"U.S. and German Field Artillery in World War II: " Topic

….A Comparison

"At first glance, there seems to be little difference between the artillery branches of the U.S. Army and German Wehrmacht in World War II. The American guns were a bit heavier than their German counterparts and generally had a longer range. The German 105mm was sufficiently similar to the American 105mm howitzer, and there were enough similarities overall between each army's guns to allow the U.S. Army to equip two of its field artillery battalions with captured German pieces to take advantage of the enemy ammunition stocks captured in France…."
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Amicalement
Armand

A great find, Tango! Many thanks.

I am amazed now many guns were coordinated at the Battle of the Bulge by one single US Infantry Division!

GdeP

Good article Armand!

Time on target, nobody else had it.

Map system was also superior and much quicker. Remember reading somewhere that a German barrage would arrive about 20 min after the call in. The western allies would have it on target in 5. The German writing the article said he and his mates thought the allies were somehow tapping their coms to be able to call in guns before an attack even started.

The immediate post-war assessment of US Field Artillery in the ETO can be seen here (scroll down to report ref 61); Note, I always get a certificate error warning on the Combined Arms Center site, but I don't think it's a computer security risk, my AV has never been tripped by it.

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Time on Target was also practised by RA/RCA.

"Large multi-regiment impromptu targets were often ordered ‘engage at', in which very precise time synchronisation was less important. For opportunity targets involving about one regiment the observer normally ordered them to fire when sufficient batteries had reported 'ready'. Alternatively the observer could control the moment of firing by use of the commands 'fire by order' then 'fire' at the appropriate moment. However, Time on Target TOT) had been introduced in North Africa in early 1942 for concentrations with the batteries' clocks being synchronised from routine time signals broadcast by the BBC. When own troops' safety was a consideration the observer could also order 'no rounds after . . . .' (a particular time). The problem with ToT was that the observers tended to err on the side of caution and be generous with the amount of time they allowed for all batteries to be ready to fire. This meant that ToT engagements took longer than others, and hence was contrary to the usual British desire to have rounds on the ground as fast as possible."

nigelef.tripod.com/maindoc.htm

Gary

Pretty mch all nations could do ToT. Just that the US could do it quicker due to the printed firing tables.