Use of smoke in the attack/defense

I've always wondered how liberally was smoke used. I know that mortars and artillery could throw up smoke. How common were smoke grenades carried? I rarely see pictures of soldiers carrying/using them.

 

The TO for an assault infantry on D Day was one WP grenade per man and Officers and NCO would also have coloured grenades for target and position marking.

The British had smoke bombs for the 2inch mortar which in Europe tended to be used in this role and of course illumination flares at night.

Possibly one of the reasons photo of smoke in use are rare is because there is little to see and as artillery smoke is a dust as much of the smoke having a percentage of pumice in its make up it tends to harm cameras.

One interesting aside I read sometime ago of a technique used by Germans in retreat, smoke would deployed renerally in grenade form, as a short range screen while a A/T gun was withdrawn the British and Americans cautiously pushing through smoke, after repeating a few times they would make a stand regularly catching out the lead tank or A/Cs.

~Steve

 

Regarding uses of smoke in battle:

Smoke was used quite extensively in the Pacific during World War Two to direct close air strikes on targets.

An air support control unit on the ground would direct bombing and strafing attacks on ground targets using the brilliant white smoke created by white phosphorus grenades. This was referred to as "William Peter" (words in the American phonetic alphabet representing the letters W and P). The grenades would be either lobbed or shot to land on, or as close as possible to, a target.

Working with an airborne air strike coordinator by radio a close air support unit on the ground would direct the coordinator to the general area of the target with the aid of a grid map, and then direct him to a specific target square within that grid with the aid of the smoke from a phosphorus grenade.

It went something like this:

K-Ration Two – this is K-Ration One – Can you see my William Peter – Over"

Roger – K-Ration One -- I can see your William Peter – Over.

K-Ration two – as you make your approach the target will be eight yards to the right of my William Peter –can you identify the target area -– Over.

Roger – K-Ration One -- I'm quite sure I can identify the area -- Over

OK -- K-Ration Two -- please show me a dummy run – Over

Following a successful dummy run to establish that the flight coordinator is exactly on target:

You’re right on K-Ration Two – Now execute three live strafing runs south to north -- this is a close one so tell your guys to keep an eye on the panels – Over

Roger – K-Ration One – five live strafing runs south to north – don’t worry we’re wide awake – Out.

Sometimes, on a lighter note, following a successful mission -– if things were slow and the network wasn’t busy with other important traffic –- you might hear parting ad lib conversations something like this:

K-Ration Two – this is K-Ration One – Great job K-Ration two – You do good work – Over.

Thanks K-Ration One – It was nice doing business with you – Out.

vcs-ww2
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Many thanks to you both for the outstanding info.

 

Were there any usage of smoke inducing munitions in tank to tank battles?

 

Were there any usage of smoke inducing munitions in tank to tank battles?

 

There is plenty of that. One trick that American and Russian tankers played when facing German heavy metal was to fire WP rounds at the panzer to blind its optics or choke the crew and dispatch a the second tank to circle the target and pump AP rounds to its flank.

Smoke are quite important in big operations. Assault crossing often require massive use of smoke to obscure the field of fire of the defender on the opposite bank. This is often accomplished by Corps artillery shoot. Rommel was said to have torched a French village to cover the crossing of the 7 Pz. Div., for example. Smoke can even be used as a form of misdirection. One American infantry division in the crossing of the Rhine was not able to make it under the cover of night as planned and in result lost the element of surprise. Therefore division called artillery to fire over a massive smoke screen in front of the indented crossing site, reassembled behind the screen, and attacked at a different sector 4 miles south of the orginal objective.

I imagine smoke screen can be used in a big tank battle too, if the artillery is responsive enough, to mask a retreat or attempt to maneuver, though it might be pushing C&C a bit hard. I am way off topic now, but with modern Thermal Imaging technoclogy, one tactic that a TI equipped tank force could use angainst an opposing force without TI is to fire WP smoke. The enemy will be blinded. You will not. Commence turkey shoot.

 

Additionally there are several instances of tanks being knocked out as W.P. Smoke which is very acrid being drawn into the tank causing the crew to decamp.

thermal imaging as Triple C said has changed this aspect of war, leading to the development of thermially obscurant smoke. whether this was apparent with the primative thermal imaging equipment available in WW2 is uknow.

Steve

 

If I remember right, smoke was couple with 143 searchlights to dazzle and blind the Soviet defenders of the Seelow heights (1945). Can anybody else back me up on this ?

 

Pickle,
Hm? Seelow Heights was a Soviet offensive. Zhukov attempted to use search lights to illuminate the darkness and daze the German defenders during the attack, but the plan backfired as the Germans were able to knock out the searchlights and also the illuminence silhouetted the Russians.

Razin,
There was a Tiger B in 501 s.Pz Abt. that was "knocked out" in la Gleize by a WP round. The crew panicked and ran out...

Wolfy,
I have read plenty of references in ETO where soldiers used their smoke grenades to make good their escape, cross the street, etc.

 

how did the germans knock out the search lights? did they already know of the plan?

 

Well... it's a searchlight in the dark. It tells everyone where it is. For the same reason in tactical schools they teach you never to leave your weapon lights on in a passageway or a room because it makes you a big target. Chuikov said that he could never forgive Zhukov for persisting in what was to him an obviously stupid scheme and held him responsible for the deaths of the numerous searchlight crews... most of them young girls.

 

Smoke also comes to mind in the Pacific Theater...nearly every island invasion used smoke to screen as much as possible the inbound LVTS.

And don't forget the Taffy Four's use of smoke to screen the fleeing carriers along Samar

 

also possibly on a smaller basis dependent on how you view it........in the Atlantic by opposing forces, the Kriegsmarine Schnellboot arm made liberal use of it while on their raiding and mine operations during the war from late 1943 onward.

E ~

 

Had anyone ever tried to fire WP at bunker apperatures? Or was it prefered to pummel it with armor piercing or high explosive rounds?

 

Supplementing Triple C's comment about smoke used to screen assault crossings, the U.S. Third Army used smoke generators to screen the Arnaville bridgehead across the Moselle in September 1944.

FM 3-101-1 Chptr 1 Smoke Operations Overview

- (this page also includes a map showing the positions of the smoke generators near Arnaville)

One doesn't hear much about smoke operations but it had to be nasty stuff to operate in.

"Shake and bake" in U.S. artillery jargon referred (may still mean this today) to a combined barrage of high explosive and white phosphorus (smoke).

Cheers

BW

 

Oops!

 

Pardon, Sir! Mea Culpa!

 

i don;t understand why there were smoke bombs in thee frist place.
there wase more thane enuoght smoke comming from fires,air bombs and dust frome tanks rare behind ,why crate more smoke?
smoke is a goode waye to blind yuo;re emeny but also it can be a pain fore thee allies aswell.