They're called Killing Grounds for a reason.

[Beth]

Dave forwarded this link because it reflects much of the same subjects we've been discussing on LBH.  

ink

[yanmacca]

That was a very interesting read, my thanks to Beth and Dave.

Apart from the howitzer and mortar (the mortars from this period were really only used as static weapons due to their weight), most of the other weapons fired on a flat trajectory, now even the flattest of battlefields would have some dead ground like low hills, ditches and dips in the ground or obstructions like hedges, woods and outcrops of rock.

Troops and field artillery were normally trained to fire using a line of sight with light howitzers being used for area fire so all the obstacles named above would shield troops from this mode of direct fire.
But at the end of the day all this is immaterial really as commanders wanted their troops to stand in the open in line and shoot it out with their enemy, even to the point of rushing head long into artillery positions firing grapeshot.

Yan.

[dave]

Yan
During the 1st night at the battle of Shiloh, 2 Union gun boats fired into the Confederate lines about every 15 minutes. The exhausted troops had shells falling intt their camps.
The amazing part of this incident was that there was a bluff of about 100 foot next to the Tennessee river where the boats were anchored. They found a little draw that was back a couple of hundred feet from the river that they entered. They fired shells up the draw and let them bounce toward the rebel lines disrupting sleep if nothing else. The Lexington and the Tyler were armed with 8" cannons and 32 pounders.
The web site below provides more information if you want.
Regards
Dave

www.gunboats.com/shiloh.php

[quincannon]

No sentence that contains the words Field Artillery is ever complete if it does not also include the name of the greatest gunner of them all Hubert Dilger, MOH, Captain, Battery I, 1st Ohio Artillery.

[dave]

QC
Perhaps I could add a couple of names to your list of the greatest?

John Pelham JEB Stuart's Chief of Artillery
John Watson Morton NB Forrest's Chief of Artillery
Edward Porter Alexander Lee's assigned Artillery Commander for Longstreet's Assault
Regards
Dave 

[yanmacca]

I shall refer to all artillery as regimental and corps, ah but this too may cause problems, the US had a cannon company located at regimental level, so if you call this regimental artillery, then you must use the term divisional artillery to all the artillery battalions organic to the division, that leaves all the heavy stuff to be located at corps level.
The British in WW2 did it differently.

Field and Royal horse artillery regiments 25 pounder gun/howitzers
Medium artillery regiments 5.5in guns
Both held at divisional level.

Heavy artillery regiments 7.2in howitzers
Held at Corps level.

Yan.

[yanmacca]

Well if you chaps are chatting about great artillery men, then have a look at the “action at Néry” in the opening months of WW1, maybe not high echelon commanders but brave men doing their duty, I really enjoy reading about small actions like this, kinda shows what it was really like for the men who fought at battery level.

Yan.

[carl]

Lieutenant Colonel Rogers' official Medal of Honor citation reads:
Medal of Honor citation for Lt Col Charles C Rogers.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Lt. Col. Rogers, Field Artillery, distinguished himself in action while serving as commanding officer, 1st Battalion, during the defense of a forward fire support base. In the early morning hours, the fire support base was subjected to a concentrated bombardment of heavy mortar, rocket and rocket propelled grenade fire. Simultaneously the position was struck by a human wave ground assault, led by sappers who breached the defensive barriers with bangalore torpedoes and penetrated the defensive perimeter. Lt. Col. Rogers with complete disregard for his safety moved through the hail of fragments from bursting enemy rounds to the embattled area. He aggressively rallied the dazed artillery crewmen to man their howitzers and he directed their fire on the assaulting enemy. Although knocked to the ground and wounded by an exploding round, Lt. Col. Rogers sprang to his feet and led a small counterattack force against an enemy element that had penetrated the howitzer positions. Although painfully wounded a second time during the assault, Lt. Col. Rogers pressed the attack killing several of the enemy and driving the remainder from the positions. Refusing medical treatment, Lt. Col. Rogers reestablished and reinforced the defensive positions. As a second human wave attack was launched against another sector of the perimeter, Lt. Col. Rogers directed artillery fire on the assaulting enemy and led a second counterattack against the charging forces. His valorous example rallied the beleaguered defenders to repulse and defeat the enemy onslaught. Lt. Col. Rogers moved from position to position through the heavy enemy fire, giving encouragement and direction to his men. At dawn the determined enemy launched a third assault against the fire base in an attempt to overrun the position. Lt. Col. Rogers moved to the threatened area and directed lethal fire on the enemy forces. Seeing a howitzer inoperative due to casualties, Lt. Col. Rogers joined the surviving members of the crew to return the howitzer to action. While directing the position defense, Lt. Col. Rogers was seriously wounded by fragments from a heavy mortar round which exploded on the parapet of the gun position. Although too severely wounded to physically lead the defenders, Lt. Col. Rogers continued to give encouragement and direction to his men in the defeating and repelling of the enemy attack. Lt. Col. Rogers' dauntless courage and heroism inspired the defenders of the fire support base to the heights of valor to defeat a determined and numerically superior enemy force. His relentless spirit of aggressiveness in action are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army

I was in the same Battery (HQ Btry, 597th Armd FA Bn) for over a year when he was a young Lieutenant.

[quincannon]

Well, I did say gunner, and knew it would elicit response.

During the battles for Atlanta, Dilger personally aimed one of his guns at a group of Confederate officers about a mile away that were evidently out on leader reconnaissance. He fired his first round, a short, his second, also a short, and his third a direct hit on General Polk, cutting him in half.

At Chancellorsville, Dilger's Battery I was part of XI Corps artillery, and in the final stages of facing Jackson's attack, Dilger personally directed one of his guns to face and impeded that attack by backing that one gun down the Orange Plank Road BY HAND.

Dilger was a German who had come here to serve in the Civil War. His language skills were iffy, so he designed a series of hand claps to control the fire of his guns

All the others mentioned had the face of Saint Barbara shine upon them in life. I have no quarrel with any mentioned,but Dilger was always my favorite.

Please see my other post this morning regarding team building in one of the threads above and ask yourself if Dilger could have accomplished what he did without first building coherent teams within his battery at the cannon section level? 

[yanmacca]

Going off track a little, but I think the fact that the USA came in the war late in 1942 was a good thing, as they had two years to study warfare in Europe and base their hardware on their findings, after the Germans blitzed their way through France, the US Army saw the need for a tank mounting a 75mm gun in a fully revolving turret and by mid-July 1942 they had them up and running in the shape of the M4 Sherman.

But imagine if the US had been drawn into the war in 1940 and in early 1941 they sent a task force similar to the one that took part in the torch landings, and this landed in North Africa to support the British. In 1940-41 the US army was still using M2 medium and light tanks, which were inadequate even against the Italians, their divisional artillery would be based on old French stuff like the 75mm M1987A and their main anti-tank gun would be the M3 37mm.

So from 1939 to 1942 the US army up-graded, and I am glad it did.

Yan.