Points to Remember

'Forest-Fighting and Reconnaissance Training in Finland' (Part VI)

(SA Tuva)

This post concludes the translation of a German pamphlet from 1944. The following links will take you to the first five posts in this series.

The Direction Group

The Advance of a Reinforced Rifle Company

The Advance of an Infantry Battalion

Reconnaissance Troops

The Advance of a Reconnaissance Troop

Skis and ski poles leave lots of tracks. Thus, deceiving the enemy (about our movement) will prove more difficult in winter than in summer.

In areas of where the discovery of tracks would result in danger, the men of a reconnaissance troop should cover them with branches or use branches to sweep them away. Likewise, they should not use ski poles when traveling over such places.

When crossing roads, the men should take off their skis and walk up the road until they find a crossing point where tracks would be hard to detect.

When setting up camp, the reconnaissance troop should lay false tracks that either lead the enemy away from the bivouac.

Scattering litter of Soviet origin, such as matchboxes, food cans, and newspapers, as well as the cutting of Cyrillic letters into trees, can mislead the enemy.

Whenever the unit commander has authorized the use of land mines, a reconnaissance troop should mine its own tracks, even in cases where no contact with the enemy has been made. If a patrol plans on using the same route to return to friendly lines, it must mark mined locations with indicators that the enemy will not notice.