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OFFICER CADET TRAINING
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ELEVEN
XVIII. COMPANY TRAINING
Towards the end of the course, there was a logical progression in field training to fit the
platoon into company-level operations and the Platoon Commander into the company chain
of command. As there was no immediate prospect of a tactics course at the company level
for the first graduates of SAFTI to attend and most would be posted to Infantry companies
in 1 and 2 SIR (and 3 and 4 which was then on the drawing board), this immersion into
company level operations was something of a finishing school for the first intake.
The initial lessons were devoted to giving cadets an idea of how a Company HQ executes the
operational standing orders—procedures adopted from the time a Warning Order is received
to the launch of the operation—and how to work with—and employ—fire support allocated
to a company from the battalion HQ. The intricacies of ‘under command’, ‘direct support’
and ‘indirect support’ had not yet been established. For the first lesson on operational
planning—a company level lecture—there was a British training film covering the process.
Instructors then performed a skit starting with the receipt of the Warning Order, the
‘R’ (reconnaissance) and ‘O’ (orders) Groups in action and ending with the issue of the
Operation Order. The emphasis was on the concurrent activities of preparing the troops
while the battle procedure—planning and organising to execute the mission was going on.
Actors included OC ‘A’ Company, the 2I/C and the Platoon Commanders. The directors for
the ‘drama’ came from Doctrine Department.
A subsequent classroom session addressed company battle formations, the factors influencing
their selection, the differences between day and night formations, important coordinating
activities like report lines during movement to objectives, taking position in the FUP and
the activation of the fire plan during the approach and the attack on the objective. These
were practised on the ground and covered the practical aspects of crossing obstacles (roads,
streams, open spaces), tactical halts and harbouring drills. Once the technical lessons were
over, a ‘day deliberate attack’, a ‘night deliberate attack’ and a ‘night deliberate attack in
depth’(an objective with a number of secondary objectives in depth) were conducted with
live ammunition, including the use of the IRL, the 52mm mortar and GPMG support bases,
all of which had to be relocated with the advancing of the assault forces in phases. Artillery
support was simulated with Amonal fields. In these exercises, while conceptually ‘A’ Company
HQ was executing the operation, the demands of safety and co-ordination meant that the
three platoons were operating quite independently according to an activity table. Cadets were
given appointments as Platoon Commanders and Platoon NCOs while the actual Platoon
Commanders and section instructors were Safety and Conducting Officers.