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Artillery sighting poles - how used

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JP - 30 Jul 2007 23:30 GMT
Does anyone know how the red and white striped poles depicted in both allied
and German artillery kits were used?

I'm sure I saw something about "back sighting", but what this is or how it
works I don't know.

Regards

JP
Pat Flannery - 31 Jul 2007 00:42 GMT
> Does anyone know how the red and white striped poles depicted in both allied
> and German artillery kits were used?
>
> I'm sure I saw something about "back sighting", but what this is or how it
> works I don't know.
>  

They are called "Aiming Posts".
Some use info here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/6-50/Appd.htm

Pat
AMPSOne@aol.com - 31 Jul 2007 01:29 GMT
> Does anyone know how the red and white striped poles depicted in both allied
> and German artillery kits were used?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> JP

Basically they are usually called "Aiming Stakes" and they are used
for indirect fire of the weapon. You place them a known bearing from
the gun (usually behind it) at a set distance and turn the sight head
around until you can see it. Then you align the sight on the stake,
normally in Mils (another way to measure the angular dimensions of a
circle -- 6000 in Soviet aiming circles, 6400 in NATO ones).

The idea is that when the gunner is given a mission of "deflection
right 00-28" he can then look at the stake through his sight and shift
the gun onto the target by using the stake as a reference point. If
the points are measured correctly, the gun will swing over on target.

Do it wrong (as one 155mm battery did at Fort Hood in the 1980s) and
the rounds will be off by whatever angle you messed up by -- in this
case it was about 180 degrees! (Rounds landed in a lake and killed a
bunch of fish...)

Cookie Sewell
Ralph Currell - 31 Jul 2007 15:39 GMT
>Basically they are usually called "Aiming Stakes" and they are used
>for indirect fire of the weapon. You place them a known bearing from
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>the gun onto the target by using the stake as a reference point. If
>the points are measured correctly, the gun will swing over on target.

Also known as aiming posts (at least in British and Commonwealth
usage).  One thing to note is that they are used in pairs, aligned
with the gun telescope and equally spaced (if the first post is 50
metres from the gun, the second must be 100 metres).  This allows
"displacement laying" to compensate for any movement of the gun with
respect to the posts.

I never realized the Soviets used a different value for mils than we
did.  :-)

Regards,
  Ralph
JP - 31 Jul 2007 21:10 GMT
Thanks guys.

Facsinating stuff.

50 or a 100 yards just aint gonna work in a diorama in 1/35th though.

Regards

JP

>>Basically they are usually called "Aiming Stakes" and they are used
>>for indirect fire of the weapon. You place them a known bearing from
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> Regards,
>   Ralph
Chris Hughes - 31 Jul 2007 22:19 GMT
Arty Surveyors also use stripey poles known as "stadia rods", the stripes
are calibrated and can be used to measure distance when looked at through
the graticuled lens of a theodolite or "director" (a theodolite with a built
in compass).

Once the guns have been set up for "line" using the director, a stadia rod
or aiming post can be substituted at the battery centre, in case the Gun
Position Officer's party needs to go off and set up an "alternate position".

I used to do all that stuff for a living about 30 years ago!

Chris

>>Basically they are usually called "Aiming Stakes" and they are used
>>for indirect fire of the weapon. You place them a known bearing from
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> Regards,
>   Ralph
AMPSOne@aol.com - 01 Aug 2007 01:28 GMT
> Arty Surveyors also use stripey poles known as "stadia rods", the stripes
> are calibrated and can be used to measure distance when looked at through
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Chris

Hi Chris,

The US Army tends to call "stadia rods" aiming stakes as they use them
for that. Also a term of less than endearment used for relatively
dense objects like second lieutenants with the hope they will go
FORWARD of the guns and perform the same basic function...

Cookie Sewell
 
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