Putting the T in METT-T (i.e., Terrain)

[William F. Owen]

computers and even with GIS and really neat terrain modeling software, something is lost in translation...

That's my monthly understatement.

yeah.. not the same. Nothing like being chest deep in a river in Dorset trying to prove to your syndicate that it could be crossed without boats or infantry bridging.

I never was that smart.....

[Tukhachevskii]

In Light Infantry in the Defence: Exploiting the Reverse Slope from Wellington to the Falklands and Beyod, (SAMS Monograph, US-CGSC) Link in Post No.12.

Lt Col. Archibald Galloway points out that the Argentinians had used a forward slope defensive posture in all of their defensive battles enabling the British to use direct fire ATGM, Mgs and Laws against them whereas if they had adopted the reverse slope things would have been much more difficult (p. 29)

[William F. Owen]

In Light Infantry in the Defence: Exploiting the Reverse Slope from Wellington to the Falklands and Beyod, (SAMS Monograph, US-CGSC) Lt Col. Archibald Galloway points out that the Argentinians had used a forward slope defensive posture in all of their defensive battles enabling the British to use direct fire ATGM, Mgs and Laws against them whereas if they had adopted the reverse slope things would have been much more difficult (p. 29)

Will read with interest. - but cannot due to a broken link!
Actually a reverse slope defence requires a lot of training, and usually a lot of depth. I can agree that being out in the open on a forward slope is just plain dumb, as the Boca House position proved!

[Steve Blair]

Try this. It's a 1985 CGSC paper.

[William F. Owen]

Try this. It's a 1985 CGSC paper.

Have to say, I read that and was impressed. The author was one of the first I've read to get the importance of the "counter-slope." - a point mostly missed by those who pontificate about "reverse slope."
In BAOR, this was where we should have sighted our long range AT-weapons, and the prepared tank firing locations.
Good paper - not perfect, but well worth a read.

[Tukhachevskii]

Baden-Powell's, War in Practice, contains his recollections and lessons learned from the Boer War and makes for good reading (especially in terms of an army that has just snatched victory from the jaws of defeat- its a tradition -, and has had to learn the basics the hard way all over again), see esp. Chapter IV The Selection of Ground and Posistions and he also proposes an X shaped parapet position (p. 168) Reminds me of The Defence of Duffer's Drift

Fingers-crossed the link works

[Tukhachevskii]

1.Military Geography for the Public and Professionals

2.The Military Geography by An Army Schoolmaster

3.A concise synopsis of geography, for the use of the junior department of the Royal military college, at Sandhurst

4.Physical, historical and military geography

5. Military Geography

6. Topography and Strategy in the [Great] war

7. Battlefields of the World War: A Study in Military Geography

8.Tactical Walks

[Granite_State]

Baden-Powell's, War in Practice, contains his recollections and lessons learned from the Boer War and makes for good reading (especially in terms of an army that has just snatched victory from the jaws of defeat- its a tradition -, and has had to learn the basics the hard way all over again), see esp. Chapter IV The Selection of Ground and Posistions and he also proposes an X shaped parapet position (p. 168) Reminds me of The Defence of Duffer's Drift

Fingers-crossed the link works

There was actually an article in the Marine Corps Gazette, about a year or so back, where the author, an infantry officer, wrote about discovering the Baden Powell book in a yard sale, and then went on to call for a return of the X-shaped sandbag parapet.