On this topic I found this which I felt was of interest.
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former German Army Paratrooper, Croatian Defense Council, Kosovo Liberation ArmyUpvoted by
Blake Shaddix
, U.S. Army Veteran and
Mario Stradale
, I trained and I was a gun safety Officer in a NATO allied country.7y
Before you run out of ammo, you usually run out of food. Therefore, you can ask the guys who deliver the food to pack a few hundred rounds of whatever you need and bring it to you with the chow.
On the rare occasion that you are in the middle of combat and you are getting low on ammo, there are several ways to deal with the situation:
Send someone back to your logistics unit to get some ammo. You can also tell the logistics guys to meet you halfway or somewhere outside of the dangerous zone. This way, your guys save time and energy (You'll always send at least two soldiers to do this job as nobody ventures out alone in a combat zone).
Alternatively, you can ask a neighboring unit which is not under fire to help you out. We did that several times during the Kosovo War and almost always our "neighbors" were very eager to help us out and brought the demanded supplies straight to the front line, often risking their lives. Most of the times we asked for RPG grenades as they are quite heavy and we simply didn't carry a lot of them with us. You encounter an enemy tank or two and your grenades are gone.
German paratroopers carrying ammo, Italy, 1943
Sometimes, we "cannibalized" our own soldiers: a guy or a squad that hadn't engaged with the enemy and still had all their ammo was ordered to give a couple of mags to a comrade or a unit that was low on ammo.
Of course, we also picked up ammo from the enemies that we killed, but that was more a "bonus" than a regular way of supply. Don't count on this method when you are in combat. Chances are slim to zero that an enemy shows up in front of you just when you are on your last mag.
There are many more ways how to get some ammo in combat. During the Bosnian War, I even heard of guys who were fighting in an urban zone and who had to buy their ammunition from some local civilians.
If all supply methods fail, you have to retreat. Of course, this is not desirable, but never count on your supply before you hold it in your hands! A lot of things can and do happen on the front line and you always have to make plans in case that your supply doesn't come through.
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So of interest was the RPG grenades, that is an issue with our current scenario we only allow 3 RPG grenades per launcher to be carried in combat, perhaps a bit low but they are heavy. Hence in our current scenario my guys are out of position and out of RPG grenades and they are well isolated (Ukraine type VERY low troop densities).
So RPG 7 box (I hate using immagination it can be way off reality) RPG 7 Box 6 rounds 830*450*280mm (at 1/144 5.76*3.13*1.94mm)
NATO 5.56 ammo box 30 by17 by 21 cm (1/144 2.08*1.18 * 1.46 mm).
Now I will need about 9 boxed to cover a bit more than 3 rounds per team allowing for them to load an approprate mix of natures (HE, HEAT, ILL). So a few of them and a few 5.56 ammo boxes and some MRE boxes (45 by 30 by 30 cm) and we have a credible looking pile suitable for all forces, no way am I ging to do diffrent box loads for diffrent platoon sizes and nationalities: I do have limits and sorting is a real pain on the day.
Thanks for the inspiration.
The base will be about 30mm by 20mm ,can't be more as it needs to be put inside my snallest typical building. It will be Low (1 box high) as at a push stands will need to be placed on top, potentially inside a building if the S**T hits the fan.
