As soon as I take more ground, I push up the machine guns and anti-tank guns to hold it against enemy counterattacks. Machine guns and anti-tank guns hold the ground I take, while infantry squads and mortars try to break enemy defensive positions.
I push my machine guns up as far as I can, as often as I can. Personally, I like to play more defensively in tactical situations, but there is nothing defensive about the overarching strategy of my games. You need to constantly engage the enemy on any position of advantage. The same reason that Rommel was so successful will be the reason that you also win. Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, the famed German General in WWII who came to be called the 'Desert Fox'. 'In the absence of orders, move forward and kill something.' Keeping on the Offensive: How to Win, plain and simple