Originally Posted by
ORAC
In artillery terms you first have ranging shots to zero in your guns, then “fire for effect” are the subsequent rounds on the target.
To paraphrase a certain beer ad, "Bang On!"
Fire for effect is when the whole battery (or regiment) fires together as opposed to just one or more ranging guns adjusting the target.
Normally a pattern is specified. Options are Parallel, Converged, Linear and Circular or Rectangular Sheaf for distributed fires.