John Kettler Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Having repeatedly held forth on the ridiculous and ahistorical to me practice of running away from spotting rounds, I do have a partial report which suggests a version's used in Afghanistan. I caught part of the segment on "Firefight" that concerned a Marine attack on Taliban in the hills. A Marine squad got pinned down by AK fire, at which point the Taliban bracketed the position with a single 60mm mortar. The SL, systematically cleared his men, who retired firing as they exited from the impact zone, kept trying to get the attention of a young, gung ho SAW gunner. Knowing very well where that next round was going to land, he yanked the gunner right off the weapon and hustled both of them away. Sure enough, the next round landed smack on the MG! So far, that's the only episode I've encountered in which anything like the running away from the spotting round procedure has been used in real combat. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASL Veteran Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Well John, I have just the thing for you. It's called FM 21-75 Combat Skills of the Soldier. On page 3-5 it just happens to have information on just the thing you are discussing here. IMMEDIATE ACTIONS WHILE MOVING This section furnishes guidance for the immediate actions you should take when reacting to enemy indirect fire and flares. REACTING TO INDIRECT FIRE If you come under indirect fire while moving, quickly look to your leader for orders. He will either tell you to run out of the impact area in a certain direction or will tell you to follow him. If you cannot see your leader, but can see other team members, follow them. If alone, or if you cannot see your leader or the other team members, run out of the area in a direction away from the incoming fire. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apocal Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 So far, that's the only episode I've encountered in which anything like the running away from the spotting round procedure has been used in real combat. The key point is that it was a 60mm mortar fired at a low rate. Against larger pieces or a more intense rate, you can't realistically clear the lethal radius unless you get lucky. Very few people have the balls to try something like that against a steady beat of 82mm. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 ASL Veteran, Thanks! Knowing the Marines (Mom was one), I figured this was something taught, or at least informally practiced. Of course, the young Marine was way too task focused. Apocal, I absolutely agree. One tube. Deliberate fire. How about six rounds? Walked back and forth and maybe laterally. Not fun! One of these days, one of the CM players is going to run into the impact zone! After all, the target's not always obvious, nor do the rounds land anywhere near the planned one all the time. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 In the Rambo movies Rambo would run toward the enemy between exploding mortar burst fireballs... while firing a machinegun in each hand from the hip! On more than one occassion in the game I've seen a spotting round fall and guessed wrong about which units to shift in which direction. But theres the choice between having 50% chance of guessing wrong or an 80%+ chance of getting badly stonked. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 In the Rambo movies Rambo would run toward the enemy between exploding mortar burst fireballs... while firing a machinegun in each hand from the hip! And I would keep praying that one would take the muscle bound SOB out. :mad: Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 If you can advance out from under the barrage without entering known or possible enemy firing areas, and you're advancing anyway, going forward will sometimes be the better option: you don't lose ground and time; you might get inside the minimum range of the system; you may find a direct LOF to attack whatever's delivering the HE. Obviously, it won't be better if you have to step out into the open in front of massed HMGs... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 ASL Veteran, One of these days, one of the CM players is going to run into the impact zone! After all, the target's not always obvious, nor do the rounds land anywhere near the planned one all the time. Yep happened at the weekend with my HQ unit... I guessed wrong and ran into the zone and got zapped... Good job it is only pixels... I was not happy... Should have laid flat..... Or is that hindsight talking? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted April 2, 2013 Share Posted April 2, 2013 There's [ an art to | inherent uncertainty in ] moving out from under a barrage. If the spotting round you see is way off-target, you could disrupt the positions of large numbers of assets to avoid fire that's not coming their way, and if it's closer, you still don't get a perfect indication of the actual target zone. It gets even more confusing if there are more than one asset working you over at once: in the first mission of Troina, I got badly hit by two mortar strikes, because I'd categorised their coincident spotting missions as a Harrass-weight, wide area barrage on a TRP that I was just going to have to suck up/crawl through; then they went to FFE and took out half a platoon that should have run away. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seamountanda Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 as for mortars i have a question (new at the game) if you have direct fire (i mean your mortar team can see/has a LOS on the target) will you have the spotting rounds before the barrage (like in indirect fire) or you begin the barrage without them ... IIRC days ago i read about a bug where you have spotting round just for the first time your team do direct fire and, even it it moves or changes target, not any more well, how it works now ? is the bug still there ? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 as for mortars i have a question (new at the game) if you have direct fire (i mean your mortar team can see/has a LOS on the target) will you have the spotting rounds before the barrage (like in indirect fire) or you begin the barrage without them ... IIRC days ago i read about a bug where you have spotting round just for the first time your team do direct fire and, even it it moves or changes target, not any more well, how it works now ? is the bug still there ? Yes, your "direct lay" shoots are meant to require "ranging" shots if they're at or from different points to the last mission. It can take a conscript team several minutes to get "zeroed in", but Regulars generally go to "FFE" within 90s of getting set up. There was a bug in v1 that meant your mortar team only had to zero on their first fire mission, and all missions thereafter, no matter what had moved, shooter or target point, would be as on target as they were going to get, and fired at full rate (if you used "Target" rather than "Target Light"). In v2 (CMFI v1) the bug has been fixed. Steve has indicated that it will probably also be fixed for the v1 patch: 1.12 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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