rustling sweetie papers. The rear protection
commander will also have comms with
the overall ambush commander, because
it’s no good having eyes all round if the
commander has no way of finding out
what’s going on around him.
The 360° around your roving patrol or
location are broken down for simplicity, into
four 90° angles. Each of you will be allocated
an arc to watch, or if there are more of you
then the Commander might do it by eye, the
situation will dictate. Don’t forget though
that the arcs need to be interlocking, or in
layman’s terms overlapping, so that there
are no gaps in your vigilant watch through
which a cunning enemy can approach.
And so when you’re asked, ever so
politely and in a reasonable tone, to cover
your arcs, you should watch your 90°
section, and where possible do it over the
sights of your weapon. That way you’ll be in
a position to engage the enemy quickly, thus
denying him the element of surprise.
So by covering your arcs you’re keeping
your eyes open for the opposition. And this
is not a technique that was thought up by
the British Army either – it’s a basic of any
military unit. The Roman Army were so
impressed with the vigilance of geese they
encountered in the wild that they used them
to guard the perimeters of their forts over
2,000 years ago.
While hunting them for food the Roman
soldiers observed that, while the majority
of the flock were heads down, eating
grass, there were always smaller groups of
threes and fours standing watch on each
of the corners, and without any noticeable
communication they would occasionally
swap duties, thereby always maintaining a
constant watch over the flock, who were
exposed on the fens and mud flats. So the
Romans caught live Geese and stationed
groups of four or five at the corners of
their forts and camps, and during the night
the ever-watchful geese would call out in
alarm if they were approached. Effective,
and considerably cheaper than drones and
computers – and they could eat them too!
So if you find yourself static or in a base
location, and you haven’t remembered to
bring the geese, it’s down to you. While out
SKILLS ROOM
patrolling you still have to cover your arcs,
but you have to do it on the move, so how
do you divvy up the duties?
You divide up the arcs using your line
of march or advance, so the soldier at the
front is responsible for the 180° to his front,
and obviously the rear man is responsible
for the rear 180°. The rear man can’t walk
backwards otherwise he’d be forever falling
over, so what he does is every so often walk
swiftly up to the man in front of him, and
then turns to face the rear and have a good
scan of his arc for 10 seconds or so, and
then continue his march.
The soldiers in the patrol will then
alternately take the left and right, but all will
look to cover the whole of the flank 180°
and not just 90°. The guy at the front has the
hardest job, and the most stressful; he is
probably the most vulnerable, depending on
where you think the enemy is, and he will
be the first to get it if he stumbles into an
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