In light of the questions from my recent post, I will give a detailed explanation of how it all goes down, from start to finish, and will try to spare the boring stuff. Most details will be for the actual firing, as that's where my expertise is.

Field artillery is broken up in three sections: The forward observers(FO), the Fire direction center(FDC) and the gun line.

The FOs are the ones responsible for seeing/acquiring/locating all targets. They will always update the FDC with their exact locations. When they have a target, they will radio it to the FDC, who then make the calculations based off of where the guns are, where the target is, what kind of target it is, and variable factors like elevation and weather.




Once they compute the data, they read it to the gun line in a standard format called a "Fire mission" As they are reading it, the guns responsible for firing the mission will be recording it, via the gun's designated recorder (a Marine) who writes it all on a form. As it is being read, the data will be echoed to the FDC to let them know they have a solid copy.
For example: "Fire mission!(it's screamed) Battery, three rounds! Charge 4 green bag, shell HE, fuse- time, time-three eight point five. Deflection- three three hundred. Quadrant- three four niner"


As all this is being recorded, the ammo crew is preparing the proper projectile, fuse, and propellant. IN this case, A High-explosive round with an electronic timed fuse set to 38.5 seconds.


The powder monkey (what we call the powder man) is feverishly preparing the charge, which in this case is the Green bag, less one increment. A charge comes with 5 increments, and one must be taken out.


That one is me, taking out that top increment.
While the ammo team prepare the ammo, the Gunner and Assistant Gunner are traversing and elevating the cannon to the data that was sent by the FDC, in this case, the Gunner will turn a crank on his PanTel (panoramic telescope) until his dial says '3300'. This causes the head of the PanTel to rotate away from his aiming point, so he then traverses the cannon back so he can align his sights with the aiming point.


The A-gunner, on the other side of the cannon is spinning his elevation hand wheel to elevate the tube to the proper quadrant. Like the Gunner, his device has a dial, which is set to '349'. When he does that, the quadrant spins clockwise or counter clockwise, along the tube, to make his level vial become un-level. After raising the cannon to the set quadrant, the level vial reads level, and the quadrant is set.

The round/fuse combination is then read off by the section chief to his recorder, who will verify the correct information. The round is then loaded into the tube by pushing it off it's tray with the ramming staff.


The powder monkey then runs the charge to the #1 man (who operates all things breech) for the chief to verify. Once it's verified, he sets the powder charge in the breech, and closes it.
He then inserts a primer (which is like a rifle cartridge, only it's just powder, there's no bullet) into the firing mechanism. The actual firing may either be at the FDC's command, or whenever the gun is ready. The #1 Man waits for the chief to order "hook up" - he then hooks the lanyard (the rope) to the firing mech.
The next (and almost pointless command) is "Stand by!" followed by "FIRE!"


After all that work (should be less than 40 seconds) you get some military pr0n.



The big black dot is the round, and the other black specks are pieces or burt/burning increment bags