Saturation fire
Encyclopedia
Saturation fire is a level of intensity of artillery
or machine gun
fire that is very high and is designed to fill an enemy position with artillery shells or machine gun fire.
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Saturation fire might be used to bombard
an area just before an offensive
. Another kind of intensity that is also used to bombard an area during an offensive is creeping barrage. Saturation fire is used most of the time before an offensive to bombard an enemy area and lower enemy morale
and ability to fight.
In the Battle of the Bulge
, German troops used Werfel rocket batteries to do saturation fire on Allied positions, particularly prior to an attack. Benjamin Colby claims that the U.S. did saturation fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945.
During the Vietnam War, the US used saturation fire against the Vietnamese forces. In one example in 1972, US air forces did saturation fire around a bunker where seven US advisers and a number of South Vietnamese troops were surrounded by ARVN forces which had been subjecting the bunker to a withering attack for days.
The use of automatic weapons for saturation fire has been criticized by a major US gun maker. The President of Armalite Inc. states that using an automatic rifle such as his company's AR-15 for saturation fire can waste ammunition, a situation which is particularly problematic in cases where soldiers have to carry their own ammunition. He argues that using carefully aimed semiautomatic fire can be more effective than sweeping enemy positions with random, full-automatic fire.
US soldier Paul Howe supports this view in his statement that "volume [of full-automatic fire] in the wrong place is useless". An author argues that the widespread use of automatic rifles such as the M-16 by the US army in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, along with the "... concept of saturation fire and general abandonment of the principles of individual marksmanship and weapon performance" led to military failures; he argues that "...there must be a balance between accuracy and firepower in the general application".
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
or machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
fire that is very high and is designed to fill an enemy position with artillery shells or machine gun fire.
Artillery
Bombardment
A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings.Prior to World War I the term term was only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, it was only loosely employed to describe artillery...
an area just before an offensive
Offensive (military)
An offensive is a military operation that seeks through aggressive projection of armed force to occupy territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational or tactical goal...
. Another kind of intensity that is also used to bombard an area during an offensive is creeping barrage. Saturation fire is used most of the time before an offensive to bombard an enemy area and lower enemy morale
Morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...
and ability to fight.
In the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
, German troops used Werfel rocket batteries to do saturation fire on Allied positions, particularly prior to an attack. Benjamin Colby claims that the U.S. did saturation fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945.
During the Vietnam War, the US used saturation fire against the Vietnamese forces. In one example in 1972, US air forces did saturation fire around a bunker where seven US advisers and a number of South Vietnamese troops were surrounded by ARVN forces which had been subjecting the bunker to a withering attack for days.
Machine gun
Automatic weapons, especially belt-fed, crew-served machine guns, can be used to deliver a high volume of fire at enemy positions. A history of German military doctrine states that "...laying down saturation fire [with small arms] will keep your enemy's head down while allowing you to get on with the approach to the objective. During the Vietnam War, AC-130 aircraft incorporated side-firing 20 mm Gatling-style cannons which allowed them to provide area-saturation fire as the aircraft circled over a target. Another use of saturation fire in the Vietnam War was with "guntrucks" in convoys. These "2-ton cargo vehicles" with "two M-60 machine gunners" would "... provide a rapid, retaliatory saturation fire within the critical first 3 minutes of an enemy attack [e.g., an ambush of the convoy]".US soldier Paul Howe supports this view in his statement that "volume [of full-automatic fire] in the wrong place is useless". An author argues that the widespread use of automatic rifles such as the M-16 by the US army in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, along with the "... concept of saturation fire and general abandonment of the principles of individual marksmanship and weapon performance" led to military failures; he argues that "...there must be a balance between accuracy and firepower in the general application".