In message , David Lentz
writes
Joey Bishop wrote:
A Lt at the back of the platoon with a pistol, who was told to shoot those
who refused to jump. That'd be my standard :-)

Wrong role.
The Lieutenant is the first of out of the airplane. The top
sergeant is the guy at the end of the line with the big boot.

That's the way it works for infantry. The platoon commander is up front
leading the assault group and really hoping that his troops will follow
him.

The platoon _sergeant_ is either at the back of the assault group,
motivating men to follow their officer, or else with the fire-support
section (with the 51mm mortar and lots of automatic weapons) shooting
the assault group into the objective. In either case, a large part of
his job role is "being ready to jump into his commander's smoking
boots".

(British officer casualty rates for WW2: one in four. Other Ranks: one
in nine. Being in front, head up, shouting orders, gets you shot a
_lot_. Why did I try for it? Why was I so disappointed to be turned
down?)

--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk