July-August - Air Defense Artillery

THE BATTALION AAA SURFACE
GUNNERY SCHOOL
By 1st Lt. Carl M. Guelzo, 3rd AAA AW Battalion
IN the March-April ANTIAIRCRAFT
JOURNAL Lt. Wm. B. Campbell in his
article FA Gunnery Training For AAA
gives an outline for a battalion school
course. It is well worth study by a prospective
instructor, particularly the references
to ST 44-4-3, FA Gunnery for
Heavy MA, M & GM Branch, TAS,
and to FM 6-40.
My experience leads me to differ with
Lt. Campbell somewhat in the shape of
the course. However, my main effort
here is to get down closer to the practical
problems and limitations in the battalion.
No sales talk appears necessary. The
AAA gun battalions simply have to conduct
such schools, and the self-propelled
AW developments in Korea indicate a
need there. Fortunately, the subject is
fascinating and fairly easy to learn for
those who have sound basic arithmetic.
There may be some difficulties about instructors,
equipment, and time; still it is
entirely practicable to conduct the school,
and it is so essential to efficient battery
and battalion training.
For instructors the school will require
one officer (preferably the S-3 or his
assistant) and one enlisted assistant for
full-time duty during the course. If they
are well grounded in the subject and
have the lesson plans prepared before the
course starts, they can conduct four
hours' classroom work per day. The
course requires 28 classroom hours' instruction,
or seven working days. With
experienced instructors and apt students
the course can be done in one week.
The students in one class should be
limited to 15, and include the battalion
operations and intelligence sergeants, the
master gunner, and four MOC plotters;
one officer and one enlisted man from
each firing battery. Other battery personnel
can be given the same training
by the battery students in this course or
by giving the course a second time for
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them. In the latter case, four persons
from each firing battery should be the
maximum attending.
The course of instruction should be
organized on the assumption that the
students know nothing of the subject
matter. Surface gunnery can be divided
into two distinct phases: forward observer
procedure and fire direction center
procedure. Attempts to mix the two
phases at the same time only serve to
confuse the students. Forward observer
procedure can be taught and understood
without any knowledge of FDC procedure,
but an understanding of what
the FO is doing renders teaching and
understanding FDC procedure much
easier. Conclmion: Teach FO procedure
first and make it a prerequisite to
the FDC phase.
The FO phase requires the lesser
amount of equipment. A classroom with
tables, chairs, blackboard, chalk, eraser,
field glasses, and a burst spotter are required.
Let's take a closer look at the
burst spotter.
In the absence of an artillery puffboard
range or a slide projector, a good
way of indicating the location of bursts
with respect to a target in the classroom
is on the blackboard. The reticle of a
pair of field glasses is drawn on the blackboard,
blown up to about three feet in
length, with the 0 mil division on the
target. The bursts can be "spotted" anywhere
around the target with the burst
spotter, which is simply a handle about
two feet long with a round disc of metal
three inches in diameter nailed to one
end. One side of the metal disc can be
painted black and the other yellow to
indicate air and graze bursts.
THE FO phase can be taught in 10
hours divided as follows:
First hour. A conference introducing
the students to the basic fundamentals of
FO procedure: organization of the FO
party and means of communication; the
mil rule; theory of the range bracket;
How of observer corrections and S-3 commands;
types of fire; elements of initial
data and subsequent corrections; announcement
of numbers; field glasses.
Second hour. Practical period on the
calculation of initial data using the mil
rule and announcing initial fire request.
Third hour. Brief review of calculation
of initial data using the mil rule;
familiarization on use of rough trig method;
introduction to the conduct of precision
fire by base point registration.
Fourth hanr. Conduct of precision fire
missions.
Fifth hour. Conduct of precision fire
missions and introduction to area fire.
Sixth hour. Conduct of area fire.
Seventh hour. Time fire in connection
with precision and area fire missions.
Eighth hour. Mixed fire missions.
Ninth and tenth hours: Review, 20
minutes; examination, 60 minutes; critique,
20 minutes.
The ideal examination would involve
taking the students out to an artillery
range and permitting them to fire live
missions. Forward observing is actually
a skill-it involves being able to do some.
thing rather than just be able to answer
questions about it. The object is to pose
questions that enable the student to use
what he has learned rather than just to
parrot back academic principles.
Examination 1 illustrates a practical
and objective type examination that was
actually used in a gun battalion. The test
should be just long enough for the
slower students (not the slowest) to finish
in the allotted time. The better stu.
ANTIAIRCRAFT JOURNAL