Sur la question des différences entre les différents systèmes d'artillerie et lequel était le meilleur, j'ai noté 2 réponses intéressantes sur ce site
https://www.quora.com/Who-had-the-best- ... rld-War-IICelui-ci donne des arguments en faveur des anglais:The British arty system (also used by Canada, Aust, NZ & S Africa - not sure if the Brits managed to convince the Polish corps to do the right thing!) was without doubt the most effective artillery system, although the Soviets had a vast artillery arm and size has its own quality.
The key characteristics that made the British system best were:
1. The more senior officers of a battery were at the front with the supported arm (armour, infantry). This meant they gave orders to their batteries (not requests for fire like the US) to ensure that arty fire met the needs of the supported arm - they weren't being second guessed by someone to the rear. Captain observers, reasonably experienced officers, were also better able to establish good relationships with company and squadron commanders they were supporting and apply firepower to meet their needs. Air OPs were normally authorised to order fire to a divisional artillery. It also ensured that calls for fire got a very quick response, ie none of the 'liaison officer' nonsense.
2. Battery commanders of DS btys (majors) were with the supported battalion/regt commanders, influencing their planning to ensure the best and most appropriate use of artillery support. DS regt CO's accompanied the infantry/armd bde comd and provided authoritative artillery advice and could order their regts accordingly.
3. Depending on the needs of the battlefield situation normal artillery observers could be authorised to order massed fire against opportunity targets, anything from a single regiment to a corps artillery. Of course unauthorised observers had to request massed fire.
4. Effective fire planning methods for both 'quick' (put together in an hour or less to support a company attack) and 'deliberate' fire plans to support larger operations.
5. An effective CB organisation, comprising target acquisition (sound ranging, flash spotting, air photos), CB (and CM) staff and CB resources, typically an AGRA of several medium and a heavy regiment.
6. 8 gun btys giving the 24 gun direct support field regiment.
7. Adequate arty in general support, AGRAs, typically 5 medium regts (16 x 4.5 or 5.5) and a heavy regt (8 x 155mm guns and 8 x 7.2 inch How).
For the under-informed I suggest a visit to British Artillery in World War 2 The British arty system (also used by Canada, Aust, NZ & S Africa - not sure if the Brits managed to convince the Polish corps to do the right thing!) was without doubt the most effective artillery system, although the Soviets had a vast artillery arm and size has its own quality.
The key characteristics that made the British system best were:
1. The more senior officers of a battery were at the front with the supported arm (armour, infantry). This meant they gave orders to their batteries (not requests for fire like the US) to ensure that arty fire met the needs of the supported arm - they weren't being second guessed by someone to the rear. Captain observers, reasonably experienced officers, were also better able to establish good relationships with company and squadron commanders they were supporting and apply firepower to meet their needs. Air OPs were normally authorised to order fire to a divisional artillery. It also ensured that calls for fire got a very quick response, ie none of the 'liaison officer' nonsense.
2. Battery commanders of DS btys (majors) were with the supported battalion/regt commanders, influencing their planning to ensure the best and most appropriate use of artillery support. DS regt CO's accompanied the infantry/armd bde comd and provided authoritative artillery advice and could order their regts accordingly.
3. Depending on the needs of the battlefield situation normal artillery observers could be authorised to order massed fire against opportunity targets, anything from a single regiment to a corps artillery. Of course unauthorised observers had to request massed fire.
4. Effective fire planning methods for both 'quick' (put together in an hour or less to support a company attack) and 'deliberate' fire plans to support larger operations.
5. An effective CB organisation, comprising target acquisition (sound ranging, flash spotting, air photos), CB (and CM) staff and CB resources, typically an AGRA of several medium and a heavy regiment.
6. 8 gun btys giving the 24 gun direct support field regiment.
7. Adequate arty in general support, AGRAs, typically 5 medium regts (16 x 4.5 or 5.5) and a heavy regt (8 x 155mm guns and 8 x 7.2 inch How).
Celui-ci donne d'autres arguments en faveur des américains:Heres why the U.S Artillery was better than any other combatant’s artillery during WW2.
Artillery Guns: guns like the M101 Howitzer and M2 155mm Long Tom were some of the most destructive guns ever to be unleashed on the battlefield. Guns like the 8 inch Howitzer and M1 240mm were also titans of artillery but were deployed in fewer numbers.
Pre-Computed Firing Data: a system that was originally taken from the British, the U.S Army took it a step further by pre-computing the firing data for a massive number of variations such as wind, temperature, barrel wear, and elevation differentials. This gave gunners an edge over enemy artillery due to having an answer for every situation.
The Tape System: For each variation of data, there was a specific tape measure detailing how to conduct fire in those conditions. An officer would go to a cabinet, pick out the tape intended for the situation at the time, and lay out the tape on the two grid points on the battlefield map. Along the tape was printed the fire and gun laying information instead of distance marks. The tape’s information would be read to the gunners, and they would fire accordingly. The system was fast, easy to read, and just as deadly accurate as the Wehrmacht’s spotted artillery. In fact, it was so incredibly easy, that an otherwise ignorant enlisted man could be walked through the procedure via radio had all his officers fell. That’s how incredibly easy and elegant the tape system was.
Time On Target (TOT)/Fire Control: due to the elegance of the Tape system, U.S batteries figured out how to get all artillery guns in range of the target, regardless of distance to target or gun caliber, to land on the target at once. This technique, invented and perfected at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, is known as Time On Target. It was the bane of German commanders existences and it made veteran and green Wehrmacht soldiers shit their pants. It was fast, it was accurate, and it turned German attacks into fields of spilled viscera and mauled bodies. Due to the nature of most of their enemies artillery doctrines, a German commander would expect that his attacks would be free of artillery for at least 15 minutes, and after that, he would be warned of a strike by the spotting rounds fired. Instead, he found that his forces would be assaulted by an extremely accurate and massed artillery barrage. By the time he would reorganize his men, a vast amount of his forces would be gone, and those who weren't were certainly running for their lives, or at the very least going on the defensive for the inevitable American counterattack that followed. In short, if it worked, the German attack would be stopped cold if not outright destroyed. It worked the vast majority of the time. The Germans were terrified and in awe of the technique and scrambled to adapt it for their own artillery doctrine which never happened. The British basically did a happy dance when they saw the carnage it could cause and employed the doctrine to their own artillery, however, they were not as accurate as American artillery.
Ammunition: America was and is a logistical colossus and crews never had to worry about ammunition. They also had specialized ammunition such as the proximity fuse, which would explode over infantry’s heads instead of landing. This put vast amounts of enemies in the grave, most of whom in pieces. The Proximity fuse was invented by the British who gave it to the U.S to manufacture, who in turn supplied it to British crews. A true game changer.
Mobility: The Americans were towing their artillery in trucks before anyone else was. Lend lease fixed this for the other Allies, I believe.
Targeting/coordination: The Americans would place their FO’s in aircraft over the battlefield. The amount of people that were not spotted by FO’s in planes was little to none. Also, unlike most armies where one FO controlled one gun, the Americans had one FO requesting fire from a large number of batteries.
This is why U.S artillery was the best in the Second World War. The Germans, while having accurate artillery, were not as fast, not as mobile (they were still using horse drawn carts to move guns) and not as powerful as U.S artillery. The Soviets were obsessed with siege guns and rocket systems like the katyushka rocket launcher, and they had whole divisions dedicated to artillery, but they were far from accurate and they tended to rely on dated Great War era tactics like oversaturating the shit out of enemy positions with arty fire. Often, the Germans would guess correctly where the Red Army would choose to hit with artillery, and retreat to positions behind the Soviets. The Soviets would end up shelling empty trenches. They were also slower than a turtle crawling through mud and tied up a lot of assets that caused thousands of unnecessary casualties. The British were closer to the US than anyone else, but were more inclined towards speed and volume of fire than accuracy. They tended to blanket an area with shells rather than zeroing in on a target. They were somewhat faster than American artillery, but they often missed the mark and were not as capable of having the same amount of devastating effects. They also relied too much on adequate terrain and weren't as flexible as american artillery. This could more or less explain the ineffective counterbattery fire the British attempted to put on German AT guns that tore apart British tank divisions in North Africa. Or it could just be Rommel. It was the height of his career, after all.