WWI Guards Division Forum

I think one challenge (listening to some of the post-event discussion) that the Allied Battalion needs to work on is understanding that there is more to German weaponry than just machine guns.

In the first place, if you rush a Maxim with 20 guys and don't lose over half, you obviously aren't playing the game right...unless you've laid one heck of a smoke screen beforehand.

However, I think a lot of guys ignore rifle fire and only pay attention to the Maxims. "If the Maxim isn't pointed my direction...then I'm ok". If you are attacking a German trench and three Huns start taking you in the flank with rifle fire, there need to be casualties.

I think in the past that in the BEF there has been far to much emphasis on reaching the objectives and ignoring casualties. I think with officers like Jim, that is starting to change. But, the reality is...if 50 of us leave the trench, most of the the officers are going to "cop it" and maybe 10 men with an NCO are going to make it to the Hun trench. Of those 10, maybe 5 would actually make it to the objective. I think there has been too much emphasis in the past to 45 guys making it too the Hun trench and fighting from there and leaving on our own terms. That's not accurate -- though I know that some of it has to do with low Hun turnout.

Just a thought.