Schneider 1917 155mm howitzer

[Spaceman]

One of the difficulties in interpreting what actually happened during this artillery shoot is that we (as opposed to the OP) do not have enough information on what the tactical situation was during this operation. I assume this may have taken place during the Battle of Fismes and Fismette in Aug/Sep 1918 when the Germans moved down from the North originally driving the AEF out of Fismette and across the Vesle river on to the Fismes side.

Although T2 and T3 are identified as the targets for the 480 round fired during the night, it is not clear what the purpose of the fire mission was: was it to destroy the targets or was it a standing barrage aimed at neutralising the enemy during an AEF attack on either flank? 

The main interest behind this posting appears to be to try to understand how the 'short-fires' occurred based on the way the AEF artillery would have operated in this period. However, given that the 'short-fire' rounds were ~800 m to the left or right of the target, the question has to be asked as to how an observer stationed ~1 km from the intended targets could have known that these rounds were fired by the AEF 155 mm howitzers in question, especially given that it was dark?  Might not they have been fired by the enemy? 

Great care would have been taken to align the guns in the battery(s), and clearly the rounds were fired at T1 to verify or correct the gun's accuracy(s). Although errors could occur, I would have thought it highly unlikely that any of the guns in the batteries in question would have landed ~800m to the right or left of the target.

[LCo308]

ianjonesnci, thank you for your last thoughtful and detailed message.  

I'm concluding that the firing on T1 represented a "Witness Point Mission".  A "Register Mission", for which you describe two forms, includes some element of "adjusted" fire, which I gather is in response to immediate feedback from an observer.  In my incident-of-interest, communication was not possible to the OP due to continuous disruption of comm lines by enemy fire.  In this WP mission, six rounds were fired by each of the two batteries according to a pre-arranged schedule.  After this fire, the guns were immediately cleaned and re-laid on Targets T2 & T3.  The battery commanders then waited for feedback on the WP firing.  The observations from the WP mission weren't relayed to the battery commanders until just prior to the actual fire mission.  I assume at that point, some final adjustment was calculated and made to the guns.  Fingers were then crossed, and 240 155mm rounds were fired at each target.

One additional question regarding your use of the word "verify"... I take it you use this term in both the context of "confirming" strictly predictive (i.e., calculated) fire as well as "confirming" adjusted (following observer-based feedback) fire? Please verify. (No pun intended.)

Thanks again! - Jim

 

[ianjonesncl]

1 hour ago, LCo308 said:

One additional question regarding your use of the word "verify"... I take it you use this term in both the context of "confirming" strictly predictive (i.e., calculated) fire as well as "confirming" adjusted (following observer-based feedback) fire?

Yes