why can't someone else write this for me?

[burntcopper]

feeling vaguely dead. yay.

poking the narnia fic with its notes from Lucy the beta. fight scene in Korea is being an utter *arse*. I'm seriously considering cutting out all the action, but that would mean that the scene after would be tell not show... Also need to chuck it back at her and ask whether it would be better split into three separate fics.

Ah, personal little universes. what fun. And dammit, why can't other writers be writing what happens to Edmund and Peter when they grow up in the real world so I don't have to? Or if they do, they just write random civvy street stuff. Why did I have to be the only person who thought about the fact that they'd have to do National Service?

:muses: maybe they have but it lurks on the pit o' voles, and I have standards about which parts of t'interweb I go near...

Comments

[gmh.livejournal.com]

If I might ask; where in Korea and when?

S.A.S. duties often involve as little shooting as possible - if you're trying to sneak around behind the lines in a fighting patrol, you really don't want to advertise your presence and numbers to the enemy if you can avoid it; especially when your opponents are the PLA - who, at the time, would readily take huge casualties to achieve their objectives.

As such, stereotypical Boy's Own firefights were more typical of frontline actions like the Glosters' defence of the Imjin River in April 1951 - if there are eight of you and several thousand of them, you really don't want to fight anyone if it's possible not to.

Although it's the wrong period (WWI), there are some pretty good descriptions of a firefight in Siegfried Sassoon's 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer'

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

dammit. extra research says the regiment raised by the SAS to fight in Korea didn;t get there in time so went to Malaya instead. still, at least them not using guns is one thing extra.

The main problem with this sodding fight scene is it appears to be sodding mechanical and so reads really bloody badly.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

OTOH, people (and especially officers) do get seconded from one unit to another; usually for the purpose of training, but also for particular skills that they may have; there's no reason someone who cut their teeth in the Artists' Rifles wouldn't have ended up seconded somewhere in Korea after 'K' Squadron were redeployed to Malaya; and the regular army of that time would regard SAS types as nutcases by virtue of their role.

With regards to firefights; never been in a real one myself; but the stuff we did as cadets at school involved a few exercises. It's abrupt; you keep your bloody head down, go where the officer tells you; keep your eyes open and try and shoot at anything that you think might be on the other side.

When something goes off; everyone goes for cover; the NCOs will check if anyone has seen or can see the enemy. If the enemy is visible (unlikely), then the enemy position is considered; half the squad (and the LMG if possible) will provide covering fire while the other half move to cover closer to that position; they will then provide cover while the other half catch up. Tactics at the position depend on what it is; e.g. a grenade for enclosed spaces (or smoke to get them out); if there's good cover in open ground, you try to flank them and winkle them out.

(If you can't see the enemy, then you advance carefully until you can see them; then - see above.)

After the fighting, an assessment of any casualties and how much ammunition people have left is carried out; if you're unsure of what to do, you call back to base, report the engagement and await orders.

(This is of course, regular army stuff rather than covert ops.)

I would say, though; it *is* abrupt. There's very little flow or smoothness to it, especially when there are small arms of various sorts going off all around you. Doubly so at night - when all you see are muzzle flashes, thunderflashes, Schermuly flares and the occasional grey-brown shapes of people you hope are your mates.

(This is less the case nowadays with night-vision goggles; but they certainly didn't give those to grubby school cadets in the late '80s.)