Ask a Soldier

[Flying Pig]

You reload when you want to be able to lay down 30 rounds - that is, any time you have ten seconds free (I'll probably get MobBoss biting my head off for that, because was always far from official tactics, but so long as you save the old rounds it works great). It varies depending on operation as to the usual time to reload - during a traditional 'field battle' you would normally reload before attacking a position, after taking (and securing) a position and during the setting up of a defensive position (which I hate) or an ambush (which I love). You can't actually tell how many rounds are in the magazine, so normally you do it based on demand not supply

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

What can you tell me about the British Army's artillery doctrine?

 

[Flying Pig]

When I was around, it was used when you know the enemy is entrenched somewhere, like in a foxhole, which you can't attack the normal way. My sort of operations (don't forget I served in some of the lightest infantry in the world) generally didn't use it, so I]'m digging out old lessons from Sandhurst about it, which generally said that unless there's a battalion or more in the field it's rarely worth using.

 

[LuiGGi]

*What's your favourite gadget?
*what's the most useful gadget?
*what's the less useful gadget?
*Which gadget currently available you wish you had during your operations?

 

[Flying Pig]

I don't do gadgets, so I'm going to go on bits of kit that I like. My favorite gadget is a radio, because it got me out of a cold, wet position on the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere with a company of the enemy behind me. The most useful is definitly a tampon, although it's far from a gadget, but it is incredibly useful. I don't know what I would call the least useful gadget, since I never carried anything I didn't consider useful, but the only thing currently issued I would like is the L85 rifle, which gives automatic fire, and the regular army was not allowed to use it in my day (they took the automatic setting off the L1A1).

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

How useful are frag grenades in combat in outdoor, open areas?

 

[Perfection]

What is the most inappropriate thing you've done with your gun?

 

[Flying Pig]

How useful are frag grenades in combat in outdoor, open areas?

I like them, especially when the enemy have defensive positions, because if you throw them around the enemy all duck and start panicking, and if you throw one into a trench you probably know the rough details.

What is the most inappropriate thing you've done with your gun?

No comment

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

What about, say, an open field with no cover? Would they still be useful?

 

[Flying Pig]

I prefer smoke since it covers your men, but they still work for the 'get their heads down' part. Really, only about 10% of a normal soldier's shots are aimed on target, the rest is to either spray a position and hope to kill something or to make the enemy duck

 

[Elta]

Does Mushin ever play any role in combat?

Are you ever told that you are thinking too much?

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Would you be inclined to save Prince Harry's butt preferentially to any of the other men?

 

[Flying Pig]

Does Mushin ever play any role in combat?

I googled that, and came up with a very strange page on martial arts psychology. However I did get this:

The mind could be said to be working at a very high speed, but with no intentions, plans or direction.

So I would say rarely. I spent the overwhelming majority of my time as a leader of men, so you are always remembering and following the broad plan and obeying the unofficial para motto - "half a year to plan, half a minute to execute" - plan as thoroughly as possible beforehand then move in with huge speed, aggression and co-ordination. That said,, a lot of it becomes second nature (does 'dash down crawl observe sights fire' mean anything to you?') so you don't have to think too much.

Are you ever told that you are thinking too much?

In general I tell; but when that's said it's normally in jest. If there's a situation that the boss doesn't know how to deal with, we need to work out what to do if that happens. 'What if there's ten of them over that hill, corporal?' is often a valid question. Sometimes people just get annoying (especially cadets!) and ask stupid questions like 'what if there's a corps of them over that hill?'

Would you be inclined to save Prince Harry's butt preferentially to any of the other men?

I'll pretend I'm still under the colours for this - you save anyone who needs it as well as you can, but if there was a definite choice between him or someone else it would depend. I don't think I can answer that.

 

[Chazumi]

What about, say, an open field with no cover? Would they still be useful?

Hand grenades explode upwards, mostly, so in an open field with no cover as long as they aren't in the prone it would be an "okay" weapon. Why you'd be throwing a frag (which if you are really good you could throw it 25 meters), when you could use your rifle or a pistol is beyond me.

I have thrown a few hand grenades in combat situations and the closest thing to "open" i've seen is a grapefield, the only reason we threw them was because we weren't sure where exactly the guys were in the field.

Do you always reload when the ammunition runs out in the magazine? Or would reloading while there's a few bullets left acceptable?

This is a 50/50 kind of thing. If you have decent cover and aren't moving anywhere you shoot until you are out, normally if we are about to pick up, or I know I am close to being out I will reload, we often let our teams know to reload because its easy to forget stuff with the amount of adrenaline pumping.

 

[Flying Pig]

Hand grenades explode upwards, mostly, so in an open field with no cover as long as they aren't in the prone it would be an "okay" weapon. Why you'd be throwing a frag (which if you are really good you could throw it 25 meters), when you could use your rifle or a pistol is beyond me.

Exactly, but to be honest I think some people just like the bangs. Grenades should only ever be thrown into cover of some sort. That said, there's no way you'd be engaging the enemy at grenade range with no cover.

This is a 50/50 kind of thing. If you have decent cover and aren't moving anywhere you shoot until you are out, normally if we are about to pick up, or I know I am close to being out I will reload, we often let our teams know to reload because its easy to forget stuff with the amount of adrenaline pumping.

British units often do that, as I've said, before you know you're going to need rounds, and we always reload a full mag or as close to full as possible after a contact is finished. The irish use a transparent magazine so that they can actually count them, which is quite cool.

 

[MobBoss]

How useful are frag grenades in combat in outdoor, open areas?

One of the things I like to point out is that grenades dont actually explode the way they do in Hollywood movies. Almost always without exception Hollywood magnifies what a real grenade will do in almost any circumstance. For example, a grenade under a car isnt going to throw the car into the air and flip it a few times.

As to the reload question, I wouldnt bite your head off at all FP. My experience is no matter how good the soldier is, they typically dont count their rounds as they are firing and pretty much have to rely on the sound of no round being chambered when the mag goes empty (the M16 at least makes a different little click when its out of ammo along with the trigger not going 'click, click' anymore..) In fact, in a firefight, I dont think anyone is actually taking the time to check magazines for extra rounds, unless their is a lull or something, and as FP says, during a lull one of the things you do is top off your ammo.

 

[Chazumi]

The irish use a transparent magazine so that they can actually count them, which is quite cool

Couple of guys around here have mags with "windows" in them, pretty neat except for the fact you will only know when you are down to like...5 rounds, invested their own money in them too so, I'll stick with the issued

 

[Flying Pig]

For example, a grenade under a car isnt going to throw the car into the air and flip it a few times.

You've just hit on one of my pet movie hates, along with exploding cannonballs.

As to the reload question, I wouldnt bite your head off at all FP. My experience is no matter how good the soldier is, they typically dont count their rounds as they are firing and pretty much have to rely on the sound of no round being chambered when the mag goes empty (the M16 at least makes a different little click when its out of ammo along with the trigger not going 'click, click' anymore..) In fact, in a firefight, I dont think anyone is actually taking the time to check magazines for extra rounds, unless their is a lull or something, and as FP says, during a lull one of the things you do is top off your ammo.

Back in the day when we had a real rifle, you knew about firing it and it didn't make the tinny little noise than an armalite does but it went BANG!. SOPs over here is to divide your ammo into two to four mags, putting empty ones in a different pocket to full ones, and maybe keeping some spare depending on the mission.

Couple of guys around here have mags with "windows" in them, pretty neat except for the fact you will only know when you are down to like...5 rounds, invested their own money in them too so, I'll stick with the issued

Armalite mags are awesome. I'm taking a few down to Pirbright Range this weekend for a shooting practise with the corps.

 

[G-Man]

One of the things I like to point out is that grenades dont actually explode the way they do in Hollywood movies. Almost always without exception Hollywood magnifies what a real grenade will do in almost any circumstance. For example, a grenade under a car isnt going to throw the car into the air and flip it a few times.

True, but as a brave-former-intelligence-officer who only threw a grenade once I must say that I was surprised by the sound it makes. I remember we were throwing a grenade one soldier at a time, and our commander told us that we'd hear a "pak" sound, and if not we should just send the next person every five minutes. Maybe it's the mountains echoing, but I later navigated over 10km away from there and we could clealry hear the grenades exploding.

 

[MobBoss]

Couple of guys around here have mags with "windows" in them, pretty neat except for the fact you will only know when you are down to like...5 rounds, invested their own money in them too so, I'll stick with the issued

I mentioned soldiers buying third party stuff like that in another thread recently. Yeah, I would rather have really good commercial stuff than so-so gov spec if my life depended on its working.

True, but as a brave-former-intelligence-officer who only threw a grenade once I must say that I was surprised by the sound it makes. I remember we were throwing a grenade one soldier at a time, and our commander told us that we'd hear a "pak" sound, and if not we should just send the next person every five minutes. Maybe it's the mountains echoing, but I later navigated over 10km away from there and we could clealry hear the grenades exploding.

Some of that could be local atmospheric conditions too. Here at Fort Lewis, when the cloud cover is low you can hear the ranges from miles and miles away and arty rounds going off will sound like thunder and shake your house. But the conditions have to be just right for the sound waves to bounce back and forth from the ground off the low cloud cover in order for them to travel that far.