Cryhavoc101
Donor
I found those last parts interesting as well, I'm surprised they didn't do what seemingly everyone else did with AAA: use it for ground attack.
Also I'm surprised the British 4.2 inch mortars were so inaccurate, seems like everyone else loved their heavy mortars.
I am wondering if it is not simply a case of the 25 pounder "Gun/Howitzer" in the hands of the RA was just so good that it made the 4.2" look bad by comparison as it could do the same job, quicker and more effectively from further away.
Same for the AAA guns in a ground use. They could have been used in that fashion but when a lowly platoon commander could simply use his Mk18 set to call up an UNCLE and often have rounds landing within a few minutes from all the active guns of his Division and possibly Corps
Monty at El Alamein used his to keep shooting over his troops directly west as a very visible aid to which direction West was!
Of course by then the Axis air forces in north Africa had been totally ruined and there was not much else for them to do!
I mentioned the other day on the current Op Market Garden thread about the war diary of a platoon commander "With the Jocks" where he started his war as the AAA platoon Commander in his Battalion in the 52nd Lowland 'Air Landing' division where he did direct his battalions 20mm cannon against ground targets during the invasion of Walcheren Island.