Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
The problem was that most were riflemen first and foremost. They understood the theory of the machinegun, but they had never actually carried one and operated as the section gunner. They had been trained (like all infantry) in it's operation, but beyond 50 rounds a year to "familiarise" them, they barely touched it.
Even most of the gunners didn't really want to carry it due in most part to it's weight. Me on the other hand, I saw from the very first day the benefits in being the section gunner - better piquet shifts, rarely called upon for extra duties, got to ride with your head out of the APC, not to mention all that belt fed, heavy firepower, juicy goodness!  At the time I was the smallest in the platoon (maybe even company) and weighed about 65kgs (140 lbs) dripping wet. I ALWAYS put my hand up to carry it.
The zeroing issue wasn't addressed until an older ex-gunner was promoted to WO2 and put in charge of running the machinegun qualification shoot. By the end of the day (and thousands of rounds later) all the guns were zeroed and consistently hitting targets for probably the first time in at least a decade and a half. Most had also been pulled and properly serviced by a competent armourer from another unit, so they ran almost as well and brand new guns.
A shame really. They were withdrawn from service just a couple of years later and replaced with Minimi's and MAG-58's.  |
This brings up another potential game hurdle that the Referee can put in place to make life more "interesting" for the Players - the different levels of knowledge and training between different units of the same type in the same army.
Your experience is in definite contrast to mine where the Infantry Company I was in stressed the importance of the gun within the Section. Every soldier in the Section was expected to know how to use the gun and was also expected to help clean, maintain etc. etc. it because it was a Section weapon and not an individual weapon (like the rifle). Everyone got some range time with it (whenever we had a live shoot which by that time due to the government cutting defence spending, was becoming rare - down from four or five when I first joined to just one live shoot a year).
Even at Battalion level they placed importance on the gun. During those times when the whole Battalion was on exercise, they usually tested knowledge & skills of any & all equipment in use. Anyone who was a gunner was expected to know more about the gun than the average grunt to the point where the NCOs should be able to hand over training on the gun to the gunner himself.
Even the SFMG course I went on was promoted within the Battalion, not because they were going to add SFMG but because they wanted the gunners to get more time, training and knowledge on the -60.
I reckon even now, 25+ years later, I could still load & unload and strip & assemble the M60 blindfolded!