are PSW with radio useful for CAS?

[Zoppex]

There are some vehicles as for instance PSW 222 or halftracks where "use radio" is mentioned. Does this have anyhting to do with communication between ground and air units? In reality there were some units called "Fliegerleitoffizier" ( means something like air support officer). Do both things have something in common ?

[Michael Emrys]

Not yet. Maybe in CMx2...

Michael

[Redwolf]

They are pretty useful to draw fire from the airplanes

[JasonC]

No.

The radios in the vehicles had a range of a few miles.

Air coordinators or liason officers were not forward air controllers calling in airstrikes. They could tell the ground commander how things looked from the air force's point of view - which positions would be hard or easy to spot from the air, how close was dangerous, that kind of thing.

Very late in the war, the western Allies (only) developed an extremely modest ability to occasionally call in airstrikes from dedicated command vehicles operating up with armored columns. Not observed, but on reports. Despite all the myth and journalist level heavy breathing about "blitzkrieg", there was no air ground coordination to speak of elsewhere.

Called close air support - meaning a guy on the ground with a radio, who can physically see the target himself, talking in real time to a fighter-bomber pilot, telling him where to drop what weapons to help the guys on the ground - did not exist anywhere in the world until the Korean war CAS system (in both USAF and USMC versions).