Not sure if it is still the case, but for our recon platoons it was SOP for the first man in a contact to empty a mag on full auto in the general direction, after that everyone went to semi.
A few excerpts from “Sleeping with your ears open” by Gary Mckay, about Australian SAS in Nam.
Page 43:
It goes on to say that a 5 man patrol would typically have one 203/M16 and perhaps two more M16s. At least two guys would carry a select fire SLR with 30 shot mags. TheseThe amount of ammunition carried by the SAS on patrol in Bornea was far less than they carried in Viet Nam, as the threat of enemy contact was far greater in the Viet Nam campaign. Because there was little chance of resupply once a contact started, the troopers used to carry whatever they thought they would need to get out of trouble.One member mentions 240 to 250 rounds carried for the SLR and some 400 for the M16.gave a very good initial burst of fire in a contact and gave the SAS patrol considerable firepower for a five-man group. An SAS contact drill often sounded like a 30-man platoon in contact when they opened fire instead of just five men.
Page 97 (just thought I’d add this bit)
One member says:
Page 187:The SLR was actually designed with a holding open device so that on the last shot of the magazine it held open and so you could carry out an immediate action drill really easy, but that’s no good for a parade ground, you can’t have people messing around on the parade ground like this. So, the hierarchy of the Australian army [and the NZ and I think also the UK] said remove the pin. Our armourers put a pin where it was supposed to be..
As one member recalls:The expression that ‘bull#### baffles brains’ is very true in the SAS notion of throwing as much lead at the enemy to get him to keep his head down while the patrol took off. The other thing that also helped was the reports from the weapons. The 7.62 SLR was a noisy beast which didn’t go bang, it went boom! […] when you get these beasts firing on automatic and in unison, the noise level was dramatic.
I’d say that this would work well in very close terrain, at very short range. Beyond that it would probably be a waste of ammo for rifles.…and if you had those bloody SLRs on fully automatic, firing a 30-round magazine, and if the flash eliminator was taken off it, you would think, ‘####! What have I hit here?’ Because it sounded heavy, and fast, and automatic, and it would just make old Charlie think, ‘####, I’ve hit something big here’ and it would stop them, rather than race in and try to take you out. Because they think they have hit so much firepower, it’s at least a bloody company, and by that time we’ve got ourselves on a back bearing and ####ed off out of there. But, once that first magazine was gone, from then on that was our rules, you fired well aimed, single shots.” “…if you’ve got three SLRs on fully automatic with a 30–round magazine, s##t flies everywhere.
I have linked this article some time ago and do it again because I think it makes for an interesting read. Its ‘Bang on target’ on page 139.
Also note the ‘role of the infantry’ early on. Hehehe.
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