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nucopia

nucopia

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A few times a year, we were sent on combined live fire exercises with the Airforce and Navy to practice calling in fire support from Navy ships and Aircraft. At the time I was an FO radio operator in an artillery forward observers party.
It was an amazing experience to call in a fire mission and watch from a safe observation point ,the fighter jets flying in on their bombing or strafing runs..
The best experience was doing air OP’s and contour flying in a Army kiowa helicopters.
Those guys could really fly close to the ground..
 
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nucopia said:
A few times a year, we were sent on combined live fire exercises with the Airforce and Navy to practice calling in fire support from Navy ships and Aircraft. At the time I was an FO radio operator in an artillery forward observers party.
It was an amazing experience to call in a fire mission and watch from a safe observation point ,the fighter jets flying in on their bombing or strafing runs..
The best experience was doing air OP’s and contour flying in a Army kiowa helicopters.
Those guys could really fly close to the ground..
Click to expand...
I was company sig on a battalion exercise in about 1987, and my OC and CSM were calling in live fire from an Iraquois. The OC told me,"this will probably be the only chance you ever get to do this, so adjust the fire onto the target" he was right, it was the only time I ever got to adjust live artillery onto a target, and from a chopper!
 
davent said:
I was company sig on a battalion exercise in about 1987, and my OC and CSM were calling in live fire from an Iraquois. The OC told me,"this will probably be the only chance you ever get to do this, so adjust the fire onto the target" he was right, it was the only time I ever got to adjust live artillery onto a target, and from a chopper!
Click to expand...
Great memories Davent
I remembered one exercise we did with the Navy where 3 of our guns , gun tractors and the battery APC Comand post were ferried to Jervis bay by a Navy LST to do a beach landing while our Battery commander and my FO party were transported to Jervis Bay on HMAS Vampire. They landed us on the beach near the gunnery range so we could call in fire missions from HMAS Vampires 6 × 4.5 inch guns. During the live firing the Battery commander replaced our FO because he kept reading the target map coordinates incorrectly.. they put him with our BSM and a few days later while on a dry fire an movement exercise with the guns, he was in charge of coordinating the navigation of the guns to the next position but he kept getting lost. they realized he was dyslexic and could not read long numbers in the correct order🤦🏽 he ended up being transferred to the regimental Q Store .. poor bugger
 
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hahahahaaha, I had a Sgt who went to 1 RTB as a lance jack, and left 1 RTB as SGT, went to mortar PL. He called in a fire mission right on top of us. When he was screaming check fire and take cover, we realized he was adjusting on us, not the target!

Thank Christ he was useless, because he even got our position wrong by about 30m.

Then there was the WO2 on my sub 2 for Cpl course, who had a terrible stutter.
Very funny, but had to feel sorry for him.
In Vietnam (well before my time) he called in choppers for a hot extraction. He threw red smoke, the chopper pilot authenticated red, and asked what direction he should approach the LZ.

He replied, " approach from the ea, eeeee, approach from the eee eaa eeee, opposite WEST!!!!!"

As told to me by his mate who was there, my then CSM.
 
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The big question at the time was how the hell did the guy get through 1RBT, Officer cadet school at Portsea and then officer training at the School of Artillery
and no one picked up that he was dyslexia.. he was one of the best junior officer’s in our battery buy couldnt read map coordinates to save his life..
 
nucopia said:
The big question at the time was how the hell did the guy get through 1RBT, Officer cadet school at Portsea and then officer training at the School of Artillery
and no one picked up that he was dyslexia.. he was one of the best junior officer’s in our battery buy couldnt read map coordinates to save his life..
Click to expand...
Speaking of things the medics miss, I was on the staff at 1 RTB when a new lot of National Service Trainees marched in.
The Adjutant looked at one recruit and called him over. He said, :You have only one arm". The recruit replied, "I am aware of that Sir".
"Well you can't be in thr Army with only one arm", said the Adjutant. "I wondered about that", said the recruit.
He had passed through the whole inductment system without anybody noticing that he had only one arm.
By the same token, when I was checked by a doctor during myown National Service induction the doctor rattled some keys in his pocket and said, :Did you hear that?" I replied "Yes"., and that was my comprehensive hearing test.
 
davent said:
hahahahaaha, I had a Sgt who went to 1 RTB as a lance jack, and left 1 RTB as SGT, went to mortar PL. He called in a fire mission right on top of us. When he was screaming check fire and take cover, we realized he was adjusting on us, not the target!

Thank Christ he was useless, because he even got our position wrong by about 30m.

Then there was the WO2 on my sub 2 for Cpl course, who had a terrible stutter.
Very funny, but had to feel sorry for him.
In Vietnam (well before my time) he called in choppers for a hot extraction. He threw red smoke, the chopper pilot authenticated red, and asked what direction he should approach the LZ.

He replied, " approach from the ea, eeeee, approach from the eee eaa eeee, opposite WEST!!!!!"

As told to me by his mate who was there, my then CSM.
Click to expand...
That is GOLD!
 
nucopia said:
Great memories Davent
I remembered one exercise we did with the Navy where 3 of our guns , gun tractors and the battery APC Comand post were ferried to Jervis bay by a Navy LST to do a beach landing while our Battery commander and my FO party were transported to Jervis Bay on HMAS Vampire. They landed us on the beach near the gunnery range so we could call in fire missions from HMAS Vampires 6 × 4.5 inch guns. During the live firing the Battery commander replaced our FO because he kept reading the target map coordinates incorrectly.. they put him with our BSM and a few days later while on a dry fire an movement exercise with the guns, he was in charge of coordinating the navigation of the guns to the next position but he kept getting lost. they realized he was dyslexic and could not read long numbers in the correct order🤦🏽 he ended up being transferred to the regimental Q Store .. poor bugger
Click to expand...
We were at Tin Can Bay doing a live 120mm anti tank shoot. The projectiles were practice rounds, that is to say they were inert, non-explosive. They nevertheless were a dangerous projectile and packed a considerable wallop.
Since they didn't explode on contact with the target they would often ricochet and turning end over end as they flew they would make a distinctive whirring noise.
One evening, at the local pub, one of the professional fishermen commented on the big, combined exercise we were conducting. We told him it was nothing of the sort, just a practise shoot. He laughed and said, "I know you aren't allowed to talk about it but I know there are low flying aircraft involved".On further questioning we found that, contrary to regulations, he had sailed his trawler up a backwater directly down range from the firing point,The" low flying aircraft" he was hearing were 120mm ricochets turning end over end a few metres above his head as he stood on the roof of his wheel house trying to spot the planes
When we told him how close he had come to having his head blown off he promised never again to ignore the gazetted dates when range shoots were in progress..
 
I can temember when one of the other batteries in our regiment was doing a live fire exersuce on Holsworthy range.
Some how the gun SGT the BDR the No 4 gunner who loads the projectile and the safety office missed that the wrong charge bags were layed out on the cartridge case.. so after loading and firing the gun and when the CP radioed to the FO the flight time of the round from gun to target, the FO counted off the seconds with out seeing the impact about 20 seconds later he heard the sound of a distant explosion.. the extra charge bags had sent the projectile an extra few thousand meters further than expected impacting on the side of Heathcoat road and spraying shrapnel onto a mister whippey van driving towards Liverpool ..
That was a monumental cluster Fark
And a few people were punished fior their errors . I belive Mr Whippy recieved a new van and some cash as well..
 
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nucopia said:
I can temember when one of the other batteries in our regiment was doing a live fire exersuce on Holsworthy range.
Some how the gun SGT the BDR the No 4 gunner who loads the projectile and the safety office missed that the wrong charge bags were layed out on the cartridge case.. so after loading and firing the gun and when the CP radioed to the FO the flight time of the round from gun to target, the FO counted off the seconds with out seeing the impact about 20 seconds later he heard the sound of a distant explosion.. the extra charge bags had sent the projectile an extra few thousand meters further than expected impacting on the side of Heathcoat road and spraying shrapnel onto a mister whippey van driving towards Liverpool ..
That was a monumental cluster Fark
And a few people were punished fior their errors . I belive Mr Whippy recieved a new van and some cash as well..
Click to expand...
Wow! I heard this story when I was serving.
8/12 Medium Regt
 
The most impressive things I remember were the Fire Power Demonstrations held at Battlesbury Bowel here in the UK.
They were live firing demonstrations primarily put on for VIPs but us minions got to watch as well...

They took place on the flattish floor of a valley with the demo troops moving and firing up the valley, with the wall of the valley at the top acting as a giant back stop.. Dotted along the valley were old cars and proper tank hulk targets plus various other things to be shot and blown up...mortar and arty fire were simulated, but everything else was live including two Chieftains firing their main armament plus their co-ax as infantry advanced to contact..the finale was usually a ground attack sequence by two aircraft...One year it was two Harriers firing salvos of SNEB rockets at "enemy bunkers" which was impressive to watch, but nothing on the year after, when two Yank A10's closed the show completely disintegrating the targets with their 30mm Gatling guns!!

Another time while in Gibraltar, we got to spend time on board a Type 42 Destroyer watching it doing live gunnery with it's 4.5" main gun...It was quite impressive to see it firing, but we didn't actually see where the shells were landing so have no idea if they hit the target or not!
 
When i first arrived at the battey , I was a No 4 gun number and first job on the gun was to load the round into the breach and catch the empty cartridge case when the No 2 opened the breach block.. we often had groups of exchange officers who were attending the school of Artillery come out for a 2 day live firing exercise.
They would stand in for different roles on the guns or in the CP. I guess it was to give them a practical understanding of the different the roles on the gun line and in the Cp. Any way we had this Singapore 1st lieutenant assigned to our gun and his fitst role was to be the number 4 loading the round and catching the empty cart case after firing . I dont know why but after watching me do it a few times he punched up the first round the No 2 pulled the lanyard fired the gun and unlocked and opend the breach to eject the empty cart case but this block had his hand inside the breach ring and when the breach block slide across it took off the top of his ring finger..
wasnt a very nice situation for him but he had been shown and warned several times how to load and unload the gun safely So weather it was a language issue nerves or both I dont know but it sure made me a lot more cautious after that..
 

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