• If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership  The benefits pay for the membership many times over.

Troops Hit Taliban Position with M777

Go with M198's instead. Much heavier, but substantially less gun displacement with each shot. You'd probably be able to get them on the cheap now, too.
 
I met a WWII German Paratrooper named Gunther Brehde. He was a Platoon Leader on the jump into Crete, and fought in Africa, Russia and Europe. When they created the Bundeswehr, he was named to head the Fallschirmjager [Paratrooper] school.

Asked him what it was like to fight against Americans and he said "Your artillery was unbelievable. Your troops would advance within 100 meters of fire, when everyone else was 400-600 meters back." And other German officers commented on the TOT or Time on Target barrages, where their units, assembling for counter-attack, would be decimated without warning. That video does not deliver the visceral impact of 155 rounds hitting a target. I did not know that the M777 system was built with a lot of Titanium and is 2-3 tons lighter than the M198.

As General Patton said, "We all know who won the war. The artillery won the war."
 
Last edited:
garandman said:
I met a WWII German Paratrooper named Gunther Brehde. He was a Platoon Leader on the jump into Crete, and fought in Africa, Russia and Europe. When they created the Bundeswehr, he was named to head the Fallschirmjager [Paratrooper] school.

Asked him what it was like to fight against Americans and he said "Your artillery was unbelievable. Your troops would advance within 100 meters of fire, when everyone else was 400-600 meters back." And other German officers commented on the TOT or Time on Target barrages, where their units, assembling for counter-attack, would be decimated without warning. That video does not deliver the visceral impact of 155 rounds hitting a target. I did not know that the M777 system was built with a lot of Titanium and is 2-3 tons lighter than the M198.

As General Patton said, "We all know who won the war. The artillery won the war."
Click to expand...

They also use to say that the most dangerous soldier in the field was an American 2nd Lt. with a radio. Let's hear it for the Red Legs!
 
artillery - king of battle

ETA - airbursts always scared the shit out of me...
 
Last edited:
Artillery wouldn't be for me, but I definetly give them the benefit that when those guys put boots to asses, they leave nasty bruises.
Never been on the receiving end of heavy artillery, but I can imagine how bad it sucks. We had a heavy mortar platoon (SML) in my regiment. They would take the things apart and move them via helicopter. It wouldn't have been for me.
 
xcom said:
They also use to say that the most dangerous soldier in the field was an American 2nd Lt. with a radio. Let's hear it for the Red Legs!
Click to expand...
Who is"they?" Spec 4's?

Inability to call in artillery support is one of those Darwinian scenarios. To this day I still say "Say again" instead of "Repeat."
 
I was artillery for my entire active duty term; OSUT in Ft. Sill, OK A Btry 1/40th FA "Madd Dawgs" platoon, 2 years Alpha Btry 1/15th Field Artillery, Tong Du Chong, South Korea, remaining few months C Btry 3/321st FA Ft. Bragg, NC... nothing quite like the sound of a Paladin revving up, followed closely by the sound of 99 pounds of high explosives and steel heading downrange to make someones day a whole hell of a lot suckier.

Some fun stuff to know:

Steel Rain: Start firing at high elevation and fire as fast as you can, dropping elevation with each successive shot- if done right, the rounds all land at roughly the same time and it looks like you have a whole lot more guns than they think you do.
Shake and bake: 6 guns in a battery, 3 fire HE rounds set to airburst or point detonation, 3 fire WP(White Phosphorus) with point detonation. The HE gets their heads down, the WP keeps it there.
Land mine: If you have a bad round and you have to bug out, you can set the fuse to point detonation and bury the round with the tip just barely visible(easy to manipulate the fuse without worry about it going off on you), then bug out. Next vehicle to find it is going to have an exceedingly bad day.

I also learned that it is fully possible to MISS the impact area entirely with a copperhead round(laser guided artillery) if your fire team is incompetent. There's a reason Bravo was our salute battery; we gave them pop guns to play with while we went off to play with the real guns lol.
 
garandman said:
I met a WWII German Paratrooper named Gunther Brehde. He was a Platoon Leader on the jump into Crete, and fought in Africa, Russia and Europe. When they created the Bundeswehr, he was named to head the Fallschirmjager [Paratrooper] school.

Asked him what it was like to fight against Americans and he said "Your artillery was unbelievable. Your troops would advance within 100 meters of fire, when everyone else was 400-600 meters back." And other German officers commented on the TOT or Time on Target barrages, where their units, assembling for counter-attack, would be decimated without warning. That video does not deliver the visceral impact of 155 rounds hitting a target. I did not know that the M777 system was built with a lot of Titanium and is 2-3 tons lighter than the M198.

As General Patton said, "We all know who won the war. The artillery won the war."
Click to expand...

Too true.

In his book Citizen Soldiers, Stephen Ambrose mentions that there was a feeling among the Germans who were defending the Siegfried Line that the Americans weren't "playing fair" because they'd send out skirmishers to contact the enemy, then withdraw and let the artillery blast hell out of them.

Personal note: my dad served in the 46th Field Artillery Battalion during WWII. He said the infantrymen used to cheer their trucks when they saw them hauling field pieces from one location to another. [grin]
 
Wasn't the TOT barrage invented by US Arty in WWII? Devastating.

garandman said:
I met a WWII German Paratrooper named Gunther Brehde. He was a Platoon Leader on the jump into Crete, and fought in Africa, Russia and Europe. When they created the Bundeswehr, he was named to head the Fallschirmjager [Paratrooper] school.

Asked him what it was like to fight against Americans and he said "Your artillery was unbelievable. Your troops would advance within 100 meters of fire, when everyone else was 400-600 meters back." And other German officers commented on the TOT or Time on Target barrages, where their units, assembling for counter-attack, would be decimated without warning. That video does not deliver the visceral impact of 155 rounds hitting a target. I did not know that the M777 system was built with a lot of Titanium and is 2-3 tons lighter than the M198.

As General Patton said, "We all know who won the war. The artillery won the war."
Click to expand...



Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
Great book. Ambrose was a great historian and a great writer. I have a number of his books and have enjoyed them all. Band of Brothers was the one that got made into a movie, but D-Day could have as well.

Rob893 said:
Too true.

In his book Citizen Soldiers, Stephen Ambrose mentions that there was a feeling among the Germans who were defending the Siegfried Line that the Americans weren't "playing fair" because they'd send out skirmishers to contact the enemy, then withdraw and let the artillery blast hell out of them.

Personal note: my dad served in the 46th Field Artillery Battalion during WWII. He said the infantrymen used to cheer their trucks when they saw them hauling field pieces from one location to another. [grin]
Click to expand...
 
Just a note... I love this pic.
M777_Afghan_2007.jpg
 
Way to get an old Redleg's blood rushing!

I always liked being behind the gun and watching those big ol' boolits go down range, but most of my time was as a FIST leader.

Right after I finished inprocessing with 1/11 ACR in Fulda, we went to Vilseck and drew the first five M981 FISTVs in Europe. Since I was fresh out of FAOBC, I was dubbed the subject matter expert and wound up teaching all four teams and the squadron FSO.

Trivia: what's the elevation at which low angle fire becomes high angle fire?
 

Similar threads

  • Locked
Police investigating 'wayward bullets' that hit Belchertown homes
Replies
6
Views
225
drgrant
drgrant
NYC brothers had ‘human sacrifice’ hit list for cops, judges with stockpile of bombs, guns: DA
Replies
21
Views
579
Dennis in MA
Dennis in MA
Glasses with Optics
Replies
5
Views
172
DeputyDawg
D
Incels with guns
2
Replies
36
Views
1K
chris_1001
chris_1001
Memphis Officer Joseph McKinney was killed this morning in a shootout with a man who had been released without bail ... after being caught with a MG
Replies
19
Views
447
MaverickNH
MaverickNH
Back
Top Bottom