Indirect Fire for Dummies

Indirect Fire is a term that is commonly used in military contexts to describe a specific type of attack strategy. Imagine you and your friends are playing a game of dodgeball, and you want to hit someone who is hiding behind a tall wall. Now, instead of directly throwing the ball at the person, you cleverly bounce it off the ground or a nearby obstacle to make it reach the target without them seeing it coming. Well, that's kind of how indirect fire works in military operations. Instead of directly shooting at the enemy or their position, the attacking force aims at a different location nearby, usually out of the enemy's sight.

This is done by using specialized weapons such as mortars or artillery, which allow the defenders to hit targets that are far away or hidden behind obstacles. One way of doing this is by calculating the trajectory of the projectile, how high it needs to go and how far it needs to travel, in order to hit the intended target indirectly. So, just like bouncing the dodgeball off the ground to reach your hiding friend, the attacking force calculates the angle, distance, and trajectory to hit a target that they cannot see directly.

Now, I should mention that "indirect fire" can have another meaning. In a different context, it can refer to the act of intentionally misleading or manipulating someone by providing false information or by using deceptive tactics. This is often seen in detective movies when they try to divert the attention of the suspects or misguide them during an investigation.

To sum it all up, "indirect fire" in military terms refers to an attacking strategy where the attacking force aims at a different location in order to hit a target that is either far away or hidden behind obstacles and cannot be hit directly. In a different context, "indirect fire" can also refer to the act of misleading or manipulating someone by providing false information or using deceptive tactics.