1966 US Army Vietnam War ARMOR ... - Survival Books

WWW.SURVIVALEBOOKS.COM(2) Minefields to be effective must be coveredby fire. Artillery and antitankcle when the enemy has limited ma-neuver room.fire will destroy damaged or immobi- c. Nuisance Minefield. Nuisance minefieldlized enemy vehicles, and small-arms may be employed as required, however, authorfirewill prevent enemy troops from ity for laying is usually not lower than the dibreachingthe minefields.vision CG. When approval for laying is granted,3. Employment of Minefields these minefields may consist of thefollowing:a. General. Effective employment of mines is (1) Roadblocks. Antipersonnel minesdependent upon a thorough knowledge of theirshould be laid around and adjacent tofunction and the tactical use to which they canroadblocks to hinder their breachingbe applied. Minefields may consist of antitankby the enemy. Antitank mines may alorantipersonnel mines, or both. Minefields areso be laid forward of a roadblock; itclassified functionally as protective, defensive,is desirable also to lay them on thebarrier, nuisance, or phoney (FM 20-32). Ar-friendly side to add depth to the obmorunits will normally employ the protectivestacle. The latter is a deceptive measordefensive type minefield.ure since the enemy will move forb.Protective Minefield. Protective minefields ward quickly once the obstacle issupplement offensive and defensive fires byovercome only to encounter mines aproviding close-in protection and warning tofew meters beyond.small units. They may be used to block gaps (2) Approaches to bridges. Mines placedand lanes through existing obstacles, contain-on the approaches to bridges and nearing as few as five or six mines.the abutments is added assurance of(1) They should contain easily detectable delaying the enemy in case of amines that are laid (no pattern) justmisfire in blowing the bridge. Minesbeyond hand grenade range of thenear the abutment may, in addition tounits positions. The mines are laiddestroying or disabling a vehicle,initially on the surface of the groundrender the bridge unusable until reandthen, time permitting, buried andpaired. Also, it will hinder the enemycamouflaged. The mines in this fieldin using this location for a hastyare normally removed and returned tocrossing site.the unit's basic load for reuse in fu- (3) Ferry sites. The near and far aptureoperations unless the field is absorbedinto a defensive or barrierproaches to ferry sites should bemined to delay the enemy. In theminefield.event the enemy breaches the mines(2) Battalion task force commanders on the far approach, the mines laid onhave the authority to employ protec-the friendly side will restrict histive minefields and may delegate thismovement out of the water.authority to company team commanders.They are usually laid on (4) Fords, Fords should be mined on theshort notice for short duration andshould be positioned where they canfriendly side extending the mines intothe water. This method makes it morebe covered adequately by small armsdifficult for the enemy to utilize theand antitank fires. Properly posi-ford since vehicles disabled by a minetioned, they may be effectively employedduring short halts, about rewillblock the ford.d. Laying of Individual Mines.fueling points, overnight assemblies,as flank security to block roads in (1) General. Mines may be laid on top ofdefiles, and as counterattack obstruc-the ground and concealed by coveringtions after an objective is taken. Thethem with leaves, brush, grass, orlatter use provides an effective obsta-other materials natural to the sur-371