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

… 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.

Nevertheless, evaluating an army's artillery requires a good deal more than looking at the standard guns that it deploys. To be fully effective, an artillery arm must be well supplied with suitable ammunition. There must be a sufficient supply of standard guns so that the units being supported can know what fires they can expect. It must have a good means of identifying and accurately locating a target and needs well-schooled forward observers who are in close contact not only with the batteries, but with the troops they are working with. Effective artillery requires fire direction centers that can accurately place fires and rapidly shift them from one target to another. Those fire direction centers must be able to co-ordinate with other artillery units to mass fires as needed. The guns must have effective prime movers or be mounted on tracked vehicles. There must be a sufficient supply of all of the above to meet the needs of the maneuver units or other forces the batteries are supporting. Finally, the guns must be protected from counter-battery fire or other interdiction…"

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Armand

Air observation and liaison with the ground also means you must have air superiority. And excellent radios and field phones or these days, data connections.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

Interesting. Sadly, once again there is little about German organisation or practice regarding targeting, observation and adjustment of targets and liaison and fire support with the 'supported arms' (infantry and armour). I have scrounged up bits and pieces from various sources but no single book or similar which gives the information required about artillery observers and how they operated.

Deja-vu?

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Apparently he really likes this article. I wonder if he will post it again before the year is over.

Yes, I actually thought it was posted more times than that.

I don't rate the article, and I'm pretty sure I vented my spleen in one of the above links, so no need to cover old ground. In brief I find it superficial, devoid of actual comparison and worse still excludes German units such as Assault Gun, 12-cm Mortars, Nebelwerfers (at least I don't think they get a mention?) and Flak, while US TDs and 4.2-inch mortars all get pulled into the Field Artillery sphere.

For a more contemporary view of US FA use, success and failures, I'd recommend the Reports of the General Board, ETO series;

link

I don't know of a detailed source for German Artillery tactics either (and the articale patently does not either). The US handbook on German Forces is available at Hyperwar I think, search TM-E 30-451. Caveats are that this was prepared in early 1945, is a US view of the German system, and doesn't actually say much. Chapter IV, Tactics, has paragraphs on artillery usage in various types of operations but not a full section on the artillery in particular.

There are contemporary German documents on the Germandocsinrussia website, though somewhat scattered. You would need to speak good German to get anything from them (I can speak KStN but not much else), and also speak 'artillery'.

Also, in support of the rumours that other armies had guns and howitzers too, and even knew how to fire them, as ever there is the RA website of Nigel F Evans;

nigelef.tripod.com

Gary

Oh snap Griefbringer….

Go here – link

for an analysis/description of a German artillery operation on the Leningrad front early in the war.

B

The US Army created the first truly networked fire support system, which integrated artillery fires more closely with maneuver units in a manner that no other army had ever achieved. It allowed the effective integration of reinforcing and general support artillery units, and their control through the directly supporting field artillery units so fires could be coordinated and synched to a changing situation in real time. None of the Axis armies had that capability, and when people talk about the artillery being "decisive," as Patton did, this is the capability they're describing.

nah, The US just had 'automatic artillery'. case closed.