Re: [GZG] Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi!

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On Jul 8, 2008, at 7:08 PM, John Tailby wrote:
> Advancing inside a box barrage or behind artillery laid smoke  
> doesn't offer any protection from enemy artillery rounds and could  
> infact prepare the enemy for an attack and invite counterfire from  
> defending artillery on the basis that you are sheltering an attack  
> in you barrage. By 1918 the artillery tactics had evolved so that  
> they only fired just before the attack to keep the enemy suppressed  
> rather than a 3 day barrage to alert the enemy to the impending  
> attack.
>

There certainly were plenty of prepared multi hour barrages in WWII.  
Usually to kick off an op and, if properly planned to HIT the maximum  
number of known targets before they could respond or get out of tents  
and into fox holes to take cover. They also still used walking	
barrages on targets. The advantage of a walking barrage is that the  
enemy cannot see through it. What kind of target is there on the  
other side. AND if you do it right, your troops are RIGHT behind the  
barrage. You don't have much time between that last shell burst AND a  
platoon of enemy squaddies jumping into your foxhole with you. (WWII  
British troops practically walked into their own shell bursts)

>