Tracking

“ The same as the huntsman tracks his game so should we learn how to track the enemy. One of the first things to learn in tracking is the pace at which the man or horse was traveling when the track was made. ”

“ TRACKING AND COUNTERTRACKING Operating deep behind enemy lines requires proficiency in tracking and countertracking skills. Tracking ability allows an LRS team to immediately identify the presence of the enemy and collect intelligence. Tracking is also useful when an LRS team conducts a combat search and rescue mission to retrieve a downed pilot. Additionally, knowing how to track greatly enhances the team's ability to countertrack. ”

“ The next grade of significance attached to an impression resembles that which commends itself to the mind of a hunter who is practised in tracking. He notices whether a footprint he happens to light upon, is larger or smaller, broader or narrower, or otherwise differs from the average, in any special peculiarity ”

“ Water is one of the most difficult conditions for a tracker dog team. Water that is shallow, especially if rocks or vegetation protrude, can produce a trail that a dog can follow with varied degrees of success. c. Countertracking. Countertracking techniques are constantly used by LRS teams to avoid alerting the enemy to their presence. To be effective at evading trackers, countertracking techniques must be known. Knowledge of tracking is probably the best way to successfully evade trackers. Knowledge of tracker and dog teams greatly assists the survivor when evading the enemy. ”

“ In tracking where it is difficult to see the track, such as on hard ground, or in the grass, note the direction of the last foot-print that you can see, then look on ahead of you a few yards, say, 20 or 30, in the same direction, and, in grass, you will probably see the blades bent or trodden, and, on ground, you will probably see stones displaced or scratched—or some other small sign which otherwise would not be noticed. ”

“ The portside bay, on the left, contained electronics for the multimode phased array radar scanner in the nose, radar processors, radar power supply, radar transmitters and receivers, Doppler processor, shrouded scanner tracking mechanism, and an RF oscillator. ”

“ Once the receiver has acquired the satellite signals from four GPS satellites, achieved carrier and code tracking, and has read the navigation message, the receiver is ready to begin making pseudorange measurements. ”

“ A footprint can tell the tracker what footgear the enemy is wearing, if any. It can also show the lack of proper equipment, the direction of movement, number of persons, whether they are carrying heavy loads, the sex, rate of movement, and whether or not they know they are being followed. ”

“ On shore, far ahead, I can see the trackers—struggling forms of men and women, touching each other, grasping each other, wrestling furiously and mightily, straining on all fours, now gripping a boulder to aid them forward, now to the right, now to the left, always fighting for one more inch, and engaged in a task which to one seeing it for the first time looks as if it were quite beyond human effort. Fagged and famished beings are these trackers, whose life day after day, week in week out, is harder than that of the average costermonger's donkey. ”

“ Remember, this is only a pocket-compass with no dial, and it will jump frightfully. And the mode of estimating distance is very rough."
"That is all perfectly true," Thorndyke answered. "But you are overlooking certain important facts. The track-chart that you will produce can be checked by other data. The house, for instance, has a covered way by which you could identify it if you knew approximately where to look for it. Then you must remember that your carriage is not travelling over a featureless plain. ”

“ But you see these cakes of theirs are meat and drink, and we can make a bee-line for the wire.”
“Don’t you think they will track us?”
“I doubt if they will be able. Their intelligence is very high, and their modes of procedure are very artificial; and the best trackers are men of mere instinct. ”

“ The observer's position being inside the triangle formed by the objects.
A fix on the line of two points in transit, with an angle to a third point, becomes more sensitive as the distance between the transit points increases relatively to the distance between the front transit point and the observer; the more nearly the angle to the third point approaches a right angle, and the nearer it is situated to the observer, the better the fix. If the third point is at a long distance, small errors either of observation or plotting affect the result largely. ”

“ Well, that explains just how the range-finder works. The exact distance between the two men looking through the telescopes is known and fixed. Each man looks, as we have seen, at the same point out in the distance on the enemy's ship. That point is where the two unknown sides of the triangle come together. There is no time to figure the distance. A tenth of a second in these days is too much time to be lost. We must use electricity to do our figuring. ”

“ The plan of reorganization of 1843 provided for a detailed survey of precision. It was to be based on an exact triangulation that would insure positive results, that the location of a danger or the development of a new channel, should be beyond doubt; and that the survey, when completed, should fit together as one continuous line, in which the distance and direction of any object on the map from any other object should be true, whether the objects were in hailing distance of one another, or at the extremes of our boundaries. ”

“ Navigation means, in principle, the existence of a map, compass and of a dynamical system of finding the actual position on the map. If we can make only suppositions about the compass and the dynamical positioning system, as to the map, we find ourselves in the action zone of the theory. A map is an image model. The brain builds simplified models (maps) of the external reality, marking the position of the beehive and the position of the bee in flight and updating that all the time. ”

“ A miniature chart of a five-degree square, but on a sufficiently large scale to allow of considerable accuracy, is printed on the Form, for plotting the ship's track: the position of the ship being determined at 8 a. m., noon, and 8 p. m. of each day, these points afford the data for tracing the track. Whenever currents exist, their set in points and their velocity in knots and tenths of a knot per hour are written on this little chart at each noon position; an arrow is also projected from the track to indicate their direction. ”

“ The points marked A1, A2, etc., indicate the first, second, etc., and subsequent positions of observer A; the points B1, B2, etc., referring to observer B. The dot-and-dash line shows the course taken by the float, which is ascertained after plotting the various observations recorded.
It is very desirable to have a horse and trap in waiting to move the observers and their instruments from place to place as required, and each observer should be provided with small flags about 2 ft square, one white and one blue, for signalling purposes. ”

“ In large towns and cities where several trails meet, it requires the quintessence of alertness and deduction to find one's way by the telegraph poles, which, save for a few exceptions, represent the only means of identification. ”

“ You have only to take the map, and mark the points to be connected, and then with a single sweep of the pencil to draw the line along which the iron track is to run. In this airy flight of the imagination, distances are nothing. ”

“ How to read maps in detail [Pg 238] is a matter of some study, as there is much more information hidden in a good scientific map of a country than at first meets the eye. When tramping across forest and mountain it is as well to carry with one sections of the Government survey, by the aid of which one can often locate oneself when otherwise hopelessly lost. ”

“ Then come the flags which give the reckoning of the navigator on each ship as to latitude and longitude, either by observation or dead reckoning, and you comment upon the variations in the reports.
So the routine goes on and you get used to it and in some respects become part of it. You even fall into a certain station at certain times. The Sun man, for example, has one place where he is expected to report when the call is made. No other duties are assigned to him as a passenger. He has a certain station when the abandon ship drill takes place. ”

“ In order to prevent long trackers from swinging about laterally when in use they are often made to pass through a register or thin board containing holes of suitable size lined with cloth. A tracker may convey leverage from any part of an instrument to another, but its final function is to lower the pull-down and let air pass through the pallet into the pipe. ”

“ By multiplying the combinations of signals a great variety of messages might be transmitted in this manner; but, to avoid mistakes, the signals should be written down and copies furnished the commander of each separate party, and they need not necessarily be made known to the other persons. During the day an intelligent man should be detailed to keep a vigilant look-out in all directions for smokes, and he should be furnished with a watch, pencil, and paper, to make a record of the signals, with their number, and the time of the intervals between them. ”

“ It is very desirable that all arcs at a station should contain one point in common, to which all angular measurements are thus referred,—the observations on each arc commencing and ending with this point, which is on the Ordnance Survey called the “referring object.” It is usual for this purpose to select, from among the points which have to be observed, that one which affords the best object for precise observation. ”

“ Getting the Range Every person with a good pair of eyes in his head is a range-finder. He may not know it, but he is, just the same, and the way to prove it is to try a little range-finding on a small scale.
Use the top of a table for your field of operations, and pick out some spot within easy reach of your hand for the target whose range you wish to find. The target may be a penny or a small circle drawn on a piece of white paper. Take a pencil in your hand and imagine it is a shell which you are going to land on the target. ”

“ The reading of a single barometer alone will give us but a faint idea of what is really going to happen from day to day. But if we have a series of barometers located at different stations scattered all over the continent and connected at headquarters by telegraph, so that we can have the readings from a whole series of barometers at once, then it becomes a very useful instrument. A barometer may read low at one station by the scale, but may be high with reference to some other barometer that reads very low. ”

“ The soldier should be taught that, in judging the distance from the enemy, his estimate may be corrected by a careful observation of the clearness with which details of dress, the movements of limbs or of the files in a line may be seen. In order to derive the benefit of this method, the soldier will be required to observe closely all the details noted above in single men or squads of men posted at varying distances, which will be measured and announced. ”

“ When a number of stations are in view from one station and it is desired to send a message to all or more than one station, some preconcerted signal, as a rocket, a red light, or some peculiar flag or torch signal, should be designated as a signal for general attention. ”

“ Any signal which is recognizable, no matter by eye or ear, or in whatsoever way, at both stations, the reference station and the station whose longitude is required, must necessarily suffice to convey the time of one station to the other. ”

“ The most expensive article, and what is in some measure necessary in order to arrive at the utmost accuracy, is a good watch; but for common use, and where that strict accuracy is not required, this may be dispensed with. I have observed before, in this journal, that this method of finding the longitude is not so difficult but that any man, with proper application, and a little practice, may soon learn to make these observations as well as the astronomers themselves. ”

“ Always carry several large-headed pins using one at your present station and resting the side of the alidade against it, swinging the other end for sighting.
After sighting and lining the sight on your sketch, step off evenly to pace the distance. Time is always a factor in military mapping and where possible make mental notes as you go along as to where roads or other important features are located, so that you can place them in their proper place on the map when you have reached the next station. It is well always to set a good pace for here time can be readily saved. ”

“ When the logs reach the booms the marks serve as a guide in their distribution by the scaler, whose business it is to measure the logs, call out the number of feet in each log to the tallyman, who records it in a book kept for the purpose, the record, together with the mark attached, to be forwarded to the surveyor general's office, there to be posted and footed. A small army of men is engaged in bringing logs to the gap, a narrow passage admitting scarcely more than one log at a time. ”

“ Collecting Survey Data While sounding data is being collected along the planned tracklines by the survey vessel (s) , a variety of other related activities are taking place. A large-scale boat sheet is produced with many thousands of individual soundings plotted. A complete navigation journal is kept of the survey vessel’s position, course and speed. Side-scan sonar may be deployed to investigate individual features and identify rocks, wrecks, and other dangers. Divers may also be sent down to investigate unusual objects. ”