USEFUL SOURCES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Last updated 28 July 2002

Bidwell, S; ‘Gunners at War’; 1970.  Provides a very good and readable account of the British artillery in the 20th Century.

Pemberton, AL; ‘The Development of Artillery Tactics and Equipment’; 1950.  An official, authoritative and very comprehensive account of all branches of British artillery in all WW2 theatres with extensive references to source documents. Unfortunately it is hard to find because it was originally classified Restricted.

Bidwell, S, and Graham, D; 'Firepower and theories of war 1904 - 1945'; 1982.  A comprehensive account of the evolution of British thinking about firepower.

Duncan, WE, ed; 'The Royal Artillery Commemoration Book 1939 - 1945'; 1950.  A large book providing a well illustrated collection of short accounts of actions in all theatres and all types of RA units and formations

Farndale, M; ‘Western Front 1914-18’; 1986.  A volume of the regimental history focusing on units and events but also providing a chronicle of tactical evolution.

Hughes, BP; ‘Between the Wars 1919-39’; 1992.  A volume of the regimental history, providing some information about pre-WW2 developments.

Farndale, M; ‘The Years of Defeat 1939-41’; 1996.  Regimental history focusing on units and events.

Farndale, M; ‘The Far East Theatre 1941-46’; 2000.  Regimental history focusing on units and events.

Horner, D; ‘The Gunners – A History of Australian Artillery’; 1995.  Regimental history focusing on people, units and events 1788 - 1995.

Nicholson, GWL; 'The Gunners of Canada: The History of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery Vol 2 1919 - 1967'; 1972.  Includes a comprehensive account of the build-up of the Canadian artillery and its operations in Italy and NW Europe.

Murphy, WE; '2nd New Zealand Divisional Artillery';  1966.  A comprehensive and detailed account of a divisional artillery from 1939 to 1945 in the North African and Italian theatres.

Bailey, JBA; 'Field Artillery and Firepower'; 1989.  A comprehensive review of field artillery in the 20th century looking at the tactics and operations of all the main armies.

The Journal of the Royal Artillery. Published since 1873 by the RA Institution, currently twice per year, wide coverage of both historical and current artillery matters.

RA Notes. Issued monthly from Jan 1943 to Mar 1946 by the Director of Artillery and classified Secret. Main headings were operations, training, equipment and organisation. Contains much useful information including some on allied and enemy artilleries and lessons learned.  Accounts were sanitised so that specific units were not identified.  Some items are identified as taken from other referenced reports, others included policy notifications. The RA Institution Library in Woolwich, London, holds a set.  Original file number 57/Guns/2710(R.A.8).

Unit War Diaries. Continuously compiled by units on operations. Sometimes includes copies of operation orders and fire plans. Sets held by Public Records Office, London and RA Institution Library in Woolwich, London.

Dorward, JC; ‘Military Operational Research Unit Report No 3 - The Effects of Bombardment – The Present State of Knowledge’; 1946.  Summarises the results of wartime research into weight of fire and its effects.  Available at the Public Record Office, London as WO291/946.

Training Publications, this can seem a complicated subject because there were lots of them, some had many amendments and several had ‘supplements’. They can be found in some specialised military libraries.

Military Training Publications (MTP) were an ‘all-arms’ series and included some artillery matters, such as MTP 43 of 1940 Construction of Gun Emplacements for Field, Medium and Anti Tank Artillery.  Army Training Memoranda were also all-arms and focused on particular issues, such as infantry and armour observation of artillery fire (ATM 50).  Overseas commands issued training publications from time to time. Some of these were of the 'lessons learned' type while others covered theatre specific tactics.  There were also publications on enemy tactics and equipment.

An interesting all-arms publication was the Field Service Pocketbook comprising some 13 pamphlets.  The 1939 version was the baseline for WW2 but various pamphlets were replaced or amended throughout the war, this publication was first published before WW1.  Another key all-arms series was Signal Training (All Arms).  The 1938 edition, a single pamphlet, was replaced in 1942 be a series of pamphlets, Pam 6 being Procedures for transmitting artillery fire orders.  This series was replaced in 1945 with a larger series.  

In addition the all-arms publications most arms and services had their own training publications covering all aspects of their equipment, tactics and other matters.  Some of these, such as those for small arms and radios, were issued throughout the Army.

Most important for artillery was the Artillery Training (AT) series, which expanded to 6 volumes each comprising several pamphlets covering all branches. An Artillery Index was issued periodically and listed the current status of publications. The most important field artillery publications were -

AT Vol II ‘Gunnery’, 1934. This was the baseline for technical gunnery for the next 13 years, 9 amendments were issued as various procedures evolved. It was re-numbered to Vol III Field Gunnery.  Some chapters/sections were replaced by ‘stand-alone’ pamphlets, notably:

AT Vol III ‘Field Gunnery’ -

Pam 3 Part I, ‘Fire Discipline and Observation of Fire’, 1942.

Pam 3 Part II, ‘Preparations for Opening Fire’, 1943.

Pam 3 Part III, ‘Concentrations of Observed Fire’, 1943.

Pam 4, ‘Predicted Fire’, 1944.

Pam 5, ‘Employment of Base Ejection Smoke and Chemical Shell’, 1943.

Pam 6, ‘Programme Shoots (Barrages and Concentrations)’, 1942.

Pam 11, ‘Counter Battery Duties’, 1944 (replaced Vol 1, Pam 7, below).

Pam 14, ‘Regimental Survey’ 1944.

Tactical and doctrinal matters were covered by AT Vol I ‘Tactical Handling’, some titles were -

Pam 3, ‘Application of Fire’, 1938 and 1941.

Pam 4, ‘Command and Control in Battle’, 1938 and 1942.

Pam 5, ‘Information, Reconnaissance, Local Defence and Ammunition Supply’, 1942.

Pam 7, ‘Counter Battery Duties (Technical)’, 1942.

Pam 10, 'Employment and Organisation of the Air O.P.', 1943.

AT Vol II, ‘Deployment and Staff Duties’, 1941 series generally concerned unit deployment procedures. The Pam 2 group being re-numbered from Vol I.  Some titles were:

Pam 2B, ‘Deployment of RHA & Field Regiments’, 1941.

Pam 21, ‘Deployment of a Survey Regiment’, 1941.

AT Vol VI ‘Survey’ comprised pamphlets on survey, flash spotting and sound ranging.

In addition there were Gun Drills, User Handbooks and Range Tables Part 1 for every gun.  Directions for the use of Artillery Instruments provided instructions for the correct use of the main instruments, notably directors and artillery boards. Specialised Handbooks and Manuals provided details about ammunition, other equipments and some complex matters, such as sound ranging and flash spotting, to a greater level of detail.

Range Tables Part 2 provided a wealth of information.  The 1938 edition was reprinted in 1940 and used until a new edition in 1943. It included detailed technical procedures notably for corrections of the moment and crest clearance, standard headings for deployment and fire orders, various tabulated data and graphs for concentration corrections, quick barrages, angle of sight and other matters, formulae, and various maths and conversion tables.

Finally fifteen RA Training Memoranda were issued periodically from December 1939.  They updated various training publications in advance of amendments, identified widespread weaknesses that had been found in units under training and introduced new methods for units to try out.

Copyright © 2001, 2002 Nigel F Evans. All Rights Reserved.