Soldiers Getting No Bang Out of Rifle Training
British soldiers in the Falkland Islands are so short of blank ammunition for training they shout “bang, bang” when they pull the trigger, a newspaper reported.
A reporter for the Plymouth-based Western Morning News visited the Falklands where British troops remain in the aftermath of the 1982 war with Argentina.
“Soldiers in Fox Bay, a sensitive military base on the islands, complained to me of having so little blank ammunition for field training they had to shout ‘bang, bang’ instead,” the reporter wrote.
“They are provided with radios in case they stumble into one of the countless uncharted mine fields in the Falklands, but say they have no batteries for them.”
The newspaper reported that one soldier said many prefer duty in Northern Ireland to “the boredom and remoteness” of the wind-swept islands in the South Atlantic.
The Ministry of Defense on Thursday denied that soldiers lacked blank ammunition.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
