Anti-Aircraft use in WWII ground combat

I suspect it got taken down due to copyright issues. It was published in 1990 and so is well within copyright.

 

The preface, which is still up, says reprinted with permission. I guess the permission could have been withdrawn but I can't find it anywhere on the web. I'd think there would at least be a link.

 

Permission was not withdrawn. Skylighters.org website shutdown a year or three ago. Use the Wayback Machine & the 2020 captures...
The Hammer of Hell

PS. Welcome back! It's been awhile.

 

Good catch. I tried Wayback but must have surveyed the wrong capture dates.

And second the welcome back to LWD. I wondered where you have been.

 

An interesting, but little-known use of late war heavy AA directors, usually the SCR 584 or SCR 545, was for directing counterbattery or air strikes onto German artillery and mortar positions.


SCR 584

These radars were sufficiently precise, and fully automatic, where they could track German artillery and mortar rounds in flight from their firing positions. This use was discovered in the field by operational units.

What these radar director systems would do is team up with friendly artillery or CAS aircraft and then use their ability to track rounds to pinpoint locations on the ground for counterbattery fire or they could talk aircraft--tracking them using the radar--into hitting a ground target with high precision. Since the Wehrmacht by 1944 had ZERO means to know if they were being targeted this way, the counterstrikes usually came as a complete surprise.

 

Yes. See: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...sQFnoECBoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw23fo158Z831p65lWxBAbBl and https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...sQFnoECBsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1jBCZ6WQjQpuV1vM3OhIJo