Re: Vietnam and modern combat

From: "Ryan Gill" <rmgill@mindspring.com>

> Impact should be lower. The FALs and M14s should be higher. (Don't 
> forget the Aussies! You don't want the diggers cross with you!)

> The SAS Diggers had some FALS that were heavy Barrel models with more 
> ammo and a higher FP die.

And rather more Bren guns converted to fire the NATO 7.62mm instead
of the old .303.

A 30-year-old Bren firing the old .303 round is still the most accurate
weapon 
I've ever fired, even firing 3 rounds automatic. Easy to get a
saucer-sized
grouping at 200 yards on a 3-second pop-up target. Of course I was
firing
from a prone position, and no-one was firing back. But I still did
better than
with a Lee Enfield of similar vintage, 73% on a pop-up instead of 32% at
a
stationary target at 200 yds, the first time I'd fired anything larger
than
a .22

There's the silenced 9mm F1 SMGs for SAS work, and some even older Owen
SMGs.
See http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-weapons/allied_ww2.htm

Not just the SAS either, unsilenced version was standard issue for
scouts,
though soon replaced by M-16s. And don't forget the Kiwis, they had
similar
gear.

But the main offensive weapon in the later stages of the war was the
Claymore. In one case (so the story goes), a Maori had a chunk of
aluminium plate from a KO'd M113 on his back instead of a backpack,
and on it.. a Claymore.

Method of operation : run towards enemy, lie down, fire.

He was soon  given a medical discharge, as a) he was totally deaf, and
b)
certifiably insane.