Get the Offline ArchiveFree lifetime updates

Night Patrols

5 min read

Parent
🥾
Patrol Routes and Methods
Current
🌙
Night Patrols

A night patrol exists to learn what the fixed posts cannot see in the dark, and its two biggest risks come from its own side: injury from falls and trip devices, and being taken for intruders by a sentry who does not know it is out. Announce every patrol and its route to the posts in advance, time it, have it identify itself before it nears any post, and never send fewer than 2 people.

Part of Watch and Patrol Scheduling

A night patrol is a patrol walked in darkness to check the outer ground and warning systems, using hearing more than sight, and returning by an announced route.

What The Dark Changes

Eyes need time in the dark to adapt: 20 to 30 minutes, as Night Observation states, and a flashlight beam destroys it at once. The parent article’s rules follow from this: allow 30 minutes for night vision before leaving, move slowly, stop every 50 to 100 m for a 60-second listening halt, and stay off skylines. Hearing does more of the work, and so it works both ways: the patrol’s own footsteps carry.

The noise-discipline article gives ordinary conversation as audible at 100 to 200 m in still air (Noise Discipline). A patrol talking in normal voices is heard well before it is seen.

The Real Hazard Is Recognition

The parent article requires a challenge and password and changes the password every 24 hours. That is right, and it needs one more rule: the post must know the patrol is out. A sentry who sees figures approaching at night with no warning has no reason to think they are friends. The worry is not a clever enemy; it is a frightened, tired sentry with a weapon who does not know.

Worked Example: Time And Distance To A Post

A patrol walking at 5 km/h (1.39 m/s, a recalled ordinary walking pace) covers distance d in d / 1.39 seconds.

  • At 100 m from the post: 72 seconds.
  • At 50 m: 36 seconds.
  • At 30 m: 22 seconds.
  • At 20 m: 14 seconds.

A patrol that waits to be challenged at 20 m has 14 seconds before it is at the post; at 100 m, over a minute to be heard, identified and answered. The recognition signal therefore has to be sent early, at a distance at which the sentry has time to decide, and the sentry has to be able to say “stop” and have the patrol stop. The patrol halts at a marked recognition point, sends the agreed signal (two soft whistles, say, or a short lamp code from behind a shield), waits for the answer, and gives the password only when called.

What You Need

  • A route and a time window known to every post that day (Patrol Patterns).
  • A password and challenge that change every 24 hours, with a reply that overheard words do not reveal (Authentication and Security).
  • A recognition point marked on the approach to each post, where the patrol halts.
  • A shielded light for emergencies only, preferably a red filter (Light Discipline).
  • A map showing every tripwire, pit or noise line so the patrol does not trigger its own devices.
  • Warm layers, water and a whistle.

Method: A Night Patrol

Step 1: Brief the posts and the roster keeper with the route, the window and the number of people.

Step 2: Dark-adapt before leaving and keep the shielded light off.

Step 3: Move in a loose file with the navigator in front and a rear watcher. Stop for listening halts at the checkpoints.

Step 4: On meeting anything or anyone unexpected, stop and observe from cover, note it, and withdraw along the known route to report. The purpose is to find out, not to find a fight (Human Threats).

Step 5: Return by the announced route, at the announced time, halting at the recognition point, signalling and waiting.

Step 6: Log the patrol on return and brief the next (Log Keeping).

Diagnosing Failures

  • Patrol overdue. Apply the overdue rule in Route Planning; do not send a lone searcher.
  • A sentry challenged a friend with a raised weapon. The patrol had not been announced or had come by another route; correct the briefing and the recognition point.
  • A tripwire fired by the patrol. The map is wrong or out of date.
  • A patrol member missing at the end. Count heads at every halt.

Common Mistakes

  • Lights. A torch in the open shows the patrol to everyone and ruins the night sight of all.
  • Walking fast. Speed causes noise and falls.
  • Sending fewer than 2 people. The parent sets 2 as the minimum for a reason: the second person can get help.
  • Returning from the wrong side. A returning patrol that is not where the post expects it is, to the post, an unknown party.

Safety

Falls, cold, own devices and mistaken identity

Uneven ground, water, and the settlement’s own trip devices injure more patrols than any outsider does. Cold and tiredness slow the mind. Never approach a post without the recognition signal, never point a weapon at a person you have not identified, and count heads at every halt.

What’s Next