Swedish Veteran describes the Horrors of Close Combat - Marine reacts 

As a Swede who used one of those machineguns (ksp58, our version of the m240) I can tell you that we do indeed not mess around. We were thought to use them to cut down entire walls in appartmentcomplexes if needed. Using ammunition is better than using lives is what our officers told us.

That guy has one of the best swedish podcasts (even won podcast of the year) called Krigshistoriepodden, where they talk about military history! Great guy and great pod!

I've Seen the Swedish Marines do CQB and they are as smooth as butter.

Apparently the legendary Conrad von Hötzendorf was an expert at close combat warfare.

That Swedish soldier really knew what he was talking about. Impressive video. After watching this with your comments, I know I'd like to clear buildings even less than I'd have thought before. Not that I'd have had much training for it anyway, so it would be an abnormal situation for me, anyway. But anything can happen in a war.

Interestingly, if you listen to the accounts of Medal of Honor winner David Bellavia, who were fighting in Fallujah, they started on the fly to use similar tactics to the Swedish CQB doctrine (especially with the machine guns and automatic rifles), as they realised that was just the safest in an extreme CQB environment like that.

Oooh. I remember his voice :D That guy has a really good Swedish pod called "Krigshistoriepodden".

This was a great 1st person explanation that I really enjoyed. What is so interesting to me is that room to room house to house, building to building CQB clearance is so fast, up close and personal with instinctive primal responses backed by highly conditioned training, but at the same time longitudinally progress can be so painstakingly slow that the absolute physical and emotional grind is absolutely relentless. And this is repeated again and again without any time for any sort of emotional processing and recovery. These guys are literally line finely tuned super cars that are running a race by doing a burnout from start to finish.

Always appreciate your vids brother!

Some cool videos on that channel. Like the former swedish contractors encounter with Serbian warlords on the Balkans. Worth a watch.

Cool reaction. First time as a Swedish person that I think I've seen a reaction video where it's subtitled in english and the person speaking is swedish. The translation was pretty spot on and this was an enjoyable watch! I had never heard of the person narrating this but he was so good at explaining all the details to a layman like myself. So captivating and also highlighted the difficulty of a soldier with the analogy of fighting in a lighted sports arena. I have never served but I have all the respect in the world for you guys and he really put it into perspective.

In the tail end of the Cold War, Sweden planned six battalions to be specialized for urban warfare. I don't know how many of them that got set up before the cut-down of the armed forces, but my conscription back in 92-93 was for the battalion for central Stockholm. Back then, they told us that with a 10:1 advantage, they expected to take a defended building with only 50% losses. So simple math, they expected to lose five times as much as the defenders even had. On some of the exercises, we slept in the culverts of a former hospital that just had some "maintenance heating" making it 4 degrees Celsius (39F), and the floor just drained the heat straight out of us. We longed to get out and sleep in a tent in the forest, because a tent during winter would be warmer. I heard later that was a mistake, and it was supposed to be heated, and the other companies stayed in heated locations. But I think experience that level on suckage during training was a good thing, as the real deal is definitely a lot worse. As I'm back in green as part of the home-guard, I got a refresher training in CQB basics earlier this year, which for me was kind of a thirty year anniversary visit to one of the training sites shown in that video. Some details have changed, like the second holding the hand on the shoulder/back on the first (which, besides pushing also is for a bit of communication) and what to do directly after entering the room. A lot was the the same. So it was more a tweak of what we learned back then.

I listen to his/their War history podcasts everyday while I work it's such good and interesting stuff

This was a really good and informative video. This fellow obviously knows what he is talking about. During my time in the Swedish army I mainly trained for delaying actions in rural areas. The guy in the video mentioned that you get paranoid. The danger can come from anywhere, For years after my military srvice I constantly checked the terrain along the road when I was drivining. Constantly looking out for likely places for a fire assault. Being trained for delaying action, fire assaults is what you maily do so I was very much aware of the vanurability of trafick on a road passing suitable terrain for a fire assault.

We might be a small nation, but I'm so immensely proud of our men and women who served, and continue to serve. We might not have been in a war of our own for a very long time, but we have almost a hundred years of experience in others'. From medical duties in Korea, to peacekeeping in Kongo, Bosnia, Mali and Afghanistan we've accumulated a TON of experience that I'm glad gets used in some capacity!

As a Swedish vet myself we used a lot of these tactics in actual sitautions. But, we also ignored a lot of it. If there is a threat in an urban environment you just blow yourself inside and being even more violent than in this video.

Very impressive video, he had certainly been there seen it and done it. Good skills 👏

Militärt is a gold mine of videos, i recommend that you look at some more of them!

That channel, Militärt, is superb. Really high quality content.

There's a video of Finnish Jägers in a International unit in Ukraine. Sniper team from what I understood and they encounter a BMP/BTR and one of them takes a hit. It's an interesting watch and it has some funny references to Finnish popular culture.

Like someone else said you should watch more videos from this channel. They are great!

This is spot on from the training I got as a northern ranger in Sweden long time ago. Happy to see that the intensity is the same

He's got a lot of good points and so do you. Well done!

as an ex tank guy, we only did a little bit of CQB training, but it was very interesting. Would have loved to dive more deeply into it. But of course our focus was on tank warfare, so for us general rule of thumb was to just avoid getting into fights in cities.... so no luck there :D

One thing that occurred to me when I was watching this was how much of a deathtrap those fire doors that have a heavy spring to close them automatically must be. I was just thinking that every door in a building I was in today was one of those doors. If you boot them open, they'll be half closed by the time your foot is back on the ground.

Thanx for a great vid! I spent alot of time doing CQC/CQB so I know exactly what this guy is on about, I started writing a comment but it started to sound like an essay so I stoped and just to say again thanx for the video :D

This was intense and interesting. I am a Swede, never seen this before. But I've seen some US military videos showing the same techniques with instructors, interesting to see that some countries utilise smilar or the same techniques! Should make for an "easy coop international operation" in the field I guess?

Remember doing a compound raid and building cleaning. At night, very intense, just moving up to the target area was stressful enough

Very informative clip. I guess it matches the actual environment in war, which is very brutal.

my father is educated and traind in city combat, and when he talk about what they did in training and practicing its sounds like hell. I'm from Sweden as well

It was funny people were talking shit about how long it took the Philippine Military in taking Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, Mindanao. It took them about 5 months in clearing the city. The know-it-alls of this world are freaking funny.😂 Great vlog, brother! Keep it up! Stay Safe!😉

Thank you for your videos. you analyse very well. i am a metal craftsman, not a soldier. but its interesting to learn the art of war.

As a finn, it's always good to have great neighbours.

The soldier is named Per, today he is a awsome podcaster and father of 3.

great video from a swede, could we get some more SOG reaction videos? :)

There was an Amiga game named SWAT which was all about clearing a building with a small squad.. The man is basically explaining the way to play. Respect.

During the early nineties I served in a national guard QRF in Stockholm. We actively opted to stay with the AK4 (7,62) instead of switching over to the AK5 (5,56) to be able to penetrate brick or concrete walls better (especially with AP). We also had loads of offensive grenades, a ridiculous amount of AT4's and a lot of explosives (and ladders). If remember correctly we always trained using max force and agressiveness as the enemy planned for were Spetznas/GRU or VDV. I think the plan was to possibly sacrifice some civilians rather than risk losing momentum and also to keep our own casualities down as Sweden at that point probably had not fully mobilized.

I´m trained as a Urban warfare in Sweden , this man explain it real good

Oh, I do remember us having light CQB training. Just a bone standard detached rural house was impossible to clear effectively, we would've been taken out very easily. There's a reason specialized units exists for this.

Great vid dude

This is why those home guard soldiers or national guards soldier(or what it is called) comes in. Having like the main army fighting in cities they are not from is difficult. Better to use those home soldiers. Luckily in Sweden we have a lot of them, so I thinknwe would manage urban combat quite good. Knowing your terrain, alleyways, forests and so on, really makes a difference.

Hand contact is from left to right shoulder so you know where your 6 has a shot moving or prone, squeeze of the hand gives him heads up of a verbal command

Worse when the enemy combatants look the same as the civilians and the civilians hate you too.

Iam very impressed by his analysis. Ill go and check out the battle Hue.

7:52 If i remember correctly the Azovstal steel factory was build to better withstand a nuclear explosion during the cold war and have Nuclear-proof bunkers under the build as well so its like a fotress.

you asked for in the end for video, where they go through what happens mentally and physically I would recommend Har du dödat någon? (Have you killed someone?) It is a swedish mini documentary about what is like to do a tour abroad, how is it coming home and what question can you get if you tell you been or they know you been. unfortunately it's available in swedish without subtitles, but militärt which had this video also has a one about the effects of combat fatigue mentally. Also Sebastian Junger has a couple of good speeches about why some soldiers miss war and have a hard time to adjust back to everyday life.

Would be cool to see some reaction on MACV SOG, old but relevant

Love from Sweden

I'd love to see your reaction to Civ Div's combat footage from Ukraine. Especially his newest 4 part series starting off with Destroying a BMP with an NLAW

Do more vids about Sweden!❤

This is how you say Yankee in Swedish: Jänkarna 3:46

It's really need alot if handgrenades and full auto.. and you still will take huge casualties

4:30 The fist thing has to be an awareness check, Stack 12345. Also to say I am here, push forward.

13:41 - My home town

Oh btw "Militärt" has the "ä" in it (the 2 dot above A) which is pronounced like the Ae in aeroplane instead of "mili-tart" xD

Bajsfäller. Oh my god, that's certainly a word for punji sticks. I love it.

Just a question, how do they decided who's the first one to enter? Do they already have a formation or it's whoever is closer to the entrance?

imop you can neve have enough nades in these situations never enough...great video

can you show a video when you show your medals and talk about your deployments best you can when you got the medal

For me is something strange, when in videos those light blocks are referred as concrete wall in US or Canada, what ever they are called. In Nordics "old" normal concrete wall is full poured molds with cement/sand/gravel/random stone and rebar, without pre casted bricks. Its pretty much totally different substance. I find it funny when they shoot 12.7mm/.50cal thru those blocks, try it on Swedish concrete 20cm thick. I bet fail.

Very good overview. Hard to comment anything on other than there are actual academical books and research made on urban warfare. Just take Col. Liam Collins, PhD. His studies alone are the basis of all modern urban warfare research.

Krigshistoriepodden ❤️

4.12 its not about pushing coward friend into the room. It`s about communication and working together.

At 4:15, they make a mistake, the guy opening the door, would not be the guy entering, usual one would had a guy+cower, on the other side, who only job is to open the door, reason, so you don't take down your gun, and are always ready to fire at 19:07 they do it more right, except none is stacked up and ready to go

That swede also have a military history podcast called krigshistoriepodden.

24:26 "Fighting in urban areas will be like fighting in a lighted sports arena." Modern gladiators.

If you have many alternate routes of entry, like several windows and doors- could you use the fear and tension of the enemy to force his focus. By this i mean, make it seem like you are coming in through the door nr 1, throw grenades, light it up. Then quickly and silently change position and make entry by door 2. The guys inside should be really afraid as well and their focus ought to be directed at where the entry team last made noise. If you gain one or two seconds of their focus that should mean much right? I have no clue since i am not trained in this. But inutiviely it feels like handing an advantage to enter without trying to trick or feind the opponent.

Do soldiers use any form of hearing protect during combat or is it too dangerous to limit any hearing ?

3:49 He's actually saying "The Yankees call it "The Great Equaliser"" lol In Denmark we've transitioned from dynamic entry to "defensive entry" i.e. slicing as much as possible of the room before entering. I assumed this was something we had learned from the Americans? UF Pro has a video lecture on this style of entry on RU-vid if you're interested.

I love your content man. You have a great point of view and knowledge and you don’t comment non stop. You earned a sub from me. Try to cover more Ukrainian footage. It’s crazy to watch.

In the Swedish soldiers instruction from 1956, they write a way to recognize friend or foe in CQB. Stick sand paper to your back so that your team can feel that you are ar good guy, or smearing your self with Garlic oil so that you can smell your friend... When we entered rooms to clear them in exercise, if the element of surprise is gone, you just go full auto with the FN Mag after a grenade or two, you don´t have time for slicing;-)

It is interesting how most people are interested in CQB as a combat form, while it is the most dreadful and guaranteed death or wounded scenario for each individual, at least highest probability. As for training it is fun but in reality, i'd guess some form of scouting/recon mission or sabotage/hit and run would be the go to for those who seek some frontline action with more probability of survival.

House clearing is dangerous scary work

Also you need people outside protecting the building or buildings your breaching...and thats takes even more people and shortens your time frame..

www.youtube.com/@Krigshistoriepodden Thats their poddcast, sadly they have not added subtitles yet. But it is wery interesting to listen to them because they have a way to explain history like you are a couple of friends talking over a beer 🍻

You should react to the swedish Jägarsoldat series

this is a good comparisson to Sarajevo in the 90's never got overtaken

Refreshing to hear this and see the size of him. Compare him with the muscle tiktok warriors. I know wich soldier i would fear to meet!

The ending scared me. I wonder how the world will look like in the future. I hope there will be some sort of revolution to fix this crazy crap.

That is so true ---> 19:22 This winter, we went to the swedish countryside in Södermanland to a cottage in a willage where people have lived for at least 1000 years, and the maps goes back to the 1600s. In that modernized Blockhaus, we had the warming just so the water wouldnt freeze, went in there with full winted gear, took of the shoes with doubble socks put on, and i frooze my feets in 20 min and couldnt feel my toes. And when putting the boots back on, they were freezing too. Cold houses is no joke. And if in concrete, its even worse beacuse of the moist.

There is one on yt, the arrest of el chapo. Filmed by mexican marines. Complete madness, there was also a dude with an rpg standing on top of the starirs.

Just for translations sake, when hes talking about the punji sticks, in sweidsh he litterally says a giant variant of "vietnamese p'''p traps" "vietnamesiska bajs fällor"

I have an historical example. The battle of Stalingrad during ww2.

what is those hexagon shapes on the walls? seen on other youtuber american reacting to war.

Many nations train-train-train clearing buildings and have extensive techniques about it, but what about Defending buildings?

Underbart Heja Sverige

Could get a car mirror and check the room out before, save a lot of Grenada, it’s not like you can drag every room

I think suppressing with a stun/flash is in it's place?

24:00 Specific, to nuclear? Interesting, guessing you guys have to learn some light fission, how it works. Also, very specific clearing compared to war, I am guessing. Blueprints ready, every room etc.

I trained in this. I know that I never want to have to do it for real. Stockholm is a Swiss cheese underground.

Almost 10 years ago I saw a clip here on YT from a soldier with PTSD, who was in Iraq and did this exact thing, he blew a hole into the back of a building with a MLAW (I think it´s called) - what he did not know was that behind that wall was a family of 4 and his rocket killed the husband and the 2 children in a pretty nasty way. This had him having a complete mental breakdown there, which again the mother noticed and in the end comforted him and told him inshallah, if it´s gods will. A both horrible and heartwarming story in one. Just saying because he talks about errors that can be made during such times.

Not having taken part in a war for 220 years - well dob e Swedish person 👊👊

A buddy of mine told me that when it comes to CQB, explosives and firepower reign supreme, and if all you need to do is remove an enemy, fuck the building and express deliver a 12cm HE shell through the window from a Leopard 2.

Can someone tell me where can i find that footages of Russian troops in Mariupol? I once saw the trailer but couldn’t find it

As a comunist my self, is always good see military specialists talking freely about this stuff help a lot!

So if you’re a breacher are u just a guaranteed deadman as your first or second going into these places it feels like that’s 100% on that.

2 main reasons why i dont want to go to CQB unless i have too 1 reasons traps 2 hand to hand combat

Can you react to 2nd half of Full Metal Jacket?

I had no idea the Swedish military was so competent!! I thought they at the best was shooting soap bubbles, eyelashes and sweet words. ... Now I know some of them don't.

You can first launch light grenade and then enter why that is not an option