155 mm Howitzer with crew. Lt. Col. F.J.Chesarek commanding officer.

[Ches-Gen-4]

Hey Guys,

I have been working on a small diorama which will bring to life a typical scene during WW II in the ETO of an artillery piece

preparing to fire off another round against the enemy. The scene will include the 155mm M1A1 Howitzer, the gun crew, a

jeep and driver and a figure representing the Commanding Officer (Lt Colonel F. J. Chesarek) checking on the activity.

 

The project is still in the early stages but I thought I would give you all a little preview of where I am at with it so far. I have the howitzer

assembled and in black primer. The crew is still being assembled and cut and reshaped into more realistic poses. The Jeep is

mostly finished and Col. Chesarek is about completed except for paint. After I have enough crew members, I will place the ammo,

powder, tools and whatever else I need to complete the scene.

 

[Jeeper704]

Looks promising, keep us updated on the progress.

The CO looks like the Tamiya Patton figure, is that correct?

 

Erwin

[Ches-Gen-4]

You are correct. I used a Verlinden shoulder holster and reshaped his left arm to rest on his hip instead of the Colt .45. Thanks for the complements. This is my first military modeling attempt so am keeping my fingers crossed. Bob

[mpguy80/08]

That's the Bronco M114 Howitzer, isn't it? I have the old Italeri M1 155mm howitzer on my shelf. FYI you might want to try and scratch build a loading tray... the 155mm round ranged from 90 to 100 pounds and usually required a two man lift as an added safety measure. While the round could be hefted by a single man, it wasn't done often. In some of the photos I've seen with the crew loading without the tray, two men handled the projectile to the breech and it was rammed up into the breech using the ramming rod.

 

Seen here, mounted on the right side of the splinter shield: http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/Building%20155mm%20Gun/155TechManual/trayonshield.jpg

 

Here it is in use: http://www.usarmymodels.com/ARTICLES/Building%20155mm%20Gun/155TechManual/trayinuse.jpg

 

The item marked with the "X" is the loading tray: http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii30/MAVERICK155/parts1552.jpg

 

Here is a shot of the alternate mounting of the tray between the limber legs, top facing down and front of the tray towards the rear: http://data.primeportal.net/artillery/de_craecker/m114a1-m1/M114A1-M1%20155mm%20How%20(04).JPG

 

Some loading trays had a circular bracket on the rear that the rammer pole would attach through.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Wayne

[fstop61]

Off to a great start-keep us posted on the progress.

[Ches-Gen-4]

 

Hope this helps!

 

Wayne

 

Thank you Wayne for all the links, photos and information. Seems like you know your artillery operation well. You are correct that this is the Bronco 155 mm M1A1 Howitzer,

a very detailed (lots of miniscule parts) model and yes it does come with a loading tray.

When I was doing my research on the net for photos and details of artillery operation I saw photos of round loading both ways, with the tray and two men and photos of one man

loadings, and I agree that two men loading would be much more efficient and safer......BUT.....I just like the look of one man muscling the 95 pound shell into the breech. I guess

I am more inclined to use a little modelers license when building a scene than trying to go for pure accuracy. I have a long way to go yet and maybe if I get the figures painted

and it doesn't look right, I'll build a guy to help him. Thanks again, Bob

[Ches-Gen-4]

Off to a great start-keep us posted on the progress.

Thanks for the complements and will do on the updates. Bob

[Cannoncocker155mm]

Love the diorama, its going to look great when its done, if you need any close up photos of anything let me know as I have the real Howitzer and equipment.

 

Keep up the good work

[Ches-Gen-4]

Love the diorama, its going to look great when its done, if you need any close up photos of anything let me know as I have the real Howitzer and equipment.

 

Keep up the good work

Wow....so you are the one who owns the mint condition gun that I see photos all over the net and have since added to my photo collection. How cool is that! Thanks for your offer Stuart. I'm sure that I will need some help with placement / set up or anything else that comes to mind.

What are the poles that are attached to the sides of the trails called or what are they used for? Some are white and some are red & white striped. Please forgive my ignorance if it is obvious to a lot of you. I am a greenhorn when it comes to all of this. Bob

[Cannoncocker155mm]

Hi Bob,

That's my Howitzer

 

The Red and White poles are Range poles or aiming poles, they are placed out in front of the Gun and mark important co-ordants such as other firebases or enemy positions

 

The white poles stored on the inside of the trails are cleaning staffs / poles painted white so they can be seen during night time firing

 

The two poles on the top of the trails are used for lifting the Howitzer off the tow vehicle and are also used for spliting the trails, they locate in holes in the end of the trails.

 

Keep the questions comming, I'll try to help where I can.

 

Thanks

Stuart

[mpguy80/08]

 

Thank you Wayne for all the links, photos and information. Seems like you know your artillery operation well. You are correct that this is the Bronco 155 mm M1A1 Howitzer,

a very detailed (lots of miniscule parts) model and yes it does come with a loading tray.

When I was doing my research on the net for photos and details of artillery operation I saw photos of round loading both ways, with the tray and two men and photos of one man

loadings, and I agree that two men loading would be much more efficient and safer......BUT.....I just like the look of one man muscling the 95 pound shell into the breech. I guess

I am more inclined to use a little modelers license when building a scene than trying to go for pure accuracy. I have a long way to go yet and maybe if I get the figures painted

and it doesn't look right, I'll build a guy to help him. Thanks again, Bob

What figures did you use? From the looks of it the figures would support a Spring/summer offensive (t-shirts and rolled up sleeves) and also appear to be M1937 wools with leggings. This would support a summer/fall 44 or late spring 45 campaign. I know about the Bronco 'fiddly bits'... I have several of their models and they all have massive amounts of tiny, 'in scale' pieces that most other model makers would just mold into a bigger piece as a lump. I have the Bronco M1114 and just picked up the Jeep and 37mm gun... the detail on those kits are amazing. AFV Club is getting there, as is Dragon. I just finished the Dragon M2A1 105mm howitzer and its quite a handful with small parts, but the AFV Club M5 3 inch gun is amazing. The level of detail is insane... to include hollow brackets and pins to hold the legs open in firing position and a double recoil spring done in plastic that is actually two helical springs that thread one inside the other. I'm looking forward to digging into the Bronco Jeep, that's for sure... the level of detail on it is unbelievable.

 

Bronco is showing a crew set, and I think AFV Club has two US Artillerymen sets... but they are hard to find. Dragon released their 101st Airborne Bastogne set with additional arms to crew their 105mm M2A1... two with Melton Overcoats, one with a Mackinaw coat and one with an M1943 Jacket. The spare arms are made to hold the 105mm Howitzer rounds. This particular set would be good for a fall/winter 44-45 scenario. Tamiya has some good figures in winter coats too that came with the remake of their M4A3 and M4A3 (105mm) tanks. A howitzer the size of the M1A1 would have a crew of 11 men, including the Gun Captain, Gun Layer and ammo handlers (note: The M1A1 Long Tom 155mm howitzer had a crew of 14). Prime movers for this piece would have been the 10 ton Diamond Rio truck, the M4 or M5 High Speed Tractors, The M33 Prime Mover (converted Lee chassis) and the M35 prime mover (converted M10/M36 Chassis). The M1/M1A1 155mm howitzer weighed in at 12,500lbs... so a CCKW would not have been able to pull it. Hope this helps...

 

Wayne

[mpguy80/08]

Hi Bob,

That's my Howitzer

 

The Red and White poles are Range poles or aiming poles, they are placed out in front of the Gun and mark important co-ordants such as other firebases or enemy positions

 

The white poles stored on the inside of the trails are cleaning staffs / poles painted white so they can be seen during night time firing

 

The two poles on the top of the trails are used for lifting the Howitzer off the tow vehicle and are also used for spliting the trails, they locate in holes in the end of the trails.

 

Keep the questions comming, I'll try to help where I can.

 

Thanks

Stuart

The red and white poles are aiming stakes. The gun target line is called the 0-3200 line. The sight is set to 3200 mils initially when the gun is first set into position and is rough laid on a compass bearing, then is laid in with an aiming circle or theodolite. Once the guns are all laid in on the aiming instrument, the section sergeant calls out "Refer 2800, lay out aiming stakes!" At this point, the gunner sets 2800 mils on the sight and the runner heads out to place the aiming stakes... Short pole (one section) is placed nearer to the gun with a two section long pole farther out. The far pole is set in first and the runner is guided by hand signals to move the pole left or right and to correct the tilt of the pole so that the pole is set on the vertical cross hair of the sight. Once the pole is set correctly, the procedure is repeated for the near pole. Any deviation of the sight left or right of 2800 mils results in "Hey Diddle Diddle, Far pole in the middle" as the vertical cross hair will be on one side of the long pole and the short pole will be on the other. The 2800 mil setting on the sight usually allows a 400 mil left or right deflection before the gun itself has to be moved. Guns laid this way will be able to fire in a parallel sheaf (all guns firing at the same exact direction/deflection).

[Ches-Gen-4]

Wayne,

Thanks for explaining all the different era's and uniforms as well as operations. You must have a lot of knowledge concerning artillery. The figure set I am using is made by Master Box and is call the US Artillery Crew. I bought two sets and plan to show about 8 soldiers in my small diorama.

 

Here is a question I am curious about. When the forward observers call in the coordinates to the gun crew, what is the order of command? Does the radio operator call out to the gunner? And what is the responsibility of the Gun Captain. Also what are the responsibilities of the Gun Layer or job description? I am interested in ETO 44-45 operation. Thanks again for all the info. Bob

[mpguy80/08]

My experience is in Mortars, hip pocket Artillery as we liked to call it... but the basics are pretty much all the same.

 

The range of a 155mm M1A1 Howitzer is roughly 16,000 yards or roughly three miles. The guns often were not in direct view of the targets they were firing at. The gun battery has a Gun Section and afire Direction Center or FDC. Basically, the FDC sets up a fairly large section of graph paper up with grid coordinates like a map, plots their own position and the position of the Forward Observer (FO). The Fire request from the FO would sound something like this:

 

FDC Call Sign: Redleg 23 FO Callsign: Eyeball 11

 

Redleg 23 this is Eyeball 11 Fire Mission, over. (This alerts the FDC that the FO is requesting fire.

Eyeball 11 this is Redleg 23, send it. Over. (This lets the FO know he received the mission and is prepared to copy coordinates)

Redleg 23, this is Eyeball 11, grid Able Baker 337216, Enemy truck park, Willy Pete in effect, over. (AB 337216 is the map grid coordinates, willy Pete is white Phosphorus, really nasty against trucks and materiel)

 

At this point, the FDC is plotting the grid coordinate on the map, working up the firing data for the guns, translating the direction to the target from the gun into deflection, and distance from the gun into elevation and charge. The gun is laid on target by a gun command that contains three important pieces of information... Deflection (left or right deviation from the gun target area line, Elevation, the angle the barrel is raised) and charge (The amount of powder it takes to fire the round the required distance). The gun command will sound something similar to this:

 

Section, Number two gun, one round, Deflection, 2874, Elevation 0922, one round he, charge 3 at my command.

 

The term section alerts the entire section to place the firing data on their guns and track along as well, while number two gun will be firing the adjusting rounds (conserves ammunition). The deflection, elevation and charge information tells the section what data to dial into their sights and what charge to ready for the ammunition. When the gun is trained out, cross leveled and ready to fire the Gun captain gives the FDC an 'UP'. At this point, the FDC gives the command to fire.

 

When the gun fires, the FDC calls the FO and tells him "Shot, over." This lets the FO know a round is on the way and to watch the impact of the round. The FO calls back, "Shot, out."

 

About five seconds before the round is due to impact the FDC calls, "Splash, over." Letting the FO know the round is due to impact.

 

At the impact of the round, the FO looks through his binoculars and estimates the difference in mils between where the round impacted and where the target is. Judging from the FO's distance from the target, he converts the mil difference into a rough estimate of the distance the round impacted from the target. You usually want to bracket the target though you want to use as few rounds adjusting as possible. Lets say that the rounds impacted 100 yards to the right of the target and 100 yards beyond it as the FO is looking at the target. The FO must let the FDC know what his direction to the target is so the FDC knows the context of the adjustments. The FO adjustments would sound like this.

 

Redleg 23 this is Eyeball 11, direction, 1600, left 100, drop 100, over. (This tells the FDC the direction he is looking at the target. The FDC, knowing where the FO is located, plots the adjustments from his initial plot based on a 1600 mill direction, formulates the new gun command and sends it to the section.

 

Section, number two gun, One round, Deflection, 2855, Elevation, 0916, charge three, at my command.

 

Again when the gun is ready, the Gun captain gives the FDC an 'up. Keep in mind that the rest of the battery, usually six guns, is following along, setting the same data on their sights and adjusting, even though they aren't firing. The FDC gives the command to fire, and calls shot and splash as before to the FO.

 

The Bursting radius for a 155mm shell is 50 yards so once the 50 yard bracket is split you can fire for effect. Let's say for expediency, the second round cut the 50 yard bracket. The FO would call back and say Fire For effect!

 

A Gun battery would usually have a set SOP for how many rounds to fire in a fire for effect mission. For my 81mm section, it was usually three... with three tubes, that's nine rounds, each with a 35 yard bursting radius. Imagine a 155mm battery with six guns, at three rounds per gun each round with a 50 yard killing radius. That's six guns, fifty yards apart on average, firing at once. one round per gun would impact the target area with a 100 yard by 350 yard area of destruction. The FDC command would sound like this:

 

Section, fire for effect, three rounds willy Pete, Deflection 2855, Elevation 0916, charge three.

 

The command 'Section', with no other limitation calling out a single gun lets the entire section know they will be firing. The data is the same as the last adjustment. There is no "at my command" reference so the guns know they can fire as soon as they can load the guns and continue until each as fired three rounds.

 

Today's artillery FDC uses computers and such to work out the firing data... but I was honored to have been an FDC/Section Sergeant/Platoon Sergeant when all the plotting was done by hand. Over six years plotting rounds by hand and never had one land out of safe...

 

Your reference to a gun Captain wouldn't be a reference to the rank of the individual, but the job he performs... The Gun Captain would be the equivalent of the Mortar Squad Leader... in charge of his individual gun. Under him he would have a Gunner, an Assistant Gunner and several ammunition bearers/handlers. Though everyone would be cross trained in everyone else's job, usually within the ammo handlers you would see soldiers assigned to specific tasks within the crew. Say six ammo handlers... 1-4 might handle loading the rounds (two to handle the ammo loading tray two for the rammer), 5 would handle setting the fuses, 6 would handle the charge bags. The Gunner would be responsible for setting the data on the sight, the assistant gunner would manipulate the deflection and elevation hand wheels and cross levels to level the gun on the desired data and call out 'level' to which the gunner would call out check after checking the level bubbles were indeed level. The Gun Captain would make a quick check of the data and levels and give the final command to fire.

 

I know its a bit involved, but I hope it helps to understand how artillery works. While we may build a model of a single gun in action, in real life there were six such guns in a given battery... and three batteries or so in a battalion.

 

Wayne

[Cannoncocker155mm]

The red and white poles are aiming stakes. The gun target line is called the 0-3200 line. The sight is set to 3200 mils initially when the gun is first set into position and is rough laid on a compass bearing, then is laid in with an aiming circle or theodolite. Once the guns are all laid in on the aiming instrument, the section sergeant calls out "Refer 2800, lay out aiming stakes!" At this point, the gunner sets 2800 mils on the sight and the runner heads out to place the aiming stakes... Short pole (one section) is placed nearer to the gun with a two section long pole farther out. The far pole is set in first and the runner is guided by hand signals to move the pole left or right and to correct the tilt of the pole so that the pole is set on the vertical cross hair of the sight. Once the pole is set correctly, the procedure is repeated for the near pole. Any deviation of the sight left or right of 2800 mils results in "Hey Diddle Diddle, Far pole in the middle" as the vertical cross hair will be on one side of the long pole and the short pole will be on the other. The 2800 mil setting on the sight usually allows a 400 mil left or right deflection before the gun itself has to be moved. Guns laid this way will be able to fire in a parallel sheaf (all guns firing at the same exact direction/deflection).

 

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for giving a better discription of the Aiming Stakes, always good to learn a bit more about the stuff I collect.

 

Many thanks

[Old Marine]

Nice work, it's looking good so far.

[Ches-Gen-4]

This is a very informative thread. Thanks for all the operations and historical data guys. This is turning into a fun project. Bob

[Ches-Gen-4]

After painting the OD green on the Howitzer and priming the figures, I took a few more photos of my Jeep while I am waiting for the paint to dry.

 

First is the Howitzer in its fresh Olive Drab, and yes it needs weathered

 

 

Next photo shows a few of the figures in primer. Wow, when you blow them up this big, you see things you never saw while working on them.

 

 

And lastly are a couple of photos that I tried some Photoshop effects on just for fun.

 

 

Once everything is dry in a few days, I will start painting figures and weathering the gun. Bob

 

[gunbunny]

Don't forget a water bucket. The breech needs to be swabbed out between rounds to extinguish any burning material that might ignite the powder charge. I've seen 155 crews in Vietnam use one man to load and I have seen some footage from WWII or Korea of a crew really pumping out some rounds using a single loader but this is not normal. I think "regulations" require two men on the rammer staff as well.

[mpguy80/08]

Don't forget a water bucket. The breech needs to be swabbed out between rounds to extinguish any burning material that might ignite the powder charge. I've seen 155 crews in Vietnam use one man to load and I have seen some footage from WWII or Korea of a crew really pumping out some rounds using a single loader but this is not normal. I think "regulations" require two men on the rammer staff as well.

Two on the tray and two on the staff... more if they are swabbing the entire barrel...

[Ches-Gen-4]

Thanks for all the tips and information. I am continuing work on the project as time allows.

I have started to do some basic weathering and the figures are nearing completion.

Below is a little in progress photo just to show how things are moving along. Bob

 

 

[Linedoggie]

This is maybe going to sound silly, but I thought that M1/M114 howitzer left the barrels in natural steel? I thought the tolerances of the barrel sleeve meant units usually didn't paint it but greased it?

 

Also the Patton figure reworked for a Colonel needs the gen Officers beltbuckle covered with a pistol belt of removed.

[Ches-Gen-4]

Thanks for your comments and nothing silly about it. The barrels were painted in the beginning to my understanding

and latter changed to unpainted. To try to help hide the bright steel, they came up with a green grease to coat the barrel with.

 

Maybe Stuart or Wayne who are much more familiar with the 155mm than I am will chime in.

 

I totally agree with the Officers pistol belt. Since the photo was taken, I have since carved the buckle off and puttied over it to simulate the bottom of the Ike jacket.

 

I guess a little disclaimer of sorts is in order at this time. As this diorama progresses, the purists out there may see things

that are not historically correct. I applaud your keen observations. But, I am building this model to suit my own tastes

whether accurate or not. Just like the single soldier loading the projectiles. This may not be procedurally correct but I

could show you plenty of videos of it being done just like this and I think it's pretty cool. I will try to build this model

keeping in line with historical accuracy but I reserve the right to use a little artistic license and build to suit my tastes.

I hope you all enjoy the end results of my effort as much as I know that I will. Thanks for following along, Bob

[Ches-Gen-4]

Spent some time this weekend doing the weathering on the 155. Here is a photo of her still on the work bench.

 

 

And a shot of the Lt. Colonel nearing completion. Although the shoulder holster is a bit out of scale, I think the figure came out pretty close to the photograph.

 

 

 

[patches]

Spent some time this weekend doing the weathering on the 155. Here is a photo of her still on the work bench.

 

 

 

And a shot of the Lt. Colonel nearing completion. Although the shoulder holster is a bit out of scale, I think the figure came out pretty close to the photograph.

 

 

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