zone fire

9.5

Artillery or mortar guns fire in one direction with changing elevation to hit different distances across a target area

noun

Jargon

: fuego de zona

Orders were given to lay down zone fire along the ridge to support the infantry advance.

Examples

The unit coordinated zone fire to disrupt enemy movement across the field.
The strategy involved coordinating zone fire so that mortars could strike at multiple distances, maximizing impact on the enemy forces.
Effective use of zone fire requires precise calculation of quadrant elevations for each gun.
The troops initiated a zone fire to cover the advancing enemy.
Can we implement a zone fire strategy during the next exercise?
To effectively defend the position, the artillery team executed zone fire to target multiple enemy positions across the valley.
During the operation, the commander called for zone fire to ensure that different elevations hit various enemy targets simultaneously.

Synonyms

searching fire

vszone fire

Specialized

9.9

Shots from guns aimed at different heights to hit targets at various distances

is sustained continuously in a single direction rather than occasional sweeping fire

Surface Forms

zone fire singular

zone fires plural

Morphology

zone + fire

The constituents 'zone' (a region) and 'fire' (the firing of guns) transparently suggest shooting directed into or across an area, so a B1 learner who knows both words could infer a general meaning of artillery firing covering a zone. However, the precise technical detail about sustained fire with varied elevation to cover different ranges is domain-specific and not predictable from the parts alone, making the overall understanding only partial.

Etymology

Zone fire comes from the image of many guns keeping up fire into a long zone ahead, each gun aiming at a different angle so shells fall at different distances. That's why it means 'to keep shooting in one direction while changing the angle to cover different ranges across a target area'.