branch of the Army where a high-class man is required any more than he is right here? Here is a doughboy sergeant face to face with a problem, the proper solution of which means more to the success of the operations than any so-called “highly technical” position in the back areas. Upon what he does and how he does it may depend the success or failure of this whole military operation. The lives of the men under him are absolutely in his hands. If he blunders he may lose all of them.