Artillery
British Artillery: The Battles of Arras and Vimy Ridge
The Allied plans for 1917 saw separate but coordinated attacks. The British would attack at Arras (and also storm Vimy Ridge) to pin down German reserves and set up Nivelle’s French attack.3 The BEF would be using new methods based on the experience of 1916. Over the winter the BEF had revised its doctrinal manuals; artillery priorities were now 1.…
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German WWII Special Artillery: The Taper-bore Guns
The 75/55-mm tapered bore 7.5-cm Pak 41. Artillery is not a field in which you might have expected, in 1939, to find anything secret; it appeared to be a fairly pedestrian field of activity, with developments limited simply to making minor improvements in metallurgy or fire control or detail design.…
WWI: Spotting for the Army’s Big Guns I
Using a wireless radio, aerial observers could sometimes adjust the fire of artillery batteries. In this posed photo, the battery commander relays correction information with a megaphone. The combination of aircraft, modern artillery techniques, and static warfare made the First World War battlefield different than any before. Balloon observers extended…
WWI: Spotting for the Army’s Big Guns II
1916 Caudron GIII artillery spotting – Paul Lengelle In terms of artillery observation, the United States entered the First World War entirely dependent on the French and British for preparatory operational assistance on the modern battlefield. The American Expeditionary Force came to Europe with outmoded battle doctrines that anticipated a…
Artillery of the Middle Ages
The earliest written evidence for the cannon is found in the ordinances of Florence for 1326, which order the appointment of superintendents for the manufacture of a brass cannon as well as arrows and iron balls for it. Fairly certainly, therefore, the actual invention of cannon took place some time…
Fortress Warfare in Renaissance Italy
French troops arriving in Naples, 1494. The first fully mobile and effective field artillery appeared in 1494 in the train of Charles VIII of France when he invaded Italy, and Fornovo (1495) was probably the first battle where artillery played a really effective part. The eight-foot bronze guns were drawn…
ROCKET ARTILLERY
Sir William Congreve’s son, Congreve the Younger, inherited his father ‘s technical talents and went on to gain even greater fame through his invention of the rockets that bore his name. Having arrived first from China centuries earlier, rockets had long been used in India before the British arrived. The…