Page 16 - ABA Salvoes 1999-2024

him to control the shoot. As with any fire plan, timing is the essential factor, and the leading assault craft must be carefully watched onto the beaches, to ensure that the fire is lifted at the correct instant. After the landing. Observed bombardment by FOBs and aircraft. As soon as the landing has started, it is the ship’s responsibility to contact the FOB on his frequency. As soon as contact is made, the BLO must inform LSH and very often this is the first means of passing back the success of the initial assault. From this time onwards the ship is at immediate call for fire, and the information from the FOB must be filtered and passed to the LSH. As soon as the FOB sends a call for fire the BLO and navigator check the positions of the ship and the target, and pass the initial range and bearing to the guns. During ranging and the adjustment of the MPI the BLO will give the corrections, and order the rates of fire for effect. The BLO is responsible for the safety of our own troops, and a procedure is laid down for close shoots; he is responsible for crest shoots which is likely to occur quite frequently due to the low trajectory of the projectile. Being a trained observer himself, the BLO may often be able to explain apparent discrepancies in the FOBs observations, which might otherwise cause considerable delays in the ship. At the completion of each shoot he will send shot reports to the LSH, including the ammunition expenditure and any results the FOB may have observed. He keeps the captain informed of the military situation, decoding sitreps and keeping his tactical map up to date. From this description of the troop in action, it can be seen that success of naval bombardment depends largely upon good communication and faultless operation. It is essential that the operators know their sets, and have an extensive knowledge of aerials and their siting. Otherwise it is a job of liaison between the infantry and the navy, indicating to each the difficulties of the other.
To achieve this FOB parties are sent to their battalion well in advance of any operation, so that they may get to know the personnel they are going to work with, and so that they can go through the preliminary battle training and briefing with the unit. Similarly BLOs embark on their ships several weeks before the operation where possible. The first establishment for a bombardment unit came out in April 1941 and by the end of that year the best part of two units were in existence. One of the units went out to the Mediterranean and a troop took part in the Madagascar operation. This troop continued out to the Far East and was used as a cadre for a third unit that was formed in that theatre. Training took the form of a course at the Combined Training Centre followed by a course at HMS Excellent, the naval gunnery school and subsequently those accepted returned for further training on a troop and unit basis. All officers were trained as FOBs andmightbeselectedtodoeitherFOBorBLOdutieson the completion of their training. After the unit training was complete, officers and ratings were sent on specialist courses between operations so that they might become paratroops or commandos.
The units developed separately in the various theatres of operation so the troops developed along slightly different lines. In the Far East, FOBs were sent on attachment to field regiments in order to get experience in observation in jungle conditions and in order to learn jungle tactics. In this theatre it was found necessary to have two officers in each FOB party so a subaltern was added to each party. The unit was used almost continuously along the Arakan coast as a flank support for the army, and although no very big operation was carried out, over 30,000 rounds were fired in support of the infantry during the 14th Army’s advance. In the Mediterranean theatre, great use was made of air observation, and the air OP pilots did some stirling work. On the whole “the line of fire” method was found to be the best and used a great deal in the hilly country.
The first operation in which the unit was employed was the landing in North Africa but naval bombardment had been used a great deal during FM Lord Wavell’s campaigns. The unit was fully employed in this operation and provided FOB parties for the American infantry, the Royal Navy being used in support. After this landing the unit was kept pretty busy with a succession of fairly large operations from the point of view of naval bombardment. Pantellaria, Lampedusa, Sicily, Reggio Vibo Valentia, Salerno, Anzio, Corsica, Elba and finally the South of France were the main commitments, but almost continuous flanking support was given to the infantry as they advanced up the coast of Italy. In this theatre FOB parties worked with the Free French forces, supported the Jugoslav patriots and did minor operations in the Greek Islands.
At home there were in all three units, which were complete by the time the invasion of Normandy took place. The first large operation in this theatre was Dieppe, and after that no major operation took place until June 1944. Commando raids and some small operations were given support, but Normandy was the greatest test of all. In this operation 124 Captains RA were employed as FOBs or BLOs. On D-Day 101 shoots were carried out by battleships and cruisers, expending more that 4,000 rounds of ammunition. Destroyers fired 13,000 rounds, mostly between H-60 and H+60. By the end of September more than 600 shoots had been carried out by cruisers in direct support of the army, firing some 59,000 rounds at tanks, guns and infantry positions. Other shoots at coastal batteries and dumps of all sorts were carried out quite frequently.
In this theatre it was mostly BLOs who worked with other nationalities, the Americans had their own shore fire control parties, their equivalent to our FOB parties, but many American ships carried our BLOs, as did the Free French, Norwegian and Polish ships. Several bombardments were carried out on a large scale, which might almost be considered as separate occasions, Cherbourg, Le Harve, Brest, Walcheren and Gironde.
14 | Amphibious Bombardment Association