[2002] SID’S WAR

0052 - Sidney Lane War Diary 30

[this is an extract of the war diary, 'An Ordinary War', by my uncle (Sid Lane, my mother's brother) which covers use of the Ack-Ack as Artillery] 

15/1/45 

An hour ago Len Carr left at a moment's notice. I knew he had applied for experience on X-Ray equipment but I didn't think anything of it. Nearly three years together. One of the very fine types you occasionally meet in the army. Yesterday we gave him a party. We knew he would have to go. We went to a low dive in Leghorn and starting at 3 p.m. we finished at 9.30 p.m. It was good fun and some party. I shall remember it as long as I live and so I think will all those present. Goo old Len. We'll miss you very much and remember you always. 

We then crossed Italy and rejoined the 8th. Army. It was a hell of a move, taking four days in terrible weather. I myself was snowed up for 24 hrs. with my wagon in the Fabriano Pass north of Foligno. We started as a column but arrived in dribs and drabs, and it was two weeks before the last wagon arrived at the new site in, or I should say outside, Cesena. 

25/2/45 

Old Wilf is away on a month's course (A.E.C.). Dennis is on leave in Florence and Charlie has gone to a dance, so here I am sat before what was our fire and writing this.  

Fuel became very scarce and two days I pulled it down and made a diesel burning stove. It blew up three times and had to be modified, but it's going well now, and apart from being smelly and temperamental - it depends which way the wind is blowing - it serves its purpose. The tent is sagging with the weight of snow, but we still listen to Itma. 

5/3/45 

Have I ever told you about the dogs. We have enough dogs to supply a hunt. There are seven that have just grown out of puppyhood and the antics of that little pack keep one in tucks. The G.L. mascot is a dignified old codger of 12 months - a great mastif who could knock the pups down with one paw. "Dusty" is his name and he's the most even tempered of the lot. You could break his back and he would still think you were playing. 

My diesel fire was a failure, it blew up violently one night in Charlie's face - and the things he said - Well it had to go you know. So I got cracking again and this time  success seems to have crowned my efforts and we now have "The Lane Utility MkV", guaranteed smokeless and burns anything. Mind you we still keep a fire extinguisher hand - just in case. 

21/3/45 

Written at San Marino when on day leave. 

Preparations for resuming a field artillery role have been in full swing for some time.

Four days ago I was told that I would be used as a C.P.O. ack. and I had a lot to catch up. It may be worthwhile saying a little about the difficulties of using a 3.7 A.A. gun as a field piece and how we surmounted them. 

The main obstacle is the terrific muzzle velocity which gives the shell a very flat trajectory and renders crest clearance very important, and siting a problem of some magnitude. [In simple terms, with guns designed for anti-aircraft use, it was impossible to lob shells over high hills (as is done with many field guns), so the line of fire to the target had to be very carefully chosen; hence the need for suitable sites where there were no high hills close to the target and in the way of the shells]. It also causes the gun to wear about 40 times as fast as a field piece, which means that each shell will wear the gun so that the next one drops 3 yds. short in range. 

The majority of targets engaged are given to us as a map reference by the spotting plane or observation post. From a map reference it is possible to obtain, using Log and Sine tables, Range, Bearing and Q.E. But other corrections must be made such as meteorological corrections for ballistic height in the form of air temperature and barometer pressure - Charge and Fuse temperature - Wind speed on bearing of the target - Droop due to gun - Drift due to rifling of barrel and finally the wear and tear of each individual gun. 

These corrections are dealt with in the following manner. We select 3 Bgs [bearings]. spaced at 30 degrees apart in the arc of fire. We make graph of each Bg. (on same chart) plotting combined ballistic and M.V. correction for, four, different times of flight of shell [giving different ranges]. We do the same for wind speed and again for fuse. 

Now consider - we receive a target in the form of a map reference. This is plotted on the artillery boards and true Range and Bearing found (This is checked by Log and Sine tables or by slide rule, if anyone can use it). These true Rg. and Bg. are applied to the various graphs. The resulting correction is applied to Bg. Using the Ballistic graph a correction is applied to Range. This corrected Range is then applied to the fuse graph and to range tables to get the correct fuse and Q.E. In addition, the difference in height above sea level of target and gun position gives us angle of sight which must be added to or subtracted from Q.E. 

This work is carried out by the four C.P.O. Acks on duty and on a known target of which we know the true Bg. and Rg. we can get the guns firing in 90 secs. In the case of an unknown target which has to be plotted we take 2 mins. or just over. The main part of the job is preparing the graphs, which is every time we get a new meteorological report - every two or three hours. 

Well that's the job I have got. If it comes off I shall make a point of recording any really interesting shoots and if we do any O.P. work (visual shoots conducted from an O.P.[Observation Post]). I shall wrangle a job there, it should be good to see the actual results.

[back] [home]

hits