Bracketing The Enemy: Forward Observers In World War Ii

The hallmark of the twentieth-century battlefield was the increasingly effective practice of "combined arms" warfare, the combining of various "combat arms" (infantry, cavalry, armor, artillery) to accomplish the mission. In the vanguard of this development was the use of artillery to support the mission of infantry on the battlefield. Although artillery bombardment was responsible for most deaths on the battlefield, armies rarely paired infantry and artillery in the assault. Between the two world wars the U.S. Army concluded that field artillery had an important role to play in its evolving combined arms doctrine. The new doctrine emphasized mobile, mechanized warfare and the crucial importance of artillery firepower in support of infantry. The most satisfactory arrangement for providing close artillery support was to locate artillery observers in the air over the battlefield and on the ground to accompany maneuvering infantry. The pairing of American infantry and artillery reached fruition in the European and Pacific Theaters of the Second World War. What is missing from the historical literature on combined arms, however, is the study of how that togetherness evolved. The establishment of forward observer teams at the battle's front line provided the vital link between infantrymen and the artillery batteries supporting them.

• | Author: John R. Walker
• | Publisher: University Of Oklahoma Press
• | Publication Date: Jun 12, 2015
• | Number of Pages: 300 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0806148438
• | ISBN-13: 9780806148434