"WWII -- Fire on the Move and Fire at Short Halt" Topic

This question as it relates to WWII North Africa, so "early" war.

It's generally accepted that firing while moving was highly inaccurate. Most firing was done while stopped.

Q1: assuming smooth terrain, is there a maximum speed at which ANY fire could happen with some chance of hitting, even with a heavy penalty?

To adjust for this, tanks would "Fire at Short Halt" -- stopping suddenly, firing quickly, then continuing to move.

Q2: I can't believe that a tank screaming along at top speed could accurately perform Fire at Short Halt without having the tank rock and shake, and dust catch up to it obscuring vision. So is there a maximum speed at which "Fire at Short Halt" could effectively be done, say 10 mph?

Thanks

Q1: Yes. Firing on the move was usually not done and if it was done, it was at a relatively slow speed.

Q2: You are over-thinking it. Stopped is stopped. You aren't moving when you are stopped. Right?

The real question is, in your game, is there enough time left in the move for the vehicle to acquire a target and shoot effectively. For this, I would allow a half move and a shot at a small penalty. Also, any movement would spoil any accuracy bonuses for successive shots.

Italian doctrine called for fire while moving. Evidently the Italian crews quickly learned the futility of that and fired from the halt anyway.

Russians sometimes fired on the move as well. Even to the point of testing their tanks ROF on the move.

It is a little hard to make a game turn move of shooting at the short halt different than shooting on the move with a slow move.

Yea, even during the early to mid-Cold War period, firing on the move frequently was ineffective.

In many cases, even stationary it seems to have taken multiple shots to hit a target.

Given most tanks probably carried more ammo than they expected to survive to fire, I suppose popping off a shell while moving into position was more of a "Eh, why not see if we're lucky?" move.

Thomas Jentz, "Tank Combat in North Africa" provides some details on doctrine, method and experience related to firing on the move.

quote -

4.2.2 FIRING ON THE MOVE
It was the standard British practice to fire on the move when they when they couldn't take up a hull-down firing position. In a report entitled "Gunnery Trials" dated 21 March 1938, the British reported on the ability of a gunner to hit a target while firing on the move. The 2-pounder gun was controlled by the gunner's shoulder in free elevation. The following number of hits were scored while moving broadside to an 8 feet tall by 8 feet wide target at a range of 650 yards:

Speed ----- Rounds Fired --- Hits --- Percent
10 mph --------- 19 --------- 04 ---- 21
15 mph --------- 10 --------- 03 ---- 33
20 mph --------- 06 --------- 02 ---- 33

The gunner managed to hit this same target 14 percent of the time while driving at the target head on at a speed of 10 mph at ranges decreasing from 900 to 600 yards.

Both the Germans and Italians instructed their crews to fire when halted, even when in the open. Panzer crews were instructed to change firing positions when they came under effective enemy fire.

- unquote

As always, please treat test results obtained under non-combat conditions with all due discretion.

FWIW

B

Key phrase being "while driving at the target head on"

The British Cruiser tanks were designed to fire from the move, using the gunner's shoulder as the stabilizer. They also had high-speed turret traverse motors.

That said, crossing targets are complicated to shoot.