eli5 How do military units navigate chaos and maintain direction when faced with casualties, especially if the commanding officer is killed, as depicted in the opening scene of “Saving Private Ryan”?

Question

Recently I watched “Saving Private Ryan” again, and it made me have some questions. For example, in the opening scene of soldiers rushing to the beach, most of the soldiers were almost dead before they even got out of the landing craft. If the commander was also killed, what about the remaining soldiers? Who should direct the people? How should each unit perform the tasks assigned before departure?

In: Other

Answer 1

There’s a clearly defined Chain of Command

If an officer gets killed, the next highest in rank takes over, etc

Sometimes this falls to an enlisted man (sergeant) to run the show much like First Sargeant Lipton at Bastogne in Band of Brothers.

Individual units and soldiers will be briefed with their own objectives. They may not know the whole picture of the battle but they don’t need too. “Take that hill” or “Hold this position” might be enough.

Communication is next, with Radios and runners etc the unit can communicate back to HQ to receive orders.