Writing yesterday’s blog I was reminded of a paragraph in the introduction of the English language version of “Total Resistance”, the Swiss military manual:
“In my command in the Philippines, I found that the only way to break out of an ambush action was to provide indigenous personnel with limited ammunition. A guerrilla with an empty rifle will retreat readily, while one with an adequate supply of ammunition will stay too long and risk capture.”
Che Guevara’s Guerrilla Warfare manual is often dismissed as being a rehash of Mao Tse-Tung’s work. This is an unfair and inaccurate statement. Che’s work has a lot of original content and insight. Che has a lot to say about ammunition. A good guerrilla should value his ammunition like gold or treasure and never fire one shot more than necessary.
“The veteran infantry soldier, though equipped with automatic weapons, will know the value of ammunition. He will guard it with loving care.”
Amusingly, of the 8-shot semi-automatic Garand he cautions “only people with some experience should use this, since it has the disadvantage of expending too much ammunition.”
If dismounted troops are not to become overburdened with excessive ammunition loads they are going to need to change some of the ways that they conduct operations. This is particularly true of riflemen.
In terrain or conditions where armoured personnel carriers cannot be used the infantry must be supported by smaller tracked vehicles that can carry ammunition and stores. This might be something like a tracked quadbike or modification of a snowmobile with quieter hybrid electric propulsion.
The defence orientated civilian or prepper does not have the luxury of an extensive military resupply system. They too need to adopt tactics and practices that reduce the weight they carry and use ammunition more effectively.
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