Enjoyed your analysis of the creation of the gold on earth!
However, if I read your comment on this Post correctly, you prefer the “rapid fire” focus rather than the “ ‘sniper’ (long range rifle accuracy)”. Am I correct?
I agree that rifle fire produces less casualties than other forms of mayhem such as artillery or air strikes. However, while I was in the USMC, we were often told of the arrival of the Marines at the Front in WWI.
It seems that the Marines arrived at their designated position and dung in. Shortly thereafter, to their amazement, the Germans arrived and began setting up camp about 100 yards away as was their usual practice. The astonished Marines grabbed their rifles and began picking off the Germans, who promptly moved back to 200 yards.
The whole process began again at 200 yards range.
And 300 yards.
And 400 yards.
And 500 yards.
Finally, at 600 yards, the Germans were able set up camp without harassment.
Marine Primary Marksmanship qualifications in my time were at 200 yards (Standing to Sitting Rapid fire and Offhand [Standing] Slow fire), 300 yards (Kneeling & Sitting Slow Fire, Standing to Prone Rapid fire) and 500 yards Prone Slow Fire. Iron sights, of course.
The 200 & 300 yard targets were 12” bulls-eyes. The 500 yard was a 20” bull, back when we were still using the M-14 7.62. When the M-16 5.56 came into use, we switched to a 20” wide silhouette at 500 yards, due to the greater bullet drop with the 5.56 round.
Admittedly, in fighting in built up areas, long range fire is not as important. However, in most instances, “hold ‘em & squeeze ‘em” (aimed fire) works better than “spray & pray” (Hollywood style, burn through all your ammo at max rate of fire)
True.
But in combat ... (And that could also be “And in combat ...” Most of the kills, most of the effective action is done by fewer than 15% of the troops.
Saw a video of the fighting in Hue for example. Five guys behind a wall perhaps 4-5 feet tall. One other guy shooting “blind” over the top of the wall, not aiming at anything, but just shooting with the M16 held over the wall. One effective soldier at the end of the wall taking aimed shots at what he could see by looking around the wall at the enemy.
Every building, every outpost, every bunker or foxhole is a bit different. Washington doesn’t seem to understand that - they are still fighting - are ALWAYS fighting! - the last war “by the book”. Iconically, which was written by the survivors of the last war, not the fighters of the next war. Which can only be written by the survivors of the last war, because the next war has not yet been fought.
We were taught about what happened to the German paratroop corps on Crete when they dropped en masse on Major-General Bernard Freyberg's New Zealanders, who were equipped with Lee Enfields. The German Paras were horrified to find that all the Brits and Kiwis [The Scottish Black Watch was there, too!] had all been reequipped with British Bren light machineguns. They hadn't- but they knew how to use the 10-shot SMLE in rapid fire.
They never massed as an airborne corps command again.
