Prepare to Repel Boarders! Marine ship defense tactic help

[Theory5]

I am working on writing a space opera, and I am using that long long tradition of taking our modern sea-going navy and applying that to a space opera setting. Since this is my first draft I am not putting as much depth as I will in the final copy, however I need to do some research to move my story forwards.

In this section, my protagonists, and the two marine squads they are with are moving through their ship trying to reach the bridge. The enemy has already boarded the vessel (somehow) and they are chewing through the marine compliments way too easily. My protagonists have almost reached the bridge, and they ran into a marine checkpoint crewed by one squad an a commissioned officer (captain). Right after the checkpoint officer confirms their identity, there is a loud explosion down the hall and soon the enemy will appear. So the checkpoint squad, as well as the two other squads take up defensive positions. But I do not know enough terminology (or marine ship defense tactics) to accurately depict how three squads would defend a large ship corridor. I've found a few marine tactic handbooks, but nothing on defense of or how to execute a boarding maneuver.

I know how the first squad should be setup, using the checkpoint barriers as cover, but I can't think of how to arrange the other squads. This enemy can easily overpower them, so I want to emphasis that it takes a good amount of firepower to fight them.

Does anybody know of a place where I can find manuals that will help me? Or someone's brain I could pick?

 

[alchemist]

I'm of little use to you here, but I picked up a Space Marine/Warhammer book for research purposes for my own book. Mine didn't have the sort of scene you want, but one of them must.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've been thinking about this recently, although along slightly more absurd lines.

Personally, I'd arrange them into mutually supporting groups, covering the major entrances, and advance using one unit to cover the next. If there is another way round, how about two squads hold the enemy back while the third daringly uses the access tunnels/air vents/whatever to flank them? If the enemy are smart and able to, they may retreat, close off the area and open its airlocks to flush the marines into space, or to flood the oxygen system with nasty stuff, which could give an element of urgency.

It also depends on the sort of equipment they're using: if they've got fancy SF stuff like force fields or armoured suits, it may require some other means (in Dune, swords were used to deal with fields). No doubt there are modern military manuals available, but this is SF after all. Lee Brimmingcome-Wood's Aliens Technical Manual may help if it's still in print, as well various WW2 reprints. I know you can get old Home Guard manuals, which aren't as daft as Dad's Army would suggest. Of course, it doesn't have to be technically correct, just feel right...

 

[paranoid marvin]

Bulkhead; a nice naval term to use , and (as far as I'm aware) a wall within the hull of the ship which the men may be able to hide behind.

 

[Galacticdefender]

I'm of little use to you here, but I picked up a Space Marine/Warhammer book for research purposes for my own book. Mine didn't have the sort of scene you want, but one of them must.

As the resident Warhammer 40,000 nut, I will say that not very many Warhammer 40,000 novels have much shipboard combat that doesn't have the whole "derelict spaceship" kind of feel, and the spaceships in the Warhammer 40,000 universe are many times quite different from traditional space opera ships. Instead of tight corridors, there will often be wide open spaces, etc, because the spacecraft are so immense. Though the Gaunt's Ghosts novels depict battle scenes (on the ground generally) quite well, and I've used them as a reference on several occasions. If choosing that route, I'd start with The Founding, a Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus of 3 novels.

The book Leviathan Wakes by James S.A Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank) Has some scenes that are quite similar to the one you described, and is a great Space Opera as well.

 

[Theory5]

The book Leviathan Wakes by James S.A Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Frank) Has some scenes that are quite similar to the one you described, and is a great Space Opera as well.

Oh yea, I read it a few weeks ago and I really liked it. I have also read about ship to ship combat in Elizabeth Moon's books, however I always feel all the ships she writes about are wayyy to small. I believe William C. Dietz has a few novels with ship boarding combat, but I can't remember. The best military Sci-fi I've read is written by John Ringo, but most of the one's Ive read were part of the main aldenata series. James white had a few scenes of fighting when Sector General became a warbase.

What I am looking for is more of a tactics manual, something that I can use for a variety of situations.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Since this is my first draft I am not putting as much depth as I will in the final copy, however I need to do some research to move my story forwards.

I have a space opera on the backburner, and for research I got a few books on WWII battleships, which sometimes included drawings of internal structures, and especially provided good terminology references.

However, I figured in a practical sense, spaceships would have more in common with submarines so I focused research there: books on submarine warfare, a couple of biogs of U Boat captains, and watched Das Boot to see it visually.

Either way, I figure the best research is to find near analogues to what you want in our own history, and then research that specifically.

Also, don't forget to check through the writing resources board:
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/writing-resources/

Quite a few useful links in there for research, and don't forget to check the board archives.

What I am looking for is more of a tactics manual, something that I can use for a variety of situations.

Then perhaps read up on the US Marines?

 

[David B]

In house to house fighting, attackers blow holes in walls to advance without being caught in ambushes, clearing rooms/houses one at a time.

Doubt it would be much different. Spacetroopers would be wearing spacesuits so wouldn't care about blowing holes in bulkheads.

If your spaceship has several decks the attackers could come through the floors or ceiling as well.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Toby suggested this about the weapons technology and I would suggest that you think about what weapons are available in your universe for your marines and enemy first.

If for example, you got hold of a manual on modern infantry tactics first, then I think the tendency would be to give your fictional universe weapons that are analogues to whatever the manual was written for.

You may have a great idea for a weapon that completely re-writes 'convential' wisdom and means that you have to practically make up the tactics anyway.

For example, if you are all armed with just muskets (or musket analogues) tactics are very different from when you get to the stage that machine guns and mortars are carried by the infantry.

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Secondly the whole defend/attack thing with ships will probably not be in a modern sailors/marines manual anyway. The 19th Century must have been the last time that such offensive actions took place - the reason: the main guns became so big that it was the size, range and accuracy of weapons fire that determined who won. Ships then either surrendered or were battered to the bottom of the ocean. Then the airplane came along and all that was consigned to history as well.

So ship-to-ship fighting amongst personal seems a little archaic - is there a good reason that an enemy would want to risk personal, when they could potentially just pummel the craft to submission or until it had no life support systems?

---

Finally it struck me that the sort of warfare you might want to research is RattenKrieg or urban warfare if you have lots of narrow corridors, rooms and obstacles - perhaps Stalingrad as a model? Perhaps also look at special forces techniques for infiltrating buildings as a role model for the enemy.

 

[Vertigo]

I would agree with David B, I think the tactics required for boarding a large spaceship would be be very similar to urban house to house/room to room clearance warfare. And tricks like blowing holes in walls if you have the necessary to do so would definitely be the way to go. If your invading marines just charged up a corridor they would be slaughtered. It is the same principle as the battle of Thermopylae where the vast superiority in Persian numbers was balanced by choosing a narrow battlefield in which only a few could approach at a time, just like a corridor, allowing relatively few to hold off a large number of attackers.

 

[reiver33]

If the approach corridor is open (devoid of cover) then it would be pretty much a shooting gallery for both sides. In traditional (wet) navy vessels the openings in bulkheads are generally smaller than the corridor (e.g. rectangular corridor, oval hatch) and thus the door surround could provide some degree of cover - to at least one man lying down.

If you have fully retracting doors (think 'Alien') then it depends if they can be stalled in mid-cycle; e.g. a four-part pressure door halted to leave a + shaped gap as firing slits.

An attacking force has to initially suppress the defenders to make any headway. Typically this is an explosion (grenade, rocket launcher, mini-drone), giving you time to close (rush them) and/or deploy overwhelming firepower - nothing keeps the bad guys heads down like a hail of bullets. Once you achieve and maintain tactical dominance then covering fire should allow your men to advance relatively unscathed.

The above assumes relatively narrow access routes, as on current naval vessels space is expensive. If you have big ships, with big corridors, you're almost back to (outdoor) urban fighting techniques.

 

[Theory5]

Hmm I disagree about the fighting being similar to urban combat. For one, blowing holes in a spaceship that you are trying to capture tends to make it harder to get a ship back up to combat readiness. Two, some of the major house-clearing tactics used by SWAT and Delta Force, tend to require some room. Take for instance, the standard way to clear a room. Breach, Bang, Clear is the main component. You Breach the door, throw in a flash bang or other nonlethal (usually) confusion causing device, and then clear the room. To clear a room, a squad enters the room, and they hug the walls and encircle the enemy, all the while keeping their guns pointed inwards, towards hostiles. This is a very effective technique in most rooms on earth because of the amount of space available. But on a spaceship, even one a kilometer and a half long, you would not be able to 'clear' the room effectively. I imagine space boarding tactics have a lot to do with close quarters battles, enough so that clearing a small room would require a more intimate approach, where the enemy combatants are put into wrestling locks, or stunned by a taser or something. I imagine prison clearing tactics would be closer, for both clearing rooms and securing corridors given how prisons are designed.


The enemy also has a severe tactical advantage, better weaponry and armor as well as unfamiliarity, as they have never been seen before. So tactical dominance would be hard to come by. However, they have the advantage of having three whole squads in that corridor, which is a decent size, probably 7 people wide, 5 if they are wearing armored suits(which they are).

Venusian Broon, I am not sure what is in modern sailors manuals, but I do believe ship boardings are still relevant. Look at the pirates in the Gulf of Aden, both the pirates and various 'enforcement' personnel and even civilians have fought using methods of boarding ships and fighting on them.

Thanks for your help, you guys have given me a lot to think about.

 

[Venusian Broon]

but I do believe ship boardings are still relevant. Look at the pirates in the Gulf of Aden, both the pirates and various 'enforcement' personnel and even civilians have fought using methods of boarding ships and fighting on them.

That is true and is a good point, but it is for highly asymmetric and peacetime policing situations, you have to follow a legal code. When you described your initial thoughts, I got a more "total war" symmetrical situation in mind, more battleship versus battleship rather than modern frigate versus fast motorboat stuffed with somalia pirates!

In the former case, as far as I am aware the last time the Royal navy instigated regular training for boarding during 'big' combat was about 1890-1900 - as they still had the doctrine of broadside followed by boarding with pistols and cutlasses. Had't still quite thought through the impacts of the 15" gun! It would be interesting to know if during the cold war US navy doctrine involved any boarding of similar Soviet ships and vice versa. In an all-out conflict nuclear tipped weaponary probably made such tactics a bit of a moot point.


Your scenario with the proper constraints I think could work well, but still but I would be of the blast holes in walls, floors and ceilings kinda approach. Thinking as the enemy: you're going into a 3-D space of which clearing and holding will in the time you have, you have to assume be impossible anyway as you will have no initial knowledge of the internal space; so go as fast as possible to the personal/automated systems and take them all down. Destroying internal walls may also have the added advantage of randomly impacting internal systems, another positive I would postulate - for example you may have conduits with hardwired communication lines.

So overpower/destroy first, patch it up later if you have to when you have the time after victory, rather than steadily overpowering the ship and giving the defenders time to rig some spectacular self-destruction method which will potentially damage/destroy your ship as well.

Anyway, I'm sure you've got a clear picture in your head about the characteristics and capabilities in your universe - I'm just riffing off your idea and thinking aloud. Not intended to be a criticism at all

 

[Abernovo]

re: Wall-breaching - one of the terms used is mouse-holing. The idea is to make a door-sized entrance through which a small force can move, without destroying cover from enemy fire by taking too much wall down. It also leaves less damage, although I suspect it would play havoc with your wallpaper.

 

[Toby Frost]

Of course, make sure you've got the right wall, otherwise you'll have a surprise spacewalk. I expect that most large spacecraft would have sensors to detect pressure change as well as centrally-controlled environmental systems. It could be possible to do all sorts of nasty things to a boarding party by sealing them into a corridor and then sucking the air out, opening the airlocks, turning up the heat and/or pressure or simply jettisonning the thing entirely. As suggested, you could drill down or up, or even from the outside in to blast the invaders out.

There could be an interesting hacking element, as the attackers try to overcome or freeze the control systems before the ship expels them like a virus. For what it's worth, one of the weaknesses with military SF, I think, is a tendency to just write modern war with some moon-commies, as opposed to thinking about the full-on weirdness that futuristic war could involve.

 

[Venusian Broon]

For what it's worth, one of the weaknesses with military SF, I think, is a tendency to just write modern war with some moon-commies, as opposed to thinking about the full-on weirdness that futuristic war could involve.

Yeah I'm with you on that point. In fact one of the main hurdles the writer has to do is to justify why a human would be anywhere near frontline combat, if combat is based on extrapolation from our current high-tech weapon systems.

 

[Flugel Meister]

A little advice on the method of boarding a space faring vessel:

A few of the main stumbling blocks to boarding a vessel would be the intended target’s inertia, particularly if you’re using some kind of boarding craft. You don’t want to simply bounce off or deflect the target, or send it careening off into space.

Atmosphere:
It can be a big problem. If you do punch a hole in a ship, then you have to consider the escaping air, etc. It could prove problematic to any boarding action. Additionally, what about the hole itself? Will the boarding craft plug the gap and prevent everyone from asphyxiating?

Military wording and tactics:
Obviously it helps if you have a good idea of the layout of the vessel you are defending, but lets assume that the defenders (Marines) know where the enemy will board and set up an number of staggered defensive pickets – defensive points. Each point, if properly implemented, should be designed to maximise every element of the ships’ design so that it aids any defence. So if the corridors are long and narrow, long range weapons with overlapping fields of fire would be useful, providing the interior of the hull can take it.

In fact, I’ll write this out proper when I finish work.

 

[The Ace]

Minor Quibble;

There is only one Captain aboard a ship - its Master.

A Marine of that rank would be, 'Promoted,' to avoid confusion, as it's assumed that anyone saying, 'Captain,' is addressing the ship's commander.

 

[Brian G Turner]

And on that point, if you're using modern military as an analogue, be very aware that officer ranks between the army and navy can be very different!

 

[Ursa major]

Here's a table showing how UK military ranks compare across the three services: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/1430494-post79.html.



So a Captain (by rank) in the Royal Navy is the equivalent of a Colonel in the Army and a Group Captain in the RAF.