Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
a) No problem, for most defenders do not need to open fire at long range - that's the job of snipers, mortars and artillery.
b) Not true unless you omit observer positions on the ridge.
c) No problem, that's what barbed wire is for.
d) I don't get why.

An anecdote (recalled from memory, slight deviances from the original story are possible):

An U.S. army platoon dug in in a defensive position overnight sometime in 1944. It was on a froward slope.
The next day, German observers detected the new position and phoned them to Bn HQ.
There was some unidentifiable noise over the next night.
The third day began calmly, but when morning fog had cleared, a camouflaged assault gun began opening fire on the forward slope position, decimating the platoon. The Platoon 2nd in command finally decided to evacuate, but when he did so many machine gunners and snipers opened fire. Almost no-one escaped.
(The same effect could have been had on the second morning already if light infantry guns were used or even on day one if modern bazooka-type weapons were used, but the assault gun provided near-immunity to OPFOR mortars.)


Ridge position are for observers,
ridge (and forward slope) positions are for (daring) snipers.
reverse slope positions are for the counter-attacking force,
counter-slope positions and 2nd ridge positions are for the main force.

You can differ, but a capable opponent will punish you terribly.
Of course your story is possible. But it appears that the this US Army platoon was isolated and had no fire support of its own. Does not seem likely.

At the School of Infantry we had TEWTs (Tactical Exercises Without Troops) which were designed to exercise ground appreciations for all phases of war. For the defence there were specific ones which lent towards both forward and reverse slope positions and even those where there was no other option other than for one a forward slope position and for another a reverse slope position. These were designed to exercise officers on a wide range of terrain variations.

A capable opponent would love to know that his enemy would always site his defence on a reverse slope without fail