Artillery Support

Overview

US forces often operate within range of friendly artillery units, giving Marines on the ground access to heavy support fire. Compared to the rifle platoon's own weapons artillery is very good at destroying large enemy formations but is slow to get into action and relatively inaccurate.

When to use artillery

Target choice is important for artillery. It's good against targets which are:

• Stationary - artillery will probably take several minutes to put onto the target. Use it against targets which will still be there several minutes later.
• Soft - artillery isn't good against tanks or bunkers. It's good against lighter vehicles or infantry in the open.
• Large - artillery is great at plastering an area. Wasted effort against an infantry squad, but great against a massed company.

Scatter says: my favourite target for artillery is air defence sites. They're fixed, soft and cover an area. And once they're gone you can call in air on more difficult targets.

The main downside of artillery is it will take several minutes to put rounds on targets, which means the squad will have to hold position for five or ten minutes. If they're already in a defensive position that's no problem but if you're manoeuvring then you will need to co-ordinate closely with leadership to make sure this is a good time to be stopping.

How to use artillery

You will need:

• A long range radio, probably an AN/PRC-77. Vehicles often have these, otherwise only radio operators and Air Force types are likely to be lugging one. (It's a whole backpack.)
• The frequency and callsign. The answer is frequently WARTHOG on 30.00MHz, but that's not always going to be the case
• to be a priority for the Fire Direction Centre. If they're busy supporting someone more important than you right now, then you're probably out of luck.

Make it someone ele's problem

You may have an RO or Air Force FAC embedded in the squad. They ought to know what they're doing here, so your job is limited to yelling "Hey Morse, there's a million baddies on the hillside to the southwest, make them go away!"

Oh Shit Mode (Immediate Suppression)

You don't have an RO or FAC, but you do somehow have access to a radio. Maybe on an unconscious RO or FAC who's remembered to share their handset. (Look at them from close up, scroll menu and if there's an option, use their handset.) Work out where the baddies are, and utter the magic words:

• "WARTHOG, WARTHOG, this is ENDGAME RED. IMMEDIATE SUPPRESSION, One Two Three, Four Five Six, OVER", where the numbers are the six figure grid of the enemies.

If all is well, they will reply "ENGDAGE RED, WARTHOG, IMMEDITE SUPPRESSION, OUT" and then a minute or two later the area around your chosen position will start to explode.

You need to remember that Immediate Suppression missions are RISKY, which is why we use them as a last resort. Someone has to do a lot of Combat Maths between your radio call and the shells landing, and they sometimes don't land where you expect. Sometimes by as much as half a kilometer which is a very long way in Chelt's short-sightlines terrain.

Grownup Mode (Adjust Fire)

Okay, you've got a suitable target that needs blowing up, it's not going anywhere for the next five minutes and for some reason you don't have a grownup who speaks Air Force on hand. You're going to do an ADJUST FIRE mission like you're a real FOO. This is a mission that has two parts:

• ADJUST FIRE - firing one round at a time then calling in corrections until it's near (within about 100m of) the target. You're dialing the battery in until they know the right settings to get the shells exploding where you want them to.
• FIRE FOR EFFECT - fire a barrage of shells to kill people and break stuff.

Part 1: Adjust Fire

Again you'll need a big radio, and the conversation goes like this. First, get the artillery's attention:

• WARTHOG, WARTHOG, ENDGAME RED. ADJUST FIRE, OVER.
• Expect reply: "ADJUST FIRE, OUT"

Now you need to tell them where the target is, and roughly what it is:

• "GRID, One Two Three, Four Five Six, OVER"
• Expect reply: "GRID One Two Three, Four Five Six, OUT"
• "Target is a FUCKLOAD OF CHELT BASTARDS, in the open, OVER"
• Expect reply: "Target is a large concentration of enemy infantry in the open, OUT."

At this point, the Fire Direction Centre have broken out their slide rules to do Exciting Combat Maths, and a minute or so later they'll let you know they've fired the first spotting round:

• Expect "SHOT, OVER"
• You acknowledge with "SHOT, OUT"

Maybe a minute later, they'll warn you when the first round is about to land, with

• Expect: "SPLASH, OVER"
• You acknowledge with "SPLASH, OUT"

Observe where the bang or large cloud of smoke happens and work out how far you want to move it to put it onto the target. Work in hundreds of metres - if you're less than a hundred metres off, congratulations that's good enough. Work out how far to shift north/south, and how far east west and call in the correction.

• WARTHOG, ENDGAME RED, South two hundred, west one hundred, OVER"
• Expect a reply "South two hundred, west one hundred, SHOT, OVER"
• Once they've shot, you ack: "SHOT, OUT"

Part 2: Fire For Effect

Keep on adjusting until the shots are landing within 100m of the target, then you get to broadcast the magic words:

• "WARTHOG, ENDGAME RED, FIRE FOR EFFECT, OVER"
• Expect: "FIRE FORE EFFECT, OUT"

They will then switch to firing lots of boom onto the last location hit. Once that lands, you can call:

• "REPEAT, OVER" to request the same again
• "North one hundred, REPEAT, OVER" to ask for the same again but shifted 100m north
• "END OF MISSION, OVER" to say the job is done. Maybe add a thankyou.