 from Korea to Germany, from Alaska to Puerto Rico. All over the world, the United States Army is on the alert to defend our country, you the American people, against aggression. This is the big picture. An official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the big picture, here is Sergeant James Mansfield. Today, the big picture brings you firepower. The story of the big guns and the men behind them. The story of the artillery. It's of interest to note that approximately three fourths of all enemy casualties inflicted in Korea have been credited to artillery action. Now let's see how it happens. Let's go up front with the guns in Korea, learn what a fire mission is and how it's accomplished in battle. And then, later on in our program, we will show you something of the artillery of the future. The fearful new weapons rolling out of the arsenal toward any showdown the enemies of democracy may have in mind. To get it where it's needed, when it's needed, the kind that's needed. Whether an earthquakeing barrage to launch a major action, a lonely howitzer somewhere in Korea crawling out a few rounds to take care of an enemy outpost. Fire the anti-aircraft guns. They shoot off the guided missile. They've mastered the rocket launcher. All ready to cut loose with the real Sunday punch, the 280 millimeter giant that can deliver an atomic shell. But the story of the artillery begins in the front lines at a forward observation post. I'm what's called a forward observer. Appear to spot trouble and see if my battery might have a remedy for it. Right now, we've got trouble. That recon patrol isn't liable to get back unless something takes care of the commie machine gun up the hill. Forward observer, able post, target machine gun, coordinates 395, 308. And so a howitzer lets one go. And it's OK, boys. You can come home now. But it isn't so often you can see where you want your guns to drop their stuff. And that's when this business gets a little tricky. For instance, those are sound detectors the crew is setting up. Placed in different positions, they'll pick up from several angles the sound of an enemy gun. At the forward post, the observer waits till the enemy starts firing and cuts the sound equipment in on the excitement. A recorder back in the sound van adds up the information brought in by the microphones and the computers interpret them. Result? Well, the chances are that enemy gun has learned too late not to shoot off its big mouth. Another method of locating an enemy gun is by flash detection. The flash of the weapon as it fires is picked up by the scope. And back at the command post, the dope is translated into language that a gun can understand. So one of our howitzers talks right back. But the artillery has to be ready to answer back at night in the fog in the rain. That calls for radar. The scanner's electronic rays bounce back from any object in their beam to pinpoint the target, a convoy, a patrol, even tracking an enemy shell. The information is passed on to the guns and shooting with a post-graduate education. But support of the infantryman is the main concern of the artillery, to improve his chances by blasting a path through enemy defenses. Assignment for today, the enemy fortification on the hill. Schedule? Every available piece in the area to open up at 0745 hours. Maintain fire till 0759 when the infantry moves out. Direct fire weapons zeroed in squarely on the enemy position. The howitzers to drop their explosives on the other side of the hill to prevent reinforcement or retreat, 0745 hours, 0759 hours. And with the lead up of the barrage, the infantry moves out. Resistance? Plenty left, sure. But nothing like what they would have faced before the artillery smashed machine gun nests and mortars, blasted fortifications, rocked the enemy back on his heels. Assault team forward and in. While the infantry presses ahead to the objective, artillery observers from the air call for special fire on resistance points, where there's no danger of hitting our own troops. The infantry mops up. And another nameless but vital Korean hill is within the United Nations lines. The rubble of war, empty shell casings by the thousands, help to total the cost in taxpayers' money. But they also add up to a lot of taxpayers' lives saved. Taxpayers in uniform. Ammunition ship ahoy. Tight packed in her hatches, more thousands of tons of destructive power for our guns. Ticklish business where there isn't much room for mistakes. But the transportation men have handled a lot of ammo in Korea by now. Shells to add to the mounting stockpiles of the forces of the United Nations, even while our guns outfire those of the enemy 10 to 1. A few figures for a rough idea. Artillery shells actually fired in Korea, June 1950 to December 1952. 105 millimeter ammunition, 600,000 tons. 155 millimeter shells, over 300,000 tons. 8 inch howitzer rounds, better than 75,000 tons. Shipping and trans-shipping from the US to Japan to Korea. It's a long, long way to the front for the ammunition. It can be a matter of months or years before a shell is slammed home into the breach of a gun. For though the US 8th Army in Korea has often fired more than 200,000 rounds of ammunition in a single day, the supply must always be greater than the demand to pile up enough surplus for any need. Train trip from an ammunition port can run to any one of many dumps situated behind the lines to provide a ready supply for unpredictable offensive or defensive actions. Korean civilian labor, for the most part, under supervision of our military, keep the tremendous tonnages of our ammunition pipeline flowing forward, headed for one of the ammunition dumps scattered strategically behind every artillery concentration in the battle zone. And drive slow, take it easy. There's an awful lot of explosive up ahead. A big ammunition dump in Korea can cover anywhere to 7,500 acres, stacked from one end to the other with every kind of round, from pistol cartridge to shells for the 240 millimeter gun. And they can use the storage space. When they have to help fill requisitions of as many as 1 million artillery shells for guns of a single division in a two week barrage. Near the front in the rugged terrain of Korea, the remarkable carrying powers of native laborers is often a considerable help. The Koreans have their own word for the work of the human pack animal, chogi, they call it. Many of them carry more than their own weight, almost straight up. But GI ingenuity has solved the supply of ammo in tough terrain in other ways. An aerial cable car to carry food for the guns positioned high atop a mountain peak. Preparation of the artillery now to blast a path for a major movement. A full scale advance. Each crew working over its piece to perform like a 17 jeweled watch. Behind the lines, ordinance does the big overhaul job. Right on up to a brand new tube for a tired long Tom. When the order comes down for the big push, everything that can shoot or be made to shoot is fitted into the firing plan. Even anti-aircraft guns are moved forward to be leveled at ground targets when not needed against enemy planes. It's just the opposite with the tanks. Their guns can throw a lot of damage but aren't designed to fire in the high arc needed for shelling the enemy lines. So an earthen ramp is improvised to point the tank gun up with sufficient elevation to join in the barrage. And load ammunition. Fuses set for all the varied needs of battle. Proximity and instantaneous, most useful for anti-personnel. Delayed action fuses for piercing armor and fortifications. Ranges set. Observers ready. And zero hour for the big shoot. Ames and electronics of the fire direction centers. Pinpointing targets. Stoping out elevation, azimuth for each gun. Plotters calculate even the curvature of the earth's surface for the trajectory of the long-distance guns. Up bridges, roads, rails, as much as 20 miles behind the enemy lines. And the infantry pulls up stakes for the push. Now even greater need for ranging precision to maintain a spearhead of explosives may be only 100 yards in front of our own men with the troops shoving forward in a sustained drive, the artillery moves up two. Their weapons leap frogging ahead. Up to two tons of gun via airmail, parachute delivery. Firepower in a hurry. Ammunition two getting there the quick way. And the artillery is ready again to let go, backing up the infantry in close support. Fort Sill, Oklahoma is the main seat of learning for the artillerymen. It's here that he gets most of the tremendous amount of technical knowledge that goes into the artillery's guns along with the ammunition. There was a time when the artilleryman was taught to shoot straight, and that was about it. Today he learns to fire practically around corners with courses ranging as high as 47 weeks of intensive training. The officer must familiarize himself with practically every weapon we've got and with science's new contributions toward ranging accuracy like the Raywen field set. The Radio Sond signals back meteorological data, which a Radio Sond recorder collects, as radar tracks the balloon through the sky. Training for the eyes of the artillery at Fort Sill. Low flying. A special brand required for direction of artillery fire from the Army's winged observation post, the L-19. And there aren't apt to be fine modern airports or even landing strips where the guns are, so pilots for the artillery have to learn to make do with anything they can find. Some interesting developments in fast transportation of artillery pieces going on also at Fort Sill's Army Aviation School. A non-stop snatch of a 75 millimeter pack howitzer. The possibilities of pickup and delivery of artillery by helicopter is now in active development. It puts down the weapon right where it's wanted, all ready for firing and may soon answer pressing need for fast movement of firepower in and out of tough spots. The Branch Artillery School at Fort Bliss, Texas, trains the anti-aircraft gunners. So it's back to the classroom for the crew to find out where they were off in their orientation and synchronization of the battery. If you pick up something on the trucker that you know is exactly 3010 mils azimuth, then your dials should read that exact figure. Young men learning to become electronics experts as well as good artillerymen. Now, if they don't, all you do is mechanically adjust the dials to read 3010. The same thing holds true for radar and the guns. Back to the guns to put the teaching into effect. The lesson for today seems to have clicked. And there's lots new in the anti-aircraft weapons themselves like the new Sky Sweeper designed to guard our cities in critical areas. Her insignia is a witch sweeping the skies and the gun lives up to it. On practically the push of a button, she can spot attacking aircraft, track it and automatically aim and fire. She throws 45 shells a minute and can reach up four miles. Here's the biggest of them all, the new 280 millimeter gun. Millions saw it for the first time in the presidential inaugural parade, the cannon that can fire atomic shells. The most powerful gun in the history of warfare, but in comparison with giant weapons of the past, she handles like a baby buggy. 84 feet long but capable of right angle turns, whipping around corners with the agility of a hook and ladder. She can do 35 miles an hour on the highways and turn off them cross country to get just about anywhere she's headed on her own. Complete mobility for the 85 ton rig of enormous tactical value when the great gun is called into action. Suspended between its cabs, the gun can turn practically in its own length. A great help for fast maneuvering in tight spots. The four and aft cabs of the gun operate independently but keep in communication by telephone. Goliath guns of history like World War I's Big Bertha required railroad cars and hundreds of troops to set them up. So superbly balanced and designed is the 280 that a six man crew, just six men, are needed to set this giant up for business. From absolute scratch, they can complete the emplacement of the gun and have her primed for firing in a little under 20 minutes. Balanced on three jacks and a turntable, her weight and size present no handling problems when released from the support of the cabs. Clear gun for firing preparation. Each of the six wheeled 375 horsepower engine cabs handle a real payload on the gun. The individual tonnage is more than double that carried by the largest freight truck on a Western highway. It's a long, long way from stem to stern. The barrel alone is 40 feet in length. First job, to get the gun's tube from transporting position to firing position. Power for that operation is furnished by cab number one. And to face her around to the direction of the target requires the manpower of only five of her crew members. So superbly balanced is the monster on her turntable. The gun will traverse a full 360 degrees in azimuth, a complete circle. Most of the operations for readying the gun though are accomplished automatically with the juice supplied by a portable generator. But no dependence on an electrical power supply for operation in battle. In the event of power failure, all of the gun's controls can be operated manually. The barrel can be lifted to fire at an angle of 55 degrees elevation. And the smoothly geared mechanism takes less than 30 pounds pressure to raise and depress the enormous tube and ready to load her. A winch and carriage are needed to handle the huge shell. Oh, not the atomic variety this time. But the procedure would be just the same to load up with the kind that raises a mushroom of destruction. Just a conventional 280 millimeter shell. If you can call a projectile this big conventional. A shell that will travel 20 miles and land on a pinpointed target. Squarely on the tray. And from here on, it's untouched by human hands. The shell is driven home by hydraulic rammer. And next, the heavy powder charge to propel it. Lanyard, elevation, azimuth. And she's ready to fire. The great gun, the biggest of them all. From the world's first gun to speak with a fury of bursting atoms. Voice ready to sound off if needed for democracy. The job of the artillery to swap steel and high explosive for the lives of our fighting men. The artillery is rolling along toward greater weapons to sound off in defense of democracy with an even mightier voice. Next week, the big picture brings you the story of special services and the recreation program in the Army, which is carried on wherever American soldiers are stationed. The big picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the Army at home and overseas. Produced by the Signal Corps Pictorial Center. Presented by the US Army in cooperation with this station. You can be an important part of the big picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.