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Mechanised Infantry
No longer does the infantryman assemble, form into column with colours flying, then with bands playing bravely march into battle to fight a war he knows little about other than that it was likely to be his last day on earth. While his army approached, drums clattering, the enemy would stand and wait patiently. That is how it used to be. But not today. For one thing, the enemy of today would not sit idly by while all this was going on. Such a noisyand heralded approach would soon be spotted and it is likely that the army would never reach the intended battlefield.
The modern soldier now knows a good deal about the reasons for the battle about to take place. His unit assembles, climbs into a squadron of Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC's) and is transported to the fighting zone in company with all the other armoured fighting vehicles and back-up units. The APC is lightly armoured but has weapons for defence. Its plate armour will stop small arms fire but could not prevent penetration by any of the sophisticated armour-piercing projectiles now available, rounds which can penetrate some of the toughest and thickest Main Battle Tank (MBT) armour.
This section is concentrated with the role of mobile armoured vehicles engaged in transporting infantry and other troops into the fighting zone so that they can arive safely and go straight into action. Much of this section is devoted to the problems involved in operating the APC. When tanks first appeared, rattling and clanking over the muddy and shell-cratered No Man's Land in World War One, They were crude, clumsy and unreliable and driven and handled by soldiers inexperienced in them. These monsters created an impression of invincibility when seen for the first timeby an incredulous enemy.
Today's formidable Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV's) bear no resemblance to these early models. They have very strong frontal armour, tough enough to withstand all but the most sophisticated Anti-Tank (AT) weapons, and are armed with anything from 150mm artillery to MGs and the crew's handguns. Their motive power is very reliable and they can move over, past or through obstacles which would have beaten tje old original models. Their guns do not use shell cases, so more ammunition can be carried. All the balistic problems are evaluated by the modern AFV's instrumentation. Laser rangefinders feed exact distance, humidity and the motion of the AFV itself into the onboard computer and this in turn produces the data to lay the gun accurately on the target.
Their crews can live for days in their own airtight compartment with its atmospheric pressure raised above that outside and so keep out toxic gases. But AFVs do have vulnerable points and some of these are described, with the way infantry can best deal with them. Putting a 60-ton AFV out of action as it clatters towards you would appear unlikely, but it is something that can really be done. The man on the ground can also call-up hedge hopping anti-tank helicopters armed with missiles.
The infantry can call on special AT artillery as well as aircraft but the man on the ground can surprisingly do quite a lot to knock out enemy tanks. The sight of a 70-ton steel monster clanking towards one must be a testing moment, certainly one for keeping one's head down. But once the tracks of a main battle tank, for example, are broken an AFV is immobalised, it is a heavily armed and armoured sitting duck.
Riding into battle:
Modern armoured forces are a combined team,
with tanks and infantry fighting in close cooperation.
The infantrymen ride into action in Armoured Personnel Carriers which can keep pace with
the tanks; sometimes you will fight from the vehicle, but in most situations you dismount
to fight on foot. Certainly, the mechanised infantry platoon with its four APC's has far
greater freedom of movement and can respond far quicker than "leg" infantry.
This section, taken from the US Army Field Manual FM 7-7, introduces you to mechanised
warefare in the M113 APC, the combat vehicle of the US Infantry.
Built from a special aluminium alloy that keeps the all-up weight down to less than 11-tonnes fully loaded, the APC gives its occupants protection from most small-armes fire and from grenade and shell fragments, but not from anti-tank guns, missiles and rockets. This means that the infantry leader must think very hard about when and how to dismount his troops and use them in the traditional foot soldier' role.
In attack, the leader will try to fight from the vehicles for as long as possible, using the tactics worked out in advance for just this sort of situation, and will only get his men out of the protection of the APCs when he gets into close terrain like trees and bushes or comes up against obstacles or a strong anti-tank force.
The flexibility - to fight from vehicles with armour strong enough to deflect small-arms fire or to dismount fire, the whole operation will be a great deal safer, if the vehicles can move in hull-down position as well - along roads or tracks with hedges and banks on each side, for example - then they are very difficult to detect, even when moving. This adds very considerably to their effectiveness, but gives them less room to deploy in case of attack.
Unit commanders must consider all these points when using the APC in attack. The extra speed of the vehicle gives you every chance of over-running enemy position - especially if they've been careless in their anti-armour preparations - but it also means that the advance becomes a series of isolated fire-fights that di little or nothing to really gain ground, and where you're in every danger of being surrounded and cut off.
On foot, infantrymen can fire and move as the need arises. In vehicles, the whole operation has to have a little more planning involved in it, though the excellent specification of the M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier does make it surprisingly flexible. It can span trenches and ditches nearly two metres wide, and climb up 60-degree slopes.
Keep in touch:
Communications between vehicles often requires a radio net. As well as the sets
fixed into the APC, the platoon commander, the platoon sergeant and each team leader will
have peronal radio transcievers. This means that communications are usually better between
members of a mounted infantry unit than between foot soldiers in a squad, again making for
better mobility and quicker response times.
It does make for one added danger, however - the enemy may be able to listen in to your transmissions. If he does he will not only gain intelligence, but also be able to pin-point your position.
As well as sophisticated radios, APC-mounted troops also have a wide range of STANO (Surveillance, Target Acquisition, Night Observation) devices available - binoculares and AN/PAS-6 Metascopes for general observation, the M19 Infra-red Periscope for the driver, and AN/PVS and AN/TVS sights for the various different weapons.
Sustaining the attack:
Because APC's are at risk from even hand-held weapons, it's most important to
allow the enemy no time to re-group and get it's anti-armour specialists into the
fire-fight. The speed at which the M113 can move cross-country gives the mounted infantry
unit commander an advantage here, but he is still just as concentrated on enemy positions.
Getting from place to place quickly is important, but it's still weight of fire that wins
fire-fights.
New supplies:
He has to think about re-supply, too - ammunition, food and one new factor; fuel
for the vehicles. Get too far away from a supply point, and you could suddenly find
yourself helpless, with your carriers out of fuel. At that point, all the advantages
you've had suddenly turn into liabilities.
Though the M113 can carry 12 men, including its driver, the normal load is nine. When the infantry squad is mounted in the vehicle, offensive operations involve the .50 calibre machine-gun plus four members of the squad positioned in the open well at the back of the vehicle and armed with automatic weapons and grenade launchers - though the Platoon Commander may have changed the weapons mix to include TOW and LAW anti-armour missiles, depending on intelligence reports of the enemys strengths he's likely to meet.
As well as the heavy machine-gun (which may be taken off and used as a dismounted support weapon if necessary), there are vehicle mounts for the squads own 7,62mm M60 machine-gun and for anti-tank weapons.
Where the troops dismount for a short "mopping-up" operation, close to the vehicles, these heavier weapons are often left with the APC, their operators arming themselves with no more appropriate semi-automatic weapons instead.
Deadlt missiles:
The APC's worst enemy is the Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), now so light and
compact that you must expect even small units of enemy troops to be equipped with them.
Missiles such as these have one big weakness; they don't work well if there are obstacles
- trees, for example, or even wire fences - between the launcher and the target. In open
country, though, they're deadly.
It is the APC's driver who is the vehicles first line of defence against ATGM's. His skill at using the shape of the country to keep the vehicle out of the sight-line of enemy troops, and his ability to keep the vehicle moving through difficult patches instead of cutting across open country, make all the difference.
Terrain driving, as it is called, is practised over and over until it becomes second nature following four very basic guidelines:
Use all available cover.
Avoid the skyline.
Cross even small open areas fast.
Don't move straight forward out of a hull-down firing position.
Even though all but the last of these are basic skills that every infantryman learns, the way they're put into practiceis changed a lot by the size and speed of the vehicles. Reading the terrain, whether from the map or from looking directly at the ground, becomes even more important than ever before.
Six basic rules of movement:
Platoon Formations:
Column formation:
Signals for turning:
Line formation:
Echelon formation
Vee formation:
Wedge formation:
Herringbone formation:
Coil formation:
Dismounted operations:
When the dismounted teams operate on foot the APC's can use their machine-guns to provide
covering fire. The teams may dismount in these situations:
