Why Captain America Was an Awful Commander in the Battle Against Thanos

The Angry Staff Officer

Security,

What the U.S. military can learn. 

Deciding to open the shield was not necessarily a stupid idea. It made a gap just a few metres wide through which the enemy tried to push a light infantry brigade. Despite the Wakandan military lacking in indirect fires, this still presented an excellent opportunity. Any fire on the gap would be guaranteed to hit the enemy. The effectiveness of the canalization could perhaps be improved by field engineering works, although time was limited.

The world is blessed that Steve Rogers never made it past captain. The Battle of Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War is a master class in how not to use an infantry battalion. However, from his failure, we can extract some fundamental lessons:

STAY MOBILE

To set the stage – Captain Rogers and his host nation ally Black Panther positioned a Wakandan infantry battalion in close order on the plains outside Benin Zana, the capital city of Wakanda. While they were transported to the battlefield by vehicle, these craft were sent away. This dramatically cut down on the tactical mobility of the overall force and forced an engagement at that location. Given the enemy had superior numbers, this complete disregard of manoeuvre was a critical mistake.

(This first appeared last month.)

It is true that the transport craft were unarmoured and open-topped. If fighting an adversary with strong anti-armour or indirect fire capabilities, sending them away would be reasonable. However, the Thanosian forces lacked this entirely. Their troops were incapable of using ranged weapons, or indeed, higher brain functions. They traveled on foot and bit the opposition to death.

Captain Roger’s disregard for vehicles is perhaps excusable as being on brand for a career light infantry officer. However, his next sin was far more grievous.

KEEP A RESERVE

Captain Rogers failed to keep any sort of reserve force back from the fighting. Instead, he committed them all into one action. The only unit not so engaged was Scarlet Witch, who was the last line of defence protecting Benin Zana. However, re-tasking a unit from a critical role is not the same as having a dedicated reserve force.