Binocular icon - what's up with that? ...

[burroughs]

Quite right regarding the deep penetration missions being done by saboteurs and diversion of the enemy backyard, but should be true about those vanguards; as far as I can remember they were to look for some weak points enabling the main force mobile elements of some greater firepower to create a breakthrough and penetrate the enemy front before it estabilishes for good. Force recon I mean, but smashing blindly into an enemy formation of unknown strength, composition and deployment was never the idea behind unless the situation was critical. The latter doesn't comprise possible dumb assignments by a REMF higher-ups like those back in the Vietnam War who ordered the Rangers to go on an openly suicidal mission and expect 100% casualties.I believe Larry Chambers wrote about such situation and ceratinly that is only one of many such instances in various theaters and periods.