The relationship between situational understanding (SU) and a commander’s vision are analytical and conceptual and together play a very important role for the commander in achieving his operational and tactical objective of being successful on the battlefield. As the Situational Awareness (SA) is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and space in order to understand how information, events, and one's own actions impact goals and objectives, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable have changed, such as time. while, SU is the product of applying analysis and judgment to SA to determine the relationships of the factors presented …show more content…
This decision had a negative impact on the units attacking Hurtgen, Simonskall, and Steckenborn during which, they encountered dense minefields and heavy resistance. As a result, the 28th ID attack failed. Lack of information due to not studying the enemy and physical environment created an information gap that affected Cota’s SA and SU. Second, prior the attack into the Hurtgen Forest, the 28th Division artillery did not neutralize the German artillery on the Brandenberg-Bergstein Ridge. Consequently, the German artillery was able to cause high casualties on attacking units throughout the battle. As a result, the 28th ID attack failed and encountered heavy causalities. Third, unlike his presence at Omaha Beach with his subordinates, Cota remained at the division command post, where he was disconnected of what was going on the front line. Such thing prevented him to visualize the problem, make the assessment, and then make the right decision. In addition, Cota’s perception of being the only unit fighting in the whole front in such a bad weather and restricted terrain had a psychological effect in its