Mechanized infantry
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Mechanized infantry are infantry equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs), or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat (see also mechanized force).
They are distinguished from motorized infantry in that their vehicles provide a degree of protection from hostile fire, as opposed to "soft-skinned" trucks or jeeps. Their support weapons are also provided with motorized transport, or are built directly into combat vehicles, in order to keep pace with the mechanized infantry in combat. For units equipped with most types of APC or any type of IFV, fire support weapons such as machine guns, autocannons, or small-bore direct-fire howitzers are often mounted directly on the infantry's own transport vehicles.
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[edit] History
Arguably, the first Mechanized infantry were 36 two-man infantry squads carried forward by Mark V* tanks at the Battle of Amiens in 1918. In a battle of such scale, their contribution went unnoticed.
Towards the end of World War I, all the armed forces involved were faced with the problem of maintaining the momentum of an attack. Tanks, artillery or infiltration tactics could all be used to break through an enemy defense, but almost all the offensives launched in 1918 ground to a halt after a few days. Pursuing infantry quickly became exhausted, and artillery, supplies and fresh formations could not be brought forward over the battlefields quickly enough to maintain the pressure on the regrouping enemy.
It was widely acknowledged that cavalry were too vulnerable to be used on most European battlefields. Motorised Infantry could maintain rapid movement, but their trucks required either a good road network, or firm open terrain (such as desert). They were unable to traverse a battlefield obstructed by craters, barbed wire and trenches. Tracked or all-wheel drive vehicles were to be the solution.
Practical soldiers such as Heinz Guderian in Germany and Mikhail Tukhachevsky in the Soviet Union recognised that tank units required close support from infantry and other arms. As the Germans rearmed in the 1930's, they equipped some infantry units in their new Panzer (armoured) divisions with the Half-track SdKfz 251, which could keep up with tanks on almost any terrain. The French Army also created Light Mechanised divisions in which some infantry units possessed small tracked carriers. Together with the motorisation of the other infantry and support units, this resulted in highly mobile formations in both armies that could keep pace with armored formations. The Germans used these to exploit breakthroughs in Blitzkrieg offensives, the French envisaged them being used to shift reserves rapidly in a defensive battle.
The Soviet Red Army did not immediately follow this trend because of the confusion of the Great Purge, although they did practice tank desant. The British Army had established an Experimental Mechanised Force in 1927 but failed to pursue this line due to budget constraints and the prior need to garrison the frontiers of the Empire.
[edit] World War II
From the outset of World War II, German mechanised infantry had a disproportionately large number of successful operations. Because their half track APC was more expensive and time-consuming to manufacture than a truck, it should be noted that barely a quarter or a third of the infantry in a Panzer division was mechanized, except in a few favoured formations.
As World War II progressed, the Germans integrated tanks or assault guns with mechanized infantry as combined arms Panzergrenadier Divisions, providing mobile anti-tank defense and close-up direct fire support for the infantry.
Most other armies of the period also fielded mechanized infantry in units up to brigade in size. Their armored divisions and some armored brigades also included a mechanized infantry element for combined arms support. For example, British armoured brigades had a "motor infantry" battalion mounted in Bren carriers or Lend-Lease halftracks. Later in the war, the United States Army used large numbers of M3 Half-track vehicles to give their infantry mobility. All US Armored Divisions had three battalions of 'Armored Infantry' fully mounted in M2 and M3 halftracks. The British and Canadians also used expedients such as the Kangaroo APC.
Like the Germans, the Soviet army fielded division-sized mechanized infantry units which they called Mechanized Corps, usually consisting of one tank brigade and three mechanized infantry brigades, plus artillery and other support units. New Zealand fielded a division that was sent to Italy, with an organization intermediate between an armored division and a mechanized infantry division.
[edit] The Cold War
In the post-war era, the Soviet Red Army and NATO further developed the equipment and doctrine for mechanized infantry. Though not the first tracked APC, the American M113 was the first in widespread use which gave the infantry the same mobility and almost the same protection as tanks (including against Nuclear, Biological and Chemical, or NBC threats). Even more important was the Soviet BMP-1, which was the first Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Unlike the APC which merely transported the infantry from place to place, the IFV possessed firepower which could support the infantry in attack or defence. The introduction of this vehicle prompted the development of similar vehicles in Western armies, such as the West German Marder and United States M2 Bradley.
This led to different tactics between the "light" and "heavy" varieties of mechanized infantry. In the Soviet Army, a first-line "Motor Rifle" division usually had two regiments equipped with the wheeled BTR-60 APC and one with the tracked BMP-1 IFV. The "light" regiments were intended to make dismounted attacks on the division's flanks; the BMP-equipped "heavy" regiment supported the division's tank regiment on the main axis of advance. Both types of infantry regiment nevertheless were officially titled "Motor Rifle" units.
A line of development in the Soviet Armed Forces was the provision of specialised IFV's for use by their airborne forces. The first of these was the BMD-1, which had the same firepower as the BMP-1, but which could be carried in or even parachuted from the standard Soviet transport aircraft. This made airborne formations into mechanized infantry, at the cost of reducing their "bayonet" strength. They were used in this role in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. This trend was not followed by Western nations.
[edit] The Present Day
At present, almost all infantry units from industrialized nations are provided with some type of motor transport. Infantry units equipped with IFVs rather than lighter vehicles are commonly designated as "heavy", indicating more combat power but also more costly long-range transportation requirements.
In the British Army, "heavy" units equipped with the tracked Warrior IFV are described as "Armoured Infantry", and units with the wheeled Saxon APC as "Mechanised Infantry". This convention is becoming widespread; for example the French Army has "Motorisées" units equipped with the wheeled VAB and "Mécanisées" (armoured) units with the tracked AMX-10P.
The transport and other logistic requirements have led many armies to adopt wheeled APC's when their existing stocks of tracked APC's require replacement. An example is the Canadian Army. The US Army is also following this trend, forming brigades which use the Stryker wheeled IFV (although they will continue to field "heavy" formations for many years to come). On the other hand, the Italian, Spanish and Swedish armies are adopting (and exporting) new indigenously-produced tracked IFV's.
Many APC's and IFV's currently under development are intended for rapid deployment by aircraft. New technologies which promise reduction in weight, such as electric drive, may be incorporated.
[edit] Conversion of MBTs
By contrast, a recent trend seen in the Israel Defense Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is the introduction of exceptionally well-armoured APC's such as the IDF Achzarit which are converted from obsolete Main Battle Tanks (such as the Russian T-55). Such vehicles are expedients, and lack of space prevents the armament of an IFV being carried in addition to an infantry section or squad. In the Russian Army, such vehicles were introduced for fighting in urban areas, where the risk from short range infantry anti-tank weapons such as the RPG-7 is highest, after Russian tank and motor infantry units suffered heavy losses fighting insurgents in Grozny, Chechnya in 1995.
[edit] As support for armored formations
It has been discovered repeatedly that armored formations are much less effective without the support of infantrymen; the pre-WWII notion of "tank fleets" has not proved to be sound. Though many nations' armored formations included an organic mechanized infantry component at the start of World War II, the proportion of mechanized infantry in such combined arms formations was increased by most armies as the war progressed.
The lesson was re-learned by the Israeli Defense Force in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when a doctrine that relied primarily on tanks, paratroopers, and aircraft proved inadequate. As a makeshift remedy paratroopers were provided with motorized transport and used as mechanized infantry in coordination with the armor; after the war the IDF reorganized its armored formations on the basis of the lesson learned.
The doctrine is now universal in nations capable of supporting armored formations. Recently the United States Army has fielded both armored divisions and "heavy" infantry divisions; the organization of the two types was almost identical, except that the ratio of armored battalions to mechanized infantry battalions is slightly higher in the armored divisions and slightly lower in the heavy infantry divisions.
