Strategic Unit Movements : Tactics 101

reply to post by xpert11


You are of course correct there, xpert11. I as well do not claim to be perfect on these tactical situations, but I felt it was something I could contribute to the Survival Forum area on ATS.

In a tactical situation, your terrain, the weather, amount of opposing forces, supplies avaliable to you as well as the adversary, and allies as well as other potential adversaries through political alliance of your enemy, all dictate exactly how to porceed.

Originally, I wrote this thread with just the definition of "Fallback vs Retreat" in mind but I felt that was not enough detail to go into as far as tactics as I could literally write several hundred books on the topic.

Strategic Unit Movements, should mean using your head in a level thinking process, and overcoming your fear of the situation through situational awareness.

There are many scenarios that can be set up and played out through posting here.

An example of intelligent withdrawal from a position, would be to never travel in a straight line, moving back and forth to make a moving target even more difficult to hit fits into this context as well as knowing your exit strategies and options for a safe egress.

Here is another thought . It may be possible to use the enemy minefields and booby traps to help provide security and guard your home base . To do this you will need to map the location of mines and bobby traps e.t.c . Note the route if there is one thou the likes of a minefield and then erect barb wire and place sentries as needed . It should be noted that you must guard the route or proximity to the area otherwise you risk the likes of mines being used against you , the area being infiltrated or an all out attack against you .

Originally posted by xpert11
Here is another thought . It may be possible to use the enemy minefields and booby traps to help provide security and guard your home base . To do this you will need to map the location of mines and bobby traps e.t.c . Note the route if there is one thou the likes of a minefield and then erect barb wire and place sentries as needed . It should be noted that you must guard the route or proximity to the area otherwise you risk the likes of mines being used against you , the area being infiltrated or an all out attack against you .

These are valid thoughts, however a minefield is not something to play around with lightly.

This is something that can get someone killed easily, so I'm not advocating it in the slightest.

Knowing where it is, and knowing how to navigate it, are two totally different things.

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


You are of course correct on the matter concerning minefields e.t.c . Now if I may I want to return to something closer to my origin postings in this thread .

It is a frustrating experience to trek through the jungle with Australians. Patrols have taken as much as nine hours to sweep a mile of terrain. They move forward a few steps at a time, stop, listen, then proceed again.

"Worse than the Americans were the Australians. The Americans style was to hit us, then call for planes and artillery. Our response was to break contact and disappear if we could…The Australians were more patient than the Americans, better guerilla fighters, better at ambushes. They liked to stay with us instead of calling in the planes. We were more afraid of their style"

Source

Now before I go any further I need to make it clear that I mean no disrespect to any of the Americans who served in Vietnam . Any blame I would attribute would go towards the much higher ranks .

Returning to the focus of the topic. Other then always respecting your terrain it is vital that you don't misread the enemy intentions . Another vital factor is to determine the nature of your enemy and where there supplies lines are and come from . You must have tactical flexibility. So one might say your forces need to be able fight with and without large amounts of fire power for example .

Lastly has anyone ever won a war of attrition(SP?) ?
I wont give a final answer to that other then to say that Iraq and Vietnam prove that you cant win a war of attrition against insurgents(SP?) . Cutting off an enemy supply line and waging a war of attrition can certainly go along way towards winning a convental war .

You never retreat, and you never fall back.

You advance to the rear. If you are about to get your ass handed to you, you rapidly advance to the rear.

If you are in the process of getting your ass handed to you, rapidly advance to the rear while pushing women and children towards the ass handers.


Those simple steps will keep you alive, and your ass intact.

reply to post by Scorched Earth


Great response. While you put it bluntly here, I stated it diplomatically.

If it were real life, and this situation was happening, I would be stating it a lot more bluntly than you just did to those people I might be pushing ahead of Me.

Of course you could take the other side of the coin . If taking a more of a insurgent role suits your needs better then control of the local population will be crucial . A Viet Cong stlye tunnel system may not be a bad idea either . You will know when face well trained counter insurgency forces for some of the reasons I have already outlined and the infrastructure that you rely on will also be targeted . For that reason don't put all your eggs or rather ammunition e.t.c in the same basket .

Since originally beginning this thread, I took a step back, because I was interested to see others ideas and thoughts on survival. I created the below thread yesterday, very short and to the point.

Would You Sacrifice Your Loved Ones, If They Might Get You Killed, Or Would Be Used Against You?

When it comes to survival people have many varied answers and I find that refreshing because it means people are trying to think for themselves instead of being led astray.

I highly suggest checking out some of the Osprey Publishing books on tactics especially the WWII squad and platoon tactics book.


ISBN # 9781841766621
Osprey Publishing books generally go for about $20 USD but can be found for far cheaper via Amazon.com affiliates (ex. the new/used option).

reply to post by ChrisF231


Thanks for the suggestion and the link.

Much appreciated.

Interesting thread SKL. I was curious about your avatar - what's up with
the Blackwater Xe?

The only thing I might add about tactics here is how to decide whether or not you're facing overwhelming odds. There are many factors that can affect the outcome of any situation - the calibre of your opponents, their numbers and weaponry.

Those things being equal the defense has the advantage, 3 to 2 in terrain without effective cover, 2 to 1 if you have good cover. Before risking an engagement good intelligence is a must otherwise you don't know what
you're dealing with. Always avoid engaging an unknown enemy.

When moving, always identify fallback positions so you have a given rally
point if surprised and forced to fall back. Time-delay explosives are a fine
way to slow down pursuers.

The greatest weakness of tracking dogs is their feet. Sharp objects easily penetrate their toe and heel pads rendering them useless. That's all I got for now, again good thread. whats the story with the avatar?

reply to post by Asktheanimals


It never pays to rush into any kind of situation of any kind without first taking the time to asses the situation . This can apply to anything from say approaching a car wreck to any number of survival situations . If you need do so doing a Recce of an area will present you with an immediate question .

Do you want to be detected when you and possible your party are conducting the Recce ?

Cheers xpert11 .

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Interesting thread SKL. I was curious about your avatar - what's up with
the Blackwater Xe?

Back before Blackwater got their balls caught in the vise in Iraq, I had gotten the designation as Blackwater Expert, because of the hard work I put into this thread :

Blackwater : Right-Wing Conservative America, Whether You Like It Or Not...

Someone suggested that I ask a Moderator to change my thread title, since Erik Prince decided to change his corporations name to the Asian sounding, Xe.

I declined to do that as well as I felt honored in having earned the title under that thread, and as well would not sink to Prince's level and "change the name", so instead I asked a friend to come up with a new avatar, superimposed over the old "Blackwater Expert" with a few splashes of paint, like a hasty cover-up, symbolizing the Iraq/Blackwater/Xe/Prince cover-up.

Thank you for your kind words about the thread, it was something I thought was necessary, and tactics are something I know inside and out.

Situation dictates tactics, tactics dictates outcome, outcome dictates survival.

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


Ah, I read Scahill's book about a month ago, very good read! I
think rent-an-army is a very dangerous trend for the both America
and the world. Im Super tired right now so I just wanted to say
thanks for the reply, i was cuatiously wondering if maybe you
were glorifying your employment with Xe or somethine. lol
later bro, peace

reply to post by fred3110


Fred, I'm assuming they just announced that you're being observed with FLIR, or otherwise, you won't know it.

FLIR works pretty well in open terrain, in arctic conditions, and in somewhat broken terrain - assuming your targets are pretty much in the open.

The very same tactics used for avoiding visual observance would be used to minimize the effectiveness of FLIR. It can't see through trees, heavy foliage from overhead, it can't see through walls, and it is merely a sensitive heat detector.

For example, a simple straw mat, sprayed with contact cement, and rubbed into the surrounding dirt will give you both a visual hide as well as a thermal hide.

Regardless, one should always hold to cover as much as possible, try to change your thermal signature shape with **** wrapped around portions of your body or hanging off of you. Move carefully, and don't carry your weapons openly.

For breaking contact, you fold back your force. The lead man falls back fifteen to thirty meters as quickly as he can while the number two covers. The sprint distance will be determined by terrain.

When the number two becomes number one, and number two is in place, he sounds off and the number one folds back.

This same principle works with two, four, or forty.

Never travel a straight line, but always break your track at random, traveling at the oblique, and reverse again at random. Never, ever let your movement become predictable. Random changes in direction, angle, speed, and movement will not enable anyone to anticipate your line of approach and set up an ambush.

If you find yourself being "driven," you have nothing to lose in an attack, which is often best accomplished directly at one of the flanks, yelling, shooting, and screaming as you rush their "line."

No rational being with any sense of self-preservation will stand up to that.

In the late afternoon or evening, never set up one camp. Set up two, with the distance between the two depending on terrain. The moment it's right at dark, you relocate to camp #2, very carefully, very quietly.

Never be where you were.

Never enable your foe to anticipate you in location, movement, direction, or velocity.

Fred also asked about dogs, and I forgot. I'm assuming the worst. A Tennessee Blue Tick hound. A bloodhound.

A good soldier (or survivalist) will always have some pepper and tabasco on his person at all times. Helps you gag down the road kill.

These dog's noses are super sensitive, and the real trick is ****ing up their sniffer.

Tabasco, red and sometimes black pepper will slow them down, and if possible, get into a creek and either travel up or preferably down the creek.

One other trick is to fool both dog and handler. Sprint for a while and then carefully backtrack yourself, break off to one side or the other, and the dog and handler must guess which trail you took, when in truth, you did the same thing a half mile on further down the trail.

If you have some leather boot laces or other means of wrapping, if you can find something like pine trees where the strong odor of sap is seeping, you can tie pine needles around your feet and rub the pine sap on the pine needles. If you have nothing to wrap with, cover the bottoms of your feet in pine sap, smear it on you legs, and anything else you can quickly cover.

Same thing would work with apples, or other fruits or plants with a strong, natural scent. It overpowers the natural scent that you put out - you hope.

Use very difficult terrain. It makes it more difficult for the handler to stay with the dog, and you want the tongues hanging out of both the dog and the handler.

They will also grow weary of all the backtracking tricks, so do not hold to a predictable objective.

One other thing that pops into my head. If you can find game trails, take them, run with them, and backtrack once again near a fork in the game trail. Hopefully, the dog will want to follow a fresh scent of another animal instead of this vague man-scent.

And of course, combinations of these little efforts would likely be more successful than just one.