An extract from 1936 artillery regulations

[tss]

Here's a quote from the Finnish 1936 Field Artillery Regulations book about different fire modes. Needless to say, the translation is mine (and again the translation of several technical terms is guessed).

4. FIRE MODES

242. Different fire modes are:

- strike

- barrage

- destruction fire

- harassing

STRIKE

243. The objective of a strike is to cause casualties for enemy manpower

- either enough casualties to destroy the target unit; or

- at least suppress the enemy at the decisive moment.

Additionally, one must to aim to cause as great moral impact as possible so that even if the physical effect of the fire is insufficient, the enemy's will to fight is broken.

These aims can be achieved only if the following conditions are met:

a) The fire density has to be great enough. Depending on the objective of the fire mission and the target type the fire density should be 40-120 rounds per 100mx100m area in one minute using light (76mm) artillery. The ammunition usage for other calibers can be calculated using the following conversion factors: 120 x 76 mm rounds fired at soft targets correspond to approximately:

- 80 x 107 mm rounds;

- 60 x 122 mm rounds; or

- 40 x 152 mm rounds.

The fire should come as surprise and have maximal impact from the first second. For this, time-on-target is usually assigned.

A strike is fired using either the parallel, the narrowed, or the combined firing pattern so that the guns fire rapid fire 10-20 groups (76 mm), 7-14 groups (107 mm and 122 mm), or 3-6 groups (152 mm).

244. Depending on the objective of the fire and the target type, a strike is fired either by the whole batallion, two batteries, or by a single battery.

245. In a strike of the whole batallion, 10 groups are usually fired using the parallel pattern so that the impact pattern covers uniformly the target area and a fire density of 120 rounds in a minute is achieved. The shrapnel density is then so great that in favorable conditions it causes the destruction of unprotected manpower and targets in trenches are completely suppressed.

246. A strike of two batteries is usually fired using the parallel pattern. If equal shrapnel amount is desired, 15 groups have to be fired but then the shrapnel density is lower because of the longer duration of the strike.

247. One battery strike is fired using either the parallel, the narrowed, or the combined firing pattern. A total amount of 10-20 groups is fired. The weakest strike (10 parallel groups) suppresses the target in favorable conditions. Lengthened strike (more than 10 groups) cannot usually be kept uniformly in the target area because promptness of the fire lessens in the firing battery. Also, after it a lengthy cooling period is necessary. By narrowing the pattern by two thirds one can achieve as high fire density as when using a whole battery barrage and the parallel fire pattern. Therefore, one battery strike is usually sufficient for point targets.

BARRAGE

248. The objective of a barrage is to prevent enemy from advancing over a given area, called barrage target. Each battery fires separately at a barrage target using 10 groups (76 mm) in rapid fire. The width of a barrage target is 150 meters when the fire comes from front and 300 meters with flanking fire. The fire is spread uniformly over the target area by using the "stepping method".

The fire density of a barrage is thus approximately one half of the density of a strike. This is considered to be enough to stop the enemy movement.

249. Each battery has a special main barrage target. A battery has to very carefully prepare fire to its main barrage target and the guns of the battery should be kept aimed at it when there is no firing activity.

When firing barrages, it is best to use quick or timed fuses. If those are not available, shrapnel rounds may be used.

DESTRUCTION FIRE

250. The objective of destruction fire is to destroy enemy weapons, other equipment, fortifications, transportation routes, accommodation places, etc. At the same time casualties are incurred on the enemy and its operations on the target area are prevented.

Destruction fire usually demands direct hits or at least near misses for effect. Destruction fire has to be fired so that after preparations calibrating rounds are fired, usually one gun at a time. The fire has to be continuously observed and adjusted as necessary. Thus, fire for effect cannot be fired using continuous rapid fire but serial fire or short bursts of rapid fire (2x3 groups at a time) has to be used. The best ammunition is HE or sometimes AP grenades (against concrete targets) with slow or delayed fuses.

251. The fire for effect is canceled when the target is destroyed. The estimated ammunition requirements against different targets will be presented later in this book. Destruction fire usually consumes very much ammunition and time and the enemy can easily evacuate the target area. Thus, destruction fire should be used only when absolutely necessary and by an explicit order.

HARASSMENT FIRE

252. The objective of harassment fire is to harass the enemy movement, fortification work, quartering, etc. Harassment fire is fired in irregular intervals using short bursts of rapid fire, serial fire, or even single rounds. Both shells and shrapnel rounds may be used.

- Tommi

[Doug Beman]

Are the italics yours?

Also, (and this is meant w/o offense) what's the point?

DjB

[argie]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Doug Beman:

Are the italics yours?

Also, (and this is meant w/o offense) what's the point?

DjB<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The point is to share valuable data with us

I'm looking for every bit of data Tommi gives us, some of which will end in some rules in CMMC

How are things going, Doug? I didn't see you too much on the CMMC list lately.

Have you received the invitations to the CPX Forums?

Ariel

[Forever Babra]

I too welcome these sort of posts. Expanded artillery functions would be a welcome addition to CM2

------------------

"The whole of Scotland will rejoice if the commanding officer of the Canadian Army could see fit that the taking of Saint-Valery is accomplished by the Highland Division. I am sure that the 2nd Canadian Division will attend to Dieppe satisfactorily."

-- General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, Aug. 20, 1944

[Jeff Duquette]

Good stuff TSS. Looking forward to your next excerpt.

[Jarmo]

Is it just me, or do the STRIKE's fire densities sound godawfully high?

Amounts of fire equal to about what you get in CM by using 3-4 FO's simultaneously.

Maybe I should sometime buy 4x150mm observers and just blast at one spote with all of 'em.

Should cause a desirable effect.

Hmm.. you could totally wreck about 3-4 locations that way...

[Jasper]

Do they ever talk about ammunition types / ratios in there?

[Doug Beman]

Ariel,

I've actually visited the forums, but haven't posted anything. The reasons are that I still don't have home net access, and I'm switching jobs in January and so the internet/email access I DO have will be changing. I'm going to hold off on registering to all these new things until after the changeover.

If my new job works out I will certainly be able to afford a cable modem and will get back into CMMC full time. I really want to; it seems like the few ideas I had that worked, I couldn't follow through on for one reason or another.

Thanks for your concern!

DjB

[Doug Beman]

Oh, and forgot to say:

thanks for the info Tommi! I questioned you because there aren't many posts designed JUST to educate. Most are information to prove a point, and I was afraid there was a point that I was missing (I hate that)

DjB

[tss]

I have been pretty busy the last few days so I haven't had time to answer to this thread.

Doug Beman wrote:

Are the italics yours?

They are original. Actually, the original used e x t r a s p a c e s between letters, but it doesn't work too well on computer screen.

Also, (and this is meant w/o offense) what's the point?

Well, I've done teachning work too long now, it is in my blood...

Jarmo wrote:

Is it just me, or do the STRIKE's fire densities sound godawfully high?

They are. Nenonen's opinion was that it is better to hit few targets really hard than to harass many targets without causing any serious damage. One Soviet captain who was captured at Ihantala in July 1944 stated that in his opinion, Ihantala was much worse place to be than Stalingrad because of Finnish artillery. (He had been there, but I don't know during what phase of the battle).

In practice, if the forward observer thought that using a whole strike would be serious overkill, he would call a 1/2 or even a 1/4 strike. Additionally, during the Winter War the standard ammunition quota was 7 rounds per gun per day and full strikes were simply not possible.

One interesting thing to note is the mention of time-on-target barrages. I haven't found any good reference on US artillery use, but some texts that I've read claim that T-O-T was a purely American speciality and even then only from 1943 (or something like that) onwards. And here we have a 1936 manual that has instructions on doing flight time calculations for T-O-T barrages. I would really like if someone could give a reference to some detailed account of US artillery procedures.

Jasper wrote:

<>Do they ever talk about ammunition types / ratios in there?

There was a full chapter on choosing ammunition and fuze types on different targets. I will write it down someday when I have time.

Meanwhile, here is a list of main ammunition types that were used by artillery in WWII:

- HE: there were actually two different types of HE rounds in use. I don't know whether there is any official English terminology to distinguish them. The first type was "miinakranaatti" in Finnish (literally: "mine grenade", from the corresponding Russian term). This type of ammo was filled with explosives and had a thin casing. It had mostly concussive effect and only few shrapnels were produced. The other HE type was "sirpalekranaatti" (literally: "shrapnel grenade"). These had little less explosive but the casing was thicker and produced lots of shrapnels. Most field guns had both ammo types. Mine grenades were used against fortifications and earthworks and shrapnel grenades against enemy soldiers.

- Shrapnel ("shrapnelli" in Finnish): Shrapnel rounds looked much like giant shotgun shells. They had several dozens of small steel pellets and a charge that was ignited by a timed fuze. The idea was to get the charge to blow about 10 meters above ground so that the pellets would cover the ground below. Shrapnel rounds were very effective against two targets: infantry moving in open or infantry that was unentrenced in woods. However, against any other targets their effect was miniscule. Most armies started to phase them out after WWI.

-AP: there were again many different types of AP rounds. Field artillery used usually "panssarikranaatti" (lit. "armor piercing grenade") shots, that is, rounds with hardened piercing tip and an explosive charge. These were normally used against bunkers and other fortifications.

-Incendiary ("sytytysammus"): These were filled with some burning material. Generally, they were only rarely used.

Most armies used four different fuze types:

- quick ("herkkä"): the shell would explode as soon as its tip hit something.

- slow ("jäykkä"): the shell would explode when it reached the depth of about 2 shell lengths.

- delayed ("hidastettu"): the shell would bury itself even deeper before exploding.

- timed ("aika"): the shell would explode when a set time had elapsed.

The Western Allies had also proximity fuzes that would explode when the shell was a given distance away from ground. There were also some extra quick fuzes that had a rod attached to them and that would explode when the rod hit the ground.

- Tommi

[Forever Babra]

I believe the elements of T.O.T. were the creation of Georg Bruchmüller in WW1, however it was Brig. Gen. Leslie McNair at the Gunnery Dept. at Fort Sill in the early 1940s who brought together those elements in the form of the flexible fire support doctrine which Germans feared in WW2.

------------------

"From Halifax or Newfiejohn

Or Derry's clustered towers,

By trackless paths where conning towers roll,

If you know another group in which

You'd sooner spend your hours,

You never sailed beneath the Barber Pole!"

-- Escort Group C5 sailing song.