'nother post-camp post
Well.
I live, continually. To be frank, I don't feel like talking about the whole experience, but I suppose that for my own future reference, I should give it a wee list. From Sunday to Thursday. What we did, in all shortness:
Sunday : Got up at 5:30 AM, ate breakfast, packed everything into three trucks, including ourselves, and set off to Syndalen. In Syndalen, we packed everything we needed for a single night into a Jurmo boat (mercifully leaving the 6 mortars in the truck) and set off. Heavy seas, very much fun, although some seemed to have some trouble with the waves...
Arrived on Russarö, just outside of Hankoo, and unpacked, bringing the tents and everything maybe 500 meters inland (in the army, you're suddenly faced with these approximate numbers. "50 meters in that direction", "Enemy 250 meters directly in front"...never been good with distances, really...), where we lazily set up camp. Heavy wind at all times. Luckily, our tent was at the bottom of a hill, and thus protected.
After this, we mostly just sat and did nothing. Ate. Then we went shooting. Group in defense. Ergo, we sit in foxholes, and when the targets pop up, we shoot them. Fun, but not as fun as it was the first time we did it. I suppose it comes from the knowledge this isn't our main purpose in war. If the Light Mortars are forced to sit in foxholes and shoot at the enemy, then something's wrong. We're rarely even supposed to see the enemy. Did nothing for a long while, until evening. Then we did the same thing, only in darkness. With tracer ammo. Which looked rather nice, really. Flares, tracer ammo, suchlike. At first I hit squat, but I did get some hits after a while. It's...interesting...seeing the dust explode up as you miss your target.
Went to sleep eventually, although we had väijy and kipinä, which meant everyone got a max of about 2 hours of sleep. All the other platoons sleep about 7-10 hours a night.
Monday : Packed up early, went to Syndalen. Waited, oogled, did nothing. Shot the so-called "kattstigen". Basically, two people walk down a pre-set path, and targets jump up, which we then shoot. No crawling, just kneeling-shooting. Was, once more, not at all very excited at the prospect. Just walked through it so that it would be through. Find it somewhat saddening I cannot even summon up a vestige of thrill from such an activity any longer. I suppose that's what the Light Mortars do to a man. We then waited, did nothing, went to this other place where we were supposed to shoot, but there was a mix-up, and we didn't get permission. Was pretty broken at this point, despite us not having done anything. Or possible just because.
By the time it got dark, we were already someplace else, just...sitting. Wondering where the hell we were supposed to make camp. And then, Lt.W returned, and suddenly there was order-shouting. 10 minutes, and the förberedarna (hm. preparers? Those who prepare the future positons of our mortars) should be off. The tarp on the trucks was folded up in the back and half of the sides (it's always down all around normally), so that you could look out. Some things were reshuffled, so that there was one mortar in each truck. Everyone was then packed into the appropriate trucks, people were put with their rifles on guard on the driver's hut (they can stand on this support, and open a hatch in the roof and look out. It's really quite dramatic), and 30 minutes later it was off. Everyone else was sleeping, must've been around 10 or 11, and there we went, the Light Mortars. Off to war. We drove into the forest, waaay into the forest. And there, we came upon the prepared positions we were to have. Out with the mortars, into positions, just as we had been trained these last weeks. It was actually quite exhiliarating, the whole in-the-middle-of-the-night rush.
Of course, once we were in positions and things settled down, it all got boring quick. And cold.
Slept maybe 2 hours this night too.
Tuesday : Got the shells. 270 or so all in all. Around 200+ fragmentation shells, something around 50 or 60 smoke shells. Not all that much, but consider one frag costs 85 euroes. 200 of those make a pretty penny. Learned how to arm a shell. Also did such with around 60 or so. While screwing in the fuse on 3 kg of heavy explosives, I never really thought this was something that'd happen to me. Life is full of surprises, isn't it?
After that, we had some direct shooting. One mortar squad, runs into position, and aims and fires directly at a visible target. All our shooting was directed at this huge, derelict swamp, incidentally (Tchernobyl swamp, as it is known as. Really looks like someone blasted a nuke there). First time I felt the recoil of a real shell leaving the mortar, and first time I saw the blast of the impact. Nice. But it got old too, soon. Did it twice, second time in full ABC-gear. I hate Lt.W, and I hate the Finnish army for letting him make us run around in a gas-mask, shooting for fuck's sake LIVE ammunition. And not just 7.62 mm bullets either, but 81 mmm friggin' mortar shells with a deadly diameter of 30 meters or more.
Afternoon, shot some kortbas. Won't even bother explaining. Basically, it's a real quick mode of attack, where you should go from walking forward to shooting your first shells in under 4 minutes. We can do it, as we proved later.
Evening : Lt.W decided to put up new positions elsewhere, for kortbas. In the middle of a forest, 100 meters or so to the side. In the middle of the night, just as we were about to go to sleep, we're all sent for, more or less. The chainsaw has stopped working, and there's a lot of forest left to clear. We cut down hundreds of trees in that forest that night, with just barely functioning, blunt saws and dangerous axes (the shafts weren't properly attached, and could detach at any moment. I am honestly surprised no-one got shafted. Harr...). Oh, and barely functioning flashlights, too. Damn those things. I am especially proud of this one gigantic tree we cut down over the course of around 45 minutes. By the gods, we cut down a lot of forest.
Slept maybe 1 hour. Night-väijy is so cold.
Wednsday : Shot more kortbas, including from the new positions. Yet, we only shot from there once. Maybe 10 shells per mortar. And we spent 4-5 hours of sweat prepping it, in the middle of the night. I do so love the army. Still, it seems Lt.W was satisfied. Fuck the man.
Afternoon, shot kordinatmetoden all day (blah. Using map co-ordinates instead of the system used in kortbas. A lot more precise, and used for distances). Apparently we hit well, and shot fast and aggressively. As far as I can tell, we didn't miss a single shot, except one which was probably due to a technical glitch (...a bag of gunpowder that we use to propel the stupid things further didn't explode properly. High-tech, yes?). Overall, the man seemed happy enough with us. Fancy that.
Slept maybe 2 hours. It is REALLY cold during the night.
Thursday : packed up early in the morning, went off to a place where we threw some practice grenades. Fun. A small tidbit on this : when you pull the pin on the grenade, there's this handle which wants to pull up. When it does, the fuse is lit and the grenade will explode within 2.5 seconds. Even a practice grenade can kill, or at least blow your hand to tiny bits, if you're holding it when it does, aye?
The handle, which was previously held in place by the pin, exerts quite some pressure. Both mental and physical.
Lt.W has a habit of, while sitting in the foxhole from which the grenade would be thrown, order the pin be pulled.....and then casually begin to interrogate the poor sod holding the grenade about various matters. Ballsy? Kewl? Fuck that. Sure, it'll test your mental fortitude and ability to operate under stress. But fuck such rationalisms...Lt.W isn't about that. He just wants to watch his subject sweat, knowing quite well that if a mistake is made, he can jump out (having no gear whatsoever, except his light uniform) and be in perfect safety within a split second, while the guy holding the grenade has a hell of a much harder time in his full battle gear to scramble out of the damned hole before the grenade blows.
Basically, the man is a sadistic bastard.
Well, no-one got hurt or killed, and he didn't try it with me. So...all I can say is, I hate throwing grenades.
After this, we ate early lunch, and went back. Happy day, Thursday. Very happy indeed.
...right, that's about it. Despite the lack of sleep, it wasn't all that bad a camp. There is only one thing that bums the hell out of me, and which was confirmed by next week's program. A thing which...well...is presently killing me.
The ABC-protection gear run.
This proves Lt.W is still allowed to use this. The last batch used it all the time. The last batch also had about 5 people in-line at all times. We regularily have 25, including all the officers. If he doesn't understand that, if he starts to use these things again he will find himself with 5 people who allow themselves to be treated that way, he's more of an idiot than I give him due.
Next week, we will have the ABC protection gear out in the forest, doing all the same things we've done before in the G-forest, only with gas-masks. I can barely do it without.
And on Thursday if I remember correctly, we will have a second run of the "nassedagen". I can here refer you to one of my earlier entries, the one about the day we were put in the gas-tent. This will happen again. This time a bit more up close-and-personal.
*sigh*
Leave 'till Monday. Bless that. Next week, hell, then leave, then the last camp of the S-period (also hell, also all week). Then home, I should hope. And then we'll see what the T-period has.
After all...it'll all end soon enough. :)
I live, continually. To be frank, I don't feel like talking about the whole experience, but I suppose that for my own future reference, I should give it a wee list. From Sunday to Thursday. What we did, in all shortness:
Sunday : Got up at 5:30 AM, ate breakfast, packed everything into three trucks, including ourselves, and set off to Syndalen. In Syndalen, we packed everything we needed for a single night into a Jurmo boat (mercifully leaving the 6 mortars in the truck) and set off. Heavy seas, very much fun, although some seemed to have some trouble with the waves...
Arrived on Russarö, just outside of Hankoo, and unpacked, bringing the tents and everything maybe 500 meters inland (in the army, you're suddenly faced with these approximate numbers. "50 meters in that direction", "Enemy 250 meters directly in front"...never been good with distances, really...), where we lazily set up camp. Heavy wind at all times. Luckily, our tent was at the bottom of a hill, and thus protected.
After this, we mostly just sat and did nothing. Ate. Then we went shooting. Group in defense. Ergo, we sit in foxholes, and when the targets pop up, we shoot them. Fun, but not as fun as it was the first time we did it. I suppose it comes from the knowledge this isn't our main purpose in war. If the Light Mortars are forced to sit in foxholes and shoot at the enemy, then something's wrong. We're rarely even supposed to see the enemy. Did nothing for a long while, until evening. Then we did the same thing, only in darkness. With tracer ammo. Which looked rather nice, really. Flares, tracer ammo, suchlike. At first I hit squat, but I did get some hits after a while. It's...interesting...seeing the dust explode up as you miss your target.
Went to sleep eventually, although we had väijy and kipinä, which meant everyone got a max of about 2 hours of sleep. All the other platoons sleep about 7-10 hours a night.
Monday : Packed up early, went to Syndalen. Waited, oogled, did nothing. Shot the so-called "kattstigen". Basically, two people walk down a pre-set path, and targets jump up, which we then shoot. No crawling, just kneeling-shooting. Was, once more, not at all very excited at the prospect. Just walked through it so that it would be through. Find it somewhat saddening I cannot even summon up a vestige of thrill from such an activity any longer. I suppose that's what the Light Mortars do to a man. We then waited, did nothing, went to this other place where we were supposed to shoot, but there was a mix-up, and we didn't get permission. Was pretty broken at this point, despite us not having done anything. Or possible just because.
By the time it got dark, we were already someplace else, just...sitting. Wondering where the hell we were supposed to make camp. And then, Lt.W returned, and suddenly there was order-shouting. 10 minutes, and the förberedarna (hm. preparers? Those who prepare the future positons of our mortars) should be off. The tarp on the trucks was folded up in the back and half of the sides (it's always down all around normally), so that you could look out. Some things were reshuffled, so that there was one mortar in each truck. Everyone was then packed into the appropriate trucks, people were put with their rifles on guard on the driver's hut (they can stand on this support, and open a hatch in the roof and look out. It's really quite dramatic), and 30 minutes later it was off. Everyone else was sleeping, must've been around 10 or 11, and there we went, the Light Mortars. Off to war. We drove into the forest, waaay into the forest. And there, we came upon the prepared positions we were to have. Out with the mortars, into positions, just as we had been trained these last weeks. It was actually quite exhiliarating, the whole in-the-middle-of-the-night rush.
Of course, once we were in positions and things settled down, it all got boring quick. And cold.
Slept maybe 2 hours this night too.
Tuesday : Got the shells. 270 or so all in all. Around 200+ fragmentation shells, something around 50 or 60 smoke shells. Not all that much, but consider one frag costs 85 euroes. 200 of those make a pretty penny. Learned how to arm a shell. Also did such with around 60 or so. While screwing in the fuse on 3 kg of heavy explosives, I never really thought this was something that'd happen to me. Life is full of surprises, isn't it?
After that, we had some direct shooting. One mortar squad, runs into position, and aims and fires directly at a visible target. All our shooting was directed at this huge, derelict swamp, incidentally (Tchernobyl swamp, as it is known as. Really looks like someone blasted a nuke there). First time I felt the recoil of a real shell leaving the mortar, and first time I saw the blast of the impact. Nice. But it got old too, soon. Did it twice, second time in full ABC-gear. I hate Lt.W, and I hate the Finnish army for letting him make us run around in a gas-mask, shooting for fuck's sake LIVE ammunition. And not just 7.62 mm bullets either, but 81 mmm friggin' mortar shells with a deadly diameter of 30 meters or more.
Afternoon, shot some kortbas. Won't even bother explaining. Basically, it's a real quick mode of attack, where you should go from walking forward to shooting your first shells in under 4 minutes. We can do it, as we proved later.
Evening : Lt.W decided to put up new positions elsewhere, for kortbas. In the middle of a forest, 100 meters or so to the side. In the middle of the night, just as we were about to go to sleep, we're all sent for, more or less. The chainsaw has stopped working, and there's a lot of forest left to clear. We cut down hundreds of trees in that forest that night, with just barely functioning, blunt saws and dangerous axes (the shafts weren't properly attached, and could detach at any moment. I am honestly surprised no-one got shafted. Harr...). Oh, and barely functioning flashlights, too. Damn those things. I am especially proud of this one gigantic tree we cut down over the course of around 45 minutes. By the gods, we cut down a lot of forest.
Slept maybe 1 hour. Night-väijy is so cold.
Wednsday : Shot more kortbas, including from the new positions. Yet, we only shot from there once. Maybe 10 shells per mortar. And we spent 4-5 hours of sweat prepping it, in the middle of the night. I do so love the army. Still, it seems Lt.W was satisfied. Fuck the man.
Afternoon, shot kordinatmetoden all day (blah. Using map co-ordinates instead of the system used in kortbas. A lot more precise, and used for distances). Apparently we hit well, and shot fast and aggressively. As far as I can tell, we didn't miss a single shot, except one which was probably due to a technical glitch (...a bag of gunpowder that we use to propel the stupid things further didn't explode properly. High-tech, yes?). Overall, the man seemed happy enough with us. Fancy that.
Slept maybe 2 hours. It is REALLY cold during the night.
Thursday : packed up early in the morning, went off to a place where we threw some practice grenades. Fun. A small tidbit on this : when you pull the pin on the grenade, there's this handle which wants to pull up. When it does, the fuse is lit and the grenade will explode within 2.5 seconds. Even a practice grenade can kill, or at least blow your hand to tiny bits, if you're holding it when it does, aye?
The handle, which was previously held in place by the pin, exerts quite some pressure. Both mental and physical.
Lt.W has a habit of, while sitting in the foxhole from which the grenade would be thrown, order the pin be pulled.....and then casually begin to interrogate the poor sod holding the grenade about various matters. Ballsy? Kewl? Fuck that. Sure, it'll test your mental fortitude and ability to operate under stress. But fuck such rationalisms...Lt.W isn't about that. He just wants to watch his subject sweat, knowing quite well that if a mistake is made, he can jump out (having no gear whatsoever, except his light uniform) and be in perfect safety within a split second, while the guy holding the grenade has a hell of a much harder time in his full battle gear to scramble out of the damned hole before the grenade blows.
Basically, the man is a sadistic bastard.
Well, no-one got hurt or killed, and he didn't try it with me. So...all I can say is, I hate throwing grenades.
After this, we ate early lunch, and went back. Happy day, Thursday. Very happy indeed.
...right, that's about it. Despite the lack of sleep, it wasn't all that bad a camp. There is only one thing that bums the hell out of me, and which was confirmed by next week's program. A thing which...well...is presently killing me.
The ABC-protection gear run.
This proves Lt.W is still allowed to use this. The last batch used it all the time. The last batch also had about 5 people in-line at all times. We regularily have 25, including all the officers. If he doesn't understand that, if he starts to use these things again he will find himself with 5 people who allow themselves to be treated that way, he's more of an idiot than I give him due.
Next week, we will have the ABC protection gear out in the forest, doing all the same things we've done before in the G-forest, only with gas-masks. I can barely do it without.
And on Thursday if I remember correctly, we will have a second run of the "nassedagen". I can here refer you to one of my earlier entries, the one about the day we were put in the gas-tent. This will happen again. This time a bit more up close-and-personal.
*sigh*
Leave 'till Monday. Bless that. Next week, hell, then leave, then the last camp of the S-period (also hell, also all week). Then home, I should hope. And then we'll see what the T-period has.
After all...it'll all end soon enough. :)