retaliation

• by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

  Quite interesting how a retaliation is organised. Always thought this was improvised.

  Posted March 7, 2017 6:58 PM

• by cyngast moderator

  The artillery was often too far back to accurately see which enemy batteries were shooting.

  By the way, at the start of the description, it is Forward Liaison Officer, not French, as noted in a comment. It looks like French as it is written, though.

  Posted March 7, 2017 11:12 PM

• by ral104 moderator, scientist

  Retaliation implies an 'of-the-moment' response, doesn't it? But actually what they're describing here is counter-battery fire, which accounted for a large proportion of the British artillery's activity. Essentially, as soon as the Forward Observation Officer identified the location of an enemy battery, it would be the task of 35 Bde to put them out of action. To be successful at this, it was necessary to plan the command and control procedures in advance, which is why the 'retaliation' in this case isn't quite as you would imagine.

  Posted March 8, 2017 10:33 AM