Naval gunfire support

When on the gun line, ships are particularly vulnerable to attack from aircraft coming from a landward direction and flying low to avoid radar detection, or from submarines because of a predictable and steady (non-evasive) course.

However, small vessels armed with large mortars saw use as late as the American Civil War, when the Union Navy used them in several attacks on coastal fortifications.

With a broad-beamed hull designed for stability and a shallow draft to allow close approach to the shore, the vessels were slow and thus unsuitable for naval combat.

Those ports, and the canals linking them to Bruges, were of major importance to the U-boat campaign in the North Sea and English Channel—and for that reason were frequently bombarded by RN monitors operating from Dover and Dunkirk.

Between 1919–39 all RN battleships/battlecruisers and all new-construction cruisers were equipped with Admiralty Fire Control Tables and GDT gear, and from the early 1930s (probably earlier) were required to carry out "live" bombardment practice once in each commission.

Indirect bombardment reached its zenith during World War II, when the availability of man-portable radio systems and sophisticated relay networks allowed forward observers to transmit targeting information and provide almost instant accuracy reports once troops had landed.

However, given the relatively primitive nature of the fire control computers and radar of the era combined with the high velocity of naval gunfire, accuracy depended upon designated observer aircraft until troops landed and were able to radio back reports to the ship.

In the Pacific War this mattered less, where the isolated defenders of island strongholds expected to be invaded at some point and had already committed whatever combat resources were available.

[8][9] Bombardment periods were usually shorter in the European theatre, where surprise was more often valued, overland reinforcement far more likely, and ships' guns were responding to the movements of mobile defenders, not whittling away at static fortifications.

Naval gunfire was used extensively throughout Normandy, although initially the surprise nature of the landings precluded a drawn-out bombardment which could have reduced the Atlantic Wall defences sufficiently.

NGFS was controlled by the United States Marines Corps First Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company which provided spotters, usually airborne in light aircraft but sometimes on foot, in all military regions.

As part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa, on 1 June 2007, the American destroyer USS Chafee shelled jihadist positions at Bargal, Somalia.

The French Navy fired approximately 3,000 76 and 100 mm (3.0 and 3.9 in) shells against military targets (the warships Jean Bart, La Fayette, Forbin, Chevalier Paul).

In the Marine Corps, artillery units have several naval gunfire liaison officers (NGLO, pronounced "no-glow") in each battalion to maintain close contact with the Navy for amphibious operations.

Shore fire control parties participate in field operations, often with a Marine artillery battery to provide simulated naval gunfire support.

When available, Marine spotters will call the fire missions for naval ships undergoing their gunnery qualification tests, to provide both parties the opportunity to practice their skills.