| |
17thfabn
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Posts: 102
 | | More artillery rounds fired in Korea than in World War II? | | Posted on: 3/2/2010 4:44:29 PM | I remember hearing once during a T.V. program, it may have been on the history channel or the military channel that more artillery rounds wee fired in Korea than in World War II.
U.S. Army Artillery in the Korean War is a subject near and dear to me, my Father served with the 17th Field Artillery Battalion (8" howitzers) during the War.
I find this statement hard to believe. The U.S. and USSR both had huge amounts of artillery in World War II. And then you add in the British/Common Wealth forces, Germans, Chinese and Japanese, over a six year period versus three in Korea, I just don't believe it.
If it were limited to just U.S. artillery it still would be hard to believe. The U.S. had roughly 90 Army divisions and 6 Marine divisions fighting in World War II. Each division would have three or four artillery battalions, mostly four. In Korea we had 8 Army and only 1 marine division fighting. And the U.S fought almost 4 years in World War II as opposed to three in Korea.
|
| John R. Price
Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA
Posts: 848
| | Re: More artillery rounds fired in Korea than in World War II? | | Posted on: 3/12/2010 6:29:08 PM | 17th,
If you take into account that the last stage of the Korean War was basically a replay of WWI with trench lines from coast to coast I can believe it possible. Think about it you have a year of of mobile warfare, NK attack to the Puson Perm, Inchonand the breakout to the advance to the Yalu, Chinese intervention and the Chosin to the second fall of Seol and then the final UN attack to the current boarder, and then two years of static trendh warfare. Trench warfare is all about arty and your not factoring in all the arty units used in only talking about the arty organic to the divisions organizations.
---------------
A battle long forgotten by our country in a war never understood by our country.
"to satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds, in the name of destiny and in the name of God"
|
| 17thfabn
Cincinnati, OH, USA
Posts: 102
| | Re: More artillery rounds fired in Korea than in World War II? | | Posted on: 4/26/2010 11:14:57 AM |
Quote:17th,
If you take into account that the last stage of the Korean War was basically a replay of WWI with trench lines from coast to coast I can believe it possible. Think about it you have a year of of mobile warfare, NK attack to the Puson Perm, Inchonand the breakout to the advance to the Yalu, Chinese intervention and the Chosin to the second fall of Seol and then the final UN attack to the current boarder, and then two years of static trendh warfare. Trench warfare is all about arty and your not factoring in all the arty units used in only talking about the arty organic to the divisions organizations.
--John R. Price
My Dad's unit the 17th Field Artillery Battalion (8" howitzers) was a non divisional unit they were assigned to the 8th Army, not to an individual Corp, at least during Dad's time their. My dad was in the 17th Field Artilery in Korea from the spring of 1951 to the spring of 1952. He said they were often short of ammunition and ammo and limited to 20 rounds per day per gun.
This is taken from an interesting article in the Korean War section of MilitaryHistoryOnline.com
The Role of the Forward Observer and Artillery during the Korean War
by Anthony J. Sobieski
"When the sheer numbers are looked at, some eighty-two plus artillery battalions, with roughly 400-plus men in each battalion (32,800 men total), five-hundred and twenty-two (522) 155mm howitzers, eight-hundred and ten (810) 105mm howitzers, thirty-six (36) 8-inch and twelve (12) 240mm howitzers, were utilized in Korea by 1953. All for a 155-mile front…simply incredible. Who dared to think that artillery was anything other than “The King of Battle” in Korea?!"
The 82 artillery battalions included ROK and other United Nations Forces. About 60 of the battalions were U.S. Army and Marine.
80 Plus Artillery battalions is a large number. But in World War II the U.S. Army had 91 divisions, and the USMC had 6. Each of these divisions would have had at least 3 artillery battalions, and most would have had 4. That's over 350 artillery battalions in U.S. Army and Marine Divisions. And there were over 300 hundred seperate artillery battalions! For a total of over 650 American Field Artillery Battalions!
|
| John R. Price
Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA
Posts: 848
| | Re: More artillery rounds fired in Korea than in World War II? | | Posted on: 4/28/2010 9:42:44 PM | 17th,
I don't have the information in front of me but for the majority of WWII I doubt that of the 97 Diviions and 300 Independent Artillery battalions a third of them were in combat on any given day. In the ETO prior to D-Day you had what 10 to 15 division engaged on any given day in North Africa then sicly and then Italy. In the PTO you had mainly division and corps sized elements assulting individual islands in short bloody campaigns with maybe close to half the shells expended belonging to the Navy. The Phillipines and Okinowa being the exceptions. Then lets throw in the garrison troops that are left after the battle has been won.
---------------
A battle long forgotten by our country in a war never understood by our country.
"to satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds, in the name of destiny and in the name of God"
|
| brian grafton
Victoria, BC, Canada
Posts: 2136
| | Re: More artillery rounds fired in Korea than in World War II? | | Posted on: 5/6/2010 10:45:32 PM | 17th, may I suggest that it wasn't the number of shells fired but the weight of shells fired? Or that it wasn't the weight of shells, but the explosive impact of the shells? I don't know that that is the case, but it is a possibility.
And without any offense intended, may I suggest that the program you watched may have been talking about US involvement in both wars, rather than Allied involvement? Sadly, the distinction between Allied and US involvement is often blurred when a program is made in the US for US distribution. The same often applies to books, though I should probably say "was often applied".
Similar claims are often made about bombing figures in various wars: Korean War saw more ordnance than WW2; Vietnam saw more ordnance than Korea; Gulf 1 saw more ordnance than Vietnam...those kinds of claims. I've never been one to track such things for the hell of it, to be honest, so I can't attest to the accuracy of the claims. But I bet there are members who do track such things, and they could probably enlighten the rest of us.
In the mean time, I keep in mind that the typical bomb load for a late-model B-17 in WW2 was approx. 2.5 tons, and for a B-24 (at best) 4 tons – let's keep the Brits out of this, though their heavies typically carried more weight in bombload than US a/c, and could carry it further.
What are the bombload capacities of current US a/c, and what is the difference in missions per day, given that most USAAF "heavies" in WW2 could fly only one mission per day, and only on good weather days?
Just some thoughts on your topic.
Cheers
Brian G
---------------
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Walt Kelly.
"The Best Things in Life Aren't Things" Bumper sticker.
|
| |
|
|
|