Saturation fire

Saturation fire is a saturation attack using an intense level of artillery bombardment or rapid direct fire (from automatic weapons such as machine guns, autocannons or rotary guns) that is designed to overwhelm a target area with lethal firepower, for the purpose of suppression, area denial or mass destruction of the enemy.

In the Battle of the Bulge, German troops used Werfer rocket batteries to do saturation fire on Allied positions, particularly prior to an attack.

A history of German military doctrine states that "...laying down saturation fire [with small arms] will keep your enemy's head down while allowing you to get on with the approach to the objective.

[4] During the Vietnam War, AC-130 gunships incorporated side-firing 20 mm Gatling-style rotary cannons which allowed them to provide area-saturation fire as the aircraft circled over a target.

These "21⁄2-ton cargo vehicles" with "two M-60 machine gunners" would "... provide a rapid, retaliatory saturation fire within the critical first 3 minutes of an enemy attack [e.g., an ambush of the convoy]".