RE: Obstacles, Part 3

I'm going to say quite a bit.

Infantry spend quite a bit of time working on the clearing of wire
obstacles and the setting of them.  Maybe you are thinking of American
Infantry, if you are I apologize as I don't know what training they do
so I may be arguing apples and oranges.  I agree that we don't train at
the same percentage as engineers but we do train.

Infantry don't carry bangalores nor high explosives.  We do carry Rocket
launchers and often have engineer or pioneer dets attached to us.  Heck,
we sometimes have big tanks beside us.	Oh, ya we even have wire
cutters.  My point was that Infantry do work with and against wire so if
a wire obstacle was found they wouldn't just say 'oh no, let's get the
engineers' they would work around it.

Over all I agreed with your post, I just had some points on it.  From
your reply maybe I worded it wrong.

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	jatkins6@ix.netcom.com [SMTP:jatkins6@ix.netcom.com]
	Sent:	May 2, 1998 5:31 PM
	To:	FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
	Subject:	RE: Obstacles, Part 3

	You wrote: 
	>
	>Wow....engineers must be super human!	But seriously, excellent
info 
	but >some items I question:

	Yes, we are.  Why do you ask?

	Engineers are equipped and trained for breaches, Infantry pogues
are 
	not.  Absolutely not.  You can say all you like, but what
percentage of 
	the Infantry's training time is spent on breaches?  I can tell
you 
	Engineers spend out 50-75% of our time on it.

	>Wire is not impassable to infantry, first guy jumps and lands
on the
	>wire, next guy runs over, or, if the wire has enough depth, he
runs 
	over >and takes a spot a little further ahead.	This goes on
until a 
	path is >clear (ie - everybody behind you uses you as a door
matt ;-).  
	I think >your breaching rules would simulate this good enough.

	I'm presuming your infantry have wire cutters.	And you'll have 
	difficulty doing that to a triple standard concertina wire fence
_I've_ 
	built, since I do it right.

	>How do you reason that engineers can move half and breach
obstacles?

	We know what we are doing, and besides, we're using Bangalores
while 
	the infantry are stuck with cutters.  And that's only wire.

	>And how do engineers clear tanglefoot as they go through?  Are
you 
	guys >issued wire cutters on your boots?

	Since a Dirtside II turn is 15 minutes, and foot infantry is
moving a 
	mere 200 meters, half that if you're going through Difficult
terrain 
	(as tanglefoot is).  That leaves _more_ than ample time to cut 
	tanglefoot.  

	John M. Atkinson