This is my first dio in about 10 years. I saw a pic in the wonderful german book called Scorched Earth. It's about the regular German(Joe) on the Ostfront.
The pic showed the crew of an Infantry heavy gun firing a FPF mission and they had obviously been put on Alarm very quickly as they were only wearing pants,slippers and undershirts. The Final Protective Fire is what is executed when the enemy is in danger of over running your position. The targets are pre-zeroed in and firing automatically as fast as you can load. I wanted to show this action and to show what the caption of the pic says"Where are the parade ground uniforms? At this point it all comes down to a man and his weapons". This dio takes place at the biginning of the Russian summer offensive"Bagration" which essentially wiped out the German Army Group Middle. I have changed the SiG for the LFH18 new style because,to be honest,I think it looks cool!
Here is the firstloader,an impetuous youth.
















Got you going! This is the overseer of all the ops in my house.
here is the youth

The next player,the older gunner.

At their positions

another crew figure is in the mix. The guys are trying to hold the younger guy back from loading until the gunner makes sure that the site is still lined up with the aiming posts.

Two more crew members are breaking down ammo

All to gether

Looks like a winner.

Tom

poses of the figures are excellent

Its not showing. Great work in converting the gun crew. Thats whats badly needed, considering that everything else is available, is a gun summer crew.

Thanks for the kind words guys. These hard working crewmen need an NCO. So I will add one that is demanding more help with the supply of ammo. Those 105s get hungry and must be fed. The NCO is the one that is most prepared and is "almost" in uniform. He has a Hornet head and lead foil jacket

First recruits painted up

Groundwork almost done

LFHb18 almost done. No cammo paint as these late war pieces were rarely painted up. A little PE from the central euro guys and some parts added to the gun sight. Ammo bunker is stocked.

Couldn't resist playing around with my new camera even though the gun and figs are not completed!. Please indulge me.

Different angle

After scouring the internet and the few books that are out there about German arty I finally found out what the ammo containers looked like for towed arty 105s. The projectiles of course,came in the slatted crates but the shells came in 4 kinds of boxes. A 6 shell container in wicker or wood and a 3 shell container in wood or metal. Here is the wicker version master in front of a fig for scale. The shell is to the side.

Here are all 4 types with the kit versions in the back. These new carriers will be available from Tigermodels in the near future.

Excellent diorama in the making but, having been in the Seabees and a military instructor , the title kind of catches my eye. Final protective fire mostly involves machine guns and riflemen firing cyclic rounds in one direction with overlapping fire so that the overrunning enemy has to run through a wall of lead. Theoretically this works so long as all firing positions are in tact. If there are mortars or artillery involved the angle of the guns must be almost straight up so that the rounds go up high and then land very close. Or the gun would also be level and fire a beehive round or two. I am not sure but I don't think that they had beehive rounds in WW II. Very nice work so far, am looking forward to the end result, it looks pretty complete already........... ..................Al

I hear you and you are correct about the small arms FPF. The doctrine for WWII German arty called for the gun line to be back from the front line as most arty was horse drawn and needed time to re-act. Hence the tube angle. The tube on this piece is,in fact,at max elevation already so the angle is good. The range will be controlled through the use of the charge bags that came in the brass shells.Now mortars are different and would be close up and at max elevation. I was in the Infantry for 17 years and feel pretty confident about these issues so I suppose I can only meet you half way on this.
There is alot more to do on this dio,trust me. Thanks for looking in,
J

Makes sense on the artillery being farther back................ For Seabees , mortars are, our artillery and are not usually too far back from the FEBA. I may be mistaken ,but I thought that I have seen Vietnam firebase pics with 105's near the front sandbags. You have a nice dio...........thanks for sharing...........Al

I wondered if they could change the charge in the propellent casings. This dio is well thought out and well researched. And the excecution is really shaping up high marks all around. I really look forward to seeing the inished work.

Tom

I like the way it's looking as well, except foro one small thing: When emplacing a gun, one of the things the gun chief checks is site to crest. That verifies the max elevation aall along the gun's sector of fire. usually it refers to terrain features, but can and does also mean any obstacle potentially in front of the muzzle -- like a tree. That one, although i can't see the whole thing, arleady appears too close.

As for FPF, you are correct. An FPF is routinely established not necessarily for the battery (it would be damned hard to do with today's 155s) bur for other units operating in the AO. In a SHTF situation, those units need an FPF, a line behind which they can retreat and through which the enemy cannot advance. One of my jobs as the 18 Bravo on the team is to create these overlays with TRPs and FPFs in the unlikely event we have indirect fire support available. Fortunately my job is that much easier having spent a little time as gun chief for 105s and 155s.
I'm sure leg units use them as well. Each unit should have a liason element in the TOC, so that if a fire mission comes up, they can almost immediately deconflict to insure they don't have their own troops in the (danger close)area.




Yes, this round uses increment charges to vary the range.

I8 Bravo.........you are one of the go to guys for artillery. Good explanation of artillery placement. When I was in the Bees, we used 81MM mortars. If I remember right, each battalion has six guns in its TOA . We had to make sure there was plenty of mask clearance and an area forward to place the aiming stakes. Our FPF was a lot different than one for a large gun section like you are in. We would usually set up in the text book circle the wagons set up but not always. Depended on the terrain the manpower and available weapons. My platoon sector (which i was a platoon leader) had two M60s and an M2HB, set up to overlap. ...........................Back to the subject.........the dio is really good. Am thinking of starting something similar. Hope you don't mind Jerry......... .........Al

Nice to have some knowlegable dudes on the site. 18b knows his sh-t obviously. I was in the pipeline to be a 18d but 8months of that fried my poor grunt brain so it was world wide assignment for my sorry a-s. Ended up in the 82nd Abn. and ended up my time there after 17 years.
I hear you about the pit being a little deep. for the gunner to site on the aiming stakes. I got a little zealous with that. The tree is not as close as it looks plus I was trying to give the guys a little cover as I have seen pix of the Whrmacht guns being pretty well concealed givin allied air power,even on the Ostfront.
I think the Seebees situation was a lot different than here as this is not a 360 perimeter layout but a traditional front line(Hauptkampflinie) so you may be crossing the two.
Thanks for looking in guys,
J

Small update. Got the 4 new ammo containers painted up. I modified a wicker one so it's open and shows the set up. 3 rounds per side with wood lid and leather straps. A shell sits in front for scale and one of the ammo handlers points the way(and has little patience)