Tactical Tuesday Episode Thirty-One - Maneuvering Through Hallways: Clearing the Way to the Target Room

In this episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim, we discuss maneuvering through and clearing hallways.  Specifically, we discuss:

• Hallway Danger Areas and Dead Space (1:38)
• Single Team Online Hallway Formation (3:28)
• Single Team Offset Hallway Formation (4:19)
• Single Team Power-I Hallway Formation (4:56)
• Dual Entry Team Hallway Formation (6:00)
• T-Shaped Intersection (7:15)
• Four-Way/Cross Intersection (8:27)
• Hallway Corners (10:35)
• Set-Snap Technique (9:19)
• High-Low Peak Technique  (11:08)
• and more.

A new episode of Tactical Tuesdays is typically uploaded on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
  
SHOW LINKS/RESOURCES

To learn more about Craig White click HERE.

To find “From Alpha to Omega, A Milsim Tactical Primer and Training Manual” :  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FZ57B23/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

To find “From Insertion to Extraction:  Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques and Procedures” :  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07THX1CFT/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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You can also find “From Alpha to Omega, A Milsim Tactical Primer and Training Manual” and “From Insertion to Extraction:  Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques and Procedures”  at Amazon.com.  

Chapters

• 1:38 Hallway Danger Areas and Dead Space
• 3:28 Single Team Online Hallway Formation
• 4:19 Single Team Offset Hallway Formation
• 4:56 Single Team Power-I Hallway Formation
• 6:00 Dual Entry Team Hallway Formation
• 7:15 T-Shaped Hallway Intersection
• 8:27 Four-Way/Cross Hallway Intersection
• 9:19 Set-Snap Technique
• 10:35 Hallway Corners
• 11:08 High-Low Peak Procedure

Transcript

TACTICAL TUESDAY WITH MODERN MILSIM – EPISODE 31 TRANSCRIPT 

Welcome to another episode of Tactical Tuesday with Modern MILSIM. Through this podcast, we will bring you real world tactics, techniques, and procedures that will enable you to succeed on the MILSIM battlefield. It's time to get ready.

Hello and welcome to Episode 31 of Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim. I am your host, Craig White. As always, thank you for being here. Now, today we are beginning our discussion of Tactics, Techniques and Procedures related to maneuvering through hallways, as well as clearing hallway corners and intersections.  Be aware that this series of episodes is intended to provide a more basic understanding of CQB TTPs. For a more detailed explanation of these Tactics, Techniques and Procedures, check out from Insertion to Extraction, Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques and Procedures now available at Amazon.com. 

As before, the topics of this episode builds on the TTPs discussed in prior episodes. These previously discussed TTPs link with the lessons from this and future episodes to create an overall method for breaching and clearing rooms. 

So with that in mind, let's get to it. 

Before you can clear a room, you have to be able to reach it. To do so, you will often need to travel through danger areas known as hallways. Hallways are considered to be a danger area for multiple reasons. First, the narrow linear shape of the hallways tends to force entry teams to bunch up and make themselves vulnerable to enemy fire. Think Fatal Funnel. This is especially true where enemy fire is traveling down the length of the hallway. In addition, hallways are dangerous because they often contain many open doors and access points between the hallway and adjacent rooms. This presents additional danger areas and dead space that are perpendicular to the entry team's direction of travel in the hallways. Enemy in adjacent rooms can flank friendly-forces as they pass in front of the entry point. 

Even more problematic are intersections between one or more additional hallways. Such intersections vastly increase the number of danger areas and dead space with which the entry team has to deal. While moving through such intersections, the entry team may be exposed to enemy fire not only from the front, but also from the flanks. As a result, an entry team needs to move through hallways quickly while maintaining separation or dispersion between its members. Whenever possible, an entry team should move out of the hallway and into a room that provides cover when it is not moving. 

Generally speaking, the entry team should avoid moving down the center of the hallway while in column. Instead, it should rely on formations that allow some dispersion while pointing as many muzzles down the hallway as possible. This should help entry teams to better suppress enemy located down the hallway and to avoid unnecessary friendly casualties. This is often referred to as covering the long threat. 

So, there are several hallway movement techniques. The first one is the SINGLE TEAM ONLINE HALLWAY FORMATION. With this maneuver formation, point and second men form up on opposite sides of the hallway while angling their respective fields of fire toward the area opposite and in front of the other side of the formation. Third and fourth men will form up just inside the point and second men with their fields of fire forward and parallel to the walls of the hallway. The advantages of this formation is that it allows the entry team to better cover sectors in front of them and to provide mutual support to frontal threats. It also allows the entry team to proceed more quickly down the hallway. The major disadvantage of this formation is the lack of dedicated rear security for the entry team and exposure of entry team members in the center of the hallway to enemy fire. 

The second hallway maneuver in formation is the SINGLE TEAM OFFSET HALLWAY FORMATION. In this formation, the point and second men form up on opposite sides of the hallway while angling their respective fields of fire toward the area opposite and in front of the other side of the formation. Third and fourth men will form up behind point and second men, respectively, and to provide rear security for the team. The advantage of this formation is that third and fourth men provide rear security to the entry team. Its major disadvantage is that movement is typically slowed due to rear security. 

The third hallway maneuver formation is the SINGLE TEAM POWER-I HALLWAY FORMATION. With this formation, the entry team moves down the hallway in a single file with the point man in front. Point man is covering the hallway in front of the entry team. Second, third and fourth men follow behind the point man in that order. In this formation, the second man positions his weapon just off the shoulder of point man to also cover the hallway in front of the entry team. Again, this is termed the long threat. Third man alternates between covering danger areas on the right or left side of the formation as it moves down the hall. Depending on entry team SOPs, the fourth man will provide rear security or cover potential threats on the opposite side from third man. This formation can be used to move down the center as well as either side of the hallway as circumstances dictate. The biggest disadvantage of this formation is that it exposes point man and potentially the entire entry team to fire coming down the hallway. 

And then finally, we have the DUAL ENTRY TEAM HALLWAY TACTICAL FORMATION. This formation is based on two entry teams maneuvering down the hallway as one formation. point man of each entry team form up close to each side of the hallway walls while angling their respective fields of fire toward an area opposite and in front of the other entry team. Second man of each entry team will form up just behind and inside of their respective point men. Their fields of fire should be forward and parallel to the hallway walls. The third man of each entry team will form up slightly behind and outside of the second man with his firearm sticking out between them. Fourth man of both teams will be positioned immediately behind the third man and will provide rear security. An example of these formations can be found on this episode's page on the Tactical Tuesday with Modern Milsim Facebook page. 

So now that we have talked about tactical formations that can be used to clear hallways, we need to now discuss TTPs for clearing hallway intersections and corners. Hallway intersections are often described by their shape, although there are some variations, the typical hallway intersections are described as follows. 

First, let's talk about clearing the T-shaped intersection. This intersection is formed when one hallway terminates in the side of another hallway that crosses ahead of it. This intersection is shaped just like it sounds like a T.  To to clear T-Shaped intersections. Point and second man, if moving as a single entry team, will pie each corner before committing to rounding the corner. Each team member must lead with his weapon and engage any immediate threats using point shooting techniques. It is critical that the point and second men pie their corner and commit to taking the corner simultaneously to prevent exposing each other's back to potential enemy contact from behind. This is typically performed using the “Set-Snap” technique. Third and fourth men would then follow behind the first and second man on their respective sides and cross over to the opposite side while providing support for the point and second man.  The only difference between a single team and a dual entry team performing this technique is that the initial corner clearing is performed by the first man of each entry team, followed by second man of each entry team to cross to the opposite side. 

So the next type of intersection that entry teams will likely encounter is the four way or cross intersection. Where two hallways cross each other, the intersection they form is described as cross-shaped.  To clear this intersection, point and second man, if moving as a single entry team will pie each corner before committing to rounding that corner. Each entry team must lead with his weapon and engage any immediate threats using point shooting techniques. It is critical that point in second man pay their corner and commit to taking the corner simultaneously to prevent exposing each other's back to potential enemy contact from behind… and the same as before, third and fourth men should then follow behind first and second men on their respective sides and then continue through the intersection into the hallway along their direction of travel to cover long threats down the hallway. 

So now let's talk about the “Set-Snap” technique. This technique is often used by entry team members to coordinate clearing intersections within buildings. It allows two team members to clear opposing corners while still covering each other's back. It can also be used to clear small rooms that are unlikely to be defended. Of course, that has the attendant greater risk inherent with the lack of support from a full stack. 

Procedurally, this technique is fairly simple. It is usually conducted in five steps. First at an intersection or a similar location, second man moves up alongside point man. Second, both point and second men slice or diminish their respective corners as far as safely possible. Third, either point or second man calls set. "S-E-T"  Fourth, when the other entry team member responds with Snap "S-N-A-P", both men commit to clearing their respective corners. And then finally, fifth.  Once point and second men have cleared their respective corners. either the point man or the entry team leader, as determined by the entry teams SOPs, will direct in which direction the stack will move. 

So now let's talk about hallway corners. Hallway corners are where the ends of two hallways intersect with each other in a perpendicular fashion. The intersection they form is described as a corner. Hallway corners present dead space around the apex of that corner that must be cleared. One entry team member pies the nearside corner before committing to going around it. When this happens, another entry team member moves around the corner and to the opposite side of the hallway to provide support and to eliminate all threats. 

Alternatively, the entry team can clear corners by using a high low peak. The high low peak is performed by two entry team members that stack up just before the edge of the hallway corner. It works like this. First, the lead team member will take a knee, the one closest to the wall, but far enough back to allow him to provide front security without extending his muzzle past the edge of the corner. Lead team member's weapon should be oriented toward the corner at a 45-degree angle. The lead entry team member is also referred to as the low man.  Ssecond, the second team member takes a position and behind and just off the outside shoulder of the lead team member. This second team member is also referred to as the high man.  Third, upon a mutually agreed signal, the lead team member or low man peeks out from behind the corner in the kneeling position. At the same time, the second team member or high man peeks out from a standing position above the first entry team member.  Fourth, low man's area of responsibility or sector is to sweep from the outside wall to the inside wall of the hallway while engaging any targets discovered during that process. High man's sector or area of responsibility is the long axis down the inside wall of the hallway. In using this it is unlikely that both men will engage the same target at the same time. And then five. Upon clearing the corner, low man announces outside clear, followed by a high man announcing inside clear. And then we have Six. Once the two man team clears the corner. 

The low man remains in the kneeling position until high man pulls up on his plate carrier as if the high man was pulling him up. That is a signal for low man to stand up. Low man must stay in the kneeling position until pulled up by another entry team member to prevent low man from possibly rising up into another team member's line of fire. This possibility is mitigated by the high men position in his body immediately behind the low man. Should low man decide to stand up, he will strike the high man's arms. This action should deflect high man's weapon up and away from the low man's body. And then seven. The entry team then reconstitutes and moves in a formation down the hallway. 

I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Tactical Tuesday. Tune in for our next episode when we're going to discuss tactics, techniques and procedures related to clearing straight and commercial stairways. If you have any topics you would like to see covered in future episodes of Tactical Tuesday, please let us know by posting it on the Modern Milsim Facebook page. If it's not one of the topics we are already planning to cover, we will likely add it to our ever growing topic list. If you like this podcast, please subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, as well as on many other podcast directories. And as always, thank you for your support. I'll see you at our next episode. See you then. 

To our listeners out there, thank you for tuning in and I look forward to providing you with new episodes every two weeks. If you like what you're hearing on this podcast, please subscribe and provide us with a review.  We want to know what you like and how we can improve. You can also contact us on our Facebook page at facebook.com/modernmilsim with any suggestions you may have.  In our next episode of Tactical Tuesday, we are going to discuss tactics, techniques and procedures related to clearing straight and commercial stairways. If you want to know more about application of real world tactics, techniques and procedures to MILSIM, check out From Alpha to Omega: A MILSIM Tactical Primer and Training Manual as well as From Insertion to Extraction: Advanced MILSIM CQB Tactics, Techniques and Procedures. Both books are available at amazon.com. As always, thank you for your support. I'll see you at our next installment of Tactical Tuesday.

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