VIDEO: 3 PARA – Back to Basics

I was a little perplexed, but also (a little) encouraged,  by these news reports. They are both about 3 PARA on exercise in the UK, concentrating on conventional operations rather than the recent focus entirely on Afghan style operations. It was a little discouraging to hear both the reporter and one of the interviewed soldiers […]

Realistic Rucking

I’ve seen some stuff around and about recently about rucking. I remember back in the day when I could ruck twenty miles carrying 150lbs in about an hour. Ooops – Bullsh*t Alert! Let’s take a realistic look at rucking. I did do an article not so long ago about extreme rucking on UKSF selection – […]

Training Video: How Not to be Seen – a lighter note

On a more serious note, the real version of the training video “How Not To Be Seen: How Not to Be Seen – Monty Python Marching Up and Down the Square – Monty Python Blackadder Goes Forth – Best of General Melchett Blackadder Goes Forth – General Melchett Visits The Troops Blackadder Goes Forth final […]

Training Video: Snipers

Lots of little gems, as usual. Question: where do they take in shit in the snipers hide (or OP, if you were doing one and are not a sniper)? Answer: in a ziplock bag, and carry it out. Fun. (Re: The Briefing Officer: yes, I know where you are going with that. Don’t ask, don’t […]

Training Video: Fieldcraft – camouflage & concealment

Old school. If you are serious about adding vegetation to your equipment (head/shoulders/back) you should consider a couple of things: 1) Use cam netting/burlap strips or similar as a base level of camouflage to break up your shape. For example, add a bit of camouflage netting to your helmet (or hat) to break up the […]

Training Video: Marksmanship Principles “Shoot to Kill’

Marksmanship principles. Good video. Shoot to Kill Live Hard, Die Free. MV

Training Video: Locating the Enemy

Good stuff, self-explanatory. As true today as it was back in the 60’s. To add: for hard targets to indicate, if you are using a reference point, you can indicate distance to the left and right of the reference point by the finger tip or knuckle method: raising you hand at arms length, hold up […]

Training Video: Patrol – Recce & Fighting

Old school training video showing both Recce and Fighting patrol. It is part of the same series. Granted, it does not show the whole picture but it will give you an idea of what it all means. Picture paints a thousand words, even if it is from 1985! One of the things to notice about […]

Training Video: Defensive Tactics in Woods

Carrying on the recent theme of finding hugely outdated British Army training videos on YouTube, here is one from 1982: ‘Fighting in Woods‘. Unfortunately, there is only part one, the end of the video is missing. A great shame. There are a lot of good tips on tactics and techniques for an area defense in […]

Training Video: Squad Hasty Attack Drills

Following on from the recent discussion of squad tactics in the ‘There will be no Theme Music‘ & ‘Using the Flank‘ posts, I found this gem of a video on YouTube (below). This video is very old school, I’m guessing 1970’s. However, it is well worth 35 minutes of your time, and it is worth […]