outpost
Outposts in the military sense are advanced units that are intended for the clarification of the enemy situation and security.
Land Forces Outposts
As a rule, this is a company that is cast in castling from the rest of the troops. Your groups are divided into the various outpost departments; they are located on the access roads approx. 1 1/5 km in front of the resting troop, similar to security personnel in fortified structures. The outpost has a security mandate through the establishment of barriers and personal controls as well as the setting up of patrols, which secure the intermediate area, or the making the surrounding area impassable. In the event of an attack, it serves to ensure the combat readiness of the resting troop.
Up until the beginning of the 20th century , the reconnaissance work was mostly the responsibility of the cavalry , whereas the security work was the responsibility of the infantry . The outposts were divided into
- the outpost group,
- the outpost companies and
- the outpost cavalry.
The outpost group was mostly set up near the operational road behind a resistant point as a back-up against enemy attacks on the outpost companies.
The outpost companies themselves formed a main line of security and, through their resistance, gave the troops at rest time to be ready for action . They secured themselves through advanced field guards or independent non-commissioned officers .
The outpost cavalry acted in the front line during the day, kept in touch with the enemy and observed the area in front of them. In a clear area they were usually kept together in a single stand-by (derived from pikeman ), in unclear areas they were divided into several. For their part, the stand-offs deploy field guards or independent non-commissioned officers.
Patrols cleared forward and kept the connection between the individual parts of the outposts.
Naval Forces Outpost
In the course of the naval war in World War I , a "tightly organized outpost service" was set up on the German side to monitor the North Sea, which was carried out by various outpost flotillas. The most important of these was the flotilla of North Sea outpost boats . In addition there were the outpost flotilla of the Ems and in the Baltic Sea the outpost half flotilla west with base in Kiel and the outpost half flotilla east with bases in Danzig and later in Libau. During the Second World War, the use of outpost boats as an outpost became so extensive that the 15th outpost flotilla was set up for this purpose .
literature
- Philipp von Reichlin-Meldegg: About the arrangement and behavior of the outposts. Hübschmann, Munich 1817 ( online ).
- Moriz von Miller : Lectures on applied tactics. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1833 ( online ).
- Peter Schubert, E. Weddige, H. Sohst, P. Short: The German navies in the mine war. Volume 1: Historical Development - Imperial Navy - Imperial Navy. Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2006, ISBN 3-8334-4330-8 .