THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL - Air Defense Artillery

194 THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL
to use an apt western expression. The excitement, nervous tension, curiosity,
divided attention, and eagerness for immediate visible results always has and
always will be present in combat to more or less degree. It should not be con- .
fused with fear. The effect is intangible. By training, by simplification of
the gunners' tasks, by careful emplacement, by the maintenance or a high
morale, and through experience, the effects of opposition may be minimized.
Possible forms of opposition and the necessary counter measures will be considered
at various points throughout the remainder of this discussion.
Let us now return to the original maxim, from which we have deleted the
word accurate:
An efficient battery is a battery
(1) that can be moved in time to the proper firing position
(2) with sufficient ammunition
(3) and can remain there
(4) and be prepared to deliver fire
(5) on the proper targets.
As thus arranged, the attributes of an efficient antiaircraft battery may be conlidered
in detail.
(1) that can be moved in time to the proper firing position
We are concerned here with the question of mobility. The dictates of the
selection of the proper position will develop naturally with the consideration
of other attributes.
A surprising number of people visualize a mobile antiaircraft battery as
a thing of great similarity to a fire department, dashing madly across the country
to meet a reported plane, perhaps firing as it goes, and returning to its lair at
the conclusion of the festivities. The picture is, of course, erroneous. The
antiaircraft battery is not concerned with putting out a fire; rather its function
is to prevent the fire from starting, to continue the comparison, and its mobility
must be greater and of a different sort than that of the fire-fighting vehicle. The
mobility of which the battery must be possessed is of two kinds: march mobility
and cross-country mobility.
The march mobility of an antiaircraft battery has to be of a high order that
it may accompany and defend troops-even mechanized troops---on the march.
To accompany the troops requires only a parity in mobility between the two,
but to defend the ~ccompanied units demands much more in the antiaircraft
battery. It is contemplated that about two-thirds of the defendiPg units will
be halted and prepared to fire at all times. The remaining third will be
occupied with passing the column so that it may take up position at its head
and be prepared to fire until the rear of the column shall again catch up with
its position. To accomplish this maneuver of advancing the rearmost battery
or batteries and to permit two-thirds of the defense to be in position for
action at all times necessitates, in the antiaircraft battery, at least three times
the speed of the defended colnmn, and a safety factor above that is to be
desired. Furthermore, it is evident that a given strength of defense can be
maintained by fewer batteries if the mobility of the batteries be high. These