OHF marking on butt

[Sapper740]

"Locating the enemy by his fire"... Was usually done either at a gallery range and the shooting was done overhead or an area range where the firers were located in hidden spots in the field. Then they shot wide of the troops by a given safety margin.

We had overhead firing guns once we got the C6(MAG 58) and used the same rules as Warminster. We never used the old family of MG or LAR for overhead as they were wrong for it. Those excersises were reserved for battle inoculation such as Yugoslavia or later Afghanistan. Then during live fire the guns would be engaging targets distant while you moved under the shots. Lots of safety rules on that one.

I guess things were different with the Engineers left on the West Coast, especially after CFB Chilliwack was closed and access to the Vokes range became problematic so we did our live fire training exercises at Ft. Lewis Wa. We kept our sole C6 and sole M2 HBAR QCB at the Area Support Unit which was all that was left at Chilliwack. I can't speak to the right or wrong of the safety practices we trained under as junior ranks had no say in the matter. I personally questioned the sergeant running the C6 as to safety and was told "You have nothing to worry about".