[Milsurplus] Air spotter communications

[Travis Davis]

I might be able to shed a little light on how aerial spot and a little
how shore fire control parties (SFCPs) worked with ships off shore.

I work as the restoration planner and researcher aboard the Battleship
Texas in Houston, my job is basically research each individual space
that we are going to restore (look at the blueprints, conduct oral
histories with veterans, do comparative studies, use what archives the
ship has, and add digging through as many after action reports as I
can get my hands on. That being said I am not expert on the subject in
question nor do I pretend to be, but this is based on my experience
and what I have learned in researching, primarily, TEXAS's CIC and Aux
CIC.

Aerial spotting worked like this: each ship in the bombardment force
was assigned a plane to spot for them, whether it was a plane from a
carrier, Army aircraft, floatplane from a battleship or cruiser, or an
amphibian and the assignments were day to day or hour to hour. For
instance, TEXAS on one day at Okinawa used three planes to spot
throughout the day (two were from a Navy observation squadron (VOF)
and one was one of her own OS2U Kingfishers.

So how it worked with an invasion was along these lines, a ship is
assigned a bombardment sector and they are responsible for being on
call for that sector. In the preinvasion bombardment it is a little
easier since you don't have to worry about where friendly troops are
and where the font line is -so the ship relies primary on air spot and
some spotting from the ship itself. Most of the time a ship will
receive the list of known target coordinates within the ship's
bombardment sector when she gets her bombardment assignment, invasion
plan, maps, et al (See attached). Having that information is very
handy and allows you to send your spotter directly to the first
target, have them loiter over head while you send a couple of rounds
in to range in and then he can tell you whether your over/under or
left/right. The first rounds are used as the reference point for which
all others needed to destroy that target are based. The ship knows how
fast it is moving (usually under 10kts) and what its heading is and
can compute what changes need to be made very quickly to the range and
train of the guns. Every ship from destroyer escort to battlehship and
aircraft carrier had at least one dead reckoning tracer (DRT) aboard
for this reason you could lay a chart or bombardment map in it and it
takes information from the ship pitolog (speedometer) and gyro compass
to trace a line exactly how the ships moves through the water. Which
makes it even easier because you have instant read out of how much of
where you are now based on where you were when you fired the ranging
rounds and which makes getting shells on target a lot quicker. In fact
off Southern France, the bombardment ships could not see the beach and
the aerial spotters could not see to spot their targets. TEXAS did all
of her firing while maneuvering within 3000 yards of the beach using
only the DRT and radar to navigate and base their gunfire information
off of. In fact TEXAS managed to destroy all of her assigned targets
using her dead reckoning position and information from the SFCPs, so
in fact she was firing blind.

That being said once all known targets are destroyed then comes
targets of opportunity which comes down to the spotter sending down
the information as accurately as possible and using reference points
on the map and then getting the ship ranged in.

Once the invasion begins the primary method of spotting is going to
become SFCPs (shore fire control parties), Marines or soldiers on the
ground sending the targeting information back tot he ships that are
assigned to their bombardment sector. There may be  two dozen SFCPs in
a ship's bombardment sector or there only be one, just depends. Though
if I recall, most SFCPs were at the battalion level so usually that
would limit the number of SFCPs in a sector and help to limit friendly
fire. Once a SFCP called in a target, using almost the same system as
the aerial spotter,  the ship would then range in the target or fire
for effect and the SFCP could adjust fire the fire as necessary. What
I have found, at least for TEXAS, is that the SFCP would send the
target information to the ship, the would contact the aerial spotter,
and work both spotters until the target is destroyed.

The bad thing about using the two spotters simultaneously is that they
are not on the same circuit -in fact that complaint was echoed many
times in TEXAS's after action report form Okinawa. I have found that
the primary means of coordinating with the SCFP was the SCR-608 which
put the ship directly into a battalion's tactical net and right in the
action. TEXAS had three of theses units. The primary means for talking
to the spotting aircraft was either a SCR-624 or TDQ/RCK and TEXAS had
two of each.

As far as what is exactly said between either spotter and the ship I
am not sure, but I am sure it was terse, involved the ship's assigned
call sign for the operation and the spotter's call sign, a request for
fire support (if SFCP), the aircraft letting the ship know it was over
the predetermined target or that it had found a new target, walking
the fire on the target, reporting target destroyed.

Hopes this helps!

Best Regards,

Travis

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