Crossing the T effect

The Crossing the T effect occurs when a force is firing from a flank of its enemy who are in line formation or when firing along the length of the enemy when they are in column formation.

Crossing the T comes from the nautical back ground in the Army it is more correctly called Enfilade fire which comes from the French enfiler - or to skewer.

The effectiveness of Enfilade comes from several factors:

• For the assaulting side; in the main, only elevation has to be changed thus reducing the firing equation to one dimension
• The reduced traverse means targets are acquired more quickly
• Rounds that miss the target have a high probability of continuing on to hit other enemy targets further along in the enemy formation
• The effective fire of the enemy is reduced to single point, as intervening enemy troops obscure their comrades fire.
• All the effective fire of the enfilading force is applied