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Training Video: Defensive Tactics in Woods

Carrying on the recent theme of finding hugely outdated British Army training videos on YouTube, here is one from 1982: ‘Fighting in Woods‘.
Unfortunately, there is only part one, the end of the video is missing. A great shame. There are a lot of good tips on tactics and techniques for an area defense in woods & forests. Although this is a conventional British BattleGroup in 1982, they are preparing for a ‘shoot and scoot’ area defense in the forests of the West German plains. 
Notice that they are preparing a series of well dug in ambushes to harass and delay the advancing Soviet forces. There is talk of ‘classic guerrilla tactics’ and also of ‘bugging out’ back to further positions once they have hit the enemy in small ambushes. This is a conventional British Army unit, a Guards regiment I think. But they are preparing to face the overwhelming numbers of a Soviet thrust. So, it is classic underdog tactics for ambush and delay. 
Although you will not have the armored vehicles and some of the weapons available to the troops in the video, a lot of the techniques are relevant. They use ‘sappers’ and ‘assault pioneers’ to create obstacles using plant – this is military equipment, but a John Deere tractor or a CAT excavator will do the same thing. Replace the issue munitions with whatever you can come up with, or acquire.

There are some good visual tips on digging trenches with overhead protection. ‘Revetting’ a trench is shoring up the sides to prevent it being collapsed by artillery fire or run over with a tank – a tank will spin its tracks on top of an open trench, causing it to collapse. For overhead protection, you will need two layers of sandbags to provide adequate protection from artillery fire. Pay attention to how well they camouflage the trenches – and how they de-turf and re-cover the trenches and any areas they have dug with the turf. In the absence of turf, you can use leaf litter in the woods, as appropriate.

Perhaps when you think of ambush you don’t think of digging in? It all depends on the situation, but an ambush against heavy forces such as in this video should be dug in. Even a standard anti-personnel ambush should be dug in with shell-scrape positions if the tactical situation will allow, to protect the ambushers from direct fire and also any DF fire that the enemy is able to call in.

Hard work right? Why do you think I keep banging on about PT and also the utility of going out and digging with pick and shovel – because guaranteed if you want to survive infantry combat you will need to be digging in at some point, even if you see yourself as a lightly equipped fast moving ‘G’. It all comes down to light infantry combat in the end. 

Live Hard, Die Free.
MV

6 responses to “Training Video: Defensive Tactics in Woods”

  1. Agreed. When I was in Germany before OIF 1, I was packing my ruck when the CSM walked into the day room. He saw my e-tool and said, “Sir, you don’t need that. You’re going to run right through the Iraqi’s and they will have parades for you as you arrive.” Literally. When we were going north in 3rd ID invading the country, every time we stopped, we dug in. Crazy.

  2. Max, can you source that early ’80s video about resistance to enemy interrogation or some such bollocks. I remember it had that Jim McDonald character of later Coronation Street fame. The training video follows the lines of a Soviet attack through a wooded area (probably Germany), loads of British infantry characters are captured and questioned. Jim McDonald is SAS so when captured he plays the standard dumb infantry routine, ends of being sent to a high level interrogation centre, striped naked yada yada yada. Think the video was an early SSVC training video. Pretty good training video, even by army standards.

    SP

  4. This type of fighting is one of attrition. This is an easy decision for generals at headquarters but the intent is that small groups of soldiers give their lives to delay a larger enemy force. So if you have plenty of people you are willing to sacrifice to keep your ass alive then this is a good plan for you. If on the other hand you are the grunt on the line and there is no high command the correct tactic is evasion and escape.

    • I disagree. That is exactly the opposite of what they are trying to achieve. If we agree on a start point that an area needs to be defended, then area defense (as illustrated in the video) is far superior to static defense where you may die in place. The whole idea of the area defense is to be sneaky, hit the enemy and then run, to survive and continue to fight. You are attriting enemy combat power as you hit them and fall back, but the intent is to live, not sacrifice your guys as you do it. In a battle there will be casualties, but these troops are not being thrown away. Just because this is a conventional battalion, with officers in HQ, don’t confuse that caricature with callously throwing away troops lives.

  5. This is classic defense in depth. If you read about the soviets final push to Berlin, they went thru the “Seelow Heights’” The German commander Gotthard Heinrici the poison dwarf knew full well the Soviets would pound the supposed front line of resistance with artillery and rocket fire. Having the second and third lines already dug in saved many German defenders and cost the soviets dearly. This video points out very clearly the wisdom of having a second hole behind you to E and E the artillery that will surely be used. Anyone who has ever been under a mortar or rocket barrage knows what I am talking about. That second line you dig will save you’re a$$

    Links

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Heinrici

    In the early hours of 16 April, the offensive began with a massive bombardment by thousands of artillery pieces and Katyushas. Well before dawn, the 1st Belorussian Front attacked across the Oder and the 1st Ukrainian Front attacked across the Neisse. The 1st Belorussian Front was the stronger force, but it had the more difficult assignment since it was facing the bulk of the German forces.[11][12]
    The initial assault by the 1st Belorussian Front turned into a disaster for them. Heinrici and Busse had anticipated the attack and withdrawn their defenders from the first line of trenches just before the Soviet artillery would have obliterated them. The swampy ground proved to be a great hindrance, and a German counter-barrage caused heavy Soviet casualties.
    Battle of the Seelow Heights

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Seelow_Heights