armed sentry removal

[ptpalpha]

Hansen, although I've never personally witnessed it, I believe that your last sentence reflects an unarguable truth! You kind of laugh and wince at the same time!

 

[bug]

Sentry removal during WWII was taught to SPECOPS by Fairbairn, Applegate's boss. Fairbairn was the ranking street cop in Shanghai for 13 years from 1927 to 1940. In WWII he returned to England and was the chief instructor in hand to hand for the SOE in England and then came to North America and taught the OSS. Here is what he taught.

"Knife in right hand, edges parallel to ground, with your left arm, pulling his head to the left. Thrust point well in then cut sideways, See Fig. C."

IMHO Fig. C shows thrusting straight into the right side of his neck and cutting forward. Your left hand covers his mouth and twists his head left. Now imagine a line from the sentry's right ear to his left ear. Move the line down about 4" to a point on the right, rear side of his neck. Thrust in there on that line. "(C)ut sideways" means forward, i.e. away from you, with blade parallel to the line between the sentry's ears. Two steps: in and forward.

"Carotid depth 1 1/2 inches, loss of consciousness 5 seconds, death 12 seconds." I can imagine timing this.

"Get Tough", Captain W.E. Fairbairn, 1942,pp. 99, 100, ISBN 0-87364-002-2.


bug

 

[Ed Lewis]

I believe current Special Forces doctrine is to insert the knife into the kidneys from behind. This is supposed to be so painful the target doesn't do anything but bleed out.

 

[James Healy]

One technique i have read about...

Using a double edged, straight blade, the sentry is grabbed as if you were going to cut the throat. You then ram the knife up through the base of the jaw, directly up into the brain. If done right, this destroyes the voice box....no screaming. The 4+ inches of knife in the brain is pretty effective at shutting someone up as well. You do a bit of a wiggle and a jiggle and pull the knife out, wipe it clean, drop the sentry slowly and go on your merry maraudering way.

I realise how grusomely appropriate my signiture is in this post....



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People who say knives are innefective weapons have never been stabbed

 

[carnifex]

I have to admit right off the bat, that I have no experience whatsoever in dispatching Sentries, and I have not read any of the military manuals on the topic.
What strikes me as slightly amusing is that I actually considered the technique of stabbing your knife through the side of the neck, so the blade ends up behind the "pipes" in the unfortunate sentry's neck and then you slice away from your self.
This always seemed like a better procedure than the one they always show in the movies, where they simply attempt to slice into the cartilage of the neck from the front.
Here's another one. How about stabbing the poor sod in the ear. And ram your blade in to the hilt, while you cover his mouth and nose with your free hand. Probably shouldn't do this with a large knife, as you'll most likely stab your own arm.
Then again, buy a Hossom megabowie with a 14 inch blade and decapitate the guy. Even if he is wearing a helmet, his neck is most likely still exposed, and if you aim it right you should be able to cut his head clean off. You can do the same thing with a Mad Dog Saxon Sword or any other tactical short sword. Why use a knife if you can carry a sword? It's a hell of a lot faster in my opinion and you don't even have to touch him to do it

Ack, this is getting macabre...
As a side note, even if you sever someones neck completely there is still going to be quite a lot of gurgling and wind noise as the air in the guys lungs leaves his body. This may not be possible, but for least amount of noise, one should wait with disposing the sentry until he has just exhaled...Talk about timing. Not something I would like to do myself, to tell you the truth, but oddly appropriate when you look at the meaning of my chosen nick...


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Regards
Joshua "Kage" Calvert

"Move like Water, strike like Thunder..."

 

[Evil Assassin]

I thought that would get your attention. I seem to remember reading an article in Tac Knives mag that showed an Emerson prototype which looked a lot like the Griffe. Ernest explained that this type of blade was designed to quickly sever the trachia (from behind, I imagine), almost all the way back to the spinal column. I have no real question here, just thought that it was, well, interesting. The article said something like these are serious knives for serious people; the faint of heart need not apply. Call me bloodthirsty, but that's pretty cool.