Evening star., 1945-01-21
lime on Target Is Theme Of Artillery Serenade,'
Symphony of Death Scored to Annihilate the Enemy

ting maps. The first determines the
range in yards and amount of shift or
DETECTION necessary to reach the enemy
position. The vertical control operator
determines the angle of SITE" or how
high the barrel of the gun must be ele-
waited or depressed so that the projec-
tile will land on Jerry and not In front
of him or behind him.
That information is given to the COM
puters. They quickly convert the data
into the necessary firing order. But
that is not all. They must make cor
rections for the direction and velocity
OF the wind, the temperature of the
powder, the temperature of the air, and
density of the air
These GIs make all this look sinnnle.
They do it not in a matter of minutes.
but in seconds. Remember, this Is the
fire direction center of just one bat.
talon. In serenade firing the fire direc.
t1on centers of each battalion partici.
pating must coordinate their fires 50
that they all land on Jerry at the same
time. The range and caliber of the
various battalions' guns must be con-
sidered, as well as the time of flight of
the projectile
Fire Direction Center
Let's visit the fire direction center of
specific unit. Down in the cellar of
what remains Of home in a devastated
German town is the command post Of
the 978th Field Artillery Battalion A
Michigan National Guard outfit, 1t Is
commanded by 1t. Col. James c. Wood
of 225 North Horton street, Jackson,
Mich. 1t has been in the line contin-
ually since it hit the Normandy beach on
June rs. It's three batteries of II Long
Toms-155 nm guns-have spewed we'll
over $4,000 rounds at the enemy, more
than 100000 pounds of death and de-
struction.
The officers and men on duty in the
FDC in the midst of battle are listen
ing to captured German radio tuned
in softly to the forces program of the
BBC. The telephone jangIes and Mai.
James A. Hebbler, Huntingburg, Ind,
the gunnery officer, picks up the instru-
ment. 1t is call for fire mission and
the battalion will fire with other units
in a. TOT on a Jerry strong point.
Maj. Hebbler announces the map CO.
ordinates.
sergt.. Leslie Kludt, Route 9, Kala-
mazoo, Mich, is the horizontal control
operator. Poring over his map he quick
ly reads the range and detection of each
of the three batteries. Sergt. Harper
Dickson, 80 Plummer avenue, Lowell,
Mass, the vertical control operator, de-
termines the difference in altitude or
angle of site-for each battery.
Co-ordinated Fire
At the command of Maj. Hebbler each
battery of four guns opens up. Forty
five seconds after the computers had
received their data the guns are fired.
The battalions fire is co-ordinated on
corps level for the big serenades. The
artillery fire direction center of 10Th
Corps was located in the basement Of q
Gefman ScnOOlnOuSe.
There 1t Col. Paul c. Bell, 2245 NV.
goth street, Oklahoma City, Okla, re-
ceived fire missions and allocated them
according to Importance and range. Be-
fore him was huge map-the firing
Charlton which the position Of the
guns of each battalion was plotted. A
glance at the map, after request for
a fire mission, showed which guns were
within range and which guns could bs
traversed in their dug-in positions to
bear upon the target. Another map
showed the location of enemy shell hits,
plotted with date and time so that the
enemy battery situation could be built
up with aerial reconnaissance by the
counter battery officer. Maj william
Hodo. OF Alexander City, Ala.
Aerial Reconnaissance
Corps artillery relies greatly on aerial
reconnaissance by especially trained OBJ
servers in P-51s, Mustangs. The much
slower Cubs would not last long over
the German lines.
Corps artillery has one more sub.
division unit in its chain of command
the group. Col. Lloyd M. Hanna, 315
Usage street, Leavenworth, Kans., is the
commanding officer of the 119th Field
Artillery Group, made up of four bat.
talions. Through switchboard connec.
tions and radio, Maj. Harry K. Thorn.
son, Cotter. Ark, group gunnery ofacer.
receives complete picture Of the situa-
tion from corps, division artillery, in
fantry regiments, forward and aerial
observers, and from counter battery OBJ
servation posts. The information 10
plotted on maps in the group, IRE direc-
tion center, the same as on the corpO
and battalion levels.