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Heavy Artillery- known as the ‘King of Battle’, ‘God of War’ and the ‘great equalizer’, has always been responsible for casualties all out of proportion to its numbers. While inventions like the machine gun and tank have revolutionized warfare, it is the good old Artillery that has been a real killer on the battlefield. For example, mortars, which most players discount as a nuisance, caused over 50% of all combat casualties during World War II. A successful commander appreciates the significance of firepower and understands that the effective use of all available fire support will determine the outcome of a battle. It was Napoleon who said, "It is the artillery that decides most of my battles."

Artillery has its roots in the Medieval years as a weapon of bombardment used to pound an enemy into submission. During WW2, Artillery, just like the tank and plane, evolved into a weapon of incredible flexibility in employment.

I want to discuss Heavy Artillery in this article; Mortars, and excellent indirect system of its own, will be discussed in a later article.

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Organization

Most armies broke their artillery down into batteries of 4-8 tubes a piece. An artillery battalion would have anywhere from 3-4 batteries assigned. Each combat brigade or regiment had one artillery battalion assigned to it. This coincided with the 3-4 maneuver battalions (or troops) that each combat brigade/regiment consisted of. This support was called ‘DS’(direct support) in the US, British and German Armies (in German- UU-Unmittelbare Unterstutzung), or ‘RAG’ (regimental artillery group) in the Soviet army, and represented the firepower that a brigade or regiment had dedicated directly to it. In the US and British armies these were typically 105mm or 155mm guns; 75mm guns in the Soviet Army, and 105mm guns for the Germans.

Additionally, divisions had another complete artillery battalion- and sometimes a brigade of three battalions- assigned to it. This force was at the division commander’s disposal, to provide additional support for the combat brigade in a fight. This support was called ‘GS’(general support) by the US, British and Germans (in German- AU-Allgemeine Unterstutzung), or DAG (divisional artillery group) by the Soviets. These guns were typically 155mm or 203mm (8 inch) for the US and British, 122mm for the Soviets and 150mm for the Germans. Divisions sometimes also had rocket artillery (Nebelwerfer or Katyusha) that were available in battalion strength as well.

Additionally, Corps and Armies had Artillery elements assigned to them, to provide even more firepower. These were typically brigade sized units of three battalions. The Russians, however, had entire divisions of guns organized with the express purpose of providing pre-attack bombardment during an offensive. As an example, the Russians employed thousands of guns expending thousands of rounds a piece (packed 100 guns per kilometer) during the final offensive on Berlin. This equates to guns being practically lined up hub to hub for miles, with a round striking every 6 inches in the target area!

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Employment

In theory, each battery was "assigned" to support a maneuver battalion. In practice, the artillery batteries were typically assigned to support the battalion(s) that were involved in the most fighting. Thus, a reserve battalion commander may have had no artillery support, while the battalion conducting an attack may have had all three DS batteries in support, plus GS support from the division. If it were a critical battle, additional Corps and Army support may be forthcoming. Essentially, if the guns were available (i.e. deployed and within range), the fighting commander could call on them.

Other factors that influence the amount of support available must be kept in mind. In a movement to contact (like across Russia in ‘41, the desert, or France ’44), batteries will be ‘leap frogged’ forward so that at any one time, only one battery is available for support for the brigade, one battery is moving, and the last battery is breaking down or setting up. Thus the amount of support available was considerably less than in a deliberate attack or deliberate defense, where Division and Corps support will be moved forward as far as possible to provide additional firepower to support the units in combat. Rounds available will also influence the amount of support available; German units in ‘44/’45 will not get nearly the amount of support they did in ‘42/’43.

In fact, as the war progressed, the Germans placed less and less reliance on big tube artillery, and more on assault guns, mortars and rocket delivered projectiles, even though these weapons had less accuracy than conventional tube guns. The Russians went the opposite, adding more tube guns into the line until they had tens of thousands of guns available by wars end.

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Missions

Field artillery has three basic missions; destroy, neutralize or suppress the enemy.

Destroy

means exactly that-completely kill the enemy. This is the least preferred method for artillery usage, as it requires a large amount of rounds to achieve this result. As an example, the US Army estimates it takes 72 rounds to kill one tank, and 40-50 rounds to destroy a platoon of infantry dug in. This can quickly use up a battalions allotment of rounds for a battle.

Neutralize

entails inflicting 20%-30% damage to a target; thus rendering the target combat ineffective.

Suppression

means to stop the enemy from doing what he is doing- attacking, etc. by making him go to ground.

Realistically, most players can expect to receive Suppressing and Neutralizing fires; battery commanders normally intervene and stop destruction missions, so as not to use up all the rounds or give away the batteries’ location to counterbattery fires. A skillful player will synchronize his artillery fires with his direct fire units (tanks, inf, etc) by pinning the enemy with arty while his ground units finish the killing.

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Target Identification

There are three types of targets; Targets of Opportunity, Planned Targets and Final Protective Fires.

Targets of Opportunity

are situations that appear during combat- unplanned shots. These require skill on the part of the observer calling for fire and the guns that are firing. Targets of opportunity take the longest to call for and get fires onto the target.: for the Germans it was around 10 minutes (2-3 turns); the British took around 5 minutes (1-2 turns) but were wildly inaccurate; the Americans around 3 minutes (1 turn) with very good accuracy; and the Russians virtually could not conduct these impromptu fires at all (around 4-5 turns; by then, a smart target was gone). For an excellent in-depth article on Impromptu Fires and why each nation varied so much in its artillery employment, check out this site.

Planned Targets

are the prearranged targets that designers can place across the battlefield. All nations’ artillery units could respond to calls for fire on these targets within 2-5 minutes (one turn).

Final Protective Fire (FPF)

are a special set of fires that are preplanned in the defense. The FPF is called for by the defending unit when the situation has become desperate; as a last act when the enemy is overrunning the position, the defender calls for the FPF to be fired, and every available gun in the sector swings over and fires on that FPF target. The result is that the enemy is hit with everything you’ve got, stopping the breakthrough or taking horrendous casualties, or both. One FPF is allowed per platoon. Think carefully where you plot it.

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The SP wargamer

In planning an SP scenario, the wargamer should keep in mind that the role of the unit in his battle will determine the amount of support at his disposal. Considering that most scenarios are set up to represent critical battles, not some backwater mop up, dedicating a battery or two per battalion sized element is a reasonable expectation. Additional support should be considered, but play balance quickly becomes a factor. In WWII, many times batteries of American guns would pound a town, and the infantry would then move in and mop up the few dazed stragglers. This does not make for a very interesting game.

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Strike Patterns

There are two strike patterns (how the rounds fall in the target area) that can be represented in SP. One, the ‘Open Sheath’ is where a series of rounds falls pretty much in a line across the target. This is the way SP artillery is currently set up to play; a long 4-5 hex line of rounds blankets the target area, typically laterally across the target. More rounds hit a larger area, but less rounds hit any one particular hex. The military uses this pattern to fire on spread out targets, such as a dispersed platoon of troops or vehicles in the open. The way to achieve this fire pattern is to fill all 4 weapon slots of your artillery unit with the same system; all 105mm Howitzers for example.

The other type of strike pattern is the ‘Converging Sheath’. This is the way that Squad Leader artillery tended to play. In this pattern, the rounds tend to blanket a smaller 6 hex cluster area and more rounds hit the same hexes repeatedly. The military uses this pattern to blast targets like bunkers, houses, dug in troops, etc. The way to achieve this pattern is to fill only the first 3 weapon slots with artillery systems (guns). Leave the fourth slot empty, but add more rounds to each of the 3 slots to keep the same number of artillery rounds available overall.

A player wanting to truly be able to simulate the use of the two different patterns could have two separate batteries, one with Converging Sheath and the other Open Sheath, and use only one battery at a time to provide the various patterns on his targets.

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Barrages

Barrages, or pre-game bombardments, are another option players have that represents the massed firepower of indirect artillery support. The purpose of barrages is to ‘soften up’ an enemy before the attacker begins his mission. barrages were typically conducted by at least one artillery battalion or more. However, these guns were not usually available again in these mass numbers for the coming battle. This can be simulated by taking the guns you want to have firing in this bombardment and cutting the number of rounds per gun to 5. When selecting targets during a prep, one must be careful to ‘realistically’ select impact areas for these guns; the rounds were typically unobserved, and so were inaccurate. They should be placed evenly across the playing area, and not clumped on to all the enemy units. Barrage guns should be separate from your fire support available during the game.

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Targeting

When adding those finishing touches to a scenario, do not forget to add a few 'pre-planned' targets to the map for each side. A good rule of thumb is one target for each Battery of Artillery available, but you can vary it as needed.

"Whoa!" you say, "what if it is an ambush, or movement to contact where neither side is expecting the other?" Add them in, one per Battery, except in the deliberate defense and offense, where you should add even more. Here's why:

All armies have FSO's (Fire Support Officers and a pretty big staff) that travel with the battalion headquarters whose sole purpose is to plan fires in conjunction with all operations; these guys sit around and drool over maps that current and future battles will or may be fought, picking out 'targets'. In fact, from experience I can tell you that the battalion operational battle graphics gets so cluttered, it is referred to as "the measles sheet" such is the density of targets preplanned on it.

This data is then transmitted to the companies and ultimately to the platoons and squads, so that anyone with a radio and a map with ‘measles’ pretty much can call for fire when they need it and have a reasonable response time.

All companies have FISTs (Fire Support Teams) or FOs that plan out at company level a series of targets in their area of operations. Also, Platoon Leaders and Platoon Sergeants have the knowledge and ability to call for fires. So if the battalion HQ got 'waxed', units could go on with getting the support they need (this is experience talking too <DG> "desperate grin").

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In the Game

So what does all this mean? If you are in the defense, there should be at least two preplanned targets per battery; depending on how long you are sitting in the defense, you may want more or less (i.e. if your men are in hasty positions- less targets; if they are prepared in pillboxes, etc. add more preplanned targets to represent the additional ‘time’ spent plotting targets).

Likewise, in the attack, add several targets that blanket the enemy's suspected positions. Don't forget to consider picking a few deep targets- if you are successful and get in to the rear of the enemy (or want to get his reserves), and don't forget flank targets, since the enemy may try to reposition units into the sector (this is called "isolating the target").

In the movement to contact, less targets should be planned, and they should usually be distinct terrain features (road junctions, church steeples, bridges, hilltops) things t you can see from just about anywhere on the battlefield. This represents the fact that no one has seen the terrain before and are only going off map features for targets.

In summation, real battle tactics always considered artillery employment, no matter how few tubes were available; always pick at least one target, period, and preferably one target per battery to represent those men whose sole purpose is to bring "the great equalizer" into play.

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