"Rocket artillery has a rapid rate of fire, fierce firepower, and good raids, and can carry out face-to-face strikes..." In mid-October, in the joint operation "Lecture Hall" class organized by the 74th Group Army's pre-staff training team, Zhang Xu, a platoon commander of a certain composite battalion, recounted his experience of breaking through obstacles during a joint exercise and set off a "brainstorm" about joint fire strikes.
In that joint exercise, the battalion, which served as the forward commando unit, encountered a "hard bone" when launching the attack. The "Blue Army" took advantage of the terrain to set up a large number of strong obstacles in advance, and it was necessary to directly dispatch sapper detachments to break through the obstacles. However, the Blue Army's tight firepower network made it difficult for the sapper detachment to get close to the obstacle.
"The assault vehicle detachment went out to carry out the first round of fire to cover the barrier, and the remaining troops covered the engineer detachment from both wings to manually break the barrier." At the order of the battalion commander, Zhang Xu, who was the commander of the assault vehicle detachment, quickly stepped forward. However, the support fire of assault vehicles and the brigade's artillery was not enough to achieve the intended damage effect, and the "Blue Army" defense line still had more strong obstacles.
Seeing that the time limit for breaking the barrier was getting closer and closer, the battalion commander could only grit his teeth and make a decision, and the sapper detachment with the blasting equipment forcibly broke the barrier, but the effect was not ideal. In the end, the battalion, constrained by forward obstacles, barely completed the mission with high battle losses, but also regrettably withdrew from the exercise due to its inability to participate in the follow-up battles.
"When reviewing, we summed up the lessons and felt that due to the lack of awareness of joint fire planning, we only focused on the visible firepower and did not think about how to get more targeted fire support." Speaking of this, Zhang Xu's regret overflowed into words, "In this battle, if the aviation fire support can be planned in advance, the losses will never be so heavy." ”
After Zhang Xu shared his actual combat case, the instructors of the "Lecture Martial Arts Hall" gave all the trainees corresponding combat roles and tasks, and everyone played the battalion commander, staff officer, and platoon leader respectively, and participated in the deduction of the case brought by Zhang Xu. Everyone re-experienced a "barrier-breaking battle" and thought about how to improve the deficiencies. During the deduction, the instructors asked questions to the trainees who were undertaking different combat tasks one by one, deepening everyone's understanding of joint firepower strikes.
"A lesson tells a classic case thoroughly, and a lesson is like a 'real combat' experience!" Zhang Yakun, a trainee who participated in the "Lecture on Martial Arts," believes that this kind of case, which is specific and suited to one's own experience, can not only enable people to learn joint operations with a greater sense of substitution, but also refine the specific steps and instructions, so that everyone can study the knowledge of joint operations and joint training more thoroughly.
Subsequently, during a joint exercise attended by the pre-staff training team, the transport detachment led by cadet Li Qiucheng was attacked by the "Blue Army." In the case of his own limited ability to deal with chemical warfare, he sought support from the anti-chemical warfare forces according to the key points learned by the "Lecture Martial Arts Hall". Eventually, with the assistance of a certain anti-chemical warfare detachment, they quickly passed through the "poisoned" zone and continued to march to the target area.
Short comments
"On" war, we must have the flavor of war
■ Qu Mingyuan
Under the atmosphere of the whole army vigorously studying the trend of joint operations and joint training, how to truly promote the in-depth implementation of the joint operations thinking and apply what they have learned is an issue that every officer and soldier should ponder. Mao Zedong once regarded "detailed examples of war" as an important way to improve the level of tactical ideology and the art of command. Ye Jianying also regarded the study of battle cases as an important part of the four links of tactical training. It can be seen that in order to study operational theory in depth, it is impossible to bypass the step of classic case study.
The teaching of battle examples enables officers and men to find themselves in a real battlefield environment, which helps them to use their knowledge of joint operations to analyze problems, find practical and feasible solutions, gain experience in victory, and sum up the lessons of defeat. In this process of gradually deepening the study of operational theory, officers and men have "immersed" themselves in experiencing the classic cases of joint combat training one after another, constantly enriching and expanding what they have learned, so as to have a deeper understanding of joint operations.
"On" war, we must have the flavor of war. In order to win a war, it is necessary to promote the convergence of operational thinking toward the focus of actual combat and the transformation and application of operational theory into a war. Whether it is the simulated battlefield of the "Lecture Hall of Martial Arts" or the annual joint exercises and training of various kinds, the purpose of which is to enable officers and men to combine theory with practice, truly achieve the unity of knowledge and action, and be able to win battles.
Source: People's Liberation Army Daily