Or perhaps each company has some guy who follows along carrying a ton of ammo? I just watched the opening scene of saving private ryan. They are trying to take out a machine gun position and Tom Hanks says “covering fire” and they all start popping off rounds as fast as possible.
How much did/does a soldier carry? Even if you had 100 shots it seems it’d go quick in a fight like that. Is it a common problem in battle that non soldiers never hear of? If they run out, where do they get more?
Also, anyone know how many rounds a typical ww2 infantryman carried?
Old thread. 210 rounds of 5.56x45mm today. Guys who carrie(d) light machine guns, like M249/SAW might carry more, or the squad carries it as a whole.
In WWII, the average soldier used .30-06, which is considerably bigger and heavier, thus probably fewer rounds. The bullet (just the bullet) is over 2x the weight, not quite 3x. For the Garand, it would’ve come in clips (not magazines) of 8 rounds each, so likely a multiple of that.
Movies aren’t realistic. At fully automatic, firing from max 30 to 0 rounds takes about 4 seconds.
Specialized units/squads/whatever may carry more or less.
I have not been in war to know the details, but they don’t send you in alone so there may be changes to resupply. Airdrops, an HQ, etc.
I once asked a similar question on another forum although not about World War II.
The answers (ex-soldiers from various armies) generally said that ammunition supply varied. Most armies conserved ammo because the soldiers had to carry it. They could not rely upon motorised or helicopter resupply - either it didn’t exist or was impossible in the field.
Some people commented that American soldiers seemed to have a limitless resupply of armament and were able to range intensive cover fire. The American military is the supreme machine in armed conflict because of its deep resources.
Whatever you happen to think of the American military or it’s ranking amongst the world militaries, pretty much everyone has to agree that our logistics are second to none, hence the seemingly limitless supplies of ammo at the US military’s disposal.
But yeah, while you can empty a magazine with impressive swiftness at full-auto, there are only a very few situations where you’d want to do so. Burst or single-fire is a lot more common (with practice, a modern semi-automatic weapon can still lay down an impressive degree of firepower in single shots).
As for how common, it probably depends on the sort of combat they’re seeing. But figure that any two groups of soldiers who run into each other will have similar limitations to how much ammo they have on them (you can only carry so much of it, and if you had to walk to get there, even less than if you were traveling by vehicle). I’d say it’s more likely for one side or the other to disengage before they had a chance to run out. If one side was besieged, it’d be more likely, but thanks to helicopters and airplanes, it’s much harder to actually cut a modern military force off like that. Surrounding them and outnumbering them no longer is enough.
In many firefights where a squad would be likely to use enough ammunition to risk running out, they’re probably taking some casualties. It’d be very easy to pick up a wounded or killed buddy’s weapon or ammunition to supplement your own.
You take as much as you need for the mission. If you’re going on a raid that involves walking a dozen miles, blowing something up, and walking back, then you’ll travel relatively light. If you have a shorter distance to travel you’ll take as much as you can carry. I remember this one live-fire exercise where I carried 1,200 rounds of 7.62 ammo for my MAG. I could barely stand, let along march, but since my mission was to get off the chopper, walk a couple of hundred yards up a hill and lay down covering fire for my entire company, the powers that be deemed that I should take as much ammo as possible. I ended the day considerably lighter and slightly deafer.
I’m willing to bet that the guys at Normandy also carried a lot more ammo than usual.
In my day (early 70’s), 5.56mm ammo came out of the cans in cotton bandoleers. There were 7 pockets in a bandoleer. And in each pocket were 2 boxes of 10 rounds each in stripper clips. And in one pocket there was also a magazine loading tool. 20 rnd magazines were standard as the springs on the 30 rnd ones weren’t reliable. And a magazine pouch held 3 magazines.
For a complete load out, I’d grab 3 bandoleers. That gave me 10 loaded mags (9 in the pouches, 1 in the M-16A1), a complete reload in the rucksack, and 2 extra boxes of 10 in a pocket. Some guys would carry a spare 10 box or 2 in their helmet band. That’s where I’d keep a spare mag loading tool. I was the designated “big boomer”, so I also took along 3 or 4 claymores, some C4, and associated equipment. I grumbled at the weight at first, until I got offered the chance to wear the backpack radio. And I was too puny to carry the pig (M-60).
I think this is touched on in The Longest Day. Cornelius Ryan does make references to the soldiers compulsively scrounging and hoarding ammunition before loading onto the ships and while underway. I also seem to recall that one officer got underway without ammo. No one would lend him a clip and he had to load his rifle by getting single bullets from the soldiers.
Some relevant quotes on the subject:
“Gentlemen, the officer who doesn’t know his communications and supply as well as his tactics is totally useless.”
– Gen. George S. Patton
“The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte
“My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.”
– Alexander the Great
“The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…”
Sun Tzu
I suspect it is common for soldiers in big battles to run out of ammo. Usually it tends to be right before the end of the battle.
War is more than just soldiers running around shooting each other Call of Duty style. I forget the exact figure, but something like only 10% of the US military are front line combat troops. The rest is mostly the support and logistics forces that make sure the 10% doesn’t run out of ammo and other supplies. That’s why such an emphasis is placed of outflanking the enemy and cutting them off from their supplies. A battalion of tanks, detached from it’s logistics train would shortly run out of fuel, ammo and spare parts.
I remember, from some old film I think, a German general opening a box and forecasting the end of the war. The box contained a birthday cake, and had been dropped from an American transport. He deduced that an enemy who had the resources to deliver cakes was pretty much unbeatable.
Going out on patrol? You carry as much ammo as you can stuff into your pockets and packs. That extra bullet might save your life. You can never carry too much, as long as you can walk.
The idea would be not to let them get close enough to you to have to use your bayonet.I can routinely shoot a man-sized target at 100 yards with a rifle and I don’t consider myself to be a great shot. That’s the length of a football field.
The US Army trains its soldiers to do this at 300 yards minimum and many soldiers can do this much farther.With their battlefield weapon.Snipers can take this range out 5 to 5 times that distance.
While it would be great never to run out of ammo, it’s better to hit the enemy before they can get close.Even better to hit them before they can see you and shoot back.
