You can even see the smoke at the muzzle. You see the empty at his near elbow...just above and left. Smoke at the breech too...
Found the caption - A Ranger charges through a British Commando obstacle course in northern Scotland. Photo courtesy of the Darby Foundation
Would they use live ammo on the Obstacle course? could end up with a starship trooper event.
To My eye the smoke at the breach matches the background and the "brass" at the elbow seems very similar to the 'brass" above the buttstock and below the elbow
Last edited by Mark in Rochester; 03-10-2023 at 11:21 PM.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
The prospective Commando arrived at the Spean Bridge railway station and marched 7 miles to Achnacarry where they began their training, officers, and their men training side by side. Training for a prospective Commando consisted of an intensive regime of physical fitness and instruction in survival, orienteering and vehicle operation. This was alongside instruction on different weapons systems, demolition skills, close-quarter combat as well as amphibious and cliff assault. Any prospective Commando who failed to meet the standard was returned to their parent unit. The training was conducted with live rounds in order to simulate battle as effectively as possible. This realistic training led to the deaths of a number of trainees.
In 1943 the focus of the Commando training shifted to more conventional methods of warfare
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
I remember doing a fire and cover course at Ft. Knox, KY in 1972. Pair off with a team mate who provided covering fire while i leap frog forward and then i would do the same for my team member. The lanes were well defined and targets off set from the position that was being leap frog so as not to get shot in back. as i remember that was the day i fell in love with the M16A1 rifle. I remember the instructors throwing smoke grenades and artillery simulators to simulate combat. I also remember getting chewed out for shooting at the smoke grenades as the man size target were no challenge. It was fast and tough course. I hit the ground so hard and fast that one of the front hand guards came off my GM M16A1 rifle. After the course, with the missing hand guard, the Range NCO who was rodding the barrel to make sure it was clear burn has fingers on the blistering hot barrel. Of course he was ****ed and ask why I did not pick up the hand guard section and told I did not feel like getting shot in the back moving out of the lane.
The training was conducted with live rounds in order to simulate battle as effectively as possible.
Because we had a transition range for recruit training...that was done blank first and then live to train the soldier in battle inoculation. The range was an obstacle course that had six lanes so a section commander and five of his troops could go through together. Depends on the weather, the men came out looking exactly like this. This training has to be renewed before you can send the men into combat. We too have suffered deaths during this live fire training, but not very many.
I remember in 1976 when the US troops came on exchange and we ran some of these live fire ranges for them too. It was a different experience and education watching their maneuvers with live fire.
Memories!
When I was a brand-new sergeant team leader in my Airborne Company in Alaska, my platoon was conducting a live fire exercise in an area called the "Bowling Alley" at Ft. Richardson. This consisted of a flat valley with a ridgeline in each side running the long axis of the valley.
On this day my platoon was on one ridge, laying down suppressive fire on the far ridge (no targets). On signal, all firing elements would shift fire to the right side of the objective while a fire team(my fire team) would sweep across the objective from left to right.
While sweeping across the objective, I noticed snow popping up all around us, like little jets of air shooting up from beneath the snow. It didn't register in my brain what it was unti two saplings within my proximity suddenly fell over with force.
In horror I noticed the M60 gunner (new guy who replaced me when I became a squad leader) had not shifted fire and we were in his beaten zone. I yelled at my team to hit the ground. The platoon sergeant noticed our unusual movement at the same time he noticed tracers flying into our position. In two leaps he was on top of the gunner and bodily lifted him into the air and threw him behind the line of fire without his gun. (not an easy task since the gunner was well over six feet tall). He then motioned me to continue the sweep which we did.
Endex review criticized my team for lying flat in the middle of the sweep but congratulated us for a good sweep across the objective. Nothing was said about the friendly fire incident. Not even my team knew what had happened until a week later.
had a roommate who lost one soldier from his company due to hot brass down the shooter's back spraying the rifle line
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
I have many, many stories almost exactly like that. All close but I didn't quite get hit.
Originally Posted by Mark in Rochester
hot brass down the shooter's back
I was a firebase once with a squad and during the firing a man went down like he'd been hit. It drew my attention but before I could get over to him I could see it was a hot casing down his back. He'd dropped his rifle so it was less desperate, it was fished out. He's now a fire cheif in Ontario and has saved many lives with that job...
Commando obstacle course in northern Scotland. Photo courtesy of the Darby Foundation
Originally Posted by 
PM
