by Max Velocity
A technique is to use people from the rear of the formation to initially cross the LDA so that as the formation moves across, they can simply join back in at the end. Another option is to create a ‘tunnel’ effect (center peel) by moving in file formation. The patrol peels in to the obstacle, crosses it and peels in on the far side, with the following patrol members continuing to walk through the tunnel that the file formation creates, until they in turn peel in and face out, providing security. Once all have crossed, the first people remaining on the near back get up and walk through the tunnel, and the whole formation peels back out of itself and continues walking. This is better with smaller groups. With larger groups, you may want to use a team to secure the near bank, another for the far bank, cross the main body and have the teams fall back in to the formation.
Lost or separated: you will need to make provision for this eventuality as part of your patrol orders. A useful SOP to adopt is to nominate each RV that you pass through as the emergency RV (ERV). Thus, if you are contacted and the patrol is separated, then the squad will make its way back to that ERV. A drill like this will work if you specify that they will wait perhaps an hour at the last ERV and then perhaps another hour at the previous ERV.
Also, if the patrol becomes separated in the darkness due to link men losing contact with each other, then reforming at the ERV will work. In case of a full on disaster where you have been ambushed and had to fight out, your ERVs may not be accessible. For these circumstances it is good to have a nominated safe haven or ‘War RV’ which may be your retreat or base. The patrol and any separated personnel will separately escape and evade back to this location.
Enemy Pre-Seen: this is a circumstance where you spot the enemy in an unexpected location prior to your own presence being compromised. You will need to have a hand signal for enemy; a thumbs down followed by a five finger point in the enemy direction works, and the patrol should seek concealment. At this point you will have the initiative, but your follow up action will depend on your mission. You could observe and then move away, you could attack, or you could set up a hasty (snap) ambush or OP.
Figure 29 - Crossing an LDA / Obstacle
Actions on Contact
Your reaction will depend on the type of patrol you are on and the overall situation. You may be a fighting patrol on the way to an ambush, but you may still include actions on contact that plan for withdrawal from contact, or you may decide to act offensively. Generally, smaller recce patrols will always attempt to break contact and withdraw from the enemy.
Offensive Drills
These types of actions on enemy contact will depend on what you decide about your objective, the size of your patrol, and also how the skill of your team compares to that of the enemy in historical contacts.
Squad Size offensive reactions: for a far ambush, which is one outside of grenade range, so we will say over thirty yards away, an offensive reaction to enemy contact would be the same as the squad quick attack drills already covered. One of the teams, usually the team that was contacted if you are moving a tactical bound apart, will win the firefight while the other team conducts a flanking attack.
If it is a near ambush, which is within grenade range or less than thirty yards away, then the drill is for an immediate assault by all elements of the squad that can engage. For a contact in the frontal or rear axis, this may mean only the lead or following team is able to engage, but the other team will attempt to push out to a flank to provide supporting fire or flank protection to the assaulting team.
This is certainly not as ideal as a far ambush, with only one team assaulting at close range without benefit of fire support, but it may be the only option if surprised by the enemy. If at all possible, it is preferable to be able to react as per a far ambush: maneuver your teams to the best covered positions possible and then leave one as a fire base while the other flanks. If the near ambush comes from a flank, then it may be that both teams can turn to face the threat and then fight through side by side.
If you generally over-match the enemy then this may be a useful tactic; think Rhodesian Fireforce skirmish lines which were overwhelmingly able to gain the upper hand and skirmish through enemy contacts, usually due to better fire accuracy and personal drills.
For formations larger than a squad that are moving in linear formations, such as a fighting patrol on the route out to the ORP, then a useful offensive drill is for the group in contact, for example the lead squad, to go firm and return fire while the following elements, such as the remaining squads of the formation, will go into an immediate flanking attack and attempt to roll up the enemy from the flank.
Figure 30 - Platoon Reaction - Ambush – Offensive
Note: Not shown in Figure 24 is the location of the Platoon Leader (PL) and the Platoon Sergeant (PS). The PL will mobilize the 2nd squad into the flanking assault and the PS will remain with the 3rd squad in reserve, ready to pass them to the PL as required for the assault through the enemy position.
For a close ambush, for instance coming right from the side of the trail you are on, an old school drill is to simply turn towards the enemy and run through their line firing your weapon from the hip into the ground ahead of you. This does require brass balls but is not as crazy as it seems. If the enemy has not done their job and put you down in the initiation of the ambush, then you charging towards them may unbalance them and also get you out of their fire quicker.
Of course, to digress, you may not be one of the lucky ones who make it out, felled as you charge. As you crash through the veil into Valhalla, weapon in hand, you will be greeted by the roar of the feast hall, the heat of the hearth fires on your face and the crash of thunder and lightning as the Norse Gods battle above!
Break Contact Drills
For smaller recce patrols, or even squad or larger sized patrols that plan to break contact and extract if contacted by the enemy, then these drills are more suited. Break contact and extraction drills are similar to those described under vehicle movement and consist of fire and movement away from the enemy. There are various techniques that can be used. In terms of your SOPs you will need to decide what you are going to do and in which direction you are going to move.
You can either plan to simply move directly away from the enemy or back the way you came. A contact with the enemy can take numerous forms, from a meeting engagement with another patrol, bumping a sentry at an enemy location, or walking into an ambush. However, you should decide on what your actions are going to be so that you can react as a drill.
Fighting out the way you came in is generally a good idea because you have just traveled it and you should be able to get out, but remember that if it is an ambush the enemy may have placed cut-off groups out, and you may have just walked past them as you entered the ambush killing area. But fighting directly away from the ambush may just keep you under fire for longer. Fighting into the ambush was covered above. It is usually helpful to base your drills on the direction of enemy contact, so it will be “CONTACT FRONT!” or LEFT, RIGHT or REAR. Let us imagine a squad sized formation on patrol, either moving together or in travelling over-watch with a tactical bound between teams.
CONTACT FRONT! An example of the drills that you can do for a contact front would be for the front team to return fire, with the two rearmost riflemen of that front team stepping out to the sides to allow them to fire: effectively ‘getting on line’. These two pairs would fight back utilizing fire and movement. The rear team would take up security positions and then begin to move back, utilizing bounding over-watch, to secure a rally point.
Alternatively, the center peel or tunnel method can be used. With this method all the patrol members step to the left or right accordingly to create a file, or tunnel formation. This will only allow the front two riflemen to engage but it is useful for withdrawing along linear features or where fire is coming in from the front but also to the front and flanks on both sides.
The front people will return fire and then in sequence they will turn
and run through the center of the tunnel, peeling back in at the other end. This allows the next front people to fire and the process will continue with the tunnel turning itself inside out all the way to a suitable rally point. It is effectively a peeling technique with two lines.
Figure 31 - Contact Front
CONTACT RIGHT (or LEFT)! In this situation the squad will turn to the threat and get on line to return fire towards the threat. A note here: recent experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that they enemy is not shy about ambushing from all points and therefore it is imperative to maintain 360 degree security. Therefore, designate riflemen to face the opposite way when practicing these drills so that the rear is protected.
The squad will then peel out back down the trail the way they came. For contact right the man on the left would move first, running behind the other patrol members and peeling back in to the right side of the line, with the whole process continuing as the squad peels out back along the trail until a suitable rally point is reached.
Figure 32 - Contact Right
CONTACT REAR! This drill is carried out as per contact front, but with the exceptions that the team will have to turn around and face rear to engage the enemy and then will have to break contact by continuing on the direction they were moving.
RALLY, RALLY, RALLY! Once the squad leader feels that he has successfully broken contact and has reached some suitable ground, he will give the command to rally. The squad will get into the rally point and get on line facing the enemy direction, with some of the squad covering rear. The squad leader will conduct a rapid assessment of the squad, the situation and make a rapid plan.
If the enemy is following up, or you are still under fire, then a healthy dose of rapid fire at the enemy will prepare for further movement and the squad will continue to fight away as per the quick battle orders (QBOs) from the squad leader. Once contact is actually broken and the squad leader feels that he has made sufficient ground on the enemy, he will halt the patrol and secure a defensive position before tending to the welfare of the patrol and making a plan for further movement or extraction.
Team Contact Drills
Now let’s take a look at some specific procedures for four man teams. The four man team is a good number – there are two of these teams to a squad, it is a good number for a recce patrol, and it works well as a general team size for dismounted operations. If you have different numbers you can apply the same principles to those numbers to achieve the same effect.
So we will assume that we have a four man team that is conducting patrol operations. Break contact drills are emergency procedures that are conducted if you accidentally walk into a contact with the enemy. As such the reality may not pan out as well as the practiced drill. An example of this is the potential to have one or more casualties – ‘Man Down.’ S its important to work from the perspective that these drill are designed to maximize your chances, but they are not a magic pill and some or all of you may well not survive.
Don’t get despondent about this – clearly we can look at the example of walking into a perfectly planned and executed ambush, where theoretically you should not be able to get out alive. But it is in the frictions and imperfections of reality that you will survive. Additionally, it is very important that these drills are very well drilled and practiced so that you will roll into them without thought. In order to be able o do that, you also need to remain alert and keep a slow burning aggression burning inside of you. In other words, you need to be able to react with maximum violence when unexpectedly called upon to do so. This is sometimes called controlled aggression; the ability to ‘bring it on’ at a moment’s notice.
If you are not naturally of this mindset, then practice and muscle memory like drills will help get you over the initial shock of the contact, rolling in to firing at the enemy, and then the shouts of a vocal and aggressive leader should be able to shock you into the practiced motions of the drill.
On my live fire tactical courses at the training site in West Virginia, I bring you realistic scenarios using unexpected pop-up targets in the woods that will ensure you run through both break contact and offensive fire and movement drills in the most realistic setting possible.
The procedure to follow when breaking contact is as follows:
React To Contact
Execute Break Contact Drill
Fight Back to a Suitable Rally Point
Rally / Hasty Ambush
Move Out
React to Contact: The initial reaction is your RTR drill as covered under ‘Taking Cover’ – as you react, you should be shouting out the direction of the contact, along the lines of “CONTACT RIGHT!” etc. The team, once in cover, should be putting down rapid fire on the enemy to attempt to rip the initiative back from them. Remember, it was the enemy that initiated the contact, you were taken by surprise, so they have the drop on you.
Execute Break Contact Drill: You will roll right into this drill following the RTR reaction and in response to the shouts of contact direction. For the four man team contact drill the following procedures develop the concept a little more based on the principle of keep buddy teams together. Thus, for a four man team drill, you will move as two man teams, keeping the buddy pairs together. This also means that peel will not be down as individuals, but in your buddy pairs. This takes a little more practice, because you are not simply responsible for moving yourself, but it has the advantage of keeping the pairs together. This makes it more likely that if one of you is hit, the other will notice and be able to drag him back. Also, if moving as a unit, it allows you to coordinate stoppages/magazine changes etc. while keeping up fire from your two man element, supporting the other pair as they move.
With the four man break contact drill, the idea is that for whichever direction the contact comes from, you will always break into your two buddy teams to fight back out of it. This means that for a contact front or rear, you will not use the center peel method, but will move into your two buddy teams to fight back. For a contact left or right, you will already be ‘online’ and you will peel out, but the peeling wilt not be done individually as a constant flow, but as buddy teams, fire and moving out to support each other.
Remember that for a contact front or rear, although you are moving out to the flank to ‘get on line’ and support by fire, you don’t actually have to move up level to the other pair. For example for a contact front, the rear pair does not have to advance to get level with the front pair, they simply have to move to a flank to be able to put fire down to support the move of the front pair back to level with the rear pair. There is no sense in fighting forwards just to fight back.
Also remember that you will not necessarily get exact ninety degree angle directions of contact i.e. front, rear, left right. Just go with whatever it most seems like. It will become more apparent when you have looked at the following diagrams and also practiced this a little, but the angle of the enemy may change, particularly as you peel back away from them in a contact left or right; in this example, if you fight back from them but have not succeeded in breaking contact and can’t yet rally, you may find the enemy are now oriented more towards a contact front direction and you have to change your movement from a peel back to a bound back more as you would for a contact front. This is subjective and will be more apparent to you once you have run through it a few times.
Team Contact Front:
As you patrol along, the first two in the line of march are your first buddy pair, the rear two are the other buddy pair. When you receive ‘contact front’ each man will go into his RTR drill as appropriate. The second man will move out to a flank to support the lead man. The rear pair will key off this to move out to a flank together to support the front pair. Depending on how you want to do this, you could drill it that the rear pair always goes to a certain side, or opposite to the direction where the second man went or for best flexibility to the ground and situation just move as the ground dictates; conduct RTR as appropriate and then the
third man leads the last man either to the left or right.
Figure 33 - Team Contact Front
Team Contact Rear: This drill is very similar to a contact front. The difference is that everyone has to turn about to face the threat and the rear man does the job of the point man. Because the enemy is behind you, you cannot fight out the way you came, so you simply continue in the direction you were going and fight out away from the enemy.
Team Contact Left or Right:
With these team drills you will always remain in your buddy teams. For a contact left or right there is no need to deploy out to the flank in order to be able to return fire; you simply need to react by turning to the left or right and you are already ‘on line’ towards the threat. Once you have
Figure 34 - Team Contact Left
reacted and laid down rapid fire towards the enemy, you will begin to fight out the route you walked in, by peeling but not as individuals but as buddy pairs moving together.
If the contact is at a longer range, perhaps 200-300 meters away, then the angle will not change much as you move back by peeling. Thus, you can peel for a long way until you get some ground between yourself and the enemy. If the contact is closer, perhaps because you are operating in woods or forests, then the angle will change more rapidly as you peel back. This naturally happens as the pairs peel back in and move to get a shot at the enemy. This becomes apparent on contact left or right drills at the Max Velocity Tactical training site, where the targets are in the woods at relatively close ranges, and the drill is adapted to take account of this. It may take a bit of practice and observation of how this works to fully be able to understand and implement this drill.
What happens is that as you peel back on a closer range target, you tend to angle around so each pair moving back can get an unobstructed shot. At one point, there is no longer any space to peel into, if you want to continue to engage the target. At that point, it is better to ‘get on line’ and fight back as if the contact were now a ‘contact front’, assuming you are still being engaged by the enemy.