Evening star., 1943-10-31
American Artillery Can
Crumble Nazi West Wall

broken, stick out from the ruins like
strands Of rigid spaghetti. And the dirt
heaps have been tossed around as
though kicked by giant
In one instance, said Col Eddy, shot
from big gun smacked right through
the front wall of a blockhouse and
buried itself in the rear wall.
Armor.Piercing Ammunition.
A big factor in the success of the tests,
he said, was the type of armor- piercing
ammunition used.
You can't kill a flea with a big gun
If you don't have the right kind of am
munition," he said, 'and the American
Army not only has the finest line of
artillery in the world-from the 37-milli-
meter gun to the l6-inch coastal de-
fense giant-but it has a comparable
line of ammunition.
Our ammunition is such that the
same type of fuses can be used for firing
shots OF all calibers-and we have am
munition which makes our howitzers as
effective as our guns for certain tactics"
GA howitzer is a cannon that lobs its
shells at target, as compared with the
straighter-line firing of the guns, and
the usual howitzer shot has a lower
velocity than that fired from a gum
This is one of the few countries which
has such complete line of artillery"
the colonel continued.
"A lot of countries had the hell fooled
out Of them by holding to the belief that
air power and tanks alone would win the
war
THE Battle of Ell Alemein marked the
turning point in the thinking with re-
gard to the use of artillery.
More Than Tanks and Planes.
Before that, many people still held
that air power and tanks would decide
all issues But it was found that while
planes and tanks wrought great destruc-
tion, they couldn't hold positions.
The British tanks at Ell Alemein
broke through strong German posi-
tions, but the Germans reformed their
lines again and held the positions.
Later, though, Montgomery started
pounding Rommel with American 1O5-
millimeter guns mounted on self-pro-
PEELED mounts-the so-called priest
and followed through with fire from sew
eral hundred British guns shooting 25
pound shells And that was mighty
good business.
Eel Alemein proved that co-ordinated
air, tank and artillery fire is the thing
air power to soften up the enemy and
spread terror, the tanks to break the
lines, and the artillery to keep up the
incessant pounding that holds positions
while the infantry delivers the knockout.
That technique has been employed
too, with sea power. Since then, they
haven't licked us once"
But he emphasized that artillery has
been most successful when it was placed
well forward with the doughboys, who
still are the queens of battle"
This is more feasible in this war, he
said, because so many artillery pieces
are now f-propelled-and thus can
be moved around quickly to meet vari.
Gus tactical needs.
Speaking of one of the United States
bigger self-propelled mounts-the MI;
which is 155-millimeter gun mount.
ed on 2 tank chassis, the colonel said:
In recent tests, an M-12 fred sho
, from one position, then hotfooted Il
for six miles-and fired another shot
20 minutes after the first one.
"Firing like that is death on pill
= boxes such as those which would b.
met in the NaA west wall, because b,
= the time the enemy had his guns trainee
1 from fortihcation, an NIP could b
of and away"