1st Sgt Jack W. Duncan from S.C. was the youngest 1st Sgt in the 502 and was known for his hair-trigger temper. Before D-Day, Duncan had been in a number of brawls in England, when he perceived that other soldiers had crossed him. Before Normandy, Duncan was demoted to S/Sgt and transfered from HQ Co. 2nd Bn. to E/502. On 18 September, 1944, D/502 was embroiled in a battle at a (possibly rail)embankment east of Best, Holland. Ray Hood calls it "hand grenade city", as both sides were lobbing grenades over the embankment and shooting, when targets presented themselves.

 

Just posted this to show how realistic nade spam really is. I'll also post think link as there are some great stories in there!!!

 

http://www.101airborneww2.com/warstoriesintro.html

see! People who nade spam aren't noobs! (even though i never use nades I'm dead before I get the chance)

 

In Bastogne the trees exploded and everyone got shot in the ass

Edited December 31, 200717 yr by cm.

nad spam in real life is when the enermy has too much cover

nad spam in real life is when the enermy has too much cover

 

In most real life situations you would use mortars, artillery or aircraft, grenades were designed for troops suppression while your advance on there positions.

In most real life situations you would use mortars, artillery or aircraft, grenades were designed for troops suppression while your advance on there positions.

 

i agree , these days you simply fall back and wait for the fireworks display . Although the grenade is always a warm welcome to un wanted guests . trying to throw them in the slits on the tower in mestia can be a rather hairy task , i think there should be more accuracy with the nades plus the wat they bounce of objects sometimes can be a tad ott .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niwF6TEsw5w

 

One hell of a firefight.

It's interesting speaking to vets about grenades. In every major war so far, the army has gone into battle issuing only a handful of grenades to each soldier and in every case, when the fighting gets into urban areas the demand for grenades skyrockets.

 

When you read small units histories you will see guys going through literally dozens of grenades each when clearing buildings. One interesting story is about the battles around the Lang Vei firebase where the NVA attacked with PT-76 amphibious tanks relates to the NVA overrunning the CP. Several Green Beret officers were left in the bunker with the NVA tossing grenades in. I think they held out for something like 18 hours whilst the NVA used nearly 100 grenades and satchel charges. Some of the grenades actually made it into the bunker dugout past the zigzag entrance but only dazed the defenders. Grenades (especially older designs) are notoriously variable in their effects!

 

That same battle was interesting for the use of six PT-76's. In terms of firepower and armour this tank was roughly similar to a Sherman, although a different design of course. The Lang Vei defenders had 2 106mm recoiless rifles and about 120 (!) 66mm LAW's. The recoiless rifles only had a couple of HEAT rounds and these accounted for the first two tanks. Then the yanks tried to use the 66mm LAW's. I think something like 60 of them failed to fire at all with corroded mechanisms, and the ones that did fire had no effect on the tanks. One PT-76 got hit something like 12 times with no apparent damage. Eventually a soldier got a satchel charge into the tracks and disabled it but the 66's made no impression.

 

LESSON: the propaganda and marketing material from the weapons manufacturers is not always accurate!

 

Another example (but in reverse) occured in 2004 in Iraq when a Marine ran out behind a Soviet T-72 with a modern version of the 66mm. Now this was a bunker buster and they knew it would not defeat a T-72 so the plan was to hit the tank at the rear where the spare diesel drum was carried. This would set the diesel on fire providing enough smoke for the Marines to extract. The guy took the shot at about 75m and the T-72 instantly exploded, with the turret actually flying through the air over his head and landing behind him.

 

Lesson #2: even when the odds are in your favour, I'd rather be back home than over there!!!

Bammo that is exactly what I was after when I created this thread!!

 

The one about the Marine is awesome! Thanks for putting that up, got any more? I'm greedy for stories.

That Marine story is an a book called "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright. He was an embed reporter with the US 1MARDIV in 2003/04 and the stories will blow you away. The sheer stupidity of the Yanks is amazing. All those HMMV's with Mk 19. grenade launchers on the top? None of them worked because they shipped the wrong lubricant over and it jammed the guns.

 

How about the USMC Major who "found" a Skorpion machine pistol and used to drive along the road firing it randomly at passing civvies for a laugh.

 

When you read real-world small unit histories it is amazing how much of war is just random chance, frustrating blockages and plain dumb stuff. Remember Bravo 2-0? Although the book has now been widely discredited it is still worth a read. Fascinating to see how the UKSAS had to literally steal 40mm grenades for their M203's because they couldn't get them issued. In the 1980's stuff like this was normal in the Australian Army, but we all assumed that as soon as a real war started it would somehow go away. Sadly, no.

(dont know if this is true ive only be told this story)

but in WW1 the English with the ANZAC went to the Turkey beaches three time before invading

1st time was to send servayers in

2nd the gear they needed was at the bottom of the boat

3rd well the Turkey finally relised the they we going to invaded and ANZAC day happend

bravo two zero was a load of crap , andy mcnab imbelished almost everything in that book . If you want a good read get the book Soldier Five by mike coburn , its the kiwi who was in bravo two zero and i tell you his side of the story is alot different to mcnabs . they f---ed up by not using vehicles when they had the chance . anyway its a good story , they actually go back and talk to the ragheads that were involved with the capture and the infamous first fire fight .

It's hard to tell who was telling the truth over Bravo Two Zero, the accounts are all different and everyone seems to blame everyone else which I find a little odd. It was also a combat operation so the different stories are completely normal, when you read after action reports it is very common to have a different story from everyone invloved even when it does not go tits up. Not to mention as it was an SAS operation I suspect a lot of it to be bs anyway as a lot of it will remain classified for years to come.

 

 

That Marine story is an a book called "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright. He was an embed reporter with the US 1MARDIV in 2003/04 and the stories will blow you away. The sheer stupidity of the Yanks is amazing. All those HMMV's with Mk 19. grenade launchers on the top? None of them worked because they shipped the wrong lubricant over and it jammed the guns.

 

All too common in every armed forces on the planet including Canada. We literaly beg, borrow or steal rides as an elected government a few years back sold all of our Chinooks to the Dutch and now we are looking at purchasing more. Always nice to get a ride in a helicopter that was formerly yours. This creates problems as we are getting a ride from a friend we are low on the priorities as of course every country should put their people first.

 

Now in our governments infinate wisdom we got 5 HUGE new transports that we don't even need. They will come in handy don't get me wrong and it will be nice to move our own tanks but it would have been better to order new Chinooks or something like them or upgrade our aging CF-18's or the million other things we could have spent the cash on.

 

This is what happens when the bean counters and pencil pushers do what they want disregarding what the military says. After all they are just the military and they can't possibly know more than an elected official.......

 

I'll look it up and give you some more info on the idiocy back home.

 

What idiocy do you guys have going on here?

 

 

Oh and in Somalia our Airborne which is now been disbanded killed someone by beating him to death. Granted he was stealing weapons and ammo but there is no excuse. Thankfully in Canada we don't sweep that under the carpet but air it out for the world to see and start sending people to Club Ed. Then after that blew over a hazing ritual was released on video and it was the final nail in the coffin for the airborne and they got the axe.

Edited January 14, 200817 yr by Snazzy