Posted on 09 October 2014 at 23:04:47 GMT Most armies have some kind of smoke generating equipment. The process is simple: spray diesel fuel on a very hot surface or air flow. Yes, the Soviet decon trucks could make smoke. Likewise, NATO has truck and trailer mounted generators for making large screens. Whenever an incident would occur on the DMZ, the ROKS would crank up their generators and smoke the whole valley. We could see through it with out thermals, but the Norks couldn't.
Soviets in the mid 70s and NATO in the early 80s fielded smoke generators on all new and rebuilt tanks. My M60A1 had it installed in 1981. All they are is a small spray of diesel into the exhaust, controlled by a switch in the driver compartment. A rule is simple: lay a smoke screen along the path of movement and give a +1 targeting bonus because the smoke also acts like a giant arrow pointing to a neon sign saying: "I'm right here! Shoot me!" Line of sight is blocked through or out of the smoke, but for vehicles just inside or emerging, they are easier to spot because they are a dark silhouette against the white background.
We had a tactic against a Soviet-style echelon attack: fire a linear smoke screen just in front of an obstacle. The smoke kept following echelons from seeing what was happening while we would volley fire at the well-sihloetted lead company emerging but still blinded by the smoke and unable to avoid the obstacle. With 10-12 tanks firing at 10-12 targets, the lead echelon is eliminated before the next knows they are getting shot at. With a little practice, the other guy isn't around long enough to get a shot off. |