Beobachtungs ?

[Hofstetter]

Can anybody explain to me what the job is for artillery beobachtungs.
I thought it was a forward obsever, but have been told it's not and that it's job is in a flash-ranging battery involved in counter-battery fire.
From hat i can gather from looking up on the net , beobachtungs is like a "surveilence and target acquisition "
Back in WW2 woudn't this be like a forward observer?
Thanks for any replies
Greg

[WARNACH]

Hi Greg,

The "Beobachtungsabteilungen" belonged to the "Aufklärende Artillerie" (Task to find and pinpoint enemy artillery.)

The Beobachtungsabteilungen had :
- "Schallmess Batterien" : determination of range and direction by use of the noise
- "Lichtmess Batterien" registration of data at night using the enemy muzzle flashes
- "Vermessungszugen" : Platoons which measured and updated map-data
- " Ballonzügen" : Platoons equiped with balloons to take part in the tasks of the elements mentionned above.
- "Wetter-Trupps" : elements evaluating weather conditions
- " Druckerei-Trups" : printed updated maps ...

The real VB (vorwärtser Beobachter) - forward observer, was part of the "shooting" artillery. This artillery used the data comming from the Beobachtungsabteilungen, but the effect on target was directed by the FO.

If there was a counter artillery fire (out of sight of an FO), the Beobachtungsabteilung could of course registrate the (friendly) inpacts in the vicinity of the enemy battery. In this sense they served as FO.

Peter

[Hofstetter]

Hi Greg,

The "Beobachtungsabteilungen" belonged to the "Aufklärende Artillerie" (Task to find and pinpoint enemy artillery.)

The Beobachtungsabteilungen had :
- "Schallmess Batterien" : determination of range and direction by use of the noise
- "Lichtmess Batterien" registration of data at night using the enemy muzzle flashes
- "Vermessungszugen" : Platoons which measured and updated map-data
- " Ballonzügen" : Platoons equiped with balloons to take part in the tasks of the elements mentionned above.
- "Wetter-Trupps" : elements evaluating weather conditions
- " Druckerei-Trups" : printed updated maps ...

The real VB (vorwärtser Beobachter) - forward observer, was part of the "shooting" artillery. This artillery used the data comming from the Beobachtungsabteilungen, but the effect on target was directed by the FO.

If there was a counter artillery fire (out of sight of an FO), the Beobachtungsabteilung could of course registrate the (friendly) inpacts in the vicinity of the enemy battery. In this sense they served as FO.

Peter

Well Peter, that answers my question perfectly, thanks for that
Best Regards
Greg

[Akira Takiguchi]

A minor comment: I believe that usually VB is considered to be an abbreviation for Vorgeschobener Beobachter.

[WARNACH]

I admit my mistake !

Peter