105mm howitzers and white phosphorus

[Paul]

Before I duck and low-crawl out of here, I read an interesting section in the "Battle for Mortain" book, Chapter 17:COME AND GET US.

"Also helpful were the Cannon Company observers up front with the rifle companies. Each regiment was assigned six short-barreled 105mm howitzers, which were controlled by the infantry, not the artillery. The cannon companies were created to address the infantry's feeling that the artillery battalions weren't always responsive to their needs. One artillery officer dismissed the short-barreled cannon as "popguns," but the system actually worked to the artillery's benefit, since the Cannon Company observers, constantly up front with the rifle-men, were tied into the artillery's phone net and often provided targets for the big guns.

Sergeant Hubert Pennington of the 119th's Cannon Company was up front with a patrol from K Company when his report triggered a major concentration of fire at Mortain. "We were crawling up the side of a hill when somebody spotted a German soldier across the way," Pennington recalled. "I tried to lose myself in the hill. Then I raised my head carefully. I saw a little house; it looked like it was made of cement blocks. We could see activity behind the house. Then I heard the sound of a tank engine starting up. I couldn't see it, just hear it. I called the radio operator over and called in a fire mission. I gave them the coordinates and asked for PHOSPHORUS. Well, they gave me smoke, not phosphorus. That was so I could spot the fall of shot. They made an adjustment, then they came in with PHOSPHORUS."

Now, does this imply that the short-barreled 105mm howitzers were used to also fire phosphorus? I thought that only the 4.2in mortars were used for phosphorus.

I'm outta here, so let it fly! He He

Paul

[JoshK]

I seem to recall several WP-related topics in the past. Many of them evolved into will it or wont it be included in CM debates.

Not wanting to get into that… Outside of the CM universe, I have read accounts of WP use by 105mm artillery and from the Sherman's 75mm gun.

I am at work, so I do not have access to any books, but I distinctly remember an account by a FO attached to the 4th infantry division in "The Good War" by Studs Turkle (sp?) about calling in WP on a concentration of German infantry and vehicles.

Ambrose discusses the use of tank fired WP to clear out the fields between bocage in Normandy.