Saturation fire is asaturation attack using an intense level ofartillery bombardment or rapiddirect fire (fromautomatic weapons such asmachine guns,autocannons orrotary guns) that is designed to overwhelm atarget area withlethalfirepower, for the purpose ofsuppression,area denial ormass destruction of the enemy.
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Saturationalindirect fire might be used tobombard an area just before anoffensive. Another kind of intensity used to bombard an area during an offensive is abarrage. Saturation bombardment is used most of the time to shock enemy forces and lower theirmorale and ability to fight.
In theBattle of the Bulge, German troops usedWerferrocket batteries to do saturation fire on Allied positions, particularly prior to an attack.[1] Benjamin Colby claims that the U.S. didsaturation fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945.[2]
During theVietnam War, the US military used saturation fire against the Vietnamese forces. In one example in 1972,US Air Force did saturation fire around a bunker where seven US advisers alongside a number ofSouth VietnameseARVN soldiers were surrounded byNVA forces which had been subjecting the bunker to a withering attack for days.[3]
High-rate of fire automatic weapons, especiallybelt-fed,crew-servedmedium/heavy machine guns, can be used to deliver a dense volume of direct fire at enemy positions. A history of German military doctrine states that "...laying down saturation fire [withsmall arms] willkeep your enemy's head down while allowing you to get on with the approach to the objective.[4] During the Vietnam War,AC-130gunships incorporated side-firing20 mmGatling-stylerotary cannons which allowed them to provide area-saturation fire as the aircraftcircled over a target. Another use of saturation fire in theVietnam War was with "guntrucks" in convoys. These "21⁄2-ton cargo vehicles" with "twoM-60 machine gunners" would "... provide a rapid, retaliatory saturation fire within the critical first 3 minutes of an enemy attack [e.g., an ambush of the convoy]".[5]
The use of automatic weapons for saturation fire has been criticized by a major US gun maker. The president ofArmaLite stated that using anautomatic rifle such as his company'sAR-15 for saturation fire can waste ammunition, a situation which is particularly problematic in cases where soldiers have to carry their own ammunition. He argued that using carefully aimed semi-automatic fire can be more effective than sweeping enemy positions with random, full-automatic fire.[6]
US soldier Paul Howe supports this view in his statement that "volume [of full-automatic fire] in the wrong place is useless".[7] An author argues that the widespread use of automatic rifles such as theM16 by theUS Army inVietnam,Cambodia andLaos, along with the "... concept of saturation fire and general abandonment of the principles of individualmarksmanship and weapon performance" led to military failures; he argues that "...there must be a balance betweenaccuracy andfirepower in the general application".[8]