Payday: The Dan Hughes Story

Dan Hughes biography-chapter 6_Layout 1 2/15/2016 5:43 PM Page 58
the upper mobile turret was then bore-sighted in a known azimuth
and a marker placed on this moving turret on that heading. If the
North Star was sighted, then the marker would be placed on true
north. As long as the half-track was in a stationary position, the turret
could be rotated and the azimuth could be read like a compass. The
elevation of the guns was obtained by use of a gunner’s quadrant
placed on two fixed points on one of the 50-caliber guns. As the gun
was elevated, a bubble level measured the mils of elevation at which
the guns were to be fired. The troops had firing tables that indicated
the elevation in mils required for the trajectory to reach any distance
within range of the guns. Dan was issued maps of the terrain with field
artillery forward-observer positions marked, and with this the platoon
was ready to start firing. Dan set up the fire direction center (FDC) in
his bunker on a hill above the field artillery positions.
About 10 o’clock that first night, one of the forward observers called
him and gave a fire mission on enemy moving on a distant hill. Dan
gave settings to four half-tracks to fire 100 rounds from two guns on
each vehicle. When all was ready, he gave the commence firing order
and eight 50-caliber guns cut loose, spraying the target with exploding
A quad-50 emplacement. Enemy trenches are on hill to far right.
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