Sentries in Hollywood and in Real Life

[Patrick]

So many war movies have an obligatory scene in which commandoes/Rangers/ragtag-band-of-misfits infiltrates enemy lines. They sneak up behind a sentry and then proceed to knife him/throttle him over the head/strangle him/shoot him with a bow and arrow/what-have-you before he can sound an alert.

Were sentries in reality as vulnerable as Hollywood portrays them? I could imagine that a sentry far behind enemy lines would become complacent, but I can't help but think that armies would have recognized this potential problem and developed counter-measures to protect their sentries or keep them alert.

Does anyone have any insights into the intricacies of sentry duty?

[Gren Schell]

I suppose it depends where the sentries are. On the front line, in the trenches, sentries would have to be on the ball. Despite obvious counter-measures to infiltration.. wire, mines, booby-traps, there are the added hazards (for the sentry) of fatigue, hunger, cold and apathy. Regular changeovers and switched-on NCO's could deal with that problem.
Vulnerable points like bridges, vital points etc would generally be well protected, precisely because of the possibility of attacks by commando's/ partisans etc. Approaches to these positions would also be covered, and any guard commander worth his salt, would have looked at all the possible angles of attack. Robust policing by said commander would keep his sentries alert. However, we are only human and a strong position can be taken out because of a single, lazy soldier.

In the movies, I hate seeing the obligatory German sentry walking up and down with his rifle over one shoulder. I am sure it happened. But I know that that whenever I was on guard duty, my weapon was always ready, and depending where I was… there was always one up the spout!

[Tom Houlihan]

Key word: HOLLYWOOD!!

Granted, a lot of the movies are based on the way 'the book' was written, but think of the story line. Our intrepid heroes can't continue the mission if there are 3 alert sentries guarding the post. One tired, distracted guy, on the other hand...

[phylo_roadking]

Jst as an aside - "fixed point" sentreies weren't a real threat; reading through a few evaders' stories recently, the REAL problem were, for instance the hundreds of mobile "stop&check" points throughout France every night and aday at crossroads', obscured bends in the road etc.

These guys were specifically there to check the papers of people passing through - so WERE alert both to their job AND to people trying to get around them

[Paulus II]

To some extent the potential problem was recognized and acted upon....at least in Norway. As to the effectivity of such an instructional booklet....??????