Inspiring videos and music

[Mirannan]

One nice gung-ho method of getting from orbit to surface is the dropship a la Aliens (the movie). "Express elevator to Hell - going down!"

BTW, there is one British Army regiment better than all the others. SAS?

 

[Darkchild130]

Old fashioned outlook. SBS have identical capabilities to SAS and neither could operate without the SFSG or regular infantry regiments to support them.

If you want to hang a "best" label on anything, say UKSF.

 

[Tracer01]

Sorry, guys, got a black-out here.

BTW, there is one British Army regiment better than all the others. SAS?

It's a Special Forces Unit. Subordination gotta be different.

 

[Tracer01]

No we don't repeat every command twice.
You're thinking of VP or voice procedure in reference to radio communication. We repeat received messages for confirmation because comms can often be bad. It avoids incorrect orders being carried out.
We infuriate our foreign cousins with our formality in military matters as most are more relaxed than us.

Voice procedure. One more useful term.

Tell me, would you use the codename with five or seven syllables?

 

[Darkchild130]

We don't tend to use code names on the radio, we use call signs.
They differ from unit to unit, for example mine in Iraq was R10C (spoken as Romeo one zero Charlie) because I was in R company, the first platoon in the company (1) I was in the platoon commander's vehicle (0) and I was the commander of my fireteam (c).

Code names are more of a Strategic thing rather than a tactical consideration.

 

[Tracer01]

We don't tend to use code names on the radio, we use call signs.

Don't forget, I'm Russian. We have позывной, or 'caller'.

So is this wise to use the call sign with five syllables?

 

[D-E-M-Emrys]

though there is a common belief that 'SAS' are the elite fighting force of the British Army, it's something of an oversight. Brief rundown on SAS:
*Mobility troop (often referred to as 'Mobo') - experts in vehicular and desert warfare (though they'd give anyone a good scrap in whatever terrain they're pitched in).
*Mountain troop - arctic combat and survival.
*Air troop - as the name suggests, parachuting. HALO and HAHO. (high altitude low opening / high opening, respectively).
*Boat troop - again, as the name suggests. WATER BABIES!

The oversight I mentioned above is quite simply this:
As DarkChild has already mentioned, though SAS are the most reputable special forces unit within the British Military, there are other SF units that are no less deserving of their worth, skill, and 'special' status. SBS (Special Boat Service) is one of these, as is the SFSG (Special Forces Support Group). One that is often overlooked - or unknown to many - is the SRR (Special Reconnaissance Regiment).

If you'd like to know a little more about the UKSF 'Group' I'd be happy to go into a little more depth via private (though of course there are things I can't say).

ABOVE ALL ELSE to note, is that when you tackle anything to do with British Forces, you have to remember one thing about their (our) attitude:
We'll always get the job done, but we'll always think that we're getting stiffed!
That's not meant as derisive, but the amount of times I've heard of (or experienced) operations where you're located 'on the point where the map ends' or 'you're fighting uphill' etc. etc. Brit wit always shines through with the lads, and we'll have a good time complaining about it, but that's what gets us through it all.

@Darkchild - honestly, with the fast roping course, I found that to be rather shocking. It was the same in my experience. I did mine with a 'certain battalion' of PARA's (I'm sure you'll know which). Although saying that, a lot of the blokes from that unit are either racing snakes or stacked enough to make the heli tilt when they board.

 

[Tracer01]

So, it's like SOCOM?

I've posted in Critiques's Section, waiting for you there

 

[D-E-M-Emrys]

Oh, and to add to the codenames point, the most common 'codenamed' piece within UK Military would be operations and objectives.

An OP could be named publicly e.g. everyone knows Op Telic and Herrick, but anything at Secret level will be assigned a secret operation named.

Objectives are similar. Be they a known person of interest or location, we'd assign them a name. 1) its memorable, 2) keeps those-who-shouldn't from knowing (to a certain extent).

I've often come across training exercises with persons of interest all named after film casts, or band members.

 

[Darkchild130]

Don't forget, I'm Russian. We have позывной, or 'caller'.

So is this wise to use the call sign with five syllables?

Number of syllables is entirely unimportant, as I already stated, call signs differ from unit to unit. When I was working covert reconnaissance in Northern Ireland my call sign was Hotel 6.

Obviously, bigger units have more working parts and therefore end up with a more complex arrangement of call signs.

As with everything, simpler is better. My own fiction deals with small unit tactics and my troops are call signed 1 through 4 in order of seniority, with zero being their controller.

 

[Darkchild130]

Oh, and to add to the codenames point, the most common 'codenamed' piece within UK Military would be operations and objectives.

An OP could be named publicly e.g. everyone knows Op Telic and Herrick, but anything at Secret level will be assigned a secret operation named.

Objectives are similar. Be they a known person of interest or location, we'd assign them a name. 1) its memorable, 2) keeps those-who-shouldn't from knowing (to a certain extent).

I've often come across training exercises with persons of interest all named after film casts, or band members.

I wanted to stay away from op names to keep it simple. We could start going into objectives and report lines etc and we would be here for days.

Whoops that was meant to be an edit! Tracer, don't miss the posts on the last page.

 

[Tracer01]

I wanted to stay away from op names to keep it simple. We could start going into objectives and report lines etc and we would be here for days.

Whoops that was meant to be an edit! Tracer, don't miss the posts on the last page.

Well, right now it is unimportant, I cannot find that fake report anymore.

"You Must Sink The BISMARCK" ver 1B - YouTube - lets move on.

 

[The Ace]

Maybe not what you're looking for. Forget Braveheart, here is a fitting tribute to the bravery of the Scottish highlander.

THE LAST HIGHLAND CHARGE - YouTube

Sung by a Yank ?

It should be noted that there were as many Scots on the Government side as there were among the Jacobites - many had no love for the House of Stuart or the Church of Rome.

The Black Watch (formerly the 51st Highland Division, now 3 Scots), covered the retreat at Dunkirk.

Their brothers, sons and cousins took their revenge on Rommel when they advanced behind the bag-pipes at El-Alamein, leading the attack which led to Axis defeat in North Africa.

They also liberated Amsterdam, and were the first Allied troops to set foot on German soil. Their long and illustrious history has resulted in the award of fourteen Victoria Crosses.

Interestingly, they were originally recruited (in the aftermath of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion) to police the Highlands ('Black,' for the regimental tartan, and, 'Watch,' for their peace-keeping role) - it's a matter of speculation how well the '45 would've fared had they not been deployed to Europe in 1743.

The Black Watch - The Black Watch - Regimental Museum, Perth

 

[Gumboot]

Yes, I know. You've had problems during the Market Garden, as the Americans earlier.

Nowadays most of the landing performed with helicopters. I've had a discussion about that and guys from Israel say they've mostly rely on tactical landing via choppers during the Second Lebanese

I wouldn't say it's totally obsolete, but it's a rather specialised skill now.

Consider, if you will, the 82nd Airborne and the 101st Airborne Divisions of the US Army. The 82nd Airborne are still a parachute assault Division; the entire unit can be inserted into denied territory by air drop. The 101st, by contrast, is an air assault division, with lead infantry units intended to assault by helicopter to secure airfields for their armour to be flown in.

The really impressive thing is that the entire 82nd Airborne is required to be able to be deployed into combat at any point on the surface of the globe, within 120hrs.

I could imagine a "space" equivalent being supremely conditioned soldiers who are able to endure the rigors of repeated sub-space (or hyper space, or whatever your interpretation of high-speed inter-stellar travel is) travel in special craft designed to penetrate enemy defensive arrangements. Via these craft and punishing "drop ships" they are required to be able to deploy, in combat, to any planet in their designated quadrant in <5 days or something...

I guess what I am trying to say is that tradition is very strong in the military, and that names and identities are retained long after they become irrelevant, but that often those units perform the equivalent duties. For example, in many modern militaries you still have mounted infantry and cavalry units, despite a decided absence of horses. But these units still perform the same battlefield role that they did ~200 years ago. Likewise, Line Infantry no longer fight shoulder to shoulder in line formation, but again, they perform the equivalent role.

So I could easily see the 82nd Airborne Division or the Parachute Regiment retaining its existing name and traditions, but becoming a "drop ship" unit.

 

[Tracer01]

Sung by a Yank ?

The Black Watch (formerly the 51st Highland Division, now 3 Scots), covered the retreat at Dunkirk.


They also liberated Amsterdam, and were the first Allied troops to set foot on German soil. Their long and illustrious history has resulted in the award of fourteen Victoria Crosses.

Interestingly, they were originally recruited (in the aftermath of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion) to police the Highlands ('Black,' for the regimental tartan, and, 'Watch,' for their peace-keeping role) - it's a matter of speculation how well the '45 would've fared had they not been deployed to Europe in 1743.

The Black Watch - The Black Watch - Regimental Museum, Perth

Yank it's a singer?

I'm also interested about who lead the landing in Normandy in 1944? In movie The Longest Day there was Sean Connery and the bagpipes. The best episode in entire movie, that's for sure.

Thanks for the link anyway.

--------------------------------------
We have a celebrity, his name is Dzhigurda. He's not very sane, but cheerful fellow.

Оппа джигурда #ОППÐДЖИГУÐ*ДР- YouTube - is that right he wore his kilt wrong?

 

[D-E-M-Emrys]

I like where Gumboot is going with this.

Essentially, like he says, airborne/PARA's etc. are all part of their military's 'rapid reaction force'.

A.k.a. when the bad guys knock on your front back, the rapid reaction force knock them the f*** out before they reach the end of the garden path.

 

[Darkchild130]

Yes, but in a space based fleet, all infantry in an assaulting army would operate this way, making the rapid reaction force idea effectively pointless.

This is why I suggest drop pods as opposed to drop ships, ten times as dangerous but get you there ten times faster, allowing you to be "drop troop" and lord it over the regular grunts.

 

[Tracer01]

Yes, but in a space based fleet, all infantry in an assaulting army would operate this way, making the rapid reaction force idea effectively pointless.

This is why I suggest drop pods as opposed to drop ships, ten times as dangerous but get you there ten times faster, allowing you to be "drop troop" and lord it over the regular grunts.

Can't sleep. I'm on vacation anyway.

Think about that. If you shaping the perfect technology to the tactics you would like to follow, why you need a drop pods whatsoever? Why not just beam the strike team directly into the enemy's HQ and achieve fast victory?

 

[Darkchild130]

Because enemies will develop counter tech to disrupt things like that, enjoy beaming into solid concrete.
If beaming technology exists, any contemporary military hq would have countermeasures.

It could be as simple as a static field that fries any life form that appears without the correct Id tag.

You can't just think one side of technology.

 

[Tracer01]

Because enemies will develop counter tech to disrupt things like that, enjoy beaming into solid concrete.
If beaming technology exists, any contemporary military hq would have countermeasures.

It could be as simple as a static field that fries any life form that appears without the correct Id tag.

You can't just think one side of technology.

Interesting. I like the way you thinking.

But I thinking a little differently. I have a little experience with weapons, but I use to practise with pistol, designed by a blind man. It was a good gun, so I have faith in myself when I try to develop a fictional universe.

However, I've decided not to mess with things I cannot comprehend. Such as? You name it: artificial gravity, teleportation, force shields...

I've put FTL there only after I've read the Alcubierre's work about it.