Survival

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A native of the English term survival for survival summarizes knowledge and skills through stopgap together that a temporary (survival) in an emergency situation mostly in outdoor sports in the wilderness like the trekking will allow and in life-threatening situations following natural disasters, with little or no tools . Above all, these include correct behavior before and in an emergency situation. Techniques and tools are used to ensure the satisfaction of basic human needs for water, food, protection and warmth, orientation and rescue . In the military field, the supplementary penetration includes all behavioral measures which, according to the agreement of the troops , are intended to bring the soldiers or groups left on their own from the enemy territory, and can rarely also apply to civilians.

History and meaning of words

In the civil sector

The first beginnings for the targeted learning of wilderness skills were from the 18th century European rangers and trappers in North America, who learned special survival techniques of the indigenous people.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen learned the survival techniques of the Netsilik - Inuit on his expedition to explore the Northwest Passage in 1903 , which he then successfully applied on his South Pole expedition in 1911. He transferred the survival knowledge of the Arctic to the same conditions of the Antarctic.

A distinction is made between two approaches to survival - storage and supply from nature. In the broadest sense, this also includes the production of makeshift tools and clothing, as well as consumer goods made from natural materials. However, the latter approach fails to recognize that this requires a considerable amount of time and manual skill and that food from nature is usually only available in spring and autumn. Plants are not sufficiently available both in winter and in dry summer.

The term "survival" is used today in English-speaking countries in the broader sense of "survival after a disaster".

To a large extent, these include behavior in civil protection and disaster control in urban areas. In the civilian sector, survival under urban conditions under the threat of an NBC weapons attack during the Cold War became important. In such a scenario, the solution is seen to be self-sufficiency, in civil defense the limited self-sufficiency through storage. The term civil protection is a collective term for all institutions and activities in the areas of civil protection, respectively, civil defense , abbreviated ( KatS ) containing the measures to be taken to life, health or protection of the environment an in or before emergence of disaster protection.

People who prepare themselves especially for such a situation are called “ prepper ” (German: “who prepares”) in the American-speaking world .

In the German-speaking world, “survival” is usually used in combination with “survival training”, and is seen as a substitute for stays in the wilderness and corresponding knowledge and skills.

Since the 1980s, television documentaries about Rüdiger Nehberg have long shaped views on the subject of “adventure travel and survival” in Germany.

In the military field

Survival and breakthrough on land can affect every soldier, every type of army or part of the armed forces, in every type of battle. Soldiers of the combat troops, but also of the logistics and command troops, can get away from the troops in the delay and after unsuccessful defense and breakthrough of enemy forces in their own rear area, but also in the attack and then have to catch up.

The course on survival and penetration of a small military sub-unit based on agreements with one's own troops is intended to impart the knowledge and skills to military leaders that are necessary to lead soldiers in a self-sufficient group in order to reconnect with their own troops .

The focus of this course is less survival under considerable stress , but perseverance and return to your own troops. In the Combat Survival Course also with the training content imprisonment, interrogation, escape.

The course teaches the behavior when the soldier or group left on their own is cut off from their own care. The general mandate is to avoid enemy forces by using the terrain, to ensure one's own survival by supplying water from the land, food from nature or agriculture, protection from the cold through a makeshift bivouac and fire or from heat. When approaching the space forward line enemy troops , the soldier performs his movements in the seepage. It is essential to camouflage and deceive by continuously exploiting the area before observing the enemy. The soldier avoids visible terrain and parts of the terrain such as streets and paths in or on which enemy forces move.

Essential contents of military survival courses are the physical and psychological stamina of the course participants, use of equipment and emergency equipment, hand-to-hand combat and with makeshift weapons, orientation with makeshift aids and a compass, makeshift nutrition from nature and fishing, makeshift accommodation according to the seasons and making fires with makeshift resources. Military survival and penetration is less oriented towards survival in the wild, since combat activities seldom take place in the wilderness but rather close to or in urban regions.

The beginnings of survival as an apprenticeship go back to the time of the Second World War. From around this time on, courses were held by the western armed forces to enable soldiers to live and survive in enemy territory. Specialized warfare for operations behind enemy lines required knowledge of makeshift measures for the supply of special forces from nature - such as u. a. the extraction of water in the desert. The British Long Range Desert Group , founded in 1941 and a forerunner of the Special Air Service , learned about life in the desert during its operations. In addition, u. a. Botanists and meteorologists used as teachers.

In the US Army, especially for the United States Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) , courses were only established with the Vietnam War in cooperation with the National Outdoor Leadership School in Lander (Wyoming) . The United States Air Force led to soldiers since the 1960s, after the experiences of World War II and the Korean War , SERE training by, in which the behavior in captivity , as a missing person after a launch of their aircraft or by an agreement of the troops being taught. The ranger course was based more on the German lone fighter course with the special combat plot of hunting combat , today a type of combat .

In Germany, the Bundeswehr began its first courses shortly after its formation, and from the 1980s onwards in the lone fighter course. This included both the focus on survival under European conditions in the damp and cold climate zone and punching through as behavior in order to rejoin one's own troops, as well as the hunting fight . The course was based on the experiences of soldiers who were back fighters behind enemy lines in both Finland and Russia and were able to reach their own troops again.

With the reorganization of the course, both training areas were separated into two subsequent courses. Supplementary courses are the Survival in Difficult Terrain (Mountains) course at the Mountain and Winter Combat School as well as the Combat Medical Course for Special Forces and the Special Forces Survival course as a SERE course at the Special Operations Training Center .

In military aviation, pilots were trained early in behavior for survival in wilderness areas. Royal Air Force pilots who flew in Mesopotamia and India were given a Goolie Chit as part of their emergency equipment to help them survive.

For pilots, survival training for aircraft crews is carried out in the Bundeswehr ; Especially for soldiers going at sea and flying over the sea, the lake survival course at MFG 3 Nordholz, in the naval aviation training group . In the civil sector, basic safety training and instruction for seafarers is mandatory for commercial shipping.

Subdivision according to climate zones, situations and groups

Danger points according to regions and climatic zones

after the cause

Survival in the civil sector

The term reaches a wide scope, especially when it comes to the survival of civilians. It can include planning a hiking tour and taking some emergency candy bars with you to militarized groups with extensive food supplies and all-terrain vehicles, as well as protective and bunker systems such as in the USA in particular, where gun ownership also plays a role. Overall, it is also an expanding economic market that “plays” on the one hand with the entertainment value of the topic of survival and on the other with the primal fears of people in an urban living environment. Dealing with this topic is not an issue for people in rural regions and the corresponding living environment. For them, wilderness skills are a basic everyday skill.

Maximum survival - minimum survival

Survival situations are usually limited to a few hours or days. The term maximum survival means survival without aids, equipment and, above all, without adequate clothing. Causes for this can be an accident or a catastrophe such as a broken down motor vehicle in a remote area, plane crash or an unplanned stay in the wilderness after losing orientation. However, these are absolutely exceptional cases and can often be avoided through planning and preparation. The term minimal survival means survival with available aids. These correspond to the equipment for wilderness trekking with only limited or no food. The reason for a minimal survival can be an unplanned long stay in the wilderness due to weather, terrain obstacles or getting lost.

The survival situations often shown in survival films, in which equipment is taken with you but never complete for the wilderness stay, as would be normal for wilderness trekking, is unrealistic, but wanted for media reasons. For entertainment reasons, extreme situations are often shown that provide cinematic entertaining sequences, but have nothing in common with an unspectacular getting lost in everyday clothing. The reason why the protagonist or protagonists in these films are in an emergency and where exactly the respective locations are is usually not shown - otherwise the question would quickly arise why the person shown doesn't just go to the next village. In the media industry, this is known as scripted reality .

Survival Techniques and Wilderness Skills

Survival techniques, in English bushcraft, are general wilderness skills - see also trekking  - with

  • worldwide universal applicability (with the same basic requirements) and
  • relative simplicity.

These include a the mastery as knowledge and skills of one's own equipment and trekking equipment technical means with bivouac building, making a fire and cooking on the portable stove or a wood fire and behavior in appropriate terrain.

Experimental archeology

Experimental archeology is dedicated to researching technological questions, examining practical aspects of ancient ways of life and trying to deepen these findings through empirical values. The knowledge and skills gained in this way correspond to the requirements of survival skills. Research institutions are u. a. the Archaeological-Ecological Center Albersdorf , the Viking Museum Haithabu or the Neanderthal Museum . These research both the diet with hunting and collecting as well as the fire, clothing and tools as well as edged weapons in the respective time.

Wilderness skills of indigenous peoples

When teaching about survival in the wild, the skills and knowledge of the indigenous peoples living in this area such as the San in the Kalahari , the Inuit in Greenland and Canada or the Aborigines in the Australian outback have been since the times of Roald Amundsen for researched and used his expedition to the South Pole.

Water procurement and water treatment

The daily water requirement of people in temperate climates with average exposure is at least 1–2 liters in the medium to long term. With physical exertion and appropriate temperatures, the requirement can increase to over 6 liters per day. If this is not supplied to the body, heat stroke occurs and consequently dying of thirst . With an average daytime air temperature of 43 ° C, as prevails in deserts, without water you will die of thirst after approx. 24 hours, and even before that you will lose heat . The daily water requirement can be up to 10 liters of drinking water. In the rainforest of the hot and humid climatic zone there is an equally large demand for drinking water, since the body tries to cool itself by sweating at high ambient temperatures, regardless of the relative humidity . Only in very moderate temperatures did people buried survive up to 78 hours without water.

Temporary and very limited, water-containing fruits and water-storing lianas can be used to obtain water. As with food, stocking is recommended. Various organizations consider a supply of 1.5 to 2.5 liters of water per person per day to be necessary. Possibilities for obtaining drinking water in urban areas consist in the use of hidden reserves such as the remaining water in pipes or that of the toilet cistern. In the event of an emergency, water can be temporarily stored in plastic water cans.

Water is obtained in nature

  • from flowing and standing waters
  • through ice and snow
  • with groundwater from deep parts of the terrain such as a valley floor, also in dry streams - lush vegetation indicates that the groundwater can be reached
  • Rain - catch with a foil
  • Condensation from the evaporation of soil moisture or sea water using a film

Drinking water hygiene is essential to avoid infections. A drinking water container like the canteen should only be filled with treated drinking water, never with unclean water. Water treatment to drinking water is possible with a portable water filter , with chlorine water treatment tablets or boiling after previous coarse filtering with a handkerchief into an unclean water container such as a stable plastic bag. A makeshift filter made of layers of gravel, sand and charcoal is not suitable, as pathogenic germs are not retained by such a replacement filter. In agricultural areas there is a risk of chemical contamination from pesticides and fertilizers . Like mercury , which is used in gold extraction in the amalgam process and is still found decades later in the surface water of mining areas, these can only be bound by carbon filter elements during water treatment.

Food procurement

In complete rest (while sleeping), humans need a basal metabolic rate of around 1500 to 1700 kcal per day in order to survive. In crisis situations, it must be assumed that the body will perform significantly better. The performance turnover quickly reaches well over 3000 kcal per day per person. To compensate for the loss, this energy must be supplied to the body via food every day, otherwise it is in normal-weight people after about 50 to 80 days at an ever faster loss of strength to starvation . It can be assumed that a person can no longer move after 10 days due to the loss of strength, also and especially due to the resulting sugar shock as hypoglycaemia. For nutrition in emergency situations in wilderness areas see also trekking , part of the expedition catering there.

The stockpiling as simple survival technique aims to even maintain this energy supply, if there is not to buy more food due to a loss event or disaster. The Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Aid advises to keep a supply for 14 days, whereby it assumes a daily minimum output of only 2000 kcal. This can consist of dry goods, including shelf products such as pasta, rice and mashed potatoes, as well as dry milk, as well as canned food, especially meat such as corned beef and dried meat .

In wilderness areas can ad hoc only limited food by collecting of crops and lower animals such as insects or snails , as well as fishing by Behelfsangel, Reuse , network or a fish trap and edible insects for entomophagy in humans to be procured.

Hunting of Wild with firearm or slings is not well suited for food production. These measures are very unsafe, depending on the climatic zone and the season, as well as being associated with dangers from parasites and other pathogens that can be transmitted from animals to humans . Armadillos transmit leprosy and Chagas disease . In an emergency, it is therefore primarily necessary to heat the food to over 74 ° C (core temperature) in order to kill parasites and pathogens . The safest preparation method due to the consistently high temperature is cooking, and no fat is lost. The hob must have enough air to burn and be protected from rain and wind.

In the case of long-term survival , the prepper who prepare for such damage should be self- sufficient through agriculture and livestock , which, however, require some experience and are not useful in the short term. The primary focus is therefore on provision with emergency food, especially in the event of short-term emergencies such as after a loss of orientation in nature close to civilization and in the wilderness. Survivalists see the slaughtering and gutting of game and fish as well as the use of a makeshift cooking vessel as skills in the preparation of food .

Getting food through hunting

Food supply by hunting on wildlife is not to plan for meals in a wilderness stay because of the success and the time is uncertain size. Areas with a lot of game are mostly inhabited by humans. The industrialized country of Germany has one of the highest game densities in the world thanks to industrial agriculture as a food resource, even for game. There, self-sufficiency for survival and thus hunting, for which a hunting permit is required for firearms or traps , is not necessary. Poaching is a punishable offense - in Germany according to § 292 StGB with imprisonment of up to five years, especially if the act is committed "with the use of snares or in another non-hobby manner" . In an emergency that cannot occur in Europe, only the success of the hunt is decisive. Fall game is not suitable for consumption and therefore, regardless of whether it is game or livestock, cannot be used. The risk of getting sick from the spoiled meat in no way outweighs any possible benefit.

Traps require experience and time. The number together with the fishing site promises success. Therefore, only snares that can be improvised and are placed on forced passes on game passes are considered. Game passes are usually small and low and not always recognizable at first glance. The material used for the construction are iron wire, cable, or nylon yarn for small game such as rabbits , groundhogs and Fowls . Waterfowl can be caught in the bank area with nylon snares just below the water surface. A choke loop is easier to make than the gallows loop and is mostly used for poaching laws. Rabbits can also be caught with nets in the construction exits. Traps must be checked daily and should be visible from a greater distance. Due to the adrenaline rush when caught with snares, the meat is not very tasty, but it is suitable for consumption.

A Zwille as a metal or wooden fork with a rubber band is suitable for small animals and birds. The rubber thickness determines the penetration power. An arm holder allows stronger rubbers, but is a prohibited item in Germany under gun law .

A slingshot , also Funda or Sling, with two forearm-length sling straps, of which the strap has an eye for the middle finger, the other a throwing flap for the stone or sling-lead bullet, was already used by Balearic slingshots, where it is still used as a sport today , and Roman legionaries and can also be made makeshift. The throw takes place in a lateral circular motion, not over the head. The impact is considerable - but hitting must be practiced. Both weapons are legal. The range of a twin is between 10 m and 30 m, that of a sling at 100 m to 200 m with stones weighing around 250 g.

A hunting bow for bow hunting with a pulling force of over 80 lbs with a range of 100 m cannot be made temporarily. Indigenous peoples such as the San or Pygmies in Africa and Indians in South America use arrow poisons . These are made from the bark of the curare tree , leaves of South American lianas, in Europe from aconitine (also monkshood) or the skin secretion of South American poison dart frogs such as Phyllobates terribillis (also terrible leaf climber ), bicolor or aurotaenia. Dendrobatids secrete the basic alkaloid batrachotoxin . The convulsive poison affects the nervous system through muscle and respiratory paralysis. A poison amount of 0.002 mg / kg leads to death in humans within twenty minutes - the frogs must never be touched unprotected. Penetration into the bloodstream also occurs through small injuries or skin pores. The accumulation of poison in the frog occurs through the prey such as mites in the rainforest.

Among the Behelfswaffen for hunting on small game at short distances are blunt weapons such as mace , a polearm as the Saufeder and to fish a fish spear .

Fire

A fire is used as a heat source, for food preparation and to boil water when no other options are available. For a stay in the wilderness, but also for hiking, two lighters should be in your pocket. Wood is used as fuel for a fire, and more rarely dry animal manure from herbivores. The Swedish fire is a special form of wood fire, especially in the dry-cold and dry-warm climate zone .

All makeshift methods depend on practice. Makeshift means and techniques are used to ignite a fire if no planned means of starting a fire are available and can also be used successfully by the inexperienced

  • Auermetall with fire starter or fire steel (easiest and safest method),
  • Spontaneous ignition of medical cotton wool, including tampons, from rolling back and forth.

Are conditionally applicable

Protection against reconnaissance by a concealed fireplace in a fire pit is only considered necessary in the military sector. A cooking fire is therefore usually set up under trees during the day so that the smoke is distributed. Since a hiding place is often cleared up by the smell of a fireplace, it is therefore necessary to change location after cooking.

protection

  • Construction of a makeshift shelter as a dwelling
  • Care for an injury - prevention before illness

Wind-wet protective clothing can temporarily be replaced by a large garbage bag with three openings for arms and head and keeps both wind and rain out. A rolled-up plastic bag serves as a makeshift headgear against cooling down from wind and rain. A large garbage bag filled with leaves can serve as a makeshift sleeping mat to protect against the cold of the ground or as a makeshift bivouac sack.

First aid

Knowledge of first aid and basic medical knowledge are essential in survival, but they are also part of everyday life. This essentially includes basic hygiene - see further first aid measures under expedition skills .

Dangerous animals and snakes

Snakes , especially poisonous snakes , coming almost worldwide before - see vipers with pit vipers (Crotalinae) with 308 species and poison snakes (Elapidae) with about 250 species - the list of American military field manuals is therefore incomplete.

Incidents with bears , which are dangerous predators, are rare , especially with European brown bears . Areas on the North American continent with grizzly bears or Kodiak bears and American black bears should not be entered without an irritant spray device ; those with polar bears , not without a safety weapon. In America there are seldom encounters and dangerous incidents with pumas , although their habitat is the entire continent.

Dangerous wild animals include crocodiles such as the Nile crocodile in Africa, the estuarine crocodile in Southeast Asia and alligators in the United States and Central America; also in Africa hippos , other large animals such as elephants or cape buffalo and all larger cats , especially the big cats lion and leopard .

Fish that are dangerous for humans are u. a. Predatory tetra, like the tiger tetra in Africa , also causes piranhas in South America . What is certain is that bull sharks can be found in inland waters several hundred kilometers above the coast. Jeremy Wade published experiences on this in the travel series River Monsters .

In relation to the number of travelers and locals in areas with dangerous animals, however, incidents are rare and therefore a reason for the press to report on them, while the large number of people killed by road traffic is only reported regionally.

Terrain orientation

The compass direction can be determined in an emergency situation without equipment according to the astronomical navigation according to the status of

  • Sun or moon - after sunrise / sunset  - rising and setting of the moon depending on the proximity to the respective polar circle , the tropics with the equator (between these only in the morning and in the evening),
    • with the help of an analog clock and the bisecting method to determine the compass direction according to the position of the sun or full moon, taking into account the respective longitude (the time applicable in a country is not the true time),
    • according to the respective moon position at every other visible moon phase,
  • Celestial bodies (stars) and their direction of movement.

Worldwide, sooner or later settlements will be found along watercourses in the direction of flow.

Other methods: Moss on the trees as a directional feature depends on the respective main wind direction and is considered unsafe, as local deviations often occur. Orientation towards the North Star or the Southern Cross requires experience in recognizing these heavenly bodies and is therefore only suitable to a very limited extent.

education

In the civil sector, commercial survival training is offered as group training in which a predetermined learning program is completed, the participants are left to their own devices for a certain period of time or in the group and in nature, rarely living in the wild, reaching a certain location or training tasks in wilderness skills . In survival training, participants learn how to use aids such as a. Knife and hatchet brought up close, as well as first aid , fire-making and techniques for contacting rescue workers. The time span ranges from several hours to a few days. The participants are rarely shown by hunger days what an emergency for psychological and physical behavior changes can cause in them and in the group.

The "survival situations" often shown in series films by survival trainers are posed and do not always correspond to a real situation or also contradict generally recognized behavior, as they endanger people and can lead to diseases or infections through emergency food such as earthworms , which contain bacteria and roundworms .

Military training courses are tailored to the needs of the military and only partially correspond to a civilian application, as they are primarily aimed at rapid and undetected evasion and are characterized by high physical stress in order to simulate the stress of a combat action.

equipment

Survival equipment (engl. Survival kits ) are collections of useful equipment: Tools and materials, partly as for the survival equipment Lake tailored to a particular climate zone. These can be broken down into equipment for everything to do with drinking water, emergency food, fire and cooking, additional clothing, first aid, emergency signals, orientation, accommodation as wind and weather protection, hunting and fishing, tools and small parts equipment as well as a small backpack for packing.

An ever to be carried minimum equipment, which in English everyday carry (permanent basic equipment) is called, will help to deal with emergencies.

The ten most important items , known as "Ten essentials" , should be part of the equipment of mountain hikers and other people who are out and about in the wilderness.

Escape backpack

In English, so-called "run bags", "escape bags" or "bug-out bags" are intended for use after a disaster. The structure and content can vary greatly depending on the climate zone.

The recommended contents include: 2 liters of water in a PET bottle , emergency food , first aid equipment and medication, bivouac sack , pepper spray against wild animals, wind and moisture protection clothing (rain poncho ), cord, knife and combination pliers or multi-function tools , sunscreen, water treatment tablets , Spare glasses, compass with mirror, matches .
In urban areas also: passport, vaccination certificate , cash, credit card, flashlight, mobile phone.

Movies and TV series

Hollywood in particular produces movies about survival in the wild. The skills and scenes shown do not always correspond to generally recognized behaviors and abilities and are often more intended to entertain the audience. The core themes of survival films are water - fire - food from nature - shelter - connection and rescue - orientation with auxiliary equipment and emergency signals as well as the creation of auxiliary equipment such as tools, fire equipment and emergency signals.

Climate zones of the shooting areas of the series survival films

Examples

Computer games

Survival games represent a computer game genre of their own , in which the player has to ensure the survival of the game character by fulfilling basic needs. The survival horror genre focuses on the character's survival in a scary environment.

literature

  • ARMY, MARINE CORPS, NAVY, AIR FORCE: FM 21-76-1, MCRP 3-02H, NWP 3-50.3, AFTTP (I) 3-2.26SURVIVAL, EVASION, AND RECOVERY. June 1999.
  • Collective of authors: Survival at Sea. transpress VEB publishing house for transport, 1985, Berlin.
  • Department of the Army: Field Manual 21-76 Survival. May 2002.
  • Department of the Army: Field Manual 21-60 Visual Signals. September 1987.
  • Matthias Hake: FieldManual. Pietsch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-613-50352-2 .
  • Lars Konarek: Survival in Nature: The Survival Guide for Europe and North America. 1st edition. Stocker Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-7020-1390-5 .
  • Hans-Otto Meissner : The outwitted wilderness - Of life and survival in the great outdoors. Bertelsmann, Munich.
  • Reinhard G. Matschke: Survival at Sea. From a medical point of view. Triltsch Verlag, 1977, Düsseldorf.
  • Philipp Schönthaler : Survival in the 80s. The thin fur of civilization. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95757-149-6 .
  • Alexander Stilwell: Survival. The Illustrated Handbook of Survival Techniques. Heel Verlag , Pottscheid 2001, ISBN 3-89365-915-3 .
  • Heinz Volz: Survival in nature and the environment. 14th edition. Walhalla-Fachverlag, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8029-6436-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matthias Hake survival in the wilderness and urban environment, makeshift measures special forces Bochum 2017
  2. ↑ See DUDEN foreign dictionary.
  3. ↑ NOLS YouTube
  4. ↑ Homepage NOLS
  5. ↑ Survival Lake
  6. ↑ Michael Schenk: Prepared for emergencies. 9th edition. Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), 2007, p. 41 ff.
  7. ↑ Michael Schenk: Prepared for emergencies. 9th edition. Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), 2007, p. 42.
  8. ↑ Survival kits desert polar high mountains. Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement.
  9. ↑ Survival Kit Items and Uses.
  10. ↑ US Survival Rifle AR-7.
  11. ↑ see also High Standard HDM
  12. ↑ see en: Ten essentials
  13. ↑ see en: Bug-out bag