Now that artillery spotting was added to the game in patch 4.12, I am thinking about how it could be used in mission building. The problem is, I know almost nothing about aerial artillery spotting in ww2, so I have a few questions:

1. Which of the planes we have in the game were used for artillery spotting?
2. How common was aerial artillery spotting in the different theaters of ww2?
3. How did it actually work, which methodes were used and how was it organized?
4. Is there any detailed information available on aerial artillery spotting on the net?

Lots of different aircraft were used, the Russians converted Hurricanes too two seaters just for this.
The US Navy used Spitfires on D-day, too direct its ships guns.
Most spotting was done by small aircraft like the Stinson or Cub, or for the Germans the Storch.
Its still done the same today, I am sure Jarink or Rudi can provide you with better details.
LINK - http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.ca/2008/04/weekend-wings-15-low-slow-up-close-and.html
LINK - http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/spitfires-of-the-us-navy.html
LINK - http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/lendlease/hurricane2seat/2seat%20in%20service/2seathurricane.htm

Doing artillery spotting must have been a dangerous job. I just looked at the Luftwaffe victory claims lists for the last 10 month of the war and it is surprising to see how many spotter planes were claimed - almost always identified as Austers, which was probably often a misidentification.

Regarding the mechanics of observed fires, here's a link to the forward observer's Bible; hopefully this link will work from your locale, being it's an Army website (although it's not an https site)...

FM 6-30 Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Observed Fire: http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/Active_FM.html

Although it's the 2009 version, there should not be much difference from the principles applied during WWII; only the equipment has changed. Getting a shell from point-A to point-B, while observing from point-C, is still pretty much the same.

I never did any aerial spotting, but I spent 21 years with mortars.. lot's of interface with observers, and spotted a few missions myself. In fact, we had to know how to talk an untrained observer through a fire mission; hence, FM 6-30 was required reading in our Fire Direction Center (FDC). So if any Q's on techniques, I'll try to provide an answer.

Also, here's a link that may be of interest, although it pertains to the Korean War: http://www.mosquitokorea.org/index.html
During the Korean War, the personnel of the 6147th Tactical Air Control Group, known as the "Mosquitoes," created a large-scale, effective forward air control (FAC) system that included both airborne and ground-based FACs.



I have not experimented with it yet, but it's nice to hear this capability made it into our sim

Cheers! ~ Rudi

Thanks for the links.

The artillery spotting in 4.12 is very simplified. When a spotting waypoint is reached, the fire starts automatically. There is no way to call the artillery over the radio, at least not at the moment. From what I have heard, there are plans by TD to improve it in future patches.

For those who like to test the new artillery spotting feature I have uploaded a test mission:

Thanks Juri, will try that mission. Here's another way to do it with mods in New-TFM

(about halfway down the page)

http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,35546.72.html