In 1944, B.H. Liddell Hart wrote in Thouahts on (Avenue of Heroes) near the entrance to Ar- War, "The spirit of discipline, as distinct from its lington Cemetery. Section 2 of Public Law 99- outward and visible guises, is the result of as- 620 states, "The United States shall not pay sociation with martial traditions and their living any expense of establishment of the memorial." embodiment." Sponsoring organizations include the US. Our Armored Force's body of martial tradition Armor and Artillery Associations; World Wars began to take shape 70 years ago in the St. Tank Corps Association: Veterans of the Battle Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns, when the of the Bulge: 1lth ACR Association; Tank first American tankers traded their horses for Destroyer Association: 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, primitive mechanical mounts on which they 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, loth, llth, 12th, 13th, 14th, would spearhead a new development in ground 16th Armored Division Associations: Council warfare, leading inevitably to the creation of a of Armored Divisions Association; and the Na- new combat arm. tional Association of Uniformed Services. Subsequent generations took that budding The memorial will feature a panoramic evolu- legacy and built on it in Tunisia, Sicily, Bas- tion of Armor and will honor all those "men of togne. Pusan, Inchon, Operations Cedar Falls steel" who served in WWI, WWII, Korea and and Junction City, and at Ben Het. The heritage Vietnam in armored divisions or separate ar- we have received is rich in stories of courage mored battalions; tank destroyer battalions; ar- under fire, comradeship, and audacity. mored mechanized infantry, artillery, engineer Today, our regimental system, with its battalions; cavalry regiments and squadrons: honorary colonels and sergeants major, retells and Marine Corps armored units. those stories to yet another generation of The cost of this memorial is relatively inex- tankers and cavalrymen who aspire to move pensive - $400,000. But time is running out. down the same proud road. This is the associa- Funding must be completed by November tion with martial traditions and their living em- 1989 if the monument is to be completed in bodiment of which Liddell Hart wrote. time for the 50th anniversary of the Armored While we work to see that these martial tradi- Force in 1990. The sponsoring organizations tions and accounts of Americans in battle are have done their part, but appeals to industries handed down to following generations and are that built our tanks and APCs over the years thus not forgotten, perhaps it is appropriate that have netted next to nothing. The Armored For- the American people have a visual reminder of ces Monument Committee needs help to avert the accomplishments of our Armored Forces. falling short on this project. If you are inter- Toward this purpose, the Armored Forces ested in seeing a monument to our Armored Monument Committee formed in 1986 to erect a Forces of the past, which would serve as an in- monument in our nation's capital. Its congres- spiration to armored soldiers of the present sional liaison team successfully met its chal- and future, perhaps you can help. Please con- lenge of securing Congressional approval, and tact on 6 November 1986, the president signed Armored Forces Monument Fund Public Law 99-620 authorizing the monument, P.O. Box 1146 which will be constructed on Memorial Drive Fort Myer, Virginia 2221 1 - PJC By Order of the Secretary of the Army: Official: CARL E. VUONO R. L. DILWORTH General, United States Army Brigadier General, United States Army Chief of Staff The Adjutant General ARMOR I The Professional Development Bulletin of the Armor Branch PB- 17-88-6 (Test) Editor-in-Chief Features MAJOR PATRICK J. COONEY 8 Assault and Tactical Bridging for Armor Units Managing Editor by Brigadier General Philip L. Bolt6 (Ret.) JON T. CLEMENS 13 Red Army Tank Commander Commandant by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Armstrong MG THOMAS H. TAlT 20 Cavalry Scouts at the Joint Readiness Training Center by Captain Alan R. Horn ARMOR (ISSN 0004-2420) is published bimonthly by the U.S. Army Armor Center, 4401 Vine Grove Road, Fort Knox. KY 40121. 22 The Royal Armoured Corps Tank Museum Disclaimer: The information contained in Has Expanded and Improved ARMOR represents the professional opinions of by Richard M. Ogorkiewicz the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official Army or TRADOC position, nor does it 25 The Desert Training Center: Yesterday and Today change or supersede any information presented in other official Army publications. by Francis G. Blake Official distribution is limited to one copy for each heavy brigade headquarters, armored 30 Cavalry Missions and Structure cavalry regiment headquarters. armor battalion by Colonel (P) Jarrett J. Robertson headquarters, armored cavalry squadron head- quarters, reconnaissance squadron head- quarters, armored cavalry troop, armor com- 34 Armor Training 1997 pany, and motorized brigade headquarters of by Major H. Critz Hardy the United States Army. In addition, Army libraries, Army and DOD schools, HQ DA and 37 Soldier Training Publications: MACOM staff agencies with responsibility for ar- Supporting Training in the 1990s mored, direct fire, ground combat systems, or- ganizations. and the training of personnel for by Major Albert E. Bailey such organizations may request two copies by sending a military letter to the editor-in-chief. Departments Authorized Content: ARMOR will print only those materials for which the US. Army Armor 2 Letters Center has proponency. That proponency in- cludes: all armored, direct-fire ground combat 2 Contacts systems that do not serve primarily as infantry 6 Commander’s Hatch carriers; all weapons used exclusively in these 7 Recognition Quiz systems or by CMF 19-series enlisted soldiers; 40 Professional Thoughts any miscellaneous items of equipment which 49 armor and armored cavalry organizations use Recognition Quiz Answers exclusively; training for all SC 12A, 128, and 50 Bustle Rack 12C officers and for all CMF-1Pseries enlisted 51 Armor Branch Notes soldiers: and information concerning the train- 52 Books ing, logistics, history, and leadership of armor and armored cavalry units at the brigadelregi- ment level and below, to include Threat units at those levels. Secondclass official mail postage paid al Fort Knox. KY. and additional mailing offices. Material may be reprinted, provided credit is Postmaster: Send address changes to Editor. ARMOR, AlTN ATSB-MAG. Fott Knox. KY given to ARMOR and to the author, except 40121. where copyright is indicated. Distribution Restriction: Approved for public release: distribution is unlimited USPS 467-970 November-December 1988, Vol XCVlI No. 6 The Lessons of Vietnam ly, ignoring of history and hard lessons Tung. It was clear at that time (1964), that learned, have gotten our military estab- LIC demands thorough analysis and Dear Sir, lishment into situations for which they doctrinal study on the part of every were not prepared. More important, these branch and element involved. This is par- Major Michael R. Matheny ("Armor in were situations for which the troops in the ticularly applicable to those arms in Low Intensity Conflict," July-August 1988 tanks were not prepared. mutually supporting roles. ARMOR) is to be commended for address- This is a fact, despite the vast resources ing this sticky topic of Armor doctrine. His and documentation of LIC around the Vivid lessons in the application of statement, "There is still little written world available for command and staff Armor/lnfantry teams to LlCs were avail- doctrine on armor operations in Low Inten- utilization at the time of troop commit- able to us prior to our commitment of sity Conflict," is not profound, but all too ment. And today, stacks of staff studies, armor and armored cavalry to the Viet- factual, and references the post-WW11 fixa- combat journals and official lessons nam conflict. French use of limited armor tion of our strategic and tactical planners learned appear to be gathering dust. resources in Indochina should have with the great European land battle. provided glaring examples of how NOT to Two deadly "non-wars" since the 1 spent nearly two years researching commit tankfinfantry elements. Bernard B. Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay clearly il- Low Intensity Conflict in its 1960s guise - Fall in his masterful work, Street Without lustrate that ignorance, or more realistical- revolutionary war as defined by Mao Tse &, described the destruction in detail of (Note: Fort Knox AUTOVON prefix is 464. DIRECTORY - Points of Contact Commercial prefix is Area Code 5o2-624-x~~~). ARMOR Editorial Offices U.S. ARMY ARMOR SCHOOL Editor-in-Chief Commandant (ATZK-CG) Major Patrick J. Cooney 2249 MG Thomas H. Tait 2121 Managing Editor Assistant Commandant (ATSB-AC) Jon T. Clemens 2249 BG Dennis V. Crumley 7555 Assistant Editor Deputy Assistant Commandant (ATSB-DAC) Robert E. Rome 2610 COL Claude L. Clark 1050 Production Assistant Command Sergeant Major Vivian Thompson 2610 CSM John M. Stcphens 4952 Contributing Artist Maintenance Dept. (ATSB-MA) SFC Robert Torsrud 2610 COL Garry P. Hixson 8346 Command and Staff Dept. (ATSB-CS) MAILING ADDRESS: ARMOR, ATTN ATSB- COL A. W. Kremer 5855 MAG, Fort box, KY 40121-5210. Weapons Dept. (ATSB-WP) LTC(P) George R. Wallace 111 1055 ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS: To improve speed and Directorate of Training & Doctrine (ATSB-DOTD) accuracy in editing. manuscripts should be originals or COL Donald E. Appler 7250 clear copies, either typed or printed out in near-lettcr- Directorate of Combat Developments (ATSB-CD) quality printer mode. Stories can also be accepted on COL Donald L. Smart 5050 5-1/4" floppy disks in Microsoft WORD, MuhiMate, Dir. of Eval. & Standardization (ATSB-DOES) Wordperfect, Wordstar, or Xerox Writer (please in- Mr. Clayton E. Shannon 3440 clude a printout). Please tape captions to any illustra- Training Group (ATZK-TC-TBF) tions submitted.