atry not on target

[Colonel Talvela]

The spotter calls in the co ordinance for the exact spot, where he wants the barrage to land, as he figures them to be from his map, etc. The artillery battery fires one spotting round for the spotter to double check whether they are on Q or not.
When or if the spotter sees the round land, (usually missing the intended target area) he calls in a correction, usually in yards/meters and compass direction east south etc.

Now if that spotting round lands out of the spotters sight, he can not possibly make this correction. The artillery battery officer will use the co ordinance given to him and fire at full effect. Ussually missing the intended target by far and wide..
Now that is my "amateur" understanding of how it works.. :-)

maybe in RL that is how it works - but not in CM.