Wooley
07-Jul-2009, 08:24 PM
If you're into Vietnam War history, you've probably heard about the creation of gun trucks to guard convoys from ambushes. These were regular supply trucks that had extra armor (usually improvised from sheet steel and sand bags) and guns fitted, usually M-60s and Browning .50s, and crewed by members from the supply and transportation company that made up the convoy.
These trucks got a second go around in the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and I was thinking they'd make a great anti-zombie weapon for fiction writers out there.
First, some changes. They're zombies with teeth, not insurgents with bombs, so we don't need the extra armor, so the fuel usage is decreased and the strain on the truck's systems is less. Likewise, instead of a couple of machine guns, we're putting soldiers in the back, with their rifles and carbines, and they'll use aimed fire to maximize rounds expended per reanimated deactivated.
The bench seats in the back will be moved from the outside walls of the bed, where the soldiers would have sat facing each other, to the inside middle of the bed, so the soldiers will now face out, so they can see and shoot. I've seen photos of other armies who have similar seating arrangements when their troops are transported by truck.
The tactics will be a fire team (4 men) per truck, so there's lots of room for ammo, fuel, water, food, and anyone you need to pickup, like the troops from a broken down truck if you can't fix it quick enough and too many zombies show up at once. If the mission is picking up civilians from surrounded rescue stations or just infested neighborhoods, you bring along buses and put them on those. The fire team leader is in the passenger seat up front with the driver and the radio, and the platoon sgt is in the end truck, the platoon leader in the front. The leaders can communicate any number of things-contact, survivors sighted, low on ammo, too many zombies-let's move, by radio or hand signals.
The plan is basically a mounted motorized zombie whacking safari. The convoys drive into areas uncontrolled by humans, and draw out the dead using any number of tactics (a boom box blasting death metal would be my choice in a screenplay) and when the zombies get a certain distance from the trucks, the troops open fire, and keep firing until the numbers thin or the numbers get too heavy to deal with. At which point the trucks move, either for new hunting areas, or to avoid being overwhelmed.
As part of pre-mission planning, spy sats or helicopters could survey potential routes and note blocked roads, downed trees, heavy zom concentrations, potential survivors (presumably in structures surrounded by large numbers of reanimates) and this info would be part of the platoon leader's briefing.
Areas for resupply, probably by helicopter, artillery or air support in case of higher than anticipated zom numbers, and other details would likewise be mapped out prior to roll out.
Basically, instead of forting up and letting the zombies overwhelm us, I'm thinking fort up, and send out search and destroy teams to thin out the zombie menace as best as possible given the huge expanse of country, and limited fuel, time, men and ammo to do so.
I could see civilians and law enforcement doing something similar but probably not on as large a scale, or as long as the military during a zombocalypse.
Thoughts?
These trucks got a second go around in the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and I was thinking they'd make a great anti-zombie weapon for fiction writers out there.
First, some changes. They're zombies with teeth, not insurgents with bombs, so we don't need the extra armor, so the fuel usage is decreased and the strain on the truck's systems is less. Likewise, instead of a couple of machine guns, we're putting soldiers in the back, with their rifles and carbines, and they'll use aimed fire to maximize rounds expended per reanimated deactivated.
The bench seats in the back will be moved from the outside walls of the bed, where the soldiers would have sat facing each other, to the inside middle of the bed, so the soldiers will now face out, so they can see and shoot. I've seen photos of other armies who have similar seating arrangements when their troops are transported by truck.
The tactics will be a fire team (4 men) per truck, so there's lots of room for ammo, fuel, water, food, and anyone you need to pickup, like the troops from a broken down truck if you can't fix it quick enough and too many zombies show up at once. If the mission is picking up civilians from surrounded rescue stations or just infested neighborhoods, you bring along buses and put them on those. The fire team leader is in the passenger seat up front with the driver and the radio, and the platoon sgt is in the end truck, the platoon leader in the front. The leaders can communicate any number of things-contact, survivors sighted, low on ammo, too many zombies-let's move, by radio or hand signals.
The plan is basically a mounted motorized zombie whacking safari. The convoys drive into areas uncontrolled by humans, and draw out the dead using any number of tactics (a boom box blasting death metal would be my choice in a screenplay) and when the zombies get a certain distance from the trucks, the troops open fire, and keep firing until the numbers thin or the numbers get too heavy to deal with. At which point the trucks move, either for new hunting areas, or to avoid being overwhelmed.
As part of pre-mission planning, spy sats or helicopters could survey potential routes and note blocked roads, downed trees, heavy zom concentrations, potential survivors (presumably in structures surrounded by large numbers of reanimates) and this info would be part of the platoon leader's briefing.
Areas for resupply, probably by helicopter, artillery or air support in case of higher than anticipated zom numbers, and other details would likewise be mapped out prior to roll out.
Basically, instead of forting up and letting the zombies overwhelm us, I'm thinking fort up, and send out search and destroy teams to thin out the zombie menace as best as possible given the huge expanse of country, and limited fuel, time, men and ammo to do so.
I could see civilians and law enforcement doing something similar but probably not on as large a scale, or as long as the military during a zombocalypse.
Thoughts?