- For the Steel Division II unit see SD2:Rifles (UK)
Rifles is a British Infantry unit. They're the basic, mainstay line infantry, cheap and available in numbers. While they do not possess the anti-tank weaponry needed to destroy armoured units, they can lob grenades to destroy lightly armoured vehicles such as the U304(f).
Overview[ | ]
Infantry is essential in every war, and the rifleman was a bread-and-butter unit in the heavily forested bocage with its hedgerows that are difficult to cross.
Allied infantry had a hard time fighting in this landscape, facing battle-hardened German veterans in defensive positions. Whereas the British were tied up around Caen, dealing with some of Germany's most fanatic armoured divisions, the Americans faced hedgerows warfare. Air, artillery and tank power were less effective in this terrain and it was mainly the rifleman who was called upon to break the defences.
"The cumbersome American war machine was ill-suited to this maze of tiny enclosed fields and sunken lanes, which were far more favourable to guerrilla warfare. Lying in wait in the undergrowth, snipers armed with panzerschrecks picked off the tanks as they lumbered over the hedges, exposing their vulnerable undersides.
The support from tactical artillery and aviation which was normally so decisive was less useful here, because of the impossibility of pinpointing enemy positions with any degree of accuracy. The “war of the hedgerows” was above all an infantry battle in which the defender had the advantage. Plunged into a living hell, tens, if not hundreds, of GIs lost their lives in battles to capture a hedge that looked exactly the same as the last one they had taken and desperately similar to those they had yet to conquer."
(histoire normandie dday)
Rifles represent the normal British Infantryman. 15th Infantry had three brigades of 3 battalions. While the Guards Armoured and 7th Armoured had a Infantry brigade. Unlike their 15th Infantry counterparts who normally marched or were motorized by Divisional or higher echelons assets the Infantry Brigade in the Armored Division had organic RASC troop carrying platoon.
Strategy[ | ]
Relatively cheap and numerous, rifles should mainly be employed in forests and urban terrain. They are effective against infantry, but cannot deal damage against heavily armoured units. While they are not the most powerful infantry unit nor the cheapest, they offer reasonable firepower against a reasonable price.
Rifles are somewhat expendable and can take the brunt of the enemy artillery while spearheading infantry fights.
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