Badlands Fieldcraft: Excellent examples of fire and maneuver

Violence of Action. Making fast decisions, getting off the X quickly, and fixing and flanking their enemy were all critical to the success of these men. Violence of action is the difference between life and death in a fight. The following two videos are excellent depictions of fire and maneuver, a topic among many we will be covering in the Fieldcraft Course.
This first video is squad size fire and maneuver done correctly. Note how Lt. Winters deploys his men into two groups, one as a base of fire, and one as a flanking element. That is text book stuff there. But also note as the assault develops these elements begin firing and maneuvering on there own as well, using their own individual initiative to assault the enemy when it was the right time. That’s Violence of Action.
 

 
The next video depicts a larger force, this time with combined arms, but they still are utilizing the same tactics. Note what happens when the commandos get bogged down, and note what happens when they pick up the assault again after being reinforced.
Also note how they do not engage in what we would consider CQB even though they were fighting amongst buildings. As NCScout has explained before, CQB and building clearing is a security force tactic. A true assault bypasses these strong points, lest they get bogged down and it turn into a stand off, and deals with them the best way they can; in this example with mortars, grenades, flame, and lots of rifle fire.

 

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

13 Comments

  1. Coop Willis March 29, 2021 at 17:26

    Great videos! I have watched the movie, “Band of Brothers” many times. So good to see the real events on how Captain Winters and his men took the German Battery. Operation Archery, a much bigger assault still used the “Fire and Maneuver” tactics. I like the Navy SEAL term I heard about: SEAL/Dominate on all three sides of the assault?/Triangle! SURPRISE, FIREPOWER, AND VIOLENCE OF ACTION. I know I am preaching to the choir, I like this simple image of the Triangle.

  2. Anonymous March 29, 2021 at 19:45

    5

  3. DirtNasty March 29, 2021 at 21:30

    Ya man! From a complete novice perspective this is a subject I find very interesting. I been to NC Scout’s Scout course and when things start happening you just look around and wonder “what the hell is going on?” How much practicing as a group do people need to do before these things before things start just happen or looking natural? Like team sports it seems it takes sometime for people just to be able to function and preform the absolute basics. But for people like me no one wants to do shit and anyone who has previous military experience “doesn’t have the time” or claims it is useless because it is like riding a bike “it will all come back.” If anyone does a course of nothing but team drills, hand signals, team formation and fire and maneuver etc. where it is running the same drills back to back all day and night. I will find the funds and the time; yes I will be there. I am not getting this where I am at. I am in the land of un-zeroed rifles, rag chewing and kings of the surplus mountain. Sorry about the tangent I been drankin’ a little!

    • Mike March 30, 2021 at 03:56

      I would seriously question the creds of any “veteran” who claims they don’t need to practice fire and movement drills.
      By the way, I cover exactly that in the Team Leader Class. Shoot me an email.
      https://vonsteubentraining.wixsite.com/patriot/training-schedule

      • DirtNasty March 30, 2021 at 20:56

        Will do!

    • wwes March 30, 2021 at 10:44

      Finding other like minded people who are willing to go out and spend the time and/or money to train, and convincing them to get started doing so, is one of the hardest things to do IMHO. I am trying to learn all I can, as I don’t have any kind of military background myself, but trying to get other local folks to do the same is tough.
      Mike’s class is definitely worth attending, I went with one of my friends to the one he held in February and we both agreed it was well worth our time. I also thought it built really well on what we did in the scout course. I wrote up a review on the class if it helps at all:
      https://www.americanpartisan.org/2021/02/team-leader-class-review/

      • DirtNasty March 30, 2021 at 21:13

        Hey WWES if I may ask. For someone with no background like me I would be curious to hear of what classes or training you have done and in your honest opinion if possible what do you consider the most foundational or necessary classes/training that you would recommend? I could even understand where this question could not be answered.

        • wwes March 30, 2021 at 22:06

          DirtNasty,
          I don’t have much training myself, I’ve been to the Scout Course, Mike’s Team Leader class, and I’ve been to a few marksmanship events in the past such as Appleseed events. I definitely have a LOT of catching up to do, and I’m working on doing so, like it sounds you are. I do feel like the Scout Course covered some vital information, and the Team Leader class seemed to cement some of those very same concepts and expand on them. I am planning on coming to the RTO and Advanced RTO classes this summer in NC because I know that comms are a vital skill as well, and one that I am sorely lacking in. Land Navigation is also a personal weakness of mine, and one that I need to get some schooling on because I know it is a crucial skill too. I plan to make it to one of the carbine courses or AK courses when I can as well.
          I’m trying to drink from the firehose of information as quickly as I can myself, so I’m just giving you my thoughts, not speaking from a position of experience. I figure we’re both moving in the right direction in that we recognize we need to learn and are getting out there and trying to correct the problem. I’m sure some of the more experienced and knowledgeable folks on here can give better direction, or correct me if something I said isn’t right.
          Building stuff out of metal and trying not to ruin the minds of my students are more my background than all of those things lol

          • DirtNasty March 30, 2021 at 22:54

            Hey just curious when you said “trying not to ruin the minds of my students.” Were you the school teacher at the last scout course? But earlier this year I did take the RTO and RTO Advanced, yes I can say these are essential. I would recommend learning about the relationship of wave velocity, wave length and frequency before taking the class. It seemed most people had a hard time understanding these basic concepts, but it was a awesome sight when they got it. They would light up with excitement! Getting a Ham radio license is worth the effort if you do not have one already, you can learn a whole lot about radio’s, electronics, wave propagation in the process.
            But yes I am eager to learn and anyone who is not of this mindset is got some serous moral and mental issues! Well at least the way I see it!

          • wwes March 31, 2021 at 10:43

            Yep, I was one of the ones there, I think there were two or three of us. I was the one playing OpFor. You said on the livestream the other night that you were the guy with the .308, right?
            I’ll definitely refresh my memory on that stuff, thanks for the tip. I learned about wave velocity, wave length, and frequency in physics, but it has been a few years and my memory is a little rusty. I’ve got a Ham license, but my knowledge is still really basic.
            I fully agree, if you’re not trying to learn and improve yourself, what exactly are you doing?

    • Badlands Rifleman March 30, 2021 at 15:14

      Dirt – You definitely are correct, there’s plenty of practice that goes into a team as they develop their immediate action drills and SOP’s. It’s very similar to football practice, just keep running plays until you can’t get them wrong. Did what doesn’t work, Then do it at night until the lowest guy on the totem pole can teach it. As far as getting people to train, there’s going to be that challenge of getting people into motion, especially to realistically train. It’s fun to go play with gun toys at the range for a few hours, not so much to go be cold, wet and tired. If I may give some advice: meet them at their level. While you may have a good high level view of where you all need to be, they don’t, yet. Another piece of advice: be the man you would look up to as a leader. Learn and master the skills that you know are important and focus your energy on those that are worth the time. As far as training classes are concerned I’ve heard that Mike’s are solid, NCScout is as well and JC Dodge has a whole curriculum you could get in in if you’re down in the south east and if you’re on the west coast I do my own as well as On Point Tactical and Tactical Training International. My link is in the article above. Take care!

      • DirtNasty March 30, 2021 at 21:02

        Badlands I already made arrangements to be in the April field craft class. I took your advice and am “getting in shape”.

  4. Anonymous March 30, 2021 at 02:37

    4.5

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