I tested it and the ability
does work. Not sure about the bulletins but how would you guys be able to tell about a few percentages difference in range? You would have to play two different games on the same map, Place the mortar the at the same spot and see how far it stretches and take note. Maybe you did that?
Mortars recive what seems like double range or close to it. leFH 18 seems to recieve double range as well (couldn't try extreme range as they killed my officer and at that point of the tests I couldn't be bothered taking time to produce an new one and provide cover for him all the way).
Panzerwerfer recieves some additional range, but not anything near double. Maybe 1/3 additional range. If a target is too far off, the mobile units will advance to a where they can reach. The howizter will simply not fire (my guess). Also (only watched it once), it seemed mobile units after relocating waited for each other to provide a sync barrage. It also seems the barrage will be executed so long the order is placed even if the officer is killed right after. So suicide rushes work. By ordering a strike too far away I could take notice how much the mortar team advanced and how much the panzerwerfer advanced and that way find their respective additional range recieved by the artillery officer (as concluded in bold). Arty officer order makes units ignore cooldown so feel free to barrage with respective unit before or after officer strike order.
It was way cool to see the effects of the combined barrage. Powerful. Ability definitely has use in my opinion.
While it says "increased range of all atry" My LeFH18 atry did not gain any increased range, I saw the Range increased meter(Where it shows the lines and angles) but the LeFH could only shoot as far as it could before.
My guess is that you klicked on the leFH 18 and checked its range. You can't tell like that, that's the individual unit's range. How it works is that the unit will fire at the Arty officers target reticle when he runs beyond the range of the leFH 18.