An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 17 in the world, this would reflect either the geographical or political situation of the military involved. Examples of these non-regular infantry would be moun- tain infantry as deployed by nations such as India, Italy, or the Naval Infantry (Marine Corps) as used by the armed forces of the Netherlands and France. One form of infantry which was greatly used in the past has been assault infantry, also termed shock units by some former Soviet States. Assault infantry have roles, some of which would include spearheading attacks to punch through enemy defences, after which the regular infantry and other units would pour through. Germany used a type of shock troops in the closing months of the First World War, while in the Second World War the So- viet Union used whole Combined Arms Army Assault Troops, to lead and break through static formidable German Defences. Modern roles for assault infantry/shock troops would include launching short term raids into enemy positions or installations, with the intent of causing as much damage and casualties as possible. Direct assaults on fortified buildings or bunkers could also be a mission task for assault infantry. Assault infantry would be, by definition offensive units, used only in attacks and raids, defensive operations would not be their most benefi- cial deployment. Personnel could be a mixture of infantry and engineer ele- ments, the engineer element providing explosive expertise at the front area of the fighting. Because of the nature of infantry assaults, weapons would include standard weapons of rifles and General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG), an abundance of hand grenades; these are very useful for close quarter combat and would be carried by each soldier, not to the mention the grenades used on the M203 to expand fighting range. Sub Machine Guns (SMGs), although no longer in general use by the Defence Forces would be advantageous in use by assault infantry, with their high volume of 9mm firepower at short ranges would be ideal for urban or any other closed in combat area. Heavy usage of all types of ammunition would be the norm in these intense attacks, all of this ammunition would have to be carried into battle by the assault infantry. Assault infantry troops would not be Special Operation Forces (SOF). They would not be covert, they would be basi- cally regular infantry, trained, equipped and prepared to be used as shock troops. They would be used for short range, short duration operations, they could be used to launch fero- cious hit and run attacks on enemy installations, positions, with the intention of causing maximum damage - or they could be used to attack and capture defensive strong points. Their wartime role would be to outfight, outfire, and out- last any adversary.

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