Re: Not always joking, it seems

In message <47bbae55$0$36393$742ec2ed@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Dimensional
Traveler <dtravel@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes

>From what I can find (and its likely that my google-fu is just weak so
>please feel free to search yourself) the figure in WWII was around 1,500
>rounds fired per casualty.

 I recall one incident in WWI when a British machine-gun platoon with
four water-cooled Vickers belt-fed machine guns were tasked to provide a
beaten-fire zone in No-Man's land for 24 hours solid.

 Beaten-fire means just shooting into or across an area pretty much
continuously, to deny the enemy the op****tunity to advance though that
area (or take serious casualties while advancing). It's not firing at
targets or materiel structures like pillboxes, just using ammo to act as
a sort-of remote minefield.

 During the shoot there was an endless stream of supplies of ammunition,
cooling water and spare barrels being fed to the four guns from the rear
lines. At the end of the 24 hours they had expended over a million
rounds of ammo between them and not hit anyone.
-- 
 To reply, my gmail address is nojay1              Robert Sneddon