Artillery
The artillery available to support the army fell into a variety of categories, including guns, howitzers, and mortars. Guns, so-called, fire projectiles at high velocity over relatively flat trajectories. Howitzers, in contrast, usually fire larger projectiles at lower velocity and higher trajectories in order to clear intervening obstacles. Mortars are basically infantry weapons firing “bombs” at angles greater than 45 degrees over short distances and are mainly smooth-bore weapons where guns and howitzers are usually rifled to impart a spin on projectiles in order to render them more aerodynamic, thus increasing range and accuracy. Most artillery pieces were mounted on carriages and towed between firing positions, but self-propelled guns mounted on tank chassis were also used.
Artillery operated according to two basic methods: direct and indirect fire. Direct fire was directed over open sights against a target clearly visible from the gun. This method was most common with tank and anti-tank guns, where fire had to be aimed to be effective, and could be hazardous as the gun (and its crew) was itself exposed to enemy fire. Indirect fire called for a forward observer, in communication with the guns by telephone or radio, to correct the fall of shot. This method took longer than direct fire to achieve accuracy but the guns could be better protected from counter-battery fire. It was used with heavy, medium and field guns.
Suggested Reading:
- Leslie W.C.S. Barnes, Canada’s Guns: An Illustrated History of Artillery (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1979).
- Shelford Bidwell and Dominick Graham, Fire-Power: British Army Weapons and Theories of War 1904-1945 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982).
- George G Blackburn, The Guns of Normandy: A Soldier’s Eye View, France 1944 (Toronto: McClelland, 1995).
- Ian V. Hogg, British and American Artillery of World War 2 (London: Arms and Armour, 1978).
Garth Webb landed on the beach at Bernières at 0925 on June 6. The 25-year old lieutenant was the gun position officer in C Troop of the 14th Field Artillery. If the landing had come off without loss to the unit, the war in all its cruel horror was lurking at the exil from Bernières. The young officer would be deeply affected by what he saw there.
Struck on a beach teeming with military traffic, the crews of the M7 Priests carrying extra loads of ammunition were all too well aware of their vulnerability. Each troop of vehicles was improvised as soon as any four M7s could work free of the bottleneck. It so happened that Lieutenant Webb found himself in charge of a troop consisting of a Priest from C Troop, another from D Troop, and two from A Troop.
In a field by the exit from Bernières he came upon a spot perfectly suited to the deployment of his guns. Unfortunately, the outskirts of the village were covered by an 88 mm gun, deeply dug-in and cunningly camoflauged on a low rise to the left. Unseen, the German gun opened fire on the M7s as they took up their positions.
The M7s codenamed Charlie 2 and Able 3 were hit. Their crews escaped, but then Sergeant Bob Sciberas’s Able 4 was completely blown to pieces. Wes Alkenbrack, who commanded the last M7, Dog 4, described the scene with these words: “There was no smoke to veil the disaster – one moment there was that vast sheet of flame and the next moment revealed the stark and utter desintegration of what had been 30 tons of moving steel, now strewn on the ground like scattered garbage – the gun barrel and bits and pieces of steel plate and the remnant of tracks and heavy castings blown here and there, and not the slightest evidence that six men had stood on the deck of that SP when sudden disaster came”
Dog 4 miraculously survived when it reversed course. A shell ricocheted off its tool box and blew a hole in the wall lining the field. The 88 was finally destroyed by a salvo from a Royal Navy ship firing from just offshore. Haunted by the fate that befell his comrades, Garth Webb would come back years later to have a plaque installed in their memory by the edge of the field.
Source: From Juno Beach to Dieppe, Olivier Richard/Paul Le Trevier, Comever – De Rameau, Juin 2014, 112 pages