In The Trenches

[Steezie]

This is a scenario question.

Immagine yourself in the middle of a firefight in your country's next greatest war in command of a squad of soldiers.

The enemy has your squad surrounded so you take cover in an abandoned building. You are surrounded, and out-numbered. Escape is almost impossible. You will soon run-short of ammunition and re-inforcements will not reach your position in time.

From here you have several options.

Charge- Order your men to fix the proverbial bayonets and sally forth. You can charge foreward and attack the enemy. You and your men will almost certainly be killed, but there is the chance that the charge could un-nerve the enemy and make them atleast withdraw enough to get you and your men out. At the very worst you can achieve an honorable death.

Stay- You can dig in and pray your ammunition, food, and water hold out untill re-inforcements arrive. There is no guarantee that help will reach you in time but you can still make a try of it

Run- Drop everything you cant live without and run like the hounds of hell are after you. Hopefully you can supprise the enemy and out-run them back to safety or atleast back to a larger group of your own men. Some of you will probably die in this attempt.

Surrender- You can lay down your arms and pray that you are treated humanely. There is no guarantee that you'll be treated well, you may simply be shot where you stand. On the other hand you may be returned home safe and sound.

Scuttle- Rig the building with as many explosives as you have, wait for the enemy to come in, then blow it sky high. You and your men will die, but you will have taken many of the enemy out along with you and not allowed yourselves to be taken prisoner.

So, as the commander, what would you do and why?

 

[MercuryAndy]

We stay beacuse machineguns are realy good at killing people who charge.

How can we scuttle a trench? although if we destroy the trench as we with draw it will make no mans land significantly larger which should help with the defence of the next trench untill reinforcements arrive.

If you dig in then there is the possibility of changing your mind if the situation changes.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

You fix bayonets and hold your ground. WOP(Weapons of Opportunity) would be great at this time.

 

[sparklecat]

I would want to know more about the enemy and the war first. Why are we fighting? Where are we fighting? How far are the reinforcements? Does the enemy generally take prisoners, and if so, what type of treatment could we expect? How long can we hold them off, how far is it to cover, to our base, etc.? How many men does each side have? What type of weapons? How's the war going as a whole?





I might try to send a semi-poorly coded message that would give the impression that vastly superior reinforcements are on their way, if I thought there was a fair chance they'd buy it and retreat.

 

[jayem]

I've never been in the military, but I doubt any good commander ever makes a decision without some input from others. If I were commanding a small group, like a squad, I'd discuss it with my men and get their sense of the situation. If escape is truly impossible, and there is no chance of being reinforced, then surrender may be the most logical option. At least you have the chance of living to fight another day. But I wouldn't make any decision without input from my unit.

 

[Pogue]

Stay, I imagine. If this didn't improve I suppose I'd have to look at other options.

 

[WalkingforHim]

I would want to know more about the enemy and the war first. Why are we fighting? Where are we fighting? How far are the reinforcements? Does the enemy generally take prisoners, and if so, what type of treatment could we expect? How long can we hold them off, how far is it to cover, to our base, etc.? How many men does each side have? What type of weapons? How's the war going as a whole?

All very good questions.

I suppose I'ld try and break a hole though their circle and flee to better ground, but given the variable, any of those choices could the best and choice out of the situation.

 

[Futuwwa]

If the war fought was one which could be considered holy by Islamic standards, scuttle.

If the war was not holy but the cause fundamentally just, stay.

If the war was unjust, surrender.

 

[GuitarHero2]

Well I'd have my men stay and hold their ground trying to do what we can to fortify our position and conserve our ammo and supplies. I'd hope for some type of miracle, or for some more of our guys to come by. In a worse case senario I'd probably order them to retreat or surrender depending on the situation.

 

[Steezie]

How can we scuttle a trench?

You're in a building

 

[The Nihilist]

Surrender, especially if there's a reasonable expectation that you and your men will be treated in an appropriate manner. No one ever won a war by dying for his country, and a pointless act of heroism won't raise anyone's fatherless children.

 

[PastorMikeJ]

well I selected run...now I don't mean get up and race out the back door all of your men at the same time...stagger them moving position to position..then slip into the brush and regroup...this was a good tactic in Nam..we used it a couple of times and the VC and NVA used it all the time..they were good at this...

 

[GuitarHero2]

well I selected run...now I don't mean get up and race out the back door all of your men at the same time...stagger them moving position to position..then slip into the brush and regroup...this was a good tactic in Nam..we used it a couple of times and the VC and NVA used it all the time..they were good at this...

That how I envsion it if I had my forces withdraw. Instead of having a mad dash we would move in an organized manner, going from place to place running and gunning.

 

[justanobserver]

This is a scenario question.

Immagine yourself in the middle of a firefight in your country's next greatest war in command of a squad of soldiers.

The enemy has your squad surrounded so you take cover in an abandoned building. You are surrounded, and out-numbered. Escape is almost impossible. You will soon run-short of ammunition and re-inforcements will not reach your position in time.

From here you have several options.

Charge- Order your men to fix the proverbial bayonets and sally forth. You can charge foreward and attack the enemy. You and your mean will almost certainly be killed, but there is the chance that the charge could un-nerve the enemy and make them atleast withdraw enough to get you and your men out. At the very worst you can achieve an honorable death.

Stay- You can dig in and pray your ammunition, food, and water hold out untill re-inforcements arrive. There is no guarantee that help will reach you in time but you can still make a try of it

Run- Drop everything you cant live without and run like the hounds of hell are after you. Hopefully you can supprise the enemy and out-run them back to safety or atleast back to a larger group of your own men. Some of you will probably die in this attempt.

Surrender- You can lay down your arms and pray that you are treated humanely. There is no guarantee that you'll be treated well, you may simply be shot where you stand. On the other hand you may be returned home safe and sound.

Scuttle- Rig the building with as many explosives as you have, wait for the enemy to come in, then blow it sky high. You and your men will die, but you will have taken many of the enemy out along with you and not allowed yourselves to be taken prisoner.

So, as the commander, what would you do and why?

I picked "other" since combat can be a fluid thing and things can and do change so a couple of the above options could be possible at almost any given point in time during the firefight.

For one, chances are the squad will be in radio contact with their company and thus can call in artillary fire support and/or air strikes on the surrounding enemy positions.

After a while of incoming on the bad guy's positions and continual updates via RTO of where the calvary is or is not, the continual feed of onsite intell to the squad leader will better assist in the decision as to:

1) keep fighting
2) or surrender
3) try to E&E (escape and evade) and get the heck out of dodge under the cover of night/smoke/incoming/confusion.

just an opinion of an old former grunt.

 

[tocis]

If it was just about me I might well choose to charge or scuttle. As a commander however I'd be responsible for my soldiers. Based on your description of escape being all but impossible, I would lay down our arms and trust that the enemy will treat us fairly.

Of course this depends on specific conditions. If we'd be fighting the nazi-german Waffen-SS or a similar Evil Incarnate(TM), I may think differently. I'll assume (unless you specify) that the enemy isn't known for taking no prisoners, or torturing them to death or similar.

 

[kopilo]

You're in a building

... Depends on what is avaliable then, say a department building.. I would be tempted to try to find some manikins, dress them in uniform (have them holding time triggered guns), run + blow the foundations/structure of the building to bits, why? Over a tonne of building materials could be more effective then a machine gun...

 

[Norseman]

Other. It has been my experience in games and paintball that the best way to survive is to sneak away, and the best way to win is to move quickly around cover and surprise your enemy. My choice would depend on the war. If the war is being fought at home and against an unjust enemy, then I would take down as many of them as I could. If it's any other circumstance, then I would sneak away, and I'd use those explosives to spook the enemy and make them more cautious about trying to follow us. If the enemy is fighting a just war, and we are unjust, then I would join the enemy and help them in every way I could.

 

[kopilo]

Is there even such a thing as "a just war"....

 

[Steezie]

Is there even such a thing as "a just war"....

Yes, a war in defense of one's homeland or against a foreign invader