How do you cope with the fear of dying in combat and prior to combat?
In combat I've never actually thought about it; it's hard to explain but you sort of assume you're immortal and therefore while you duck for cover when there are rounds going down around you if you see one of your mates in trouble you almost forget about all that and just go and do what you have to do; it's only later that you find the peice of metal in your body-armour pouch and think 'that was close!' I think the best coping mechanism is the endless training - we had a saying 'yea, though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I am the hardest bar steward in the god-damn valley!'.
Were the prisoners aware that the new guards were people not to be trifled with?
I think the uniforms may have given it away - but we never had to seriously crack down on them, we just treated them like last-term recruits to be honest.
Actually, I will offer my opinion here based on what I have heard of both. So that means the nod goes to the British guys, as the Marines can get a tad over-zealous with their 'GET SOME' attitude. But I would probably give the edge to the US Marines if you absolutely had to have something blown up immediately. Those guys absolutely love pulling triggers and not letting up until the ammo runs out or the barrel warps.
That's probably true of us paratroopers as well, at least that's our reputation. I've got a lot of respect for the USMC; we had one of them over as an exchange officer swapped for our platoon commander and frankly we thought we were giving up on a pretty good deal when we let him go back - like something out of Band of Brothers, a real gent and not a bad officer either.
So, basically the Brits are more professional but the Marines are more gung ho?
Stereotypically, yes. Two dits from Korea - the USMC, when they made landfall surrounded by Chinese and Koreans, reportedly said words to the effect of 'there ain't an army in the world that can stop a marine regiment from going where it wants to go!', while the British Gloucestershire Regiment's sitrep from the top of Gloster Hill (under attack from the bulk of the People's Liberation Army) was 'things are a bit sticky' - which the American brigade commander duly interpreted as 'we're pretty much alright' and didn't send any help. Old-fashioned British reserve is far from dead.
I've done some reading about the middle ages that suggests a soldier could remain in intense combat for around ten minutes before reaching mental and physical fatigue. What would you say is the time it takes for mental and physical fatigue to set in for a soldier in an intense firefight situation?
Well obviously we have an easier time in that we're not wearing tin cans or giving it some with a sharp stick so often, but even then a long battle is tiring both for the sprinting around the place and having to be alert to everything at once. It really does depend - in Afghanistan they've had firefights lasting all day, because the Taliban have hidden at huge ranges and put potshots off where they can, so they can't hit us and we can't see them to shoot them back, but in a really intense, fast-moving attack half an hour would be extremely testing, if we were constantly attacking the enemy and having to move around.
Which do you prefer: L1A1 or SA80?
Here's the
rifle I served with in FDF.
SLR all the way. Beautiful old thing.
M1A2 vs whatever the latest British tank is? I think it is the Challenger something? Throw the latest Leopard in there.
My understanding of it is that the Challenger 2 is a better tank individually, but the Abrams is better value for money and not much worse off in terms of actual capability; thereby being perfect for the American goal of destroying hundreds and hundreds of Soviet (or Iraqi) T-72s. That said there's very little to choose between those three; add in the French LeClerc and the latest Russian thing and you've got the top 5 MBTs in the world.
theres probably not a lot in it in terms of surviveability and weaponry but its more fuel efficient and you can make tea so obviously better
I think you can do that in most modern tanks; the hot plate's there so that you can eat and drink in an NBC black environment, so if it weren't there then it would be quite easy for a well-equipped enemy to obstruct our armour.