Artillery

The Tactical Notebook
Heavy Field Howitzers 1914-1915 (Part I)
During the first year of the First World War, the German Army possessed many more heavy field howitzers than its enemies. At the battle of Gorlice-Tarnow (1 May 1915 through 3 May 1915), skillful employment of these artillery pieces allowed the Germans to achieve the Holy Grail of position warfare – …
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2 months ago · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
President Bonaparte's 12-Pounder
In 1850, all artillery pieces in service with modern armies were smoothbore muzzleloaders made of bronze or cast iron. Pieces of radically different design, as well as pieces made of different materials, had been built and tested. None of these, however, had been adopted by any army, let alone fired in anger. …
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3 months ago · 1 like · Bruce I. Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
The Metric 12-Pounder
Though France adopted the metric system in 1795, several decades passed before it was fully embraced by French society as a whole. Thus, in 1853, when the French ordnance authorities standardized the gun-howitzer designed by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, they called it the “12-pounder gun-howitzer” …
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3 months ago · Bruce I. Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Foot Artillery with Formations
While the Foot Artillery (Fußartillerie) mobilized a substantial number of mobile batteries at the start of the First World War, very few of these were assigned to infantry divisions. (The only infantry divisions that received Fußartillerie units at the start of the war were the…
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3 months ago · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Counter-Battery Fire
The artillery of Europe entered the 20th century under the shadow of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The chief lesson of that conflict, most gunners in most places seemed to agree, was that the artillery played two roles in battle. I…
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3 months ago · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Sound and Flash
For the artillery, the implications of the adoption of indirect fire were favorable. Among other things, the life expectancy of the average gunner was greatly increased. For the infantry, however, the results were disastrous. Hidden guns that proved…
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3 months ago · 1 like · 5 comments · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
152 or 155?
The ongoing war in Ukraine has increased awareness of the fact that NATO-standard 155mm projectiles cannot be fired from artillery pieces built to use Soviet-style shells with a caliber of 152mm. Few, if any, of the stories that make mention of this matter, explain the reason for this crucial difference, with stems from decisions made over a century ag…
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3 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Artillery of the 16th Artillery Division
Upon mobilization, in September of 1939, 16th Infantry Division of the French Army received the standard allocation two field artillery regiments. The 37th Field Artillery Regiment, classified as the “light” regiment of the division, consisted of three identical battalions, each with three batteries of four 75mm ligh…
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2 months ago · 1 like · Bruce I Gudmundsson
The Tactical Notebook
Schneider-Canet Field Gun (Model 1895)
The 75mm field gun that the French firm of Schneider and Company put on the market in 1895 was known by several names. Some people named it after the location of the factory where it was built, the town of Le Creusot in the Burgundy region of France. Others called it by the surname of its inventor, Gustave Canet (1846-1913…
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3 months ago · Bruce I Gudmundsson