What was the standard procedure with regards to allocation of arty assets for CB missions?
Were certain batteries assigned exclusively to the task, or was it more like whomever was available and in range?
Also, was there such a thing as fooling an enemy battery into firing and thereby revealing its location?
Counter-battery
Counter-battery
The gods do not deduct from a man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing.
~Babylonian Proverb
~Babylonian Proverb
Re: Counter-battery
British, German or US practice?Kingfish wrote:What was the standard procedure with regards to allocation of arty assets for CB missions?
Were certain batteries assigned exclusively to the task, or was it more like whomever was available and in range?
Also, was there such a thing as fooling an enemy battery into firing and thereby revealing its location?
The Nigelevans link is great for the British who invested quite heavily in CB. But this is the page on his site on CB http://nigelef.tripod.com/p_artyintcb39 ... TRODUCTION
The CB plan was made by the Counter Bombardment Officer and his staff at Corps HQ. Hostile battery lists were prepared from a variety of target location sources - Aerial photographs taken by tactical recce aircraft, flash spotting, sound ranging, analysis of craters and reports from field artillery observers.
By 1943 British CB was typically provided by the medium guns (60 pdr, 4.5" and 5.5") and longer ranged heavy artillery (6"). 3.7" heavy AA guns were also used for CB, especially flak suppression before close air support from allied bombers.
One of the techniques for fooling a battery into disclosing a position was to fire what were described as a "Chinese barrage" This was to fire a complete pattern of artillery bombardment, which might include a creeping barrage and smoke screens, indistinguishable from the fireplan that might precede an attack. The defenders would not know whether there were any troops following the barrage. If they did not respond with defensive fires there was a riosk that attackinmg infantry would get close enough to storm the defences. Its an extravagant use of artillery ammunition, but may be the only way to obtain tactical surprise.