This produces another unique battlefield sound portrait. You know American troops are at work when one shell goes off, followed by a few shots. No shouting, American troops use individual radios, hand signals and night vision equipment. They move fast, using minimal firepower, which means less risk of friendly fire, or collateral damage (civilian casualties or property damage.) Battlefields have never sounded like this.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
The sound of the battlefield has changed
Isegoria calls our attention to a very interesting Strategypage article on how precision munitions have ended the era of massed firepower, and how that has uniquely stamped the battlefield:
I believe that this new style of warfare may be even more frightening to the fellows on the other side than the "shock and awe" sturm und drang. Reminds me of the cliche line from several bad westerns: "It's quiet out there. Too quiet."
ReplyDeleteArtillery barrages will shake one's nerves, make no mistake, but only those getting the direct experience. When opponents "know" that the silence only means someone, somewhere, is about to die suddenly, nerves are frayed all the time. Not helpful for combat effectiveness.
Agree with Chris - given the type of 'enemy' we are currently engaged with the 'deafening silence' has got to be nerve wracking for the opposition since they have learned through experience that they are NOT safe anywhere or anytime. I would point out that should the enemy change to more conventional massed forces, the ability to provide massed firepower could still be applied as needed (think multiple batteries of MLRS for one piece of shock and awe). The capability still exists and can and will still be used as needed but with frightening (to the enemy) accuracy and devastating effect.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Good thought! Reminds me of the FSSF on the lines at Anzio, spread so thin that Rommel could have driven most of the Afrika Corps (minus the Eye-talians, they're just noisy) between foxholes with nobody being the wiser...they decided to make up for the lack of defensive positions with an increase in offensive patrols, and further decided to get inside their enemies' heads: they'd sneak up on an enemy foxhole, silently kill the guy on watch and all but one of the sleepers. Poor sap would wake up in the morning to find all of his fellows dead around him, and a note pinned to his jacket or something. The FSSF had the Germans so freaked out, they had bounties on their heads!
ReplyDeleteAnother WW2 reference, the Americans generally did not shout and call to one another as I recall reading the German Army forces did.
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