Artillery

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

all sorts of great guns, cannon, or ordnance mortars, howitzers, machine-guns, etc., together with all the apparatus and stores thereto belonging, FRENCH 75-MILLIMETER FIELD GUN which are taken into the field or used for besieging and defending fortified places. It is often divided into (1) horse artillery; (2) field artillery; and (3) garrison artillery. Field artillery is artillery designed to be taken with an army to the field of battle; a park of artillery is artillery with the carriages, horses, and stores of all kinds necessary for its effective use; siege artillery is artillery of heavy metal designed to be employed in breaching A ROMAN DEVICE FOR SHOOTING FOUR ARROWS AT ONCE fortifications; a train of artillery is a certain number of pieces of cannon mounted on carriages, with all their furniture fit for marching. ১০ 0000 000 The name artillery is also given to the land troops by whom these arms are served, whether they accompany an army in the field, take part in sieges, or occupy fixed posts. Technically speaking, artillery includes all projectile weapons whose propelling force is gas. This definition of artillery excludes the mechanical devices by which, in the days of Archimedes and the Romans, missiles were projected to a considerable distance by mechanical means as the ballista. The discovery of ROMAN CATAPULT gunpowder in the 13th century made possible the engines of destruction that to-day are the chief reliance of armies. Several crude cannon were used at the battle of Crecy in 1346. They were also employed by the troops that Joan of Arc led to the siege of Orleans. Once the 000 BRITISH 9.2" HOWITZER, MOUNTED ON SEMI-PERMANENT BASE idea was grasped and the possibilities of the new arm demonstrated, developments were rapid. Its use spread through all Europe in the 16th century, but it was not until the 17th that its value in warfare was measurably utilized by Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War. Napoleon used it with telling effect in his campaigns, and laid especial stress upon the concentration of artillery fire. The most important modern imrivalry between France and Germ resulted in many other important improvements. Austria - Hungary, Italy, Russia, Japan, Switzerland, and the ITALIAN 16" MORTAR provements in artillery, besides the increase in size, is the general adoption of rifled ordnance, breech-loaders, and machine-guns. Throughout the 19th century the Great Powers increasingly United States each strove to perfect its own artillery and to meet its special requirements. In the World War the use of artillery was on a scale unparalleled up to that time. The Germans 155-MILLIMETER HOWITZER worked on the improvement of their respective artilleries. Great Britain, as a result of its many colonial wars, continuously improved both its military and naval artillery. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 and the resulting and Austrians with their great gun works at Essen and Skoda had a great preponderance over the Allies in heavy guns. The forts at Namur, Liège, Antwerp, and Maubeuge crumbled up like paper before the attack of the monster POWDER PROJECTILE -TUBE (rifled)