Support weapon
Support weapons are weapons whose purpose is to pave the way for attacking groups or, if you are attacked, to shoot barrages and thereby increase your chances of success or to keep your own losses as low as possible.
In general, this task is entrusted to any type of artillery, e.g. B. the ship artillery is used in coastal bombardment instead of its actual purpose as a specified weapon for fighting ship targets as an artillery platform. During the Second World War, however , the Allied side already had pure artillery carriers (converted landing craft) whose sole purpose was fire support. These included British LCS ( Landing Craft, Support ) with two installed medium-weight cannons, but also American LST (Landing Ship, Tank) with launching racks for up to 5,000 rockets of 5 cm caliber.
Heavy machine guns and the on-board cannons of armored personnel carriers, which are used to hold down enemy infantry during an attack and thus provide cover for one's own forces, also fulfill this task, as do the flamethrowers previously carried during an attack .
Because of the flat trajectory of their grenades, medium and large-caliber special guns such as anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns are not or only partially suitable for this type of mission.
literature
- Encyclopedia: Weapons of the Second World War Bechtermünz, 1998, ISBN 3-8289-5380-8
- John Batchelor & Ian Hogg: The history of the artillery Heyne Verlag, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-453-52068-8