firebase

An encampment designed to provide indirect artillery support to infantry troops operating beyond the normal range of fire support from their own base camps; a fire support base.

Noun

  1. An encampment designed to provide indirect artillery support to infantry troops operating beyond the normal range of fire support from their own base camps; a fire support base.
    • They had each set up a one-tank firebase, and become the center of a small community. Behind the sandbagged fort that each crew had built, a cluster of refugee huts and sprung up, and now, as the company drove by, these...
    • US ground troop operations in the A Shau Valley were strengthened by fire support bases strategically located throughout the area. Firebase names like Eagle's Nest, Berchtesgaden, and Currahee evoked connections to the...
    • Firebase Birmingham seemed pretty nice after our recent field experiences and it was good to be back. It was really great to be able to take a shower every day, wear relatively clean fatigues and eat hot chow most of...

Origin

From fire + base.

Forms

firebases fire-base fire base

Synonyms

fire support base FB FSB