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Defence Research and Development Canada Recherche et développement pour la défense Canada

Canada

Nearly a Century – Lessons from the Practice of Military Operational Research over 90 Years

Fred Cameron Land Capability Development Operational Research Team Kingston, Ontario Centre for Operational Research and Analysis

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High Speed Photography at L’institut Marey

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The Following Decade – 1908-1918

• 1908: Independence for Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria
• 1912-1913: Balkan Wars

– (1) Balkan League vs Ottoman Empire, (2) the fight over ‘spoils’

• 1914: Beginning of The Great War

– Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie visit Bosnia – Two violent deaths in Sarajevo in June… and many more to follow – Colonel Robert Nivelle challenges Professeur Charles Nordmann on sound ranging – Nordmann and Professeur Lucien Bull collaborate – Major Harold Winterbotham interest in flash spotting

• 1915: Early Developments in Counter-battery Work

– Major Harold Hemming develops of the flash-buzzer board – Major Willy Bragg investigates French sound ranging for the British

• 1916: Improvements

– Major William Tucker and Captain Joe Gray make improvements to sound ranging

• 1917: Arrival of the Americans

– Major Augustus Trowbridge and Captain Charles Bazzoni investigate French and British sound ranging for the Americans

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McNaughton and Canadian Counter-battery Work

JS Finan and WJ Hurley, ‘McNaughton and Canadian operational research at Vimy’ Journal of the Operational Research Society (1997) 45, 10-14 AGL McNaughton, ‘Counter Battery Work’ Canadian Defence Quarterly, July 1926 John Swettenham, McNaughton, Vol. 1, Ryerson, Toronto, 1968

First position for the Battle of Vimy. Carency, April 1917

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Sources of Intelligence for Counter Sources of Intelligence for Counter-

• Battery Work

Battery Work

From: ‘Counter Battery Work’ by AGL McNaughton, Canadian Defence Quarterly, July 1926

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Some Details Some Details

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From: ‘Counter Battery Work’ by AGL McNaughton, Canadian Defence Quarterly, July 1926 A System of Systems

Counter Battery Schematic

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Survey Section (SS), with Four Observations Posts (OP)

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Sound Ranging Section (SRS): Listening Post (LP) and four Microphone Stations (MS)

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Flash Spotting

• Reference bearing at each OP (d0)
• Report bearing of flash from

theodolite, or equivalent instrument

• Synchronize with system of

buzzers or lights

• Report synchronized bearings by

phone

d0 d0 θ1 θ2 OP1 OP2 G

German Line Allied Line

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G German gun LP Listening post MS Microphone stations SRS Sound Ranging Section

Sound Ranging

LP MS 1 MS 2 MS 3 MS 4

Allied Line

G

German Line

SRS

MS about 1.5 miles from front, with LP “well forward”

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The Math

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

( ) ( )

) 8 ( ) ( ) ( ) , ( ) , ( ) 7 ( ) ( ) ( ) , ( ) , ( ) 6 ( ) ( ) , ( ) 5 ( ) ( ) , ( ) 4 ( ) ( ) , ( ) 3 ( ) , ( ) 2 ( ) 1 (

2 3 1 3 32 31 2 3 1 2 32 21 2 3 32 1 3 31 1 2 21 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

equation t t t t y x y x equation t t t t y x y x equation v t t y x equation v t t y x equation v t t y x equation y y x x y y x x y x equation v T y y x x d equation y y x x d

j j i i ij i i i i i i i

− − = Δ Δ − − = Δ Δ − = Δ − = Δ − = Δ − + − − − + − = Δ = − + − = − + − =

Equations 7 and 8 constitute a nonlinear system of two equations in two unknowns.

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The Sound-Ranging System of Systems

Results in a photograph from a Bull-type string galvanometer using with six Tucker-type hot-wire microphones. Accurate to 1/200 sec

• r approximately 1.5m according to Lawrence Bragg.

Δt from ‘kick 5’ to ‘kick 6’

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G

German Line Allied Line

SRS

Sound Ranging

• Activate recorder at SRS

when LP hears gun fire

• Each MS is hard wired to one

lead on a six-string galvanometer

• Time difference between a

pair of MS determines a hyperbola

LP MS 1 MS 2 MS 3 MS 4

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G

German Line Allied Line

Sound Ranging

Plot asymtotes initially, then correct for the hyperbolas if necessary Time differences of microphone pairs: n(n-1)/2 4 MS → 6 hyperbolas 6 MS → 15 hyperbolas

SRS LP MS 1 MS 2 MS 3 MS 4

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Latency of three minutes?

• No time to solve equations numerically
• So a graphical method was used:

– Equations 4, 5, and 6 are hyperbolas – Plot asymptotes – Approximate location of G at the intersection of asymptotes (using ‘asymptote board’) – Intersection not likely a point, but a ‘cat’s cradle’ – Adjust interim results using tables

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Bragg’s Ingenious Plotting Board

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System Characteristics

• Coverage

– Six microphone stations across ~ 10 000 m frontage

• Accuracy

– Often enemy gun positions “to within 25 to 100 yards”

• Latency

– Reports often within three minutes

• Problems

– Environmental factors: wind, temperature, and barometric pressure

• Captain Joe Gray and the “Wind Section”

– Confusion in a barrage

• Captain Gray and Captain Lloyd-Owen, and the regular baseline
• By-products

– Determine characteristics of the target artillery piece, e.g., calibre – Adjust fire onto a target – Calibrate own artillery pieces

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Return to Vimy Ridge

German Gun at Vimy Destroyed by Counter-Battery Fire

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Soldiers: McNaughton, Hedley, Jack, Winterbotham, Alexander

• Lt Col Andrew McNaughton

– Royal Canadian Artillery – Counter Battery Staff Officer, Canadian Corps

• Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley

– Royal Engineers – Ordinance Survey and War Office in 1914 – KBE, CB, CMG

• Lieutenant-Colonel Ewan Maclean Jack

– Royal Engineers – Maps GHQ, British Expeditionary Forces – Brigadier, Director General Ordinance Survey 1922-1930 – CB, CMG, DSO, DL

• Major Harold Winterbotham

– Royal Engineers – Survey in British 3rd Army, under General Allenby – Brigadier, Director General Ordinance Survey 1930-1935 – CB, CMG, DSO

• Colonel Roger Alexander

– US Corps of Engineers – G-2-C (maps/survey) for General Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces – Later promoted to general officer

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General AGL McNaughton PC, CH, CB, CMG, DSO

• Subaltern, Canadian Militia, 1909
• MSc, Electrical Engineering, McGill, 1912
• Lieutenant Colonel, Royal Canadian Artillery,

1916

• Counter-Battery Staff Officer, Canadian

Corps, 1917 reporting to Lt Gen Sir Arthur Currie, Corps Commander

• Chief of the General Staff, 1929
• President, National Research Council, 1935
• Commander, First Canadian Army, 1942
• Minister of National Defence, 1944
• Proponent for creation of the Defence

Research Board, 1945 (precursor to Defence Research and Development Canada)

• Member, UN Atomic Energy Commission and

UN Security Council, 1946

• Co-chairman, US-Canada International Joint

Commission, 1950

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Scientists: Einthoven, Marey, Nordmann, Bull,

• Willem Einthoven

– De Universiteit Leiden – Electrocardiograph (ECG) with improved sensitivity

• Étienne-Jules Marey

– Cine-photography for recording movement in nature

• Charles Nordmann

– L’observatoire de Paris – Early French experimentation with sound ranging at instigation of Colonel Robert Nivelle

• Lucien Bull

– L’institut Marey – Six-channel string galvanometer from Einthoven ECG – High-speed photography

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British Soldier-Scientists: Hemming, Bragg, Tucker, Gray

• Major Harold Hemming

– McGill University – Flash spotting and flash-buzzer board

• Major William Lawrence Bragg

– Adelaide University and Cambridge University – Sound ranging

• Major William Sansome Tucker

– Imperial College London – Hot-wire microphone – sensitivity at low frequency

• Captain Joseph Alexander Gray

– McGill University and Queen’s University – Environmental factors and “Wind Section”

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American Soldier-Scientists: Trowbridge, Bazzoni, Lyman

• Major Augustus Trowbridge

– Princeton University, Physics Laboratory – Initiated study of four sound-ranging systems – Sound-ranging evaluation using ‘front line issues’

• Captain Charles Blizard Bazzoni

– University of Pennsylvania and University College London, Physics Laboratory – Assessment of Bull-Tucker sound-ranging system

• Major Theodore Lyman

– Harvard University, Physics Laboratory – Commanding Officer in Nov 1918 of 2nd Battalion, 29th Engineer Regiment: > 1000 personnel

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Trowbridge on Sound Ranging

Source: A. Trowbridge, “Sound-ranging in the American Expeditionary Forces” Chapter 5 in RM Yerkes The New World of Science: Its Development During the War, The Century Co, New York, 1920

Wind Effects on Sound Propagation Configuration of a Sound Ranging Section

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Trowbridge Assessment

• ‘In the hands of Mr Bull and Major Bragg… the original apparatus

was perfected so as to combine reliability with ample sensitiveness and an extremely quick recovery so that sound ranging could be carried on without confusion during periods of relatively great artillery activity’ – August Trowbridge ‘Sound Ranging in the American Expeditionary Forces’ in Yerkes, The New World of Science, 1920, p. 67

• ‘AEF’s sound rangers needed the kind of device which could be

easily operated, as he [Trowbridge] said, “under the nervous strain

• f field warfare”’

– Daniel J Kevles, “Flash and Sound in the AEF: The History of a Technical Service”, Military Affairs, Dec 1969, p. 383

• Front line issues:

– Reliability – Sensitiveness – Quick recovery

• Accuracy diagrams

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Trowbridge’s Assessment of Error

• Plot of craters after
• verrunning the positions of

German batteries

• Contours at 50m, 100m, and

150m

• After action review reckoned

accuracy was usually better than estimated at the time

• Trowbridge, post-war,

commented on high accuracy

• f averaging a position based
• n several measurements

under diverse conditions

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Lessons from 1918 Counter-battery Work

• 1. Practice science at the front
• 2. Encourage personal links: military-scientists
• 3. Ensure mutual credibility: military-scientists
• 4. Expect and require military sponsorship
• 5. Implement methods that are robust
• 6. Provide estimates of error
• 7. Maintain a lessons process
• 8. Recruit and train scientific staff wisely
• 9. Develop network of many contributors

10.Seek international collaborators

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Conclusions

• Operational research has a rich history, even

pre-dating the Second World War

• Our predecessors included fascinating activity

and colourful characters

• Soldier-scientists from Counter-battery Work

discovered many enduring lessons : –See the selected “Ten Lessons”

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References and Sources

• Text:

– Jim Finan and Bill Hurley, ‘McNaughton and Canadian operational research at Vimy’ Journal of the Operational Research Society, pp 10-14, 1997 – AGL McNaughton, ‘Counter Battery Work’, Canadian Defence Quarterly, July 1926 – John Swettenham, McNaughton, Vol. 1, Ryerson, Toronto, 1968 – Van der Kloot, William. ‘Lawrence Bragg's role in the development of sound-ranging in World War I’. Notes & Records of the Royal Society, 59:3 (2005), pp 273-84 – Daviel Kevles, ‘Flash and Sound in the AEF: The History of a Technical Service’, Military Affairs, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Dec., 1969), pp. 374-384 – Lawrence Bragg, AH Dowson, HH Hemming, Artillery Survey in the First World War, Field Survey Association, London, 1971 – The Ranger: The Journal of the Defence Surveyors’ Association, vol 2, no 15, Summer 2007 – A. Trowbridge, ‘Sound-ranging in the American Expeditionary Forces’ Chapter 5 in RM Yerkes The New World of Science: Its Development During the War, The Century Co, New York, 1920

• Imagery:

– Jack Turner: Canadian war photos from 1914-1918 – Lucien Bull: Cine-photography recording of the bubble and the bullet, 1904 – Andrew McNaughton: Schematics from 1918 in “Counter-battery Work” in Canadian Defence Quarterly, 1926 – Augustus Trowbridge: Microphone schematic and accuracy plots in The New World of Science, 1920

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