Covering a dig with smoke

Your side can only dig forward where you have made it safe to dig. In a dig operation, sappers cut a new fire trench across no-man's-land, and your shells keep the enemy blind and quiet until it connects. This is how the front moves, a few dozen metres at a time.

Steps

1. Take the request. A slip from Lt Maren Osk is pinned to the map table: "Cover our dig at grid C4." It shows the distance by rail and when the request expires, in war time. No button accepts it: you take it on by driving Old Marta to a siding in range. Officer requests like this one earn goodwill with the sector.
2. Find the strip. The officer marks a strip of no-man's-land 40–80 m ahead of your fire trench. Before you fire anything, work out and pin a solution for every target you will need: each threat, the strip, and the enemy fire trench facing it. Under smoke there is no time to start from the ruler.
3. Clear the threats. Destroy or suppress whatever overlooks the strip: MG nests at the trench corners, snipers in ruins, and the facing enemy fire-trench sector, which you bring under about 40% strength. Use HE (1) and bracket each target as usual. Do this before the first smoke shell, because smoke blinds your forward spotters too.

4. Lay the smoke screen. Press 3 for smoke (gamepad: D-pad) and put it across the strip. Each screen hides the diggers for 45–60 s. Plan the next screen before this one thins: if your shells fly for 38 s, the next smoke shell has to leave the gun soon after the last one lands.
5. Keep their heads down. While the sappers dig, put shrapnel (2) on the enemy trench every so often. It bursts in the air over soldiers in the open and leaves no crater. If enemy fire picks up, the diggers stop and wait. The dig only moves forward while the smoke holds and the enemy trench stays suppressed.
6. Hold. After 2–4 minutes of digging, the new fire trench connects. Your old fire trench becomes the support line, and control of the ground shifts forward.

What to watch for

• Smoke too soon. Smoke hides the diggers, but it also hides the enemy from your forward spotters. Finish any shooting that needs their corrections before the first screen goes down.
• A thinning screen. A late smoke shell leaves the diggers in the open, and when the enemy opens up they stop. Keep the next screen in the air before you need it.
• Your own exposure. A dig is many shots from one siding, and every shot fills the exposure meter. Rig the camouflage net before you start, and know which siding you would move to: see Moving Marta before they find her.
• When it goes wrong. If the diggers take too many casualties, the dig stops. Nothing is lost for good: the half-dug trench stays on the map and the dig can be resumed. A request you never get to expires quietly, and new ones appear wherever the front is active.

Practise it

Before your next dig, pin three solutions in the notebook: the MG nest at the crossroads, the strip, and the enemy trench facing it. Then run the whole dig from the notebook, laying the gun from one pinned solution to the next and switching shells with 1, 2 and 3, without solving anything new once the smoke is down. Officer requests turn up wherever the front is active, and more of them in The hot zone. For what the sappers are doing on the other end, read Digging a new line and Trenches.