The Hornet (III)

Rapid Reaction

Thanks to the use of many terms-of-art that have no direct equivalents in English, this section of the lessons learned report of the 519th Heavy Anti-Tank Battalion proved difficult to translate. The thorniest of these expressions were the nouns Schwerpunkt and Einsatz, the verb einsetzen, and the phrase “mit … auf Zusammenarbeit angewiesen.”

In the past forty years, much ink has been spilled on the subject of how best to translate Schwerpunkt. In this document, I usually translate it as “main effort.” The meaning in this document (and its contemporaries) is closer to “concentration of force for the sake of a decisive effect.”)

Readers who wish to risk madness by delving deeply into this topic may wish to start with the following post:

Similarly, Brennpunkt, which literally means “burning point,” usually refers to a location where the enemy is about to enjoy decisive success. In this part of the document, however, the term is used to designated places where such a crisis might occur at some time in the near future.

Einsatz, which I usually translate as “use” or “employment,” is a somewhat more energetic word than those bland equivalents suggest. The same is true for einsetzen. While I often render that verb as “use” or “employ,” it gives the sense of “send into action” or (if I may use a rare sports metaphor) “put into the game.”

I have taken care to avoid translating mit … auf Zusammenarbeit angewiesen as “placed in support of” or “attached to.” Rather, even when the result is a sentence that would bring tears to the eyes of ol’ Bill Shakespeare, I will render it as “directed to cooperate with.” The reason for this, quite simply, is that, if I am not too badly mistaken, the phrase presumes a degree of equality between the cooperating parties that is absent in “supporter-supported” relationships.

With these things in mind … allons y!

The open-topped Hornet was vulnerable to the fire of mortars and field pieces.

The Employment [Einsatz] of Hornets

As a rule, a single company of Hornets will be assigned to the sector of a division. The creation of a main effort [Schwerpunktbildung] thus involves the employment of the battalion headquarters and two companies.

The Employment [Einsatz] of Companies

Companies were attached to divisions as complete units and employed by their commanders. They were directed to cooperate with the main-effort regiments [Schwerpunkt Regimentern]. This method of sending companies into action worked well. Nonetheless, it often happened that, when companies were subordinated to divisions, they were rarely provided with the overall mission of providing security for the division sector. More often, the company commanders were merely told to place a a particular number of Hornets on particular points.

As a result, Hornets were often sent into action [eingesetzt] without purpose and needlessly concentrated. Neither the range nor the penetrative power of the weapon was given its due weight, and the needlessly assembled Hornets were knocked out by artillery and mortar fire. The little use was made of the possibility of keeping Hornets in readiness behind places where the enemy might break through [Brennpunkten] in order to use their mobility to surprise the enemy by rapidly occupying positions prepared ahead of time. Proposals made by the company commanders on the basis of their own examination of the terrain were rarely entertained.

Under the influence of general tank nervousness Hornets were, without much deliberate thought, required to take up firing positions before any enemy tanks had been reported or before the senior leadership became aware of the tactical movement of enemy tanks. As a result, Hornets were tied for long periods of time to places poorly suited to them and thus prevented from employment in places where they might have been employed in a focused, decision-seeking [schwerpunktmäßigen] manner. While carrying out these purely precautionary assignments, the crews could not perform necessary maintenance. For days, the Hornets were tied to fixed positions that they could only leave at night in order to deal with crises [Brennpunkten] caused by ten or twenty attacking tanks, which they easily smashed.

Given the flexibility of the leadership of the Russian tank arm, this use of Hornets as fixed anti-tank guns should be categorically rejected. It hinders quick and unexpected employment as well as movement from one hotspot [Brennpunkt] to another. As soon as they have completed their mission, the Hornets must be withdrawn from their positions as quickly as possible and ordered to return to their assembly areas. Only this method will ensure that the higher leadership will be able to reliably employ a decisively-focused [schwerpunktmässigen], mobile, anti-tank arm.