Preparing For the Payoff at Belsen Hohne

Gunnery is the battle payoff -and the Belsen Hohne Rangers are ideally suited to prepare for it. Belsen Hohne refers to a modem British tank firing range situated in the North German lowlands between Hannover and Hamburg. A range devoted exclusively by U. S. tank battalions to practice and qualification with the 90-mm cannon, it accomplishes a vital role in an integrated program for tank gunnery in Germany. For approximately two months a year, American Seventh Army tank gunners use its facilities to blast away at various targets.

Student gunners participate under a Seventh Army program so organized as to permit sole concentration on tank gunnery. Groups from the Seventh Army, normally 934 men strong, travel to Belsen Hohne for a week’straining. A carefully planned schedule permits expert training of this large group of men. Some of the men have been training in Germany for over a year. Others, for instance those recently attending from the 3d Armored Division, had been in Germany only two weeks before they went to Belsen Hohne. Both new and old men are commanded and instructed by school troops 41 which this year are selected from units of the 4th Armored Group.

The Germans used Belsen Hohne before and during the war. The inspiration for the present range goes back to 1935 when a battle run facsimile of the Maginot Line was constructed and used for extensive and realistic rehearsals. Over two years ago, the British started modernizing and extending the range into its present form. The work, consisting of deforestation, scraping and construction, was completed a year ago at a cost of 24 million marks.

Today the range is a permanent British base consisting of numerous camps for the various British units. Each camp has its own mess hall and barracks, and is near to the numerous facilities that are available. Three camps are set aside for other NATO tankers who then use the range for nine months a year. Bids for training dates are submitted by each of the NATO countries, and subsequent negotiations produce a calendar. Operation of the range is financed with NATO funds. The British serve as the controlling element for coordination and overall supervision, repair and operation, maintenance and safety. But each group of visitors organizes its own school program and advises the British as to how and when they want to have the ranges operated. Belsen Hohne is not the only site in Germany where the main armament is fired. At Grafenwohr, for instance, both maneuver training and heavy armament firing are conducted. But the training at Belsen Hohne represents an ideal rarely attained in firing ranges. Particularly important is the opportunity to fire at moving targets. Unlike Grafenwohr, the ample opportunity provided at Belsen Hohne for firing Table VI1 is not made available at the expense of,concurrent use of the other ranges. In a land where training areas are limited, training cannot be conducted at one large site. But Belsen Hohne is geared with other major training areas, miniature ranges and home kasernes to form an integrated program of thorough gunnery training. What then is Belsen Hohne? Its success may be primarily attributed to the excellent facilities which the British have constructed there, as well as to the organization which the 4th Armored group set up this spring. Twenty ranges comprise Belsen Hohn, each with a capacity of a company of 18 tanks. Arranged around the circumference of the 17 x 8 kilometer area, they all fire towards the center. The tanks reach the firing position via the “Grand Circle” of a hard-surfaced highway. The firing positions themselves are concrete surfaces which eliminate the mud, ruts and rocks typical on less formal tank firing ranges. A specially constructed gravel bed stretches out before each firing position, reducing the obscuration common to other ranges when the cannon is fired.

The four standard tables, all different target exercises, are fired by each of the participating gunners. Though not used this year by the United States forces, three of the ranges can be converted into battle run ranges.

Each range can be set up for at least one of the tables used to qualify the students as tank gunners. Each student must attain a minimum score on the four tables in order to qualify, having already qualified on the subcaliber tables at his home station. Every student is rated according to the proper use of his instruments, his firing speed and accuracy. The rating which the students receive on the basis of their scores permits determination of the relative efficiency of the individual tank crewmen. It gives the men an additional incentive to excel in the performance of gunnery duties. All ranges can be set up for Table V. This is the first requirement for every student. Table Vis designed to test the gunner’s ability to zero the M20 periscope and M97 telescope, using four or five rounds of shot ammunition. The students line up the gun barrel, periscope, range finder and telescope on one of the 6 x 6 foot targets positioned in groups of three at 1500 yards. They then strive to fire three rounds in a tight group of target hits. After correcting the reticles of the sights without moving the gun, a fourth round is fired for checking purposes. In order to provide against sighting difficulties caused by weather or a total miss with one of the first rounds, a fifth round may be fired when necessary. Table VI tests the gunners’ ability to utilize the burst-on-target adjustment on stationary targets. The men fire eight rounds of ammunition at four targets. These targets are staggered at unannounced distance intervals: between 800 to 1200 yards, 1200 to 1500 yards, 1500 to 1800 yards and 1800 to 2000 yards. The students are given a “battle sight” designating one of these intervals. They then have two rounds of HE ammunition for each of the first two targets, and two rounds of AP ammunition for each of the latter two. The near targets measure 3 x 5 feet; the farthest, 6 x 6 feet. Direct hits must be scored on the shot targets, while the HE ones are considered hits if the shellburst is one mil above or below the target, or five mils to either side. Table VI1 consists of two parallel tracks on which tank silhouette targets move at distances of 1000 and 1400 yards from the firing position. It tests the gunners’ ability to utilize burst-on-target adjustment on moving targets using shot ammunition. The targets move at eight miles per hour back and forth between two flags which mark the limits of the 200-yard tracking distance. The gunners are instructed to track the targets with a lead equivalent to the length of the target. Care is taken to see that the gunners learn to actually track the targets rather than trap them. Two rounds are fired at each target at the two ranges and an extra round is available for contingencies.

On Table VI11 the gunners estimate target distances in a simulated night firing exercise. The gunners are tested on their ability to determine prearranged firing data for selected targets and engage area type targets with HE ammunition under conditions of restricted visibility utilizing range cards. The targets consist of crossroads, road houses and points comparable to enemy positions from whence an attack might be made. In the actual exercise, the gunner uses his range card to 42