"RCW artillery usage" Topic

Can anyone guide me to an understanding of how much Russian civil war artillery was used in an indirect fire role as opposed to firing in the direct fire roll? H

I'd say that it depends on when and where & by whom. Mostly not done due to lack of skill (both gunners & observers), short on ammo and poor battlefield communications.

Bombarding area targets such as towns & cities – possibly. If they had enough ammo to waste on that, which they rarely did.

Breaking up troop masses before attacks could develop ? Done more effectively at closer range when the less skilled/experienced gunners could join in, not just those who were trained artillery officers (who were spread fairly thin).

Reds start with more guns but less ammo and gunners then train more gunners and improve their manufacturing capabilities.

Whites start with the gunners but rely mostly on foreign and captured ammo and, later on, even guns.

Thnx GildasFacit. Since your opinion is very similar to mine on this subject you must be very smart. 😁

I agree that a major concern for white and red forces was the resupply of expended ammunition. Foreign forces should have plenty.

The only major power to use a lot of indirect fire was the Poles.

Largely to their detriment.

The armoured trains with the really large guns would also fire indirectly, since range wasn't an issue and they could transport the required telephone equipment easily.

I recommend a series of short articles about artillery and its use in the Red Army during the Civil War (automatically translated):

link

link

link

The Greek Hellenic Command has a three volume set of Greek military history. The later volume has lot of information involved in their expedition in fight the Reds. It also covers the later Greco-Turkish war of the 1920s.

Thanks, Cuprum2.

Interesting articles, Cuprum2.
I noticed that in the third article, they mentioned "escort guns." I'm familiar with that term from the Greek service, where each infantry regiment had a platoon of two light artillery pieces referred to as "escort guns." The usual western parlance for these guns was "regimental guns." Any idea what the intended use of the escort guns was?

Grelber

Autotranslate is a modern miracle, but it struggles with military terms when those terms also have non-military meanings.

орудий сопровождения does best translate as "escort guns", but only in the sense of accompanying them.

There's a Wikipedia page on how the Russians use the term: link

In this context, "escort guns" are guns placed under the control of the commander of an infantry or cavalry unit and intended to act only in his interests.