Pentomic Thoughts

I was flipping through an old Command Post Quarterly, and came upon a
write-up of the old Pentomic Division adopted briefly (56-62) by the
US Army in a desperate attempt to come up with a formation adaptable
to the kind of war that people thought WWIII would turn into--a horror
show featuring the total eradication of veterbrate life in Europe and
most of America and Asia via nuclear warhead.  I don't know what the
point was, but someone thought it was worth it.

Anyway, the organization eliminated both the batallion and regimental
levels of command, replacing them with 5 "Battlegroups" of 4 infantry
companies and slices from the divisonal BNs (engineer, artillery,
armor, etc).  It failed because it overwhelmed command and control
capabilities.  The resulting battlegroups were also undersupported and
just too small to accomplish their intended missions--which were
written for regimental-sized formations.

It occured to me that those objections are somewhat reduced in the
DSII environment in some cases.  Far more advanced C4 capabilities
exist even today, and DSII presupposes even more capability.  It would
make commanding a force with a large number of company-sized elements
possible, if a bit demanding.

Obviously it is still too light on heavy assets to serve as front-line
forces, but in colonial applications, the primary need is for infantry
to serve as garission over larger areas than a traditional batallion
could control comfortably.  It seems to me that it is a large
batallion, not a small regiment.  YMMV and I need to remember that
regiment sometimes means a different thing to our commonwealth
brethren.  I mean brigade when I say regiment, ok?  It's also a hell
of a lot cheaper than buying a real serious first-line force.  And
most places, the threat just isn't there to justify such a thing.

Anyway, in general terms, here's what a possible Battlegroup could look
like

Headquarters Company
Combat Support Company
  Anti-armor platoon (5xsize 2 vehicle with size 3 fixed forward gun
or GMS/H systems)
  Pioneer Platoon (3 squads dismounted sappers)
  The original org also included a recon PLT, but I decided adding the
armored cavalry troops (originally a division asset) made it
superfluous.  Of course, you can also argue the pioneer platoon ought
to be integrated with the engineer company, YMMV.
5xInfantry Company 
   3xRifle platoons 
  Weapons platoon (2xlight mortars, 4xsize 1 vehicles with GMS or DFFG)
Heavy Mortar Battery
  8xMedium Artillery, towed
Engineer Company
  2xplatoons engineers
  Equipment platoon with earth moving equipment, dump trucks, etc.
Tank Company
   3xplatoons, 5 size three tanks ea.
Transport Company
  Truck platoon: Enough trucks to motorize 1 entire infantry company
  Carrier platoon: Enough APCs (size 2, light weapons only) to
mechanize 1 entire infantry company
Artillery Battery
  8xMedium artillery pieces, SP
  FIST Platoon: enough FO stands to place one with each infantry,
engineer, and armor company, plus another two for battlegroup control.
 Each mounted in a jeep.
Armored Cavalry Troop
  3xRecon Platoons: 2xtanks.  1xAPC with 2 rifle teams.  4xSize 1
vehicles (RFAC/1 (T) if desired), 1xAPC with light artillery piece
mounted.

I swear I am not making up that recon platoon organization.  Someone
actually sat down and decided this is what he'd want as a
platoon-sized force for recon.	I imagine you'd have to break it down
somewhat if you wanted to use it in DSII.  Personally, if I were
fielding the entire troop, I'd break it into 7 platoons, 2 of tanks, 1
of infantry, 3 of jeeps, and 1 of artillery.  But YMMV.

John M. Atkinson
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani