Night Combat
Appendix V

Eight Week Night Combat Training Schedule
for Organic Engineer Elements
Within the Tank or
Self-Propelled Anti-Tank Gun Battalion

US Army



First week

See Appendices I and I I.

Second week

1. Intensified weapons training; target practice with varying degrees of visibility ; aiming and firing in combat.

2. Reconnaissance patrol training involving ranger tactics against a simulated enemy ; usin prominent landmarks for orientation ; visual exercises, estimating distances ; cover and concealment.

3. Demolition training, including preparation and placing of charges: use of different types of fuzes; connecting wires: and preparing various types of explosives.

Third week

1. Close combat course.

2. Building and camouflaging simple fortifications and setting up barbed wire obstacles.

3. Laying and clearing open and concealed single mines.

4. Moving into an assembly area and securing same; use of hasty obstacles.

5. Reconnoitering roads, d iours, resting and assembly areas; methods of marking such areas and controlling traffic.

Fourth week

1. Reconnoitering river-crossing sites and using pneumatic floats to move a combat patrol across a river.

2. Patrolling in forests and across terrain offering poor visibility; methods of breaching mine fields; reporting.

3. Road repair work on the battlefield; crossing swampy terrain, ground pitted with shell craters, sandy stretches, and antitank ditches.

4. Close antitank combat.

Fifth week

1. Disengagement, including preparation of demolitions and mine obstacles.

2. Repelling surprise raids; close combat training.

3. Outpost duties, including security patrolling, sentry duty, and relief.

4. Reconnoitering bridge sites and destruction of single-span stringer bridges; construction of approach and exit facilities.

5. Knots and ties.

Sixth week

1. Squad in attack, subsequently switching to the defense, including crossing and building obstacles and light field fortifications.

2. Practice alerts; operations against enemy airborne troops, including reconnaissance of blocking positions.

3. Combat in wooded areas; combat patrols utilizing engineer equipment; reconnaissance, construction, and crossing of fords.

Seventh week

1. Exercise with vehicles, including loading, motor march, fire fight from and near vehicles.

2. Guarding a defile and repelling an attack in hand-to-hand fighting, including close antitank combat.

3. Combat in inhabitated localities, with emphasis on engineer combat patrol tactics, removal and construction of obstacles.

4. Establishment and defense of strong points.

Eighth week

1. Attack on barriers, including surprise raid and capture of a bridge, and removal of explosive charges.

2. Reconnaissance of bridges and testing their load capacity; reinforcing and widening narrow bridges, repairing damaged bridges.

3. Continuous night-day-night exercise with elements of a tank or antitank gun battalion, including employment of the engineer platoon for reconnaissance and engineer missions.


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