Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

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Direct Fire Gun A Aiming Point Diagram–Direct and Indirect Fire a Gun B Indirect Fire b Target Telephone Line Observer a The layer of gun A clearly sees the target through the telescopic sight. At ranges up to 1,500 yards, the engagement is accurate and decisive, although the gun is exposed to counterfire. b With cannons emplaced in defilade, the layer of gun B is unable to see the target; requires the gunnery team’s coordinated efforts; and, based on an estimated range and observer then adjusts fire by trial and error. Overall, the process of locating and drawing counterfire is slower. Source: Adapted by author from Shelford Bidwell and Dominick Graham, Fire-Power (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982), p. 8.
a Time Of grOwTh batteries. Artillerymen at first used flags and heliographs and later telephones, but truly effective communications did not become a reality until many years later with the development of lightweight field radios. 12 Soon after the French adopted the soixante-quinze, the United States began work on a new design for a 3-inch (76.2-mm.) field gun that provided increased velocity and firepower, a flatter trajectory, and an anti-recoil mechanism allowing for more effective use of gun sights and more rapid fire. The weapon also had a gun shield on the carriage for protection of the crew. Experiments with various models began in 1899, and issue of the 1902 model began in 1904. Manufacture was delayed because of the necessity of obtaining the counter-recoil springs and panoramic sights from abroad, but by 1904, these items were being manufactured in the United States. The sights were similar to those on the French 75-mm. piece, which made the 1902 model the first American weapon suitable for indirect laying. The 3-inch piece fired a 15-pound (6.8-kilogram) shrapnel or explosive shell for an effective range of 6,500 yards (5,943.6 meters) and a maximum range of 8,000 yards (7,315.2 meters). Improvements were later made on the tube and breech, but subsequent models were still commonly referred to as the 1902 model 3-inch gun. It was the principal field piece of the Army from 1905 to 1917. 13 With the 3-inch field gun, the Army had the ingredients for employing indirect fire, and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 provided the impetus. That war involved the clash of large armies armed with modern weapons, resulting in the extensive use of trenches. The effectiveness of artillery fire drove both sides to cover, that is, in defilade. Laying guns indirectly while in defilade became standard, with centralized control provided through the use of telephone wire. Indirect fire control resulted in an increase in the number of potential firing locations, and the ability to shift the fire of a great number of pieces without physically moving them permitted the use of heavier, less mobile artillery in the field. 14 Referring to reports of observers sent to both sides in the conflict, the Chief of Artillery, Brig. Gen. John P. Story, campaigned for improvements in the American arm. He criticized the structure of field artillery, which was still organized into 12 Ernest Hinds, trans., “Employment of Artillery Fire,” pts. 1 and 2, Journal of the United States Artillery 22 (July-August 1904): 55–74 and 22 (September-October): 147–66; Ian V. Hogg, Allied Artillery of World War One (Ramsbury, Marlborough, England: Crowood Press., 1998), pp. 13–16; Bailey, Field Artillery and Firepower, pp. 283–84; David Adams Shugart, “On the Way” (Ph.D. diss., Texas A&M University, 2002), pp. 54–55. 13 Konrad F. Schreier, Jr., “The U.S. Army 3 Inch Field Gun Model 1902,” Military Collector & Historian 25 (Winter 1973): 185–92; Annual Reports of the War Department, 1904, 10:25–27; Nesmith, “Quiet Paradigm Change,” Ph.D. diss., pp. 295–301. These guns served along the Mexican border and in the Punitive Expedition, but they were never actually engaged. The Germans had redesigned their 77-mm. gun with a spring recoil, and the 3-inch field gun was modeled after it rather than the hydropneumatic recoil system of the French “75.” 14 U.S. War Department, General Staff, Reports of Military Observers Attached to Armies in Manchuria During the Russo-Japanese War (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1906). See also John Thomas Greenwood, “The American Military Observers of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905” (Ph.D. diss., Kansas State University, 1971), pp. 426–32. 99
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The Organizational History of Field
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Civil War Flag (nonregulation), wit
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-P
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FOREWORD The Organizational History
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used to defend fixed positions. Thi
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CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. THE BEGINN
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Chapter xv Page ABBREVIATIONS AND A
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Chapter xvii Page Sound-ranging equ
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Field Artillery 1775-2003
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4 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of fie
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10 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of fi
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Regimental Staff Table 3—Artiller
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Battle of Palo Alto by Klauprecht &
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Page 101 and 102: diverging missiOns The Gatling Guns
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148 THE ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY OF F
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CHAPTER 7 World War II Developments
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wOrld war ii 159 blow, and the thir
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wOrld war ii L-4 from the 29th Infa
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wOrld war ii 163 authorized six 105
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wOrld war ii Airborne troops loadin
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wOrld war ii 167 artillery battalio
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wOrld war ii Table 16—Principal A
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wOrld war ii Table 17—Nondivision
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wOrld war ii Destroyer Training Cen
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Firing 4.5-inch rockets in the Hür
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wOrld war ii 177 of division artil
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wOrld war ii 179 the for mer was pr
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wOrld war ii 15th Field Artillery O
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wOrld war ii as well, passed missio
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wOrld war ii 185 photographs), and
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wOrld war ii 187 After nearly six y
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190 The OrganizaTiOnal hisTOry Of f
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CHAPTER 9 The Nuclear Arena The Kor
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The nUclear arena 211 time that rad
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The nUclear arena Honest John rocke
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The nUclear arena Corporal missile
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The nUclear arena 217 and firepower
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The nUclear arena 219 In light of n
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The nUclear arena 221 the missile c
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The nUclear arena Lacrosse missile
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The nUclear arena 225 cost over $10
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The nUclear arena his proposal the
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The nUclear arena Little John rocke
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The nUclear arena 231 fire it withi
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The nUclear arena 233 for rapid che
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The nUclear arena Lance missile 235
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The nUclear arena 237 By the end of
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The nUclear arena 239 In the late 1
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Table 23—Field Artillery Rockets
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CHAPTER 10 The Road to Flexible Res
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse 245 a
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Table 24—Comparison of Divisional
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse 249 p
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse Chart
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse Chart
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Chart 4—Reorganization of Regimen
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse 257 d
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse HHB C
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse reorg
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse M18 f
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The rOad TO fleXiBle resPOnse UH-1D
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CHAPTER 11 Vietnam During the 1950s
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vieTnam Table 25—Field Artillery
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vieTnam CH-54 Tarhe lifting a 155-m
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vieTnam 8-inch howitzer from Batter
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vieTnam 275 At each maneuver comman
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CH-47 Chinook transporting the M102
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vieTnam 279 ployed to Vietnam in la
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vieTnam 281 arose. A field artiller
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vieTnam ments were authorized, usin
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Table 26—Field Artillery Reductio
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Appendix A—Chiefs of Field Artill
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aPPendiX Maj. Gen. John A. Dubia 15
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Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

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