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                           FIRE SUPPORT

    TOPIC:   Elaborate survey schemes are not feasible in desert
warfare so artillery units must be able to rely on basic and
hasty survey procedures.

    OBSERVATION:   Because of the wide open areas, and the
distance involved,the Allies in North Africa found that survey
could not keep pace with the artillery-firing batteries and
target-acquisition agencies.   Firing batteries had to rely on
simultaneous observation, celestial observation, and executive
officer high-burst registrations to provide accurate data for
the firing position.   We should have some advantages with our
position and direction-determining systems and distance
measuring devices, but equipment is lost or fails to function
for a variety of reasons in the desert, and the artillery unit
must still act.

    LESSON LEARNED:   Units must become proficient in hasty
survey techniques and in basic gunnery procedures such as the
executive officer `5 high-burst registration.

    VIE~iER NOTES:


    TOPIC:   If the artillery is not self-propelled, then the
artillery needs tracked vehicles to tow ti~e artillery pieces.

    OBSERVATION:   Because of the relative lack of trafficable
country for wheeled artillery, the Allies in North Africa found
that only by towing the artillery pieces with tracked vehicles
could the artillery move at the same pace as the armor and
infantry.   \`Iheeled prime movers bogged down too often to be
useful.

    LESSON LFARNED:   Make arrangements to provide tracked
vehicles (M113/M548) to act as prime movers as needed.

    VIEWER NOTES:


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