This post continues the translation of a German pamphlet from 1944. The following links will take you to the first two posts in this series.
Advance of a Reinforced Infantry Battalion in Thick Woods
A battalion will often advance with two companies in the first line, immediately behind the base direction group (Grundrichtungsgruppe), so that these can go into action immediately.
The third company (minus its first platoon) and the remainder of the machinegun company take positions on either side of the line of advance of the battalion. This enables them to maintain contact with the rest of the battalion and, at the same time, watch flanks that, because of the way that dense forest limits visibility, are always exposed.
Patrols reconnoiter places in front of the battalion, secure places on the unit’s flanks, and occupy important pieces of ground off of the line of march. These patrols rejoin the battalion at rendezvous that are either easy to find or, failing that, have been marked in some way.