Royal Artillery Forward Observers

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by Poldarias, Sep 7, 2018.

  1. Poldarias

    Poldarias Member

    Hello All,
    I'm relatively new to the complexities of indirect fire, and whilst reading about it naturally came across Forward Observers, which I would like to learn more about.

    The main things I'm looking for is the specific job of the FOO in 1944 and 1945. What radio would they have had, how many other guys would be with the FOO and what weapons would the others have had? I have heard that in the 1950s, you didn't have to be a Commissioned officer to be a FOO. Is this the same for WW2? and where would the guys have come from - the gun crews?

    In addition, what kind of orders would he send and to who? Directly to the command post with the guns or someone else? Would the order have a grid reference and what else would he say? Also how would he issue corrections? I presume something like 'up 100' for adding 100 yards, and 'left 100' for 100 yards left. If this method was used how would the guns calculate how far to turn left?

    I looked on these forums and saw someone called George Blackburn who wrote some books about artillery, which one would you recommend for information about FOOs?

    I do apologies for the amount of questions here - It's just something I really want to know about.

    Thanks for the help in advance.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2022
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  2. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

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  3. idler

    idler GeneralList

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  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

  5. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Try George Blackburn's "The Guns of Normandy", plenty of good accounts of FOO's in action.

    Do you know which theatre the 69th Field Regiment served in - Blackburn's books cover training in the UK and the campaign in NW Europe, but if you're looking for other theatres there are other more pertinent RA books out there. Also try the Observation Post blog at:

    http://www.theobservationpost.com/blog/?page_id=15

    Regards

    Tom
     
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  6. Poldarias

    Poldarias Member

    Thanks for the Info so far chaps.
    Is that 29th division website about american Observers? And if so would it be similar to that of British FOOs?

    69th Field were with 49th Infantry division, in Iceland and then back to UK before going to Northwest Europe on 13th June 1944. I'll have a look at The Guns of Normandy, Thanks!
     
  7. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

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  8. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....


    Can I direct you to some background reading?

    You can find the answers to your questions in George Blackburn's "The Guns of War: A Soldiers Eye view; France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, 1944-45" It tells of the daily life of the FOO as well as the CPO.

    If you are going to walk the talk, you need to know a bit of Gunner mumbo jumbo...

    Nigel Evans' excellent website will give you an insight into British technical gunnery Site Directory

    Philip Jobson's book will help you to explain to the public what is the difference between a Lance Sergeant and a Bombardier... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LD7LFMA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2018
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  9. Poldarias

    Poldarias Member

    Thanks - Just ordered the book from amazon.
     
  10. op-ack

    op-ack Senior Member

    Any questions qbout terminology, you can always message me, my working document is some 750 A4 pages long.

    Cheers

    Philip
     
  11. op-ack

    op-ack Senior Member

    Thanks for the plug Sheldrake
     
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