I’m back reading various RASC and RA diaries of units serving in Sicily and Italy in 1943. Can anyone help with the following abbreviations where marked in bold. Any help would be appreciated. Once I've got these into my head it should be far easier to read the diaries as an unfolding narrative! 08.00 O.C left location with remainder of Pl to join 2 i/c at 55 F.M.C. 12.00 2 i/c receives orders from H.Q 55 F.M.C to proceed to Catania and lift 1600 rds 4.5 H.E shell complete, then to proceed to Falcone area & report to CRASC 78th Div 8 F.A.S Wet and cold. 14.00 O.C.visited CRASC re authorization to draw amm from 8 F.A.S. also re the possibilities of delivering amm to gun sites to help out the gunners over transport difficulties. 09.00 O.C. visited 317 Arty Coy re reserve rations and vehicle availability state. 16.00 2 i/c visited 78th Div O.F.P and A.D.O.S re new oil filters for change over to HD oils. Regiment will fire on D.F tasks and be available for C.B? 93bty continued H.F Harrasing fire? Court of enquiry re a Tp premature held. Regt engage in own and C.B.O’s C.B shoots Fd regt O.P via 5 AGRA fired G.F tgt with 94bty. 94 bty fired 22 rds and recorded tgt 2000hrs 94 bty fired two Stonks each of 9 r.p.g Regt fired “MURDER” scale 5 B.C 94 bty reports to 78 Div as L.O for A.G.R.A in the attack A gun in A.Tp fired what was reported to higher formation as a premature. The gun suffered bulging near the end of the piece. O.M.E of the A.G.R.A and the I.O.O of 30 Corps inspected the gun damaged yesterday and expressed the opinion that the shell distorted in the bore of the gun, possibly because of weak shell walls. C.Tp gun (having the vent axial trouble) Guns and tractors arranged “Mare and Foal” C.O. fired H.A.B registration with fuze 222. The gun which had been made safe, suffered a premature when the loaded shell exploded in the chamber. Pte L.Lee (A.C.C) 94 bty reported the full story of D.OP. Regt fired a Bombard on a C.B
FMC = FORWARD MAINTENANCE CENTRE OFP = ORDNANCE FIELD PARK HF = HARASSING FIRE TP = TROOP CBO = COUNTER BATTERY OFFICER CB = COUNTER BATTERY GF = GUN FIRE TGT = TARGET BC = BATTERY COMMANDER LO = LIAISON OFFICER OME = ORDNANCE MECHANICAL ENGINEER IOO = INSPECTING ORDNANCE OFFICER ACC = ARMY CATERING CORPS
OFP Ordnance Field Park Tp Troop GF tgt Gunfire target Stonk - a type of engagement Murder ditto (but local) BC battery commander LO liaison officer CO commanding officer ACC Army Catering Corps CB Counter Battery D.OP D troop observation post vent axial narrow hole through the breach block for some of the others and explanations see various pages at http://nigelef.tripod.com/directory
Stonk ? In Italy we always considered this related to a salvo of shots or continuous fire on one specific target (as opposed to a single shot) Must try and find one of my diary entries that uses this term. Knew I could find one ! Wednesday 18th. April 1945 Stonked near wood for solid hour. Corporal Todd wounded badly in head when airburst caught their Honey. Farmhouses burning, stuck in ditch. Ron
A reminder. There is a database of abbreviations and acronyms on the forum. Go to database/abbreviations and acronyms. Of course it becomes more useful if members add to it when possible. Mike.
Or you could buy the book. Seriously, gunner abbreviations can be a nightmare. Quite often a member of one branch of the regiment will not understand what a member of another branch is talking about. As a result, I wrote the book on the subject (and it's still growing!). Phil
Many thanks, and yes, I should have double checked a couple of these as I have used both the abbreviation's on this site and have a copy of op-ack's book, however, one of two don't appear in either and I didn't expect army catering corps to be referenced in an artillery diary although, sadly, it is referring to a death. Re reading Court of Enquiry re a Tp premature held must be a typo in the diary and should have been A Tp as in A Troop, I can see that now! Any thoughts still on 8 F.A.S, or H.A.B registration and quite what Mare and Foal is exactly?
HAB registration = High airburst registration. Bearing in mind that until the mid 1960s registration had a different meaning to the current one. High airbursts was a technique used to get an accurate mean point of burst using cross observation by surveyors, this was then used to deduce a correction to engage a target that could not be seen by ground observers, but had an accurately known location (eg from air photos). It was a technique introduced late in about late 1917, although the range tables at that time lacked an important data set for it to maximise accuracy. In WW2 it wasn't used until about mid war when a MT (mechanical time) fuze became available for field arty HE shells. I'd guess that mare & foal referred to the relative positioning of a gun and its towing vehicle.
FAS = Forward Ammunition Section Here's 8 FAS war diary ref for 1944. http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C962177 Reference: WO 170/2770 Description: Forward Ammunition Sections: 8 Sec. Date: 1944 Jan.- Sept.
Hutt, I did not intend my reminder about the database for you personally or as a criticism. I thought it a good place to remind everyone that it is there to be used for looking up abbreviations, and for members to make their own additions. Pleas keep asking questions on the main forum. The answers are always interesting and informative. Mike
Thank you for these additional replies particularly to Owen for explaining FAS and including the link. With that information I've found there is also a diary for 1943 which will hopefully cover the particular period in October - December 43 during the battles for the Sangro and Trigno river crossings. I'll aim to copy that when next at Kew at Christmas. To Mapshooter, I'll try and get my head round your explanation along with a more detail reading of the explanations for Stonks and Murders in Phil's book and Ron's valued contribution. Mike, no offense taken and (after checking properly next time) I'll keep posting the questions. In fact, can I fire one off now.... Were bagged charges affected by damp / humidity and would very heavy rain hinder the firing of guns that used them? If anyone is interested the entries that prompted this thread come from the 1503 Artillery Platoon RASC and the 70th Medium Regiment who operated 4.5" guns.
Both stonk and murder are defined at http://nigelef.tripod.com/glossary, which seems to predate Phil's book. There's a description of airburst ranging tucked away on the same site in the 1918 section on the Artillery Intelligence and Counter-Battery page http://nigelef.tripod.com/p_artyint-cb Guns could and can fire in any weather. Humidity was and is taken into account in the calculation of firing data, although in WW2 for impromptu targets it was usual to use map data corrected only for muzzle velocity by the calibrating sights used on Brit guns. Correct ammo storage and handling procedures on the gun position meant that propelling charges seldom got very wet unless the gun position was flooded (a very rare occurrence). Propelling charges were delivered to the gun position is sealed metal cans packed in steel boxes. This meant that even if opened propellant got wet dry carts were still available.
Charge temperature and "Met" - wind speed and direction at different altitudes were taken into account. I am not sure whether this was quite a s sophisticated as it became when computers were introduced. I don't think humidity was a factor that was considered when calculating firing data. I think that there might have been some fuses (Early proximity - VT) that were not safe to use in heavy rain, which might triggered the radar fuse.
Not when the Germans flooded Holland 1944/1945 it was'nt! Medium Regts were shooting in 3ft of water & building wooden platforms for dumping, fusing + storage , plus throwing the muddy water over the barrels for cooling on high scale firing rates. Rob
That site also has pages on Meteor and Ballistics. WW2 techniques were fairly simple for manual use. Humidity is reflected in Air Density. In the greater scheme of things a bit of flooding in Holland still only amounted to rare, there was also an instance in Italy. Gun positions can also get a bit damp in monsoon conditions.
Tell that to the Veteran's & supporting Regts of the 3rd Cdn Infantry Div. "The Water Rats" & the 52nd Lowland Div. & the people of Holland when the Germans blew all the Dykes.
Stonks and "Murder Targets" were standard concentrations that evolved as the gunners learned to handle the Divisionl artillery as a single 72 gun fire unit. Murder Targets - are included in op-ack's excellent book, and refer to a concentration of fire of the divisional artillery on a single point target, leaving the Zone of the guns to distribute fire. Post WW2 the same effect could be achieved by "Fire Mission Division grid 123456 alt 78" with or without "Time on Target 1200 hrs" Stonks were a linear application of fire, usually to a standard length of 525 yards ordered as single map reference and the bearing of the front of the concentration. This became a very popular way to distribute fire on a large target. It was also a quick way to plan a barrage. These were included in the 1950 WO publication The Development of Artillery Tactics and Equipment. Post war, in the era of Nuclear war no one planned barrages and [SIZE=13.63636302948px] Stonks fell out of favour. The same effect could be ordered using " Linear 500 direction xxxmils << where xxx is the bearing from from point one, i.e 90 degress /1600 mills from the direction of a stoink> [/SIZE][SIZE=13.63636302948px] [/SIZE] .
Actually Linears replaced Stonks, either in the early or mid 1950s series of AT pams. If you look at Fig 3 on http:/nigelef.tripod.com/fc_1939-45 you'll find a picture of a protractor with a Stonk template. This page also refers to the introduction of quick barrages. The introduction of ABCA procedures in 1966 also introduced some changes in Linear procedure and terminology, IIRC including the point of origin. IIRC the last appearance of barrage was a very short mention in AT Vol III 1962. 'Fire Mission Division' was another ABCA 1966 creation, before that it was still 'Uncle Target', then 'Uniform Target' with the introduction of the NATO phonetic alphabet, just as 'Fire Mission Regiment' was 'Mike Target', although in WW2 procedures it was repeated three times, eg "Yoke Target, Yoke Target, Yoke Target" for an AGRA target. These letters are where the UK target numbering came from. Can I suggest the you study the above referenced site?
