THE RISK OF DEFEATING THE ENEMY
During WWII in PNG as the Australian troops were involved in engaging the Japanese in Milne Bay and some of the regions along the North coast, the Australian troops began to realise that if they waited for all the artillery fire to cease that the Japanese in machine gun bunkers would quickly rally within seconds of the bombardment and man the machine guns again and take out more Australian troops as they tried to advance.
They discovered a way of advancing while still under bombardment from their own artillery. Realising that the artillery shells were mostly landing in mud...and although making a thunderous noise, most of the impact from the shell was being absorbed by the mud and causing no real damage. There was of course a serious concussion brought down with the shell but not much collateral damage.
So the Australian troops realised that the only way to defeat the enemy was to advance and get right amongst the bombardment from their own guns! By doing this they were able to take out enemy Japanese machine gun bunkers before they could recover from the bombardment.
(From a sermon by John Perry, A Great Sunday Service, 8/21/2011)