The tactical shotgun in urban operations
My air assault infantry company faced many challenges during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Not the least of which was the fact that we knew we were going to be entering and clearing buildings in urban settings. These buildings varied in size and shape from the standard home with an outer wall and gate to multiple story universities and hotels. Through it all, the infantry squads tasked with entering and clearing these complex structures performed superbly, by adapting to the situation and always completing the mission.
The shotgun proved to be a very useful weapon for my company. We conducted urban operations in five cities during Operation Iraqi Freedom. For all of these missions, the shotgun was the most versatile weapon in our arsenal. The problem was that we only had two in the company. This caused either the squad and platoon to slow down their momentum to bring the shotgun forward, resulting in that Soldier becoming worn out; or conducting breaches by continuous pounding on a lock or a door, a means that did not allow for surprise. The bottom line is that the shotgun should be a squad weapon. Each squad leader should have the option of this weapon in his squad.
Breaching doors or gates does not have the same emphasis placed on it that the actual room clearance does. Traditionally, field manuals covering this training have Soldiers go through the motions; very little, if any, hands-on training is done for breaching doors and locks. FM 7-8 does not address the “how to” of breaching a door, it merely states that the “squad enters and clears all subsequent rooms …” The reasons for this are many. There may be a shortage of locks to practice cutting, or range control may not allow units to shoot their doors on the shoot house. Time might not allow a unit to shoot and rebuild doors for every squad. There is never enough demo to practice breaching outside of inert training aids. However, based on observation and experience in Iraq, I see an easier way: the tactical shotgun. Thankfully FM 3-06.11, Combined Arms in Urban Terrain, finally gives some emphasis and explanation on some of the “how-to’s” of breaching. FM 3-06.11 explains the three types of breaching: ballistic, explosive, and mechanical, with the majority of its two pages belonging to ballistic breaching.
In Iraq
During urban operations in Iraq, 90 percent or more of the door breaches executed by my infantry squads were with a shotgun. We did have other means of breaching, one being a mechanical breach with the Hallagan set, also known as hooligan tools. This is a set of tools carried by a Soldier consisting of a lightweight sledgehammer, a small set of bolt cutters, and of course the Hallagan tool. The Hallagan breaching tool is a modified crowbar made of non-sparking material with an extra spike and a wedge shaped adz at one end for additional prying and leverage. It also has a fiberglass shaft with a rubberized grip, which is nonconductive and reinforced for large prying jobs. The Hallagan tool works very well with wooden doors and other weak barriers, however, it is less effective on metal doors and gates. Another tool is obviously demolitions. Demo was in short supply for breaching due to the large amount of weapons caches we were destroying. The resupply for demo was unreliable and unpredictable, and squads had to find an alternative. An infantryman’s shoulder will also work as a breaching tool; however, this technique can become painful with the breach man entering, if not stumbling, into the room first. I believe that most infantrymen would deem that unacceptable. All of this leaves us with the shotgun.
Our battalion’s shotguns are organic to HHC. As deployment drew near, the company commanders requested that two shotguns be assigned to each line company for an alternate means of breaching. The train up, in country, for using the shotgun in the platoon was limited to reflex drills and techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) of a collective group of former Ranger battalion Soldiers, former police officers, and others who had some training with a shotgun. So, as we crossed the border into Iraq, each company had four to six Soldiers trained in the limited use of the shotgun in a tactical environment.
Understand that the nine-man squad outlined in manuals for infantry tactics is the exception rather than the rule. In my company, the only full squads were the weapons squads. The norm was a seven-man squad. Therefore, the TTP that my company used in employing the shotgun is as follows. In a stack, the breach man was the last numbered man (Figure 1).
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The breach man carried the shotgun in addition to his primary weapon, the M249 SAW. Room clearing is a precision drill, and neither the SAW nor shotgun are precision weapons. In this case the breach/ shotgun man stands to the opposite side of the door that the clearing team is stacked on. Depending on the direction of travel and which way the door opens, the breach man may stand at the front of the stack, moving after he breaches the door. Holding the shotgun at a 45-degree angle in relation to the door jam and away from his body, the breech man fires rounds into the door either at the door handle and deadbolt lock or the hinges. When firing at the doorknob, the point of aim should be into the door jam at the approximate location of where the plunger connects to the strike box. (See Figures 1 and 2).