The Fire Direction Center is the place in the field artillery battery that computes data for the artillery sections to set on their howitzers to make the artillery accurately hit the target. In my day (things are much different now) the fire direction officer was responsible for the data sent to the guns.
The fire direction center must account for all variables that effect the trajectory of the artillery shell and make the neccessary computations to correct the aim of the gun so that once all of these things have effected the flight of the shell it will land where the forward observer needs it to. Some of the factors which effect the flight of the shell are; powder temperature, the temperature of the gun tube, the amount of powder added, wear on the inside of the tube, air temperature, air density, wind speed and direction, spin which is put on the shell to make it not wobble in flight, and the rotation of the earth while the shell is in flight. You can see that this is serious business with no room for error.
When I was a fire direction officer most of this was calculated with charts, and firing tables, it was only after I came into the military that we began to use computers to calculate firing data. On top of this it had to be done quickly because the reason that it was needed was because someone was in a serious jam and needed help immediately.
This job was a true challenge and a true reward. The methods that I learned are long forgotten. Each time that I look at my Field Artillery Ring and my old ribbons and medals they bring back memories and war stories that I could tell.
Related posts:
