[DugwayDuke]

I read “Men Against Fire” while at the Infantry Officers Basic Course back in 1971.

BTW, speaking of noise, Erwin Rommel issued a General Order when he was CG 7th Panzer that in the event a column encountered an enemy while advancing, every one in the column were to fire their weapons as rapidly as possible even if that meant they could only fire their weapons into the air. He explained that it was his experience that in meeting engagements, the side that made the most noise usually won.

Most think of Rommel as a tank commander but his greatest exploits were as an infantry commander in WW1. His book chronically his exploits “Infantry Attacks” brought him to the attention of Hitler.

[Chainmail]

Well, OK - but Rommel lost, right? Meeting engagements happen a lot, particularly in heavy vegetation, in really close quarters. In a really ferocious firefight where about 100 men run into another 100 men, almost all with full-auto weapons it's a thunderous roar of firing, punctuated by a grenade every few seconds. Being standing is bad and just being above ground level could be fatal - but most of the time the casualties on both sides aren't heavy because it isn't aimed fire and most everyone hits the deck instantly. Generally whoever runs low in ammo first breaks contact.

The long distance stuff happened when the enemy opened up on us from an opposite treeline. You'd look for muzzle flashes or the dust coming up from their muzzles, a little movement or if they were really stupid, tracers. Once you had them, they were as a good as gone.