artillery
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Why is the rate of fire so meticolous determined?
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by
sdorman120
Erik,
I think there may be several reasons for this, one could simply be the supply situation and the total number of shells available to each unit participating in the overall fire-plan and what its objectives were. Also this fire-plan is probably in support of an infantry offensive and without the communications we now take for granted successive aspects of the operation would have to be carried out to a meticulously laid-down timetable. So infantry would leave their trenches at a specific time, possibly after a suppressive artillery barrage on the enemy lines, and then the infantry would advance under a succession of barrages rolling along at a set distance in front of them. You would not want the artillery to have expended too many shells early on leaving the infantry uncovered by the rolling barrages too far out from their objectives. A further aspect which may have had to have been considered is that apparently the gun barrels would lose minute amounts of rifling each time they fired a shell, so being less accurate with each shot until barrel-life was expired. So, possibly this may have been taken into account to make the artillery fire-plan as effective as possible.
These comments are offered from general reading rather than from a specific knowledge of artillery operations, but hopefully they are of use.
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Artillery Article re WW1 How the British artillery developed and became a war-winning factor in 1914-1918
Firing accurately at the target: Once the target was identified, the task became one of firing accurately in order to hit it. The method used by both sides in the early days in the war was to “register” on the target. This meant firing some ranging shots which could be observed and corrections made until the target was being hit. This was a slow and wasteful process, but more importantly it gave away any possible surprise and let the enemy know where your guns were. By 1918 this had changed completely to the point where British artillery could open fire and hit the target first time: “predicted fire”.
Accurate predictable fire came about through a combination of technolocical and methods developments: Improved, consistent manufacturing of shells: the weight of the shell being particularly important; Measurement of gun barrel wear and taking this into account in calculating gun settings; Measure of wind speed, air pressure and other meteorological factors and also taking these into account in calculating gun settings. Article also includes: Ensuring the effect of accurate fire and Creeping Barrages.
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by
cyngast
moderator
I don't see a date on this page, but this programme was intended to be used the last two days, X and Y days, before an operation of some kind. It may have been designed as both a rehearsal for lifting the barrage at the correct time in order to stay ahead of the planned infantry assault and an attempt to damage the enemy lines as much as possible.
@sdorman120 makes some good points about the lack of reliable communication to the batteries, especially during active operations when telephone lines were often cut by shells.
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