Artillery In Korea: Massing Fires And Reinventing The Wheel [Illustrated Edition]

Nonfiction, History, Asian, Korean War, Military, India
Cover of the book Artillery In Korea: Massing Fires And Reinventing The Wheel [Illustrated Edition] by D. M. Giangreco, Normanby Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: D. M. Giangreco ISBN: 9781782899631
Publisher: Normanby Press Publication: November 6, 2015
Imprint: Normanby Press Language: English
Author: D. M. Giangreco
ISBN: 9781782899631
Publisher: Normanby Press
Publication: November 6, 2015
Imprint: Normanby Press
Language: English

[Includes 10 photos illustrations]

The first 9 months of the Korean War saw U.S. Army field artillery units destroy or abandon their own guns on nearly a dozen occasions. North Korean and Chinese forces infiltrated thinly held American lines to ambush units on the move or assault battery positions from the flanks or rear with, all too often, the same disastrous results. Trained to fight a linear war in Europe against conventional Soviet forces, field artillery units were unprepared for combat in Korea, which called for all-around defense of mutually supporting battery positions, and high-angle fire. Ironically, these same lessons had been learned the hard way during recent fighting against the Japanese in a 1944 action on Saipan, not Korea, aptly demonstrates. Pacific theater artillery tactics were discarded as an aberration after War World II, but Red Legs soon found that they “frequently [have] to fight as doughboys” and “must be able to handle the situation themselves if their gun positions are attacked.” A second problem with artillery in Korea was felt most keenly by the soldiers that the artillery was supposed to support — the infantry. Commanders at all levels had come to expect that in any future war, they would conduct operations with fire that equaled or even surpassed the lavish support they had recently enjoyed in northwest Europe. It was clear almost from the beginning, however, that this was not going to happen in Korea because there was a shortage not only of artillery units but also of the basic hardware of the cannoneers craft: guns and munitions. Until the front settled down into a war of attrition in the fall of 1951 (which facilitated the surveying of reference points and positioning of “an elaborate grid of batteries, fire direction centers, [and] fire support coordination centers”), massed fires were achieved by shooting at unprecedented speed.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

[Includes 10 photos illustrations]

The first 9 months of the Korean War saw U.S. Army field artillery units destroy or abandon their own guns on nearly a dozen occasions. North Korean and Chinese forces infiltrated thinly held American lines to ambush units on the move or assault battery positions from the flanks or rear with, all too often, the same disastrous results. Trained to fight a linear war in Europe against conventional Soviet forces, field artillery units were unprepared for combat in Korea, which called for all-around defense of mutually supporting battery positions, and high-angle fire. Ironically, these same lessons had been learned the hard way during recent fighting against the Japanese in a 1944 action on Saipan, not Korea, aptly demonstrates. Pacific theater artillery tactics were discarded as an aberration after War World II, but Red Legs soon found that they “frequently [have] to fight as doughboys” and “must be able to handle the situation themselves if their gun positions are attacked.” A second problem with artillery in Korea was felt most keenly by the soldiers that the artillery was supposed to support — the infantry. Commanders at all levels had come to expect that in any future war, they would conduct operations with fire that equaled or even surpassed the lavish support they had recently enjoyed in northwest Europe. It was clear almost from the beginning, however, that this was not going to happen in Korea because there was a shortage not only of artillery units but also of the basic hardware of the cannoneers craft: guns and munitions. Until the front settled down into a war of attrition in the fall of 1951 (which facilitated the surveying of reference points and positioning of “an elaborate grid of batteries, fire direction centers, [and] fire support coordination centers”), massed fires were achieved by shooting at unprecedented speed.

More books from Normanby Press

Cover of the book Gen Otto P. Weyland USAF: Close Air Support In The Korean War by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book The Invasion of the Crimea: Vol. III [Sixth Edition] by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Air Base Defense In The Republic Of Vietnam 1961-1973 [Illustrated Edition] by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Territorial Forces by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book The Twilight of Imperial Russia by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Eight Months’ Campaign Against The Bengal Sepoy Army During The Mutiny Of 1857 [Illustrated Edition] by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Frederic Remington’s Own West by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Vietnam Studies - Allied Participation In Vietnam [Illustrated Edition] by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story Of Auschwitz [Illustrated Edition] by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Reflections On The Vietnam War by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book The Crimean Expedition, to the Capture Of Sebastopol Vol. II by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book How I Won My Victoria Cross [Illustrated Edition] by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Final Judgment; The Story Of Nuremberg by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book Warriors Of The Rainbow: Strange And Prophetic Indian Dreams by D. M. Giangreco
Cover of the book The Story Of A Soldier’s Life Vol. I by D. M. Giangreco
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy