What does it mean when artillery is told to “fire for effect?”
What else would you want from artillery but an effect? 
As oppo0sed to “firing for range,” which is what you do before you can fire for effect.
Alot of times , arty is fired over the horizon so you need a spotter to tell you where the first shell splashed. Then the FICO or ANGLICO will call for fire for effect if no ajustments are required
Umm, depends on where you want the effect. Dropping a lot of steel rain on your own people is bad , so you want the enemy bracketed and having a bad day.
Declan
Ah gotcha, going from firing to see where your shells will fall to firing because you know they’re falling where you want them to 
“Fire For Effect” is the command the observer gives the firing battery when the shell from one gun are hitting the target. The firing battery then lets loose with all guns firing at the same range and azimuth. That is to say the Fire For Effect order switches the fire from one gun for ranging to six or more guns to do a damn-damn on the Bad Guys.
Well, another story passed down from my dad (WWII 16" battleship gunner). He told me that they would just pound an island for a couple of days without any “real” target in mind just to drive the Japenase crazy. After 48 hours of shell exploding around it’s hard to one,sleep and two be on top of your game for when the invasion troops hit the beach. Quite an effect.
Today in modern times I am reminded of the pre-invasion of Iraq. That great coverage of the enemy trying to just throw up fire into the air to hit targets that they couldn’t see. That was was firing for effect as well. Drove the Iraqies crazy so that by the time that the actual troops hit they were already battle fatiqued.
Si Amigo, I don’t think that is the “effect” the OP is referring to, though it is undeniably one use of artillery.
But he did ask: What else would you want from artillery but an effect?
Termonollogy and tactics evolve over time, but some things are tried and true. Laying siege to castle had an effect as well.
Good point, I didn’t realize that was the part you were referring to.
Sometimes called “harrassing fire”, btw.
Let’s see if I have this right:
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One gun in a battery fires single shots that are corrected by the forward observer until they’re on target.
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The observer gives the command “Fire for Effect”, meaning that all the other guns fire at the previously determined target “for effect”, meaning that they’re firing for the effect of the battery, not to get the battery on target.
Is there a “Fire for Range” or “Fire for Targeting” command? Seems like there would almost have to be, right?
I spent several years in the British equivalent of ROTC, working as the Command Post Officer in a battery of 105 mm light howitzers. My job was to receive commands from the Forward Observers (who are holed up on the front line, looking at the target) and give the guns the appropriate orders to fulfill the observers’ intentions. Here’s the typical sequence in training:
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Observer identifies a target, sends a message to tell the battery to get ready for action.
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Observer tells the battery where the target is located; command post converts this information into a provisional bearing and elevation. This firing data is given to one gun, which fires a single round. The command for this is ‘Adjust Fire.’
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Observer watches where the round actually falls, and sends corrections back. A new bearing/elevation is calculated, and you fire again. Repeat until the rounds fall so that the target is within the killing radius of the shell.
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Observer gives the order ‘N rounds, fire for effect’ - each gun in the battery then fires N rounds on a bearing and range such that they will hit the target. Note that, as the battery is spread out on the ground, each gun is generally firing on a unique set of firing data.
Of course, if the target area has been plotted and fired upon several times so that the coordinates are known, you can arrange a Time on Target barrage. In this case, all the different batteries scattered about calculate how long it will take their particular rounds (based on distance, shell weight, and shell velocity) to reach the target and all the batteries are ordered to fire in such a way that their shells will arrive simultaneously at a predetermined moment. In that case, the targets, instead of suffering some ranging shells followed by the actual barrage, giving them time to disperse or take whatever cover they can find, suddenly find themselves in the midst of a whirlwhind of flames and screaming shell fragments with only the initial whistling to give them warning.
This is one of the most impressive lessons I learned in Basic School. The demonstration was done with mortors located fairly close to our vantagne point on a hill overlooking a large field. The first round hit way to the right of the target, so the order was given for so many “clicks” to the left. It did not take long to line up the hits with the target. Then the order was given for so many “clicks” forward which intentionally overshot the target. Then a few “clicks” were taken off and the round hit right in front of the target. That is when the order was given to “add one click and fire for effect”. I’ve often thought about what it would be like to be the target and watch each round get closer and closer, knowing that there was no escape. 
So why don’t you need to adjust fire for each gun separately? True, one could calculate corrections for the other guns, but it seems to me that these calculated corrections would be about as good as the corrections after the first spotter’s report (after the first shell, when the spotter says “two hundred meters north”, or whatever). And they usually need more than one adjustment shot, don’t they?
Oh, and kniz, they would have been ordering so many klicks one way or the other, not clicks. “Klick” is military jargon for “kilometer”.
Actually, I suspect that they were using clicks in reference to the knobs on the elevation and ranging controls. Mortars, particularly close support mortars, are not going to be adjusting their fire in magnitudes of 1,000 meter increments.
This reminds me somewhat of a book I read, Grand Barrage, novelising part of the war in Malta c. 1942. The eponymous barrage was to protect the Grand Harbour and the ships in it, and was achieved by setting up pre-registered azimuth and elevation with every heavy flak piece on the island. During air raids they conducted their AA fire normally, except that when the order “Grand Harbour Barrage” was transmitted, everyone adjusted their guns to the pre-registered bearings and threw the kitchen sink at it. Supposedly it was one of the roughest rides the Luftwaffe (and Regia Aeronautica, I guess) ever had to take.
The whole thing depends on maps, now I suppose on global positioning technology. The firing center has to know where the forward observer is, and where the guns are on the ground. Once the firing center knows that the FO’s instruction that the shell fell 100 yards short of the target can be translated into some thing that is helpful to the base of fire gun. Generally a four gun battery in firing position is spread out in a square or diamond that may be a hundred yards or more across. The Forward observer just has to know where the target is. Once the FO confirms that the ranging rounds are splashing in the right place it is a fairly straight forward matter for each gun to be elevated and deflected (up and down, right and left) to put all of the rounds from all of the guns in generally the same place. Field artillery can be remarkably precise given a competent observer, an experienced firing center, efficient crews on the guns and consistent ammunition.
As far as the target is concerned, once you realize you are being ranged on you can either leave that place on you can start digging a hole. Unless you can get out of the FO’s observation leaving doesn’t do much good. A third alternative, and the best one, is to get counterbattery fire going just a quickly as can be done.
As to the original question, “fire for effect” means that the ranging shots are on target and the fire mission can commence in earnest. The FO will also call for the type of round, for instance, high explosive - anti-personnel, and the type of fusing, as for air bursts or ground burst. Air burst shrapnel is like being caught in a shower of high velocity, white hot, razor blades and is no fun at all.
The ability to adjust fire based on an observer allowed the guns to be located out of visual range. This was a huge change. Even as late as the opening days of WWI, gunners (being conservative as all heck) preferred to fire from the open. It was not indirect fire at all.
Oddly the ability of the French artillery to do this was developed over 20 years before. The secret of indirect fire (and the recoil system on the famous French 75) were the secrets the Germans stole in the Dryfus Affair.