rab%ginger.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Robert A. Bruce) (08/30/90)
From: rab%ginger.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Robert A. Bruce) In article <1990Aug28.042652.28982@cbnews.att.com> n8443916@unicorn.wwu.edu (John Gossman) writes: > My father was among the Marines that landed on Saipan. He recalls >American BBs and Cruisers shelling the beaches for hours before the landing. >When the Marines hit the beach everything looked like it had gone through >a grinder. BUT... The dug in Japanese positions were relatively undamaged. >Basically its better than nothing, but pre-invasion bombardment is not >going to substitute for hard fighting at the beachhead. > In his book "Men Against Fire", S.L.A. Marshall describes the pre-invasion bombardment of Tarawa. After three days of continuous shelling by the entire fleet, the fleet commander said to the landing force commander "Now all you have to do is wade ashore and count the bodies." When the island was finally secured, they examined the Japanese corpses, and determined that only about 2% had been killed by the pre-invasion bombardment. The destructiveness of indirect fire support tends to be greatly overestimated. If you shell prepared enemy positions, without following up with an immediate ground assault, then you are wasting your ammunition.
budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) (09/13/90)
From: budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) Hanhwe, Terry is right -- the fire control systems on WWII vintage battleships was/is very good. Both for anti-ship and shore bombardment and both for low trajectory and plunging fire. Plunging is what you are describing as indirect or howitzer. The techniques for fire control are well developed; rest assured that the Marines can call fire quite well thank you when they need it and a BB is available. Look up some of the WWII battles for verification. The Pacific war, is of course, pretty well documented in Navy lit, but better examples may be found in the European theater. Look at the work that the US and UK BBs (plus a UK monitor) did at Salerno. And to a lesser degree in Sicily. Army credits indirect fire from shore bombardment as saving their bacon more than once -- bombardment turned back armored thrusts by the Germans. Navy got some undeserved bad publicity in Lebanon. Get past some less than well informed news and you'll find that the BBs did OK at what they are supposed to do. Main problem is that if you are trying to pick out a small target and minimize collateral damage, a BB 16" salvo is a tad much. Rex Buddenberg