Artillery Board

[Old Tom]

I have just finished Richard Holmes 'Shots from the front' The British Soldier 1914-1918. Before getting to the point of this post I would like to express the opinion that this book is one of the finest I have read dealing with the generalities of the Great War.

It is, of course, largely a book of pictures with supporting text. One of the pictures - Fig.71 - shows a sergeant of the RGA, a 60 pounder battery, taking notes from an artillery board. The board, chalk on a black surface, is not entirely clear in the picture. It presents in a tubulated form the detail of 5 targets. The column headings are; serial, switch ang, A of SShell, Fuze, Elev and Rate of F. I think I have a general, basic, understanding of gunnery but am floored by the the entires under 'Rate of F'

For each target there are 3 entries, 'Search', 'Sweep' and another illegible in the picture. Search for different targets has values of 200, 50 and 100, while sweep values for those targets are 25, 2 and 1 (not clear).

My question is what do the terms search and sweep mean?

Old Tom

[Pete1052]

That means an approximately rectangular-shaped area will be fired upon with rounds landing every few yards or meters from each other within the target area. It means an entire area is shelled. We call it "zone and sweep" in the U.S.

[nigelfe]

First, the board you describe was most definitely not an 'artillery board'. If I was asked to name it I'd suggest 'programme shoot board' because it is displaying firing data for programme shoots, but 'gun programme board' is another possibility, it depends on exactly what was on the board (ie did it apply to all guns and several targets or several targets for one gun).

Rate of F would normally mean rate of fire (ie rds per gun per minute). Sweep and search were methods of spreading out the fire. Sweep meant laterally relative the primary line of fire (as ordered as a switch from the zero line), search meant in range. To get the idea of how this worked "sweep 200 by 50" meant each gun moved its aim in 50 yard increments every few rds (as ordered) left and right to the maximum of 200 yards in each direction. British practice was to do this by counting handwheel turns not relaying the gun using the sights. Since the purpose was to spread the fire around accurate laying wasn't necessary.

[Old Tom]

Thank you both for your replies. I remain slighly confused. If a gun fires a series of rounds at the same bearing and elevation there will, of course, be a pattern of fall of shot; as I understand it great variation in range than width. Also as suggested if precise adjustments to line an d elevation after each shot the area of potential fall of shot will be greater. Am I right in assuming that the instruction/record on the board are intended to achieve a distribution of fall of shot over an area, in other words harassing fire.

As to what the board I described should be called. Richard Holmes calls it an 'artillery board' and adds that it very rare, if not unique, to find a photo of one. As far as I know his background is not that of a gunner, but he is renowned as a military historian. Could it be that you proposed names are not appropriate for 1914 -18?

Old Tom

[johnreed]

Old Tom

Go to the following Web site it has all the details you want www..archive.org/details/mapsandartiller00stafgoog

John

[nigelfe]

Holmes isn't a gunner, we allow people like that a bit of latitude but not too much!

The purpose of sweep and search was to cover a larger area, it's on my web site but IIRC in 1914 using sweep and search allowed an 18 pr bty to extend its effective frontage of fire by about 4.5 times.

http://nigelef.tripod.com/fc_laying.htm gives the history of UK indirect laying and related matters.

http://nigelef.tripod.com/fc_1914-18.htm this one covers the evolution of the arty board in WW1 amongst other things. Actually the archived 1917 doc won't give you all that much.

One of my claims to fame is that I was the last person to order sweep in a UK bty on operations (no search the ROE would allow that much ammo) :-)

[squirrel]

Artillery Board

First used in 1917, an Artillery Board was up to 30 inches square covered with gridded paper (either 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 scale). A brass pivot represented the pivot gun with a steel range arm rotating about it along a steel bearing arc. It enabled map data (range and switch) to be measured accurately. It could be placed on a flat(ish) surface or mounted on Stand, Instrument No. 27.

From: Royal Artillery glossary of terms and abbreviations by Philip Jobson the History Press Ltd 2008

There was also a pamphlet regarding Artillery Boards published by the General Staff in December 1916 which gives a very lengthy and detailed description of the need for and the use of Artillery Boards and maps.

[Pete1052]

U.S. doctrine for zone and sweep fire is that different quadrants and deflections are fired so the entire target area is covered. The horizontal distance on the ground between the quadrants and deflections is the approximate lethal bursting radius of the round being fired.

[Old Tom]

All you gunners must be right. Richard Holmes has got that one wrong. If I ever see him I must put him right. I was a 'bluebell' so must be excused.

An interesting lead John, many thanks.

If the picture was not an artillery board, what was it?

Old Tom

[nigelfe]

Artillery Board

First used in 1917, an Artillery Board was up to 30 inches square covered with gridded paper (either 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 scale). A brass pivot represented the pivot gun with a steel range arm rotating about it along a steel bearing arc. It enabled map data (range and switch) to be measured accurately. It could be placed on a flat(ish) surface or mounted on Stand, Instrument No. 27.

From: Royal Artillery glossary of terms and abbreviations by Philip Jobson the History Press Ltd 2008

There was also a pamphlet regarding Artillery Boards published by the General Staff in December 1916 which gives a very lengthy and detailed description of the need for and the use of Artillery Boards and maps.

Is that the archived Maps and Artillery Boards pam or a different one?

"First used in 1917, an Artillery Board was up to 30 inches square covered with gridded paper (either 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 scale). A brass pivot represented the pivot gun with a steel range arm rotating about it along a steel bearing arc. It enabled map data (range and switch) to be measured accurately. It could be placed on a flat(ish) surface or mounted on Stand, Instrument No. 27."

Not entirely correct, see my 1914-18 page which is based on far more than glancing at a single pam. The terms 'artillery board' and 'fighting map' are quite confusing. As my page states the first UK use was when UK btys took over some French positions and the French boards were part of the 'package'. The 30 inch board with with gridded linen paper and the brass pivot didn't appear until the 1930s. Have a look at my inter-war fire control page and you'll get some more reliable information. Pinning down the arty board story took me about 3 years of research!

Turning to what Holmes' pics show, as I said in my earlier post either its a Gun Programme or a Programme Shoot board. Later (after WW1) such things became official Army Forms, I think both form numbers are on my site.

I wouldn't be surprised if in WW1 various battery officers developed their own formats for their own use and probably had the blank forms roneoed or what ever the equivalent was at that time, with data enty in manuscript. But as Holmes' pic shows (I haven't seen it) other btys weren't as well organised and used a blackboard relying on Nos 1 to copy their data correctly and probably without a double check (such sloppiness is what you get in a mass citizen army). Basically the Programme Shoot form recorded firing data for all guns in the battery, each gun's data was then copied onto a Gun Programme and issued to each gun. A barrage was a a programme shoot, as was pretty well anything else that wasn't an opportunity target.

[squirrel]

The quote is as quoted:From: Royal Artillery glossary of terms and abbreviations by Philip Jobson the History Press Ltd.

The pamphlet I bought on CD from MilSpecManuals.com through Abebooks - far too big to load on here.

[Muerrisch]

I know nowt about arty. but have a suspicion that mountain arty as practised in India pre-dated these claims for artillery boards .....see "Tales of a Mountain Gunner" by McFetridge if you have a copy. The mountain guns had a very early need to fire into dead ground using a FOO, I believe.

[nigelfe]

Re RA glossary, you'll find my name on the Acknowledgements page.

I'm very confident that 'arty boards' weren't used before WW1. That said a map on a mapboard and a RA protractor could be used to measure range and the switch from an aiming point. The problem was that the standard military map scale was 1:126,000 (or thereabouts - half inch to the mile) which is not conducive to accurate measurement. Arty Board in WW1 were at scale 1:10,000 or 1:20,000, the 1930's one was 1:25,000 and its functional replacement, the Plotter FC in the 1950s was 1:12,500.

If you look at my site you'll find that WW1 arty boards were not just maps pinned to a board. The map was cut up and glued to a zinc covered board then ranges arcs and switch angles were marked on it (obviously centred on the surveyed position of the righthand gun of the bty).

[nigelfe]

Having done a bit more digging on sweep and search, I'm now not sure that the 'sweep 200 by 50' type of method was used in WW1. I need to check the various editions of FAT over the first several decades of the last century. It seems that each section or individual gun may have been given their own diverged aimpoint (ie the bty's guns didn't start firing with lines of fire parallel), and then swept it by having left, centre and right traverse angles typically one degree (centre being the switch angle from the aiming point), and similarly for search.

[squirrel]

Re RA glossary, you'll find my name on the Acknowledgements page.

Is what is on your website available in printed form by any chance?

[nigelfe]

Afraid not, but pages print OK. It's a work in progess (although all pages don't change greatly and I haven't touched some for several years).

[pjjobson]

I have to say Nigel's website is an inspiration, and I can assure you, if I ever publish a second edition of the Glossary (not looking likely as the publisher doesn't seem interested) I will update the Artillery Board entry accordingly.

Incidentally, my working document is already some 100 pages longer than the published book, perhaps I should have taken Nigels' advice and produced it as a web page instead of a printed book. anyway, I'm always happy to answer queries regarding terminology or abbreviations.

Phil

[ianjonesncl]

I believe the photo in question is on this post http://1914-1918.inv...3 This is what Gunners would term a Gun Programme. A more accuarte description may have been a board used by the Artillery !!!

Nigel

I was thinking that the guns maintained parallelism, the sweep and serach being achieved by a range and lateral spread.

Looking at the programme, a constant elevation is maintained, the search being executed by different fuze settings. The sweep could therfore be a switch from the zero line. Rates of fire appear to be different for the sweep and the search.

This is not a type of fire we conducted in my day , so a practioners view would be welcome.

Ian

[nigelfe]

Thanks for reminding me, as per #14 I have done some digging and looked at sweep and search over a 50 year period. Fd Arty Trg 1914, which applied throughout the war, was changes in elevation of 100 yds at short range and 50 at extreme range, however, at this time the pattern seems to have been just to increase the range by these increments. Prewar search was the 'answer' for CB against a bty behind a ridge, range the crest then search. Max search depth was 400 yds.

Sweep was a bit more complicated, first find the target frontage in degrees, (x 4 (6 gun bty), x5 (4 gun bty), x10 (sect)) gave the approx sweep size in minutes. Pattern was centre, right, left, one rd each time, relaying after every round, unless the gun had traversing gear in which case they relayed each time they were back on centre (ie every third rd) but always laid in elevation. There's no mention of combining sweep and search, but starting at the shortest range it would have been a simple and obvious procedure.

However, it seems that every time a new version of the pam was published the sweep and search procedures changed in some way, so to the question 'what was sweep and search' the correct answer is 'what year'!

[hudsonswhistle]

Guys i dug this out of my own collection,has this anything to do with this subject

[nigelfe]

Airburst ranging chart, a totally different device to an artillery board. The idea was to range a grid reference in depth using airburst sufficiently high to be visible to cross observation, then when the position was correct change to impact fuzed HE. Obviously the hope was that the grid reference was correct for the target below.

[ianjonesncl]

Guys i dug this out of my own collection,

Many thanks most interesting.

Could you help with the writing - I can get some information from enlarging the picture but loose resolution.

• Chart Airburst Ranging ???? inch Gun What gun is this for ?
• HE Fuze ???? What fuze (or fuzes ?) is this for ?
• Top of the chart - Angle of Departure ?
• Top chart left hand side - Angles of the Bore ?
• Bottom chart left hand side - Muzzle Velocities
• Bottom chart right hand side - Muzzle Velocities
• Middle of Chart - Horizontal Range ?
• Any chance of a close up of the box above Charge III ?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[hudsonswhistle]

Ian pm me tour email address and ill send a better picture to you mate

Airburst ranging chart, a totally different device to an artillery board. The idea was to range a grid reference in depth using airburst sufficiently high to be visible to cross observation, then when the position was correct change to impact fuzed HE. Obviously the hope was that the grid reference was correct for the target below.

Many thanks

[nigelfe]

I think the chart is WW2 (there weren't any multi-charge Guns in WW1), I think the gun is 4.5 inch (which had three charges) although it could be 5.5, however if it were 5.5 it would probably have either 80 or 100 lb shell. It's probably 'Axis of the Bore'. Time fuzes could include No 210, 213 and 222, DA fuzes 117 and 119.

The multi-charge means it wasn't a WW1 leftover (eg 18 or 60 pr) with a streamlined version of WW1 fuze (ie No 106E became 115), according to my web site ammo page http://nigelef.tripod.com/ammo.htm.

[nigelfe]

I think the chart is WW2 (there weren't any multi-charge Guns in WW1), I think the gun is 4.5 inch (which had three charges) although it could be 5.5, however if it were 5.5 it would probably have either 80 or 100 lb shell. It's probably 'Axis of the Bore'. Time fuzes could include No 210, 213 and 222, DA fuzes 117 and 119.

The multi-charge means it wasn't a WW1 leftover (eg 18 or 60 pr) with a streamlined version of WW1 fuze (ie No 106E became 115), according to my web site ammo page http://nigelef.tripod.com/ammo.htm. If you look at my equipment pages you'll find the MVs for 4.5 and 5.5, and could check them against the chart.