3/1/A-CO, 1-2IN - Alpha Company, First Platoon, Third Squad

Present outside of combat unit

1LT J.Drake

Objectives

• Formation practice
• Discussing how to protect our Stryker
• Deliberate ambush

Accidents

Areas of Strength

• Reaction to an ambush in a vehicle: We succesfuly drove away from danger
• The squad performed really well during the ambush, despite the odds against them

Areas of Weakness

None observed, main issues came from the size of the convoy we fought against, not the squad performance itself.

Suggested Improvements

N/A

Mission Summary

Our drills started with a drive towards the AO. On the way there we encountered an ambush from which we successfuly disengaged and kept going until the dismount point. Once at the dismount point we discussed some formations and practiced the staggered column (this part of the exercise was meant to be for new recruits however only one of them showed up). Afterwards we discussed how to protect our Stryker using man-made and natural cover including the use of hills, trenches, and even walls to only expose the gun of our Stryker.
Next part of our drills consisted of discussing ambush techniques, there we discussed linear and L-shaped ambushes and use of assault and support teams. Afterwards I put down an enemy convoy route that I want to assault and let my team leaders discuss where should the ambush happen; SPC J.Wentzel proposed using hill 265 (pictured) so we drove over there and set up an ambush point as shown on the map and dug in. Once the two teams were ready I set the convoy off, simulating a deliberate ambush where we should have had enough time to dig in. Once the convoy was over the kill zone I initiated the ambush by setting off c4 I placed along the road and the rest of the squad opened fire. Due to the size of the enemy and the armour advantage that they had, we got overwhelmed and had significant casualties so we had to disengage; we took our stryker, loaded the wounded, and disengaged by driving to the RP and then driving to the next objective placed due west. Once at the objective we discussed our previous ambush and what went wrong, coming to a conclusion that the force we were fighting was simply too strong, consisting of 3 light armoured vehicles, a Gaz Tigr, and platoon-sized infantry. The squad wanted to do another ambush so I set up an L-shaped ambush where we would engage less numerous and armoured forces. This ambush went off really well and the squad performed much better this time.

Overall Sentiment

POSITIVE