Live Rounds

Live rounds landing in your close vicinity concentrates the mind. These live rounds were being fired by my section. It was my first "live firing" attack. We were coming towards the end of our training and this was the first time we had been trusted to practice an attack with anything but blank ammunition. The adrenaline had pumped enough with blank rounds but now I was actually quite worried. Behind me I had 7 other recruits all with loaded weapons, some of whom I wasn't entirely convinced could shoot straight. Crawling forward I could hear the rounds burying themselves in the ground a short way off to my right. I raised my head - I only had a few metres left to crawl. For the umpteenth time I checked that my safety catch was on. It was time to fix bayonets and storm the position. I switched the safety catch to "FIRE", rose from the slightly covered position I was in and emptied half a magazine into the stuffed dummy lying in the enemy strongpoint. I ran forward searching for any more "enemy" to my front. I heard the loud shout of "STOP" from an instructor and the practice was over. I was buzzing.