"Road damage" Topic

Does anybody have data on how much damage can be done two a road by artillary of various calibers. In many cases roads may not be targeted directly on the roadway to avoid damage. This would seem to be the case on the WWII Hells Highway where the 25 pdr's hit either side as the road was wanted for the advance.

In the Falklands even hitting a runway was not that easy, so how easy is it to damage a road. I could imagine its relatievly easy to make it at least a minor obsticle to low mobity transport like trucks, forceing them to slow down, but what about tracked? Would tracked going over a damaged road make it much worse for wheeled vehicles?

Why the interest, well the new map for our next big gane set is just one road so keeping it in good order if its a logistics route (which it would be in its position) is a key issue. MG so far has not addressed this and even then it would be an addition to the yet to be published engineering manua which may be farther on than some players would want to take there games.

(Edit: It's UshaCha, didn't check which account was active before I posted.)

Judging by the tank trail next to the road out south of town, modern tanks grinding over rocks/broken pavement would probably make the damaged road more passable to wheeled vehicles during the dry season.

Mud, though, ick. Tanks churn that track to soup in pretty short order.

Any sizeable artillery concentration is likely to put pretty big holes into roads and even a relatively modest shoot might which falls along (rather than across) a road might easily make the roadway as much of a hindrance as a help. especially for wheeled vehicles. For Rapid I'd suggest that one battery of 6 or 8 field guns firing twice on the same area would churn the road into hard going/difficult terrain for 12 inches if the shoot falls along the road and 3 inches if it is across the road and I'd make it automatic, so if you're targeting – for example – infantry in an area that has a road running through it you will automatically damage the road.

This article claims the film footage is of a mortar round striking the roadway in front of the car with the dash cam. It can give you an idea of possible damage.

link

I agree with Lion, it really "depends".

I thought about this very topic this past weekend while dropping off my son at Boy Scout leadership training. The gravel road leading to camp was a mix of fine and fairly large gravel. Our Camery's tires didn't like the large gravel rocks and I could feel them and any holes/ruts through the steering wheel.

We civilians driving on pavement all day both under estimate the effects of rough terrain on vehicle mobility and over estimate the ability of tracked vehciles to take on rough terrain.

A tanker friend of mine (Abrams) has told me that tracked vehicles are great over packed dirt and crossing broken ground or narrow trenches that would stop a wheeled vehicle cold. But basements and anything that could forces the tracks out of contact with the ground such as large amounts of rubble can also stop a tank.

Most importantly, while a tracked vehicle might tempt fate by crossing really broken ground like a cratered road when not in contact, under battle conditions crews are far more cautious than we gamers. Just because a tank SHOULD be able to cross a certain bit of broken ground does NOT mean the crew will try to when under fire. The last thing they want is to become a sitting duck while stuck in a basement, disabled with a broken track, or stuck on top of an obstacle.

I'd guess that was a 120mm mortar with a delay fuse.

Wolfhag

( from here: link )

So a dozen rounds like that along even 100 yards would make for pretty serious obstacle.

Depends greatly on both the siz e of the rounds, how they are fused, and how they are fired.

Obviously a 155mm HE round will do more damage then an 75mm. Except a delay fused 75mm round would likely do more damage to a road then an air-burst caused by a proximity fused 155mm HE round.

Dual Purpose Improved conventional munition (DPICM) rounds cause 'multiple' small (about 3" divets with about 6" deep holes about 1" wide below them in asphalt roads.) Very little effect on trafficability.

I've seen the 'after effects' of 152mm HE rounds used as IEDs. If they are dug in they can make a crater that would be impassible to most wheeled and delay tracked vehicles. If 'surface laid they sometimes only make

Most rounds will not hit the road. Huge variations in accuracy over time and by country, but many country's artillery would have a hard time converging the sheaf onto a road. Modern forces equipped with GPS and accurate maps should be able to do that. Russians, and others, in WW II would likely expend a LOT of rounds to accomplish this.

Gunners intentionally distribute the fall of their shells to distribute the lethal effects. A battery of 6 guns firing at a converged target is likely overkill, and thus a waste. In US practice, battery's normally set up in "lazy W pattern," and the 'default' distribution of shells is basically the same. Observers and FDCs may use linear targets to cause the fires of the battery to fall along the length of a road for example.

If a modern artillery force wanted to render a road impassible to wheeled traffic, and selected a target in restricted terrain that could not be easily bypassed, I think they could do it with a dozen rounds (or less). I think that 'earlier' units would require a sustained barrage.

As Apache says, do not underestimate the dispersion of artillery rounds.

If a typical battery beaten zone is 150m x 150m, to hit a target as narrow as a road (say 10m wide, being generous) with even one shell is going to require roughly 15 rounds. To fire enough to render it unusable, it will take ten times that.