The Ultimate Infantry "Wrecking Crews"

[KG Erwin]

The US Marines in 1944-45 basically turned every 13-man rifle squad into assault troops. Since we can only assign 4 weapons to a squad, they had to be split into three types for the F series TOEs. The first is the four-man fire-team concept, which still exists today. Each fire-team had a BAR as its base of fire, which is why these squads have the BAR*3.

The other two types are the mission-specific assault-augmented squads. One has a flame-thrower, and the other has satchel charges. In reality, these would have both. This is what we had to use to attack the caves, bunkers and forts of Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Also, in real life these late-war assault squads could have close support from tanks and 75mm Halftracks, but not always. Depending on the terrain, they might be forced into doing it themselves. Under suppressive fire from MGs and mortars, they'd close up, toss in the satchel charges, torch the survivors with the flamethrower, and finish them off with the BARs and Garands.

The Marines would close on the next position, and the process would be repeated, over and over, until the defenders were destroyed.

The only problem is, while this was happening, the Marines would often be under crossfire from supporting enemy positions. This is why the assaulting troops could often have casualty rates of 50 to 75%.

This is also why the Pacific Theater isn't that popular to wargamers. Little tactical sublety, especially in the latter stages, was afforded to the attackers. The defenders had to be literally smothered in explosives and flame.

However, the United States, with its vast industrial might, could arm its troops with a prodigious flood of weaponry, especially after 1943.

I am thankful that we could shield our men with nearly incredible firepower. Otherwise, the casualties would have been too much to bear.