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Lesson 1

Practice Exercise
Answer Key and Feedback
Situation: You are the commander of C Company, 32nd Bn, 134th Inf Div (Mech). Your unit is stationed in Western Europe and is scheduled to be part of a brigade-sized field training exercise on terrain near your installation. Use this situation to answer the questions in this exercise.
1. The Rhein Main is an excellent European example of

A. a romantic countryside.
B. textbook river crossing sites.
C. pockets of cottage industries.
D. a regional built-up area.
It is common for European cities to grow together until they form a single, vast built-up region. The Ruhr Valley and Rhein Main complex are examples of this trend. As an infantry commander, this has a significant impact on your ability to maneuver troops and armor. Such growth patterns block and dominate historic armor approaches and decrease maneuver area available to an attacker.
2. The opposing force (OPFOR) will use former Soviet style tactics. If your unit is tasked with the defense of a city, the OPFOR will initially attack

A. from the march.
The doctrine of the former Soviet's called for the attack of a built-up area from the march to quickly neutralize the city. If that failed, they would attack by storm, attaching artillery, armor, and engineers to the MRBs. Preferring the loss of men and equipment to the loss of time, they would have assaulted a built-up area with strong forces.
B. by storm.
C. if the opportunity presents itself.
D. with a deliberate attack.
3. Your unit is on the offensive and advancing toward its objective when it encounters a small town in its path of advance. Under what conditions could a battle develop in the built-up area?

A. If the town is occupied by the OPFOR.
B. If there are sufficient avenues of approach.
C. If the town cannot be bypassed or surrounded.
Any military force will avoid any impediment to its advance and maneuver, but, if the town lies in the path of your advance and cannot be bypassed or surrounded, it is almost inevitable a battle for the town will ensue. If political or humanitarian concerns on the part of the enemy require retention of the town, they will not relinquish it readily. If seizure of the city would further attainment of your commander's objectives, you will take the town by assault. A built-up area guarded by natural obstacles also leads to a battle for its possession simply because the advancing force cannot bypass it.
D. If weather and morale conditions favor the attacker.
4. You are sending out a platoon reconnaissance to inventory the brick buildings in an OPFOR-held village. You tell the platoon leader

A. they are the least common form of mass constructed buildings.
B. they will likely be covered with a stucco veneer.
You could tell the platoon leader not to look for brick buildings because he probably won't see any. In Europe, brick buildings account for most of the mass-construction buildings, but it is a common practice there to cover the bricks with a stucco veneer.
C. the brick-built portion will be below ground level.
D. you are not really interested in brick buildings.
5. You are preparing for an assault on an OPFOR-held village and need information on military aspects of the terrain and mobility corridors and avenues of approach to the village. Where will you find this information?

A. The operations order.
B. The operations plan.
C. Annexes to the operations order.
D. The modified combined obstacle overlay.
The modified combined obstacle overlay (MCOO) shows construction patterns, such as high-rise, dense random, dispersed residential, mobility corridors, and avenues of approach. It is a product of the intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) process. There may well be a terrain annex and other annexes to the OPORD, but the MCOO has precisely the information you require.
6. Your unit is on the defense in a city defending against an OPFOR attack. OPFOR infantry is assaulting a four-story building. Its immediate objective is

A. reducing the building to rubble.
B. securing the ground floor.
Soviet doctrine shifted supporting fires to upper floors and adjacent buildings once the assault of an objective began. Infantry would secure in succession, the ground floor, basement, stairways, and upper floors. Once cleared, the position would be ready to repel counterattacks.
C. securing the basement.
D. securing the fourth floor.
7. Your unit is occupying a village, but not in contact with the OPFOR. The primary concern is possible insurgent activity within the village. Your commander has tasked you with cataloging possible insurgent mobility corridors and staging areas. You will be looking for

A. sewers, tunnels and subterranean passages, cisterns, and basements.
Underground routes are of primary concern when considering insurgent or terrorist mobility corridors. Since you are in a village, sewers, tunnels or subterranean passages, cisterns and basements would be worth of investigation. If you were in a city or an extensive built-up region, you might have a subway system to explore and chart.
B. rooftops, elevated trains, and public gathering places.
C. balconies, pedestrian overpasses, culverts, and land-locked canal systems.
D. airports and rail centers, fire escapes, and access ladders.
8. You are planning a deliberate attack on the OPFOR in which you will employ the company's available assets against the OPFOR's defense to isolate the objective, secure a foothold, and clear the area. Your first action is

A. analyzing avenues of approach.
B. locating and seizing dominant terrain.
C. a thorough reconnaissance of the OPFOR positions.
Any deliberate attack must be preceded by a thorough, aggressive reconnaissance to identify avenues of approach, strongpoints, and obstacles which your force will have to overcome. You use the deliberate attack when the built-up area is large or congested, when defenses are well prepared, or when the element of surprise has been lost.
D. seizing an intermediate objective.
9. Your unit has been designated as the guard force for a battalion task force deployed in defense of a sector of a built-up area. Forward of the FEBA, your mission is

A. solely one of reconnaissance and scouting.
B. to cause the enemy to deploy without engaging in decisive combat.
Forward of the FEBA, a battalion task force organizes a guard force which concentrates on causing the enemy to deploy without committing to decisive combat. The guard force accomplishes this through the use of ambushes, obstacles, and covered and concealed routes through buildings for disengagements. The TF employs these hit-and-run tactics because buildings forward of the FEBA do not favor the defender. As the action nears the FEBA, the guard force detects the location of the enemy's main attack and disengages to return to the FEBA as a reserve or to counterattack.
C. dependent on the battalion's mission and the commander's intent.
D. to force the main body of the OPFOR into decisive combat.
Return to Practice Exercise
Lesson 2
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