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BoneKracker
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 Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| Prenj wrote: | | BoneKracker wrote: | Once I was where I shouldn't have been, and I heard the wailing sound of incoming artillery (doesn't sound like in the movies, by the way). I heard a POP! a couple hundred feet over my head and could literally see the sub-munitions separate and continue on their way separately, like somebody threw a basket of baseballs. They landed on the other side of the hill behind me. I quickly changed my environment.  |
They say if you hear mortar round, it passed you. If you don't hear it, it means it might be heading your way. |
Unlike artillery, mortars are almost always fired at a pretty steep angle and don't carry a lot of velocity (they are relatively short range). If you actually hear one, it's probably about to hit you. I've never heard a mortar round coming in, but I've seen a corpse that was hit by one. It opened the back of his head up like a tin can, and there was little bits of cooked blood spattered all over the leaves nearby (the brown stuff like when you're cooking a hamburger).
Artillery, on the other hand, is more typically fired at a pretty low trajectory (to use its range to keep it a good distance away from the actual fighting where it's safe), tends to be bigger, and carries more velocity. If you're within a kilometer or two of the target, it's not unusual to hear the whisper of it going overhead. If you're within a few hundred meters of where it's going to hit, then you hear that shit-your-pants sound right before it hits (if it went over you or you were too close).
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Prenj
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Joined: 20 Nov 2011
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Location: Mostar, BiH
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:54 am Post subject: |
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| BoneKracker wrote: | | Prenj wrote: | | BoneKracker wrote: | | Once I was where I shouldn't have been, and I heard the wailing sound of incoming artillery (doesn't sound like in the movies, by the way). I heard a POP! a couple hundred feet over my head and could literally see the sub-munitions separate and continue on their way separately, like somebody threw a basket of baseballs. They landed on the other side of the hill behind me. I quickly changed my environment. |
They say if you hear mortar round, it passed you. If you don't hear it, it means it might be heading your way. |
Unlike artillery, mortars are almost always fired at a pretty steep angle and don't carry a lot of velocity (they are relatively short range). If you actually hear one, it's probably about to hit you. I've never heard a mortar round coming in, but I've seen a corpse that was hit by one. It opened the back of his head up like a tin can, and there was little bits of cooked blood spattered all over the leaves nearby (the brown stuff like when you're cooking a hamburger).
Artillery, on the other hand, is more typically fired at a pretty low trajectory (to use its range to keep it a good distance away from the actual fighting where it's safe), tends to be bigger, and carries more velocity. If you're within a kilometer or two of the target, it's not unusual to hear the whisper of it going overhead. If you're within a few hundred meters of where it's going to hit, then you hear that shit-your-pants sound right before it hits (if it went over you or you were too close). |
Makes sense, could be that they refered to artillery rounds. |
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big dave
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Old School
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Location: The Covered Bridge Capital of Oregon
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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| BoneKracker wrote: | | Artillery, on the other hand, is more typically fired at a pretty low trajectory (to use its range to keep it a good distance away from the actual fighting where it's safe), tends to be bigger, and carries more velocity. If you're within a kilometer or two of the target, it's not unusual to hear the whisper of it going overhead. If you're within a few hundred meters of where it's going to hit, then you hear that shit-your-pants sound right before it hits (if it went over you or you were too close). |
My Dad tells the story of spending all night in a Luzon church listening to the US artillery passing overhead.
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:10 am Post subject: |
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That could also have been naval gunfire, which is even scarier, because the Navy is firing from a rocking boat, doesn't give a shit, and will drop that shit right on you. 
Churches used to be important to soldiers because they were usually reliable locations on potentially outdated maps. They were often used as reference points. If you were going to hole up close to an objective while an artillery prep was going on, a church would be a good place to do it (i.e., "just don't shoot the church"). Also, in that part of the world at the time they were among the sturdiest buildings.
My grandfather was also in the Philippines.
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Old School
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:49 am Post subject: |
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My dad was Navy on an supply ship, which in this case had been ammo. They weren't leaving for a few days, so my dad and a bud decided to use their shore leave to head towards the front. They never made it, but a few nights later spent the night in the water after a Japanese sub slammed two torpedoes into his ship as they were headed back to Hawaii. Same general area as where USS Indianapolis was sunk.
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BoneKracker
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 2:00 am Post subject: |
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That would suck. At least it didn't hit them on the way over when they were loaded to the gills with ammunition.
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