Machineguns fire mode.

[leonpoi]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

While it's definately going to cool the barrel down, immersing it in water is certainly causing damage as I mentioned before.
Chances are it'll still be useable for that battle, but don't count on it after that. It may even screw it up so badly that it cracks when fired (and that's definately something in the BAD THINGS category).

As for sniping, why bother wasting the ammo on poor, hapless cadets, even if they are only blanks. I found waving a handaxe, or, better yet, charging with a SMLE bayonet on the end of my F88 did the trick quite nicely. (Yes, a hundred year old bayonet will fit after judicious application of no more than an allen key)

There's something to be said for cold steel.

are there really bayonets in a MILES training?

I've got a friend whose army career so far goes:
(Australia) Infantry -> sniper -> (Iraq) -> (Afghanistan) -> Commandos -> (Afghanistan)
when he was still training for the sniper course his group was the opposing force for a bunch of cadets. In one fight he snuck through long grass to pretty close (maybe 50m), popped up and shot, ducked down and moved, popped up and shot - repeat. He took out 16 guys before withdrawing back out of view. He said he could hardly contain himself from laughing because they just had no idea where he was.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by leonpoi

are there really bayonets in a MILES training?

I think Leggie likes to keep it real.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by leonpoi

are there really bayonets in a MILES training?

I've got a friend whose army career so far goes:
(Australia) Infantry -> sniper -> (Iraq) -> (Afghanistan) -> Commandos -> (Afghanistan)
when he was still training for the sniper course his group was the opposing force for a bunch of cadets. In one fight he snuck through long grass to pretty close (maybe 50m), popped up and shot, ducked down and moved, popped up and shot - repeat. He took out 16 guys before withdrawing back out of view. He said he could hardly contain himself from laughing because they just had no idea where he was.

I remember one such exercise. The cadets were to demonstrate their proficiency at crossing a minefield under fire. We had one M-60 atop the hill at the other end of the minefield. The cadets never even got to the minefield...

[Legbreaker]

When I was acting as enemy, one of our favourite "tactics" was to sneak up in the middle of the night with a camera and take a picture from just a few metres away. The flash would blind anyone with their eyes open, and I don't recall a single photo (once developed - this was pre digital cameras) showing the sentries to be awake.

Amazing what the various plattoon sergeants responses were after the photos were posted on the notice boards.



On another "enemy" exercise we had to walk through an ambush site three times before it was initiated. Each time making more and more noise to the point where we were actually banging on anything we could just to wake them up!
Poor trainees not getting enough sleep....

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

When I was acting as enemy, one of our favourite "tactics" was to sneak up in the middle of the night with a camera and take a picture from just a few metres away. The flash would blind anyone with their eyes open, and I don't recall a single photo (once developed - this was pre digital cameras) showing the sentries to be awake.

Sad, pathetic losers. While I was an infantryman I NEVER, not once, fell asleep while on sentry duty. I accept however that on a couple of occassions, after a week or more in the bush and only a few hours of sleep per night, I was pitifully un-alert

[Legbreaker]

All I'll say on that note is that the feed cover of the M60 makes a relatively comfortable pillow on those long, cold night ambushes.



I will add though that I have been so utterly exhausted while on sentry that I was halucinating. Saw vehicles, houses, trees, elephants and more moving about in front of me, but not one single enemy infantryman...
Good thing the expected attack didn't come until about an hour after I was relieved.

[jester]

The SAW makes a good backrest too, and its feedtray also is a decent pillow I must say.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I will add though that I have been so utterly exhausted while on sentry that I was halucinating. Saw vehicles, houses, trees, elephants and more moving about in front of me, but not one single enemy infantryman...
Good thing the expected attack didn't come until about an hour after I was relieved.

When I was a sprog cadet we were carrying out an ambush towards the end of a week of field excercises. We were positioned in deep ditch beside a road waiting for the enemy (The Fantasian Freedom Fighters that some other Brits on here may recall from excercise?) to bimble along the road. I was part of the cutoff group at one end of the ambush and was so completely exhausted that a leprechaun appearing floating in front of the bush I was hiding in didn't seem at all wierd On a similar excercise in Otterburn training area we had to stop another cadet from blowing the ambush by wandering over to a coke machine that he could see on the far side of the track we were positioned along

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

All I'll say on that note is that the feed cover of the M60 makes a relatively comfortable pillow on those long, cold night ambushes.

My LT caught me doing that on one drill when I was humping both an M-60 and a Dragon, and when we got to the objective, we were ordered into MOPP IV. I flat fell asleep, which was uncharacteristic of me. The LT showed a flash of intelligence and sent me to the medics, where I was diagnosed with the flu and had a fever of 104 degrees F. I think I would have been comfortable on a bed of nails, I was so out of it.

[Legbreaker]

Worst load I had was carrying the M60, spare barrel (and cleaning kit), plus 77 set (radio) and spare battery. We were lacking a No2 gunner (as usual!) and properly trained signaller that week. Fortunately the 600 rounds of link I was also carrying were only blanks and about a 1/3 of the weight of real rounds.
Wouldn't have been too bad since the gun on the front and radio on the back basically cancelled each other out (could actually stand perfectly upright) but the terrain was mountainous to say the least. The slopes we were climbing were so steep you could touch the ground with hand outstretch while standing straight up.

[B.T.]

How to deal with Machine guns and fire modes?
Here is a list for the MGs mentioned in the "Infantry Weapons of the World" of Ver.2. I've tried to figure out, what the weapons abilities are IRL:

BAR: special
The BAR has been produced in several countries and in several versions. Some of them were "full auto only", others had been made "selective".

AAT-52: ?
Bren L2A4: selective
RPK: selective

M249 SAW: full auto only
Colt M1895/1914: ?
DP: ?

DShK: full auto only
FMM 24/29: selective
HK-21: selective

KPV: ?
L86A1 LSW: selective
Lewis Mk I: full auto only

M214 6-Pac: full auto only
M2HB: selective
M60: full auto only

M134 Minigun: full auto only
Browning M1919A4: full auto only
MAG-58/GPMG: full auto only

MG-3: full auto only
MG-08: full auto only
MG-34: selective

MG-42: full auto only
PK(M) : full auto only
RPD: full auto only

Bren Mk II: selective
Browning M1917A1: full auto only
SG-43: ?

Stoner LMG: ?
Stoner M207: ?
Steyr AUG LMG: selective
From all that I've read, there is no selector, to switch from "single shot" to "full auto". You just pull the trigger. If you pull it slightly, you've got a single shot, if you pull it harder, you automatically get "full auto".

Vickers Mk I: ?
Vz-59 : full auto only


The "?" in the listing means: I don't know and had no info on the subject.

House rules (For Ver 2.2):
I let the players decide, if they want to use "Small Arms: Rifle" or "Autogun", when firing a light or medium MG.
Heavy MGs have to be fired using "Autogun".
If someone uses "Autogun" with a MG, whose RoF is "5", the character may fire single shots.
I don't allow to switch from "Single Shot" to "Burst" during an action.
Two exceptions: If a machine gunner with a MG (RoF: 5) uses "Autogun", he may fire his shots as he likes, combining "Single Shot" and "Burst" freely.
The Steyr AUG LMG may combine "Single Shot" and "Burst" as the shooter likes, because of the unique action of the weapon.

I hope, this listing will be useful for some of you. If someone has info on the weapons with uncertain info, please let me know. I'd like to complete this listing!

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

When I was acting as enemy, one of our favourite "tactics" was to sneak up in the middle of the night with a camera and take a picture from just a few metres away. The flash would blind anyone with their eyes open, and I don't recall a single photo (once developed - this was pre digital cameras) showing the sentries to be awake.

It's beyond infuriating how unwilling to govern themselves so many soldiers are. It's not just the enlisted men, either. At the MI school, I'd go out as OPFOR when one of the classes of new MI lieutenants was in the field. The only time I failed to walk into the perimeter unchallenged was December '95 when the West Point graduates stayed up all night singing Christmas carols. In the field.

Can't say how many times during training I woke up for my shift more-or-less after it was supposed to start. No one had awakened me. No one was awake. It's a bad feeling when you know the unit has its pants down in the field.

The most serious incident of this sort happened in Iraq. One of our guys, whom we nicknamed the Narcoleptic Ranger, fell asleep behind the machine gun in a watch tower overlooking Checkpoint 12 in the Green Zone. How often this had happened in the past, I can't say. However, a staff sergeant working for the battalion staff sergeant major had been making the rounds to check on the sentries and discovered the Narcoleptic Ranger and his supervisor asleep. The Narcoleptic Ranger was asleep on his feet. He had the gall to express dissatisfaction with receiving an Article 15. I'd have put him in jail, and I actually liked the guy (he had been in my fire team when we started training). I also never would have gone down with him on the gun.

My first line duty NCO said to me that the Rangers were nothing more than what the infantry ought to be. I asked why every unit wasn't more like the Rangers, then. He told me that getting grown men to live up to their commitments and responsibilities is very, very difficult--even in an all-volunteer Army. The years since then have only served to prove him right.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by leonpoi

are there really bayonets in a MILES training?

I wish, but unless the cadets were specifically training in Combatives, things like that were forbidden. But imagine the look on the faces of a college kid when someone charges at them, with a camouflage-painted face, a wild look on his face, and wielding a big axe.

The cadets had an exercise where they had to negotiate with a local. I decided to speak in German (I was pretty good at it at the time), while throwing in a little Korean and Spanish, and a few phrases I learned in Turkey and some words I learned during a training exercise in southern Israel. I loved it when ROTC had Advanced Camp at Bragg!

[Legbreaker]

Ah, there's nothing like screwing with the minds of recruits/cadets/trainees.

[Medic]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Ah, there's nothing like screwing with the minds of recruits/cadets/trainees.

One of the classics, I've used against fellow reservists who have NVG (not very common in the reserve units), is to light up a IR chemlight in some bush a bit further away and then disappear from that location. Shows up pretty well through the NVG, but when you look with the naked eye, nothing. A rather useful distraction...