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Contributing Member
"Contact"
When was the word "Contact!" first used in battle to signify that contact has been made with the enemy, please? I had thought/assumed that the word used in this context is a post WW2 thing, although I don't really know, until watching a WW1 docu/drama when the term was used.
Obviously the docu/drama could have been wrong.
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06-16-2020 07:25 PM
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Advisory Panel
Around the same time the phrase "advance to contact" came into use?
And I don't know when that was!
“There are invisible rulers who control the destinies of millions. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes.”
Edward Bernays, 1928
Much changes, much remains the same.
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Legacy Member
I suspect it is a movie word. Otherwise how would moviegoers know?
Not included in military usage where I'm from.
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Contributing Member
"CONTACT WAIT OUT" has been used as (VP) Voice Procedure on the military radio net and verbal procedures in British and Commonwealth Forces for over 70 years and was certainly used in the war in Korea in 1950.
A term to signify you have come in contact with the enemy, wait to be updated.
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
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Contributing Member
Words in use back in the early sixties when I wore a green suit. part of basic Infantry drill.
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Legacy Member
"Kein plan überlept die erste Feindberübrung." or “No plan survives contact with the enemy” or some variation has been attributed to everyone from Helmuth von Moltke, the Duke of Wellington, Erwin Rommel, among a host of others. Physically encountering the enemy has been called making "contact" with the enemy for an awfully long time. From my experience, the practice of announcing "Contact!" over the radio was in anticipation of the inevitable radio call from higher headquarters wanting to know what all the shooting is/was about.
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Advisory Panel
Originally Posted by
Daan Kemp
I suspect it is a movie word.
Nooooo...we've used that from the beginning of my time in, from the mid '70s and onward. The US was also using it. How else do you describe meeting the enemy in the field with minimum wording on the radio net? As these others have pointed out...also.
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In his 1871 essay "Über Strategie," Helmuth von Moltke said, "Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus."
Google translates this as "No operational plan goes beyond the first encounter with the main enemy power with certainty."
Frequently paraphrased of course as, "No plan survives contact with the enemy."
The German word in question is "zusammentreffen." Meaning meeting or encounter.
Later English translations likely changed that to "contact." But was the term in use in that context beforehand? I don't know...but this likely takes it back to the late 1800s at least!
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Contributing Member
If you shout CONTACT WAIT OUT on a military radio net, it means only one thing!
Other cohorts, whether they be Air/Sea or Land in a conflict on the same frequency await your earliest update before Hell unleashes from all the resources available.
I can tell you it certainly isn't a Movie term at all, and you have to have served to understand the seriousness of the call.
It affects so many agencies, none more so than, the Medics who need to know who needs their help and how serious casualty numbers are, and also higher formation who want to resupply and provide more manpower if the enemy strength is far higher than first thought.
SIT REPS /CAS REPS etc follow the initial call of CONTACT WAIT OUT.
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
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Thank You to Gil Boyd For This Useful Post:
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Advisory Panel
Originally Posted by
Gil Boyd
CONTACT WAIT OUT
Yep, all other traffic ceases and T.O.C. primes up for traffic.
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