Independent Operations

Independent Operations by Ralph Zumbro Added into the witches brew are millions of leftover weapons in the hands of political splinter groups, warlords, and outright bandits. It as things are shaping up, we are to be part of the world’s 971 system, we’d better get ready for small-scale fractioned operations far from home. ea Control - One tank on a hilltop can dominate many square miles with pinpoint accuracy. Photo from author’s personal collection. In such places as Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq. Cambodia, and others, we are now seeing that the “New World Order” is going to be very messy. The polarized world of the Cold War is giving way to a boiling pot of national catastrophes, some stirred by climate, some by politics, and most by both. Added into the witches brew are millions of leftover weapons in the hands of political splinter groups, warlords, and outright bandits. If, as things are shaping up, we are to be part of the world’s 911 system, we’d better get ready for small-scale fractioned operations far from home. The armored civil action patrols and VCchasing of the Vietnam era taught the tankers of that time a whole new bag of tank tricks that axe in danger of being lost. We learned to do things that are impossible, and this article is an attempt to transmit that had-won knowledge to a new generation.

My old outfit, A-1/69, was at one time the sole armor support of the 1st Air Cav. It is, I believe, the only tank company in history to get its own Valorous Unit Citation. We were 17 worn, battered M48A3s with double and triple the turn-in mileage on the clocks, spread out over the full A 0 of an airmobile division. We busted bunkers, escorted convoys, built roads and fords, responded to ambush calls, served as artillery, learned to run in rice paddies, and probed the green hell for Charlie, sometimes on our own with no infantry close by. When the monsoon hit, we drove those old tanks up the Annam Cordillera to the Central Highlands, back to the Fourth Infantry Division AO, which was even larger.

We literally ran from the South China Sea to, in some cases, inside Cambodia We escorted trucks from Pleiku to places like Ban Me Thuot and Cheo Rio and Kontum, helped guard Montagnard rice and corn harvests, and moved their villages with our tanks. I have lived in a stone age village with a section of tanks, shared food and danger with the “Yards,” hauled their grain on the back deck, and escorted the medic tracks that healed their wounds and infections. We also kicked two battalions of NVA out of Pleiku during TET and utterly destroyed NVA regiment 95B at Mang Yang Pass on April 10,1968. We did all of this with company resources and detachments from the battalion headquarters company. The primary key to our success was the old TO&E that provided a large company headquarters section. section, and motor sergeant, and we leaned to send mechanics out with the platoons. The old TO had a large supply section, an ammunition NCO We had our own VTR, maintenance. and helper, a mess section that could feed the company-plus, and a few clerks and armorers. This personnel pool gave us a very important capability - company-level crew replacement. I have seen firefights where three TCs got medevacked out in one day. The gunners took over the tanks and cooks and clerks came out with the ammo resupply. We gave in-house cross-training. I got into serious trouble with the Top Soldier one time, for taking his company clerk for a loader. Morale in that outfit was such that, when a platoon or section went out on patrol, there was always a cluster of cooks and clerks at the gate, hoping for a chance at combat. We even used some Air Force types, and one TC was caught training up the Montagnard/Chinese interpreter as a loader. The lesson here is that, if the present TO is going to be kept official, there are going to have to be semi-pema-nent detachments from HQ company made to the tank companies, in the line of motor and mess people, and the nearest transportation company . has to be tapped for a few five tonners and drivers.

Just when I’d learned how to keep a tank going with controlled cannibalization, ingenuity, and outright theft, the old heap died. The air filters had been leaking, and the bolts that held the sprockets to the final drive hubs were popping one by one, just for starters. As a result, I drew the Ammo NCO job in company HQ and really leamed how the operation ticked. Our company commander at the time, Captain Allen, was one overworked officer. In order to handle our job, we’d had to set up a company-sized fire base out in Indian Country, and like Topsy, it just grew, by accretion, as more capabilities were added. It turns out that, to handle fractioned Local intelligence network - Just be nice to them and the information will flow in. These were the ‘border irregulars.” Author photo. operations, even the old TO wasn’t quite enough. Here’s what we had working out of one tank company base, in order to handle strong point duty, probes and sweeps, convoy escort, and reaction force. One 17-tank company, with one platoon detached out “near” the Cambodian border, one beating the brush and working MEDCAP (Medical Civil Action Patrol), and one running convoy escort. Of course, this required infantry we didn’t have, so two platoons of 4th Infantry Division grunts moved in and set up their own ten &...All those husky bodies for sandbag detail.

We developed a need for indirect fire support for such things as illumination fires and harassment and interdiction. The battalion’s mortar tubes were shot out, and the APCs had been absorbed by the scout platoon and turned into ACAVs (home made cupolas, out of steel from the wrecking yard). As a result, we got a half-battery of 105s, with part of their battery’s FDC. They set up on the west side of the perimeter, and presented me with an impressive ammunition list, and the use of one of their trucks. I eventually wound up with a three-truck flying resupply section, and when I got a new tank, did my own escort duty.

Next, we now needed APCs to move our infantry around, in addition to having some of them ride, WWII style, on the decks of the tanks. What we got was part of our newly enlarged scout platoon, and a couple of Pcs that somebody had put together at the scrap yard in Camp Enari. Then a Military Intelligence detachment moved in. Captain Allen and OUT XO, Lieutenant Walker, somehow made all this work cohesively, and the composite unit was a success. Looking back, I’d say that operations like that need a TO&E somewhere between the company and the battalion, with a major for CO and a captain for the XO. What we seem to be facing in the foreseeable future is an unending series of small-scale commitments that don’t fit current training, TOs, or issued hardware. We not only have to hold the line in Korea and act as reaction force for what’s left of NATO, we’ve now got to keep a nervous eye on Iran and Iraq, AND put out Third World brushfires, including civic action. The big divisions can watch the big problems, and DESERT STORM proved that they can do the job, but a 120-mm gun Abrams won’t cut it in Somalia or points west and south. We are entering another age of LIC, but judging by the political climate, we’d better get ready for LI-LB (Low Intensity-Low Budget).

In fractioned operations, the entire ball game is changed, and the strains and demands of leadership and crew response get suddenly more intense. Instead of receiving orders and support from on high, you’ll find yourself on the land. One or two tanks or IFVs might be turned loose in an A 0 with a few squads of infantry or local militia. Suddenly, you find that you’re a combination of U.S. marshal and local medical clinic, and you’ll won attract a fairly loyal group of locals. These must be analyzed, harvested, and put to work as a personal your own, virtually living off intelligence sources, as the locals always know where the bandits are. They’re your eyes and ears, both into the jungles and into the local communities.

There IS such a thing as a one-tank fm base. One of the first things you can get hit with is strong point duty, using the reach of your gun to dominate ten kilometers of road from a high point. We filled 55 gallon drums with sand, topped them with cyclone fence to stop RPGs, built a monsoon proof bunker, and moved a squad of infantry in for patrol and night security. You do NOT let the locals -who’ll be doing your laundry and trying to sell you local produce -stay inside the wire at night, they’ll set up their own camp outside. You can’t get rid of them, so make sure they’re below your line of fire. It’s up to you whether you let them keep weapons, but if you catch one with an RPG, he needs an instant debriefing. We used to say “thank God for helicopters,” but in this day and age, the supply bird may be an endangered species. The advent of the SA-7, and commercially available Stinger-clones have changed the battlefield equation. All it takes is one reasonably competent guemlla leader or warlord with modem equipment, and you’re on your own. Now, as never before, a small mechanized unit must have the Sep tember-October 1993 1967 RVN Armor Company Headquarters TO&E (from Memory) Company Commander Jeep 8 driver - M48A3 8 crew Executive Officer First Sergeant Operations Sergeant Supply Sergeant AmmolPOL NCO Medics Mess Sergeant Motor Sergeant Jeep 8 driver - M48A3 8 aew (dozer equipped) Jeep 8 driver - Also civilian driver 8 vehicle.

M577 commo track, driver, radio operator, and wmmo , technician.

314-ton truck 8 driver, five-ton truck 8 driver. Supply clerk 8 assorted indigenous employees. Five-ton truck 8 driver, fuel tanker 8 driver. Trailers and supplies detached from battalion headquarters. One ammo handler 8 assorted indigenous employees.

M i 13 from HQ Co., with two medics ... It had to be armed and fought its way in to the tanks. Deuce and a half with trailer, converted for mess use. Two cooks. one baker, and the mess driver. Also locally hired KPs and waiters.

One jeep 8 driver. One five-ton truck 8 driver. One VTR 8 two-man crew. One track mechanic, two engine mechanics, a turret mechanic, and a parts derk. Also, assorted gofers from local population.

While this T.O. was originally intended to handle only three line platoons of five tanks each, with judicious additions and attachments, we handled the equivalent of a small task force. By hiring and training natives. we were actually considered as an employment source by the population. I have seen a HQ unit of this type handle a 250-man infantry mmpany in the old Pentomic Amy. If mere were some support mops in the line units, up to five platoons and a mortar section would be no serious strain. independent quality of the old horse patrols. That means spare parts, tools and supplies, and stowage space. You’ve GOT to stay mobile, so let’s take a look at your running gear. When something breaks or gets blown in LIC, you can’t just pull over and let Battalion Maintenance come rescue you. You fix the problem yourself and continue the mission. Maintenance intervals need to be shortened considerably in hot, dusty, high mileage conditions. Depending on the vehicle, you should carry a minimum of two road wheel hubs or bearing sets, with the seals, and consider internal tankage for lubricants. We used to try to cany four road wheels, slung from the bustle rack to act as extra armor.

Anything that will set a shaped charge off before it hits your hull is welcome insurance. As all the old pictures show, we carried extra track ’sections, arranged as extra armor, especially across the front slope. Mine damage is going to be one of your greatest problems if the opposition is at all serious, and it is amazing how much damage American equipment can sustain and still protect the crew. It does however, require spare parts, to include a spare pair of torsion bars lashed to the sponson boxes, and the skill and expertise to change them... or you’re just going to sit and sweat until someone with the knowledge arrives. We had the entire left suspension blown off an M48 named Apostle, and our platoon put that sucker back together in two days and towed it home to Bong Son with no outside help. We had all the parts with us. The crew all survived and came back with a new tank several months later. The remains of the old tank provided spare parts for about two months.

Since LIC combat is going to require many clearing sweeps, you will live a gypsy-like existence. A platoon or section will set up many temporary camps, usually for a week or two, while the political types are winning the hearts and minds of the locals and finding targets for you, such as the nearest nest of bandits or the fortified home of the local warlord. As a result, an unplanned-for strain will be put on your electrical system, which was designed for straightforward combat, not cruising the back country. The batteries will be called on to provide lights for bunkers and hooches, radio watch, infrared and passive search, powering searchlights, ventilators and turret power. Night work and the perennial demands of next higher for status reports all take their toll on the batteries, which are also expected to crank the beast on a moment’s notice. Our half-solution was to install a knife switch that would isolate the starting batteries from whichever pair was acting as the “service bank.”

The ability to generate electricity is critical to the small base camp, especially since the light infantry and the mortar platoon that may be your artillery won’t have it either. We sorely felt the absence of the “Little Joe” featured in earlier tanks. Of course, the men who designed the diesel powerpack couldn’t have known of the LIC situation, where we spent thousands of hours on overwatch at strong points, as bridge guards, or wired into the phone net at some remote fife base.

The decision to eliminate the auxiliary generator set was based on two factors. The low fuel consumption of an idling diesel, and the known consumption of the gasoline generator in the M48A2. I do not believe the designers had a small diesel set to experiment with, as there are none made in the USA. Having personal experience running a 60-foot cruiser off one, I can attest to their economy of operation. A 3kw Petter (British), bums 1/4 pound of fuel per developed horsepower, per hour. That’s not much, and in today’s tanker’s world, it could make a lot of difference. First, it makes extremely long endurance missions more feasible. Second, it eases the problem of thermal Signa-hre, because you’re only having to diffuse about six horsepower worth of heat while charging batteries. Remember that high tech, including thermal imaging sights, is fdtering down to the third world, just like Stingers. Third, its air discharge can be used to heat both the main engine and crew compartment in colder environments. Anyone who’s had to get a diesel cranked in Grafenwohr in winter will appreciate that capability. A small genset won’t burn as much fuel as the current tank personnel heater. Extra radios are another priority. There are just too many local nets for a crew to keep track of, and somebody needs to think seriously about getting scanners into a tank‘s radio suite. When some infantry platoon leader sticks his point man into an ambush, he needs help instantly, not the next time some tanker feels like fiddling with his radio. Almost every tank in old A Company had an auxiliary receiver, because we’d turned controlled cannibalization into an art. Also, by one means or another, most of us had acquired a small portable, such as the PRC-6. These were necessary because, many times, the TC had to go out ahead of the tank to test a stream for trafficability. It helps to be able to reach your crew if there is enemy traffic in the bushes. You will also be periodically required to send one of your crewmen as liaison or spotter with the infantry, and he’ll need his own radio. If the troops in question are American, I guarantee that you won’t be able to get a word in edgewise on their frequencies. We used to have to use the feedback shriek to break in. If they are local militia, they may not even have military radios. In many third world countries, the old CB is used for military communications, good buddy, and a commercial scanner could save lives.

Another use for the portable radio is when you’re sent out as FO for your own guns. There’ll probably be an absence of several things in LIC, including large base camps with dedicated artillery, and when that happens, somebody is going to figure out that a tank’s main gun is a creditable artillery piece. Your azimuth indicator is as good as the one found in many SP ting the gunner’s quadrant on the witness marks, you can do some very accurate long range shooting. That’s if you’ve kept the data cards that came with the ammo.

There will be a mix of vehicles in any LIC operatio guns, and by put-Modified Task Force Headquarters TO&E (Provisional) Command and “Staff Commander HMMWV & M2 Bradley Exmtivo officer HMMWV & M2 Bradley Command SGM HMMWV & M2 Bradley operations officer M577 8 HMMWV

Communications SGT M577 & HMMWV

Headquarters staff and d e b form part ofthe crews of the combat vehicles, giving headquarters a long needed self-defense mpability. There is just enough room in a Bradley to make this possible without degrading its combat ability. SI is the CSM. S2 is the executive officer with a link to the smuts. s7 is the operations officer. S4 is the supply/ammo officer. An S5 01 civil affairs team, somewhat like a Special Forces ‘A’ team. m ~ l d be spliced in here, and wwld work independently. reporting to the operations officer.

Supply, ammo. POL and demo are consolidated into a Section under a lieutenant, with additianal troops as needed. In LIC ops, yw can simply hire warm bodies off the ewnomy. and win hearts and minds too.

MOSS &tion is standard TO for a large company. and the BXBCIC tive officer is also the mess officer. A purchasing agent might be added for buying local foods. such as fruit or rice. dated under a technical warrant officer. This is going to need either a VTR or an engineer tank, as well as a shop vehide. Scouts. There’s mom for a lot of experimentation. A squad of m e torcycle riders with a support vehde wwld be a good starting place. Heavy support. Again, there’s mom for discussion. A tank don 01 platoon wwld work, as would a mortar platoon. or a platoon of three or four 105 howitzers. Engineers. Probably two squads in M113s. one with a dozer kt one with a bridge deck Additional attachments as needed by mission.

Ydcs. Wm this many troops, you would need an MD with enough assistants for the line platoons. Possibly they could be d e tached from next higher. The old Pentomic Army organization wed what were called ‘Battle Groups,’ to handle up to five of those oversized companies.

As mentioned, this suggested TO is much bigger lhan a company. as curs was, but it surely isn’t a battalion. It would. however. handle rural pacification and guerrillabandit suppression on a long-term basis, until a local government could be trained up, as was done in Korea after the Japanese capitulation. For safety‘s sake. there is just enough antitank capability to protect against any unforeseen surprises.

Motor section. ordnanw, and electronics would all be and the capabilities of the tank will be used to the fullest. The M1 Abrams is probably the version that will be sent, if not rehabbed M6Os, because of the multi-use capability of the 105-mm cannon. As yet, there are only two rounds for the 120-mm gun, severely restricting its utility. You have GOT to have the use of specialized ammunition types when you aren’t facing enemy armor. In the whole of Africa, there aren’t any T8Os yet, and we ought to discourage their importation. With the 105 and its ammunition, the capabilities are endless. As with the 90mm before it, it is a creditable artillery piece. When you get a stable position, range and record all suspicious mas in daylight, and put them on your range card. This allows the interdiction of roads and trails at night. One of the standard administm- l a Author's Concept for a Doubled Platoon Combat vehicles should be M2 Rradley. Infantry ttacks should be M113A3 with 30mm cupola Trailers in TO for vehides. used to move base camps. M2 Pk Ldr MST?

Asst Plt Ldr + Trailer M2 M113 Infantry + Trailer HEMTT

General Supply + Ammo M2 M113 Infantry + Trailer HEMTT

General Supply + POL

M2 90mm Turret M113 Infantry + Trailer M2 PH sgl M113 Inf Plt Sgt + Trailer Dozer M113 Resource NCO The 'Resarrce NCO' commands the support element and, since his vehiie is the dozerhecovery version of the M113. Iwo atcached mechanics will ride with him. He will operate as me base camp NCO and will work with the officer left in charge of the base. The supply and equipment trailers will only be Wed up to move the platun base, and then only after a full route recon has been conducted and the route secured. After anival in the new base site, all trailers will be laagered and the perimeter secured. The 'housekeeping' gear and all defensive weaponry will be divided among the trailers to free up storage space in the combat tracks. An 81-mm mortar section cwld be stowed in the trailers, for illumination and interdicbn work. tive practices in these Third World brouhahas is to declare a sundown curfew, and you have almost free fire at night. In RVN, many captured VC said that the sudden arrival of a tank shell at a stream crossing or a pass in the hills in the middle of the night had cost them many comrades.

We even registered the parking slots in company base and made range cards for them. That way, any tank in for repairs need only range and traverse to one target on the card to be able to be part of the fire plan. Even a tank with its pack pulled could work the turret manually and keep that quadrant covered. What we really lacked was someone organic to the company with artillery FDC experience. If that lack is repaired by cross mining, any platoon on base camp duty can act as the resident artillery battery. The dozer tank can build you a ramp that will get the necessary elevation for long range work. There are some rounds available for the 105 with which you may not be familiar, as they have not been used in normal training. AF'ERS-M494, for instance, puts out 5000 flechettes at 2700 fps. It can be set for muzzle action or any distance up to 4400 meters. The shell delivers a 30-50 meter footprint. Two shots will effectively erase a platoon of infantry in assault formation. This cannot possibly do the hostile commander's state of mind any good at all.

There is also an antihelicopter round under development.

Designated

XM945 HE-MP, it uses a light HE shell from the 105 howitzer, mated to a tank gun powder casing and fitted with a Navy Mk 404 fuze. It was designed to pick helicopters out of treelines but, fitted with an impact/ delay fuze, it would make a dandy bunker buster. Willie Peter is another underused round. In addition to masking targets or designating them for an air strike, the shell gives a remarkably good approximation of the effects of a flamethrower. It will bum anything combustible, including human flesh. A combination of APERS, W, and a good hosing down with the coax will dismantle the average guerrilla ambush in short order. With practice, you learn to spot potential ambush sites and m n by fire. We always considered that anyone lurking in the underbrush by a fording site was up to no good and should be bounced out on general principles.

It is possible to “Armorize,” any AO, to quote Colonel Riggs, our battalion commander, by using the tank-dozers to smooth out entrances and create quickly usable fords. You do run the risk, however, that the hostiles will spot your work and plant mines and lay ambushes. Now you KNOW where the ambushes will be, and can plot H&I fires and artillery concentrations. You’ve actually sucked the bug-gers in. Remember that curfew? Go ahead and shell the hell out of those brand new fords at night, there will be no civilians there, only hostiles Crying to plant mines.

This still leaves us with the problem of all those secondary non-tank targets. If the mix of hardware includes enough Bradeys with the bushmaster, the problem is solved by that combination. If the tactical mix is tanks and M113s, we have got a problem. What is frequently lost sight of is that, in the absence of enemy armor, or when that armor is destroyed, the tank must revert to the role of battlefield bully, and that takes a LOT of ammo. Trucks, buildings, light wheeled PACs, troops in coax-proof cover, and so on, aren’t worth one of your few cannon rounds, but your MG won’t dig ’em out. Again, a Bradley’s 25mm will take care of the situation, but it won’t handle bunkers or a full scale MBT. The 105 will do the job, but feeding a main gun can be a bear. When we took out regiment 95B, ,I had to take an ammunition truck in to a platoon that was, at the time, beating up infantry in a woodline, because they were out of everything except canister, and the NVA were too far away for that.

One wrong mo ve... The crew survived this and came out shooting. American tanks are TOUGH! What’s needed is an intermediate weapon like the 25mm or a 30mm for either the TC or the gunner, or both. Some experimenting needs to be done on this. In LIC, the TC is usually too busy spotting for artillery, directing air support, shooting hostiles off the back deck with a pistol, etc., to use his S O effectively, and there should be a way to get a 50 or an ASP 30 under the gunner’s control. With an Abrams, it will take something like a Telfare mount to do the job. If rearmored M6Os are used, there is an easier solution.

In RVN, in hundreds of little firefights (when working as ammo/POL sergeant, I got feedback from all crews), we never found a need for the gunner’s telescope. A number of crews found a way to get a S O mounted in that hole, and research tells me there is a cradle that will put a Browning there. There’s at least two 30-mm guns that are designed as a direct replacement for the venerable fifty. This would give the crew another option for semihard targets. Mounting a LMG for the loader was a common trick, and some of the crews welded half a ringmount to the hmtt top. Any crew with a few months on patrol duty will develop some definite opinions as to hardware modifications. I saw loader’s guns with ACAV shields, and my own driver cobbled up a homemade bow gun out of quarter inch plate and a spare M73. We were always looking for more ways to cover the close-in a m where our guns wouldn’t reach, and many crews welded claymore brackets in various places and ran the wires in to the driver, through the unused bilge pump hole.

Coverage of close-in ateas is imperative in LIC, as the problem is not the T80 on the horizon: it’s the fanatic in the bushes with an RPG or a satchel charge. One of the first lessons I learned is that the hull and tracks are part of the weapons system, and the driver can take out infantry all by himself. The infantry version of the Bradley, with its close-in firing ports, may be a better vehicle for LIC than anything else we’ve got in the inventory. There’s always some nut willing to board a buttoned-up armored vehicle, and once they’re on the back deck, the only cure is for your wingman to ‘‘match your back,” and hope he doesn’t riddle the beer cooler. Another auxiliary weapon which quickly became indispensable was the M79 and its variants. Each tank carried one, and when stuck out in the hills alone, we used to fire close-in H&I Continued on Page 52