In the course of producing posts for this newsletter, I have discovered a number of remarkable resources related to ordnance of what, when struck by an especially Romantic mood, I like to call ‘The Age of the Cannon Kings’. This was the era, which corresponds to the American Gilded Age, Germany’s Kaiserzeit, and the Belle Époque of France, when the great armaments firms of the industrialized world turned steel into artillery pieces.
Thus, in keeping with the ‘show your work, share your methods’ philosophy of The Tactical Notebook, I hereby offer links to websites that offer materials of interest to students of the sort of ordnance employed by men who wore detachable collars and danced the turkey trot.
When looking for photos of guns, howitzers, and mortars, I start with a pair of catalogs published by arms makers. Both of these also provide lists of such technical characteristics as dimensions, weight, and range.
Schneider et Cie Les Établissements Schneider. Matériels d’Artillerie et Bateaux de Guerre (The Schneider Establishments. Artillery Pieces and Warships) (Paris: Lahure, 1914) (Gallica)
Bethlehem Steel Company Mobile Artillery Materiel (South Bethlehem: Grim, 1916) (Combined Arms Research Library)
Readers who only say parlez-vous when singing to chorus to Mademoiselle from Armentières will have no trouble deciphering the data provided by the brochure from Schneider. Readers who wish to improve their command of the language of Cervantes will be pleased to discover that, in the hope of selling their wares to armies in Latin America, the good people of Bethlehem Steel provided translations into Spanish of all of the entries in their catálogo.
A duo of German reference works performs a similar service. Thanks to the splendid work performed by the scanmeisters employed by the Digital Study Room of the Defense Ministry of the Czech Republic, the photos found in these books leave little to be desired.
Hermann Schirmer Das Gerät der schweren Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg (The Equipment of Heavy Artillery before, during, and after the World War) (Berlin: Bernhard und Graefe, 1937) (Defense Ministry of the Czech Republic)
Alfred Muther Das Gerät der leichten Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg: II. Teil. Infanteriegeschütze, Tankabwehr und Tankbestückung (Equipment of Light Artillery Before, During, and After the World War: Part II. Infantry Guns, Anti-Tank Weapons, and Tank Armament) (Berlin: Bernard und Graefe, 1932) (Defense Ministry of the Czech Republic)
As the similarity of titles suggests, the books written by Herrn Schirmer and Muther belong to a series. While the earlier editions of the component works of this collection - those published in the 1920s - lack photos, the latter editions - from the 1930s - benefit from many high-quality illustrations. (In some cases, these were placed in separately bound appendices.)
For an example of an earlier (photo-free) book in this series, see Alfred Muther Das Gerät der leichten Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg: I. Teil. Feldgeschütze (Equipment of Light Artillery Before, During, and After the World War: Part I. Field Pieces) (Berlin: Bernard und Graefe, 1925) (Defense Ministry of the Czech Republic)
I also make extensive use of the photo collections of the U.S. National Archives and The Library of Congress. However, when doing so, I often remind myself that few of the people who wrote descriptions of the guns and howitzers in question possessed special expertise in the realm of ordnance. Thus, a search will often involve a combination of generic key words (such as ‘artillery’ or even ‘gun’) with examination of a large number of photos.
The greatest exception to this rule that I have encountered concerns photos of the members of the American ‘system of mobile artillery’ developed between 1902 and 1917. These, which were provided by the Ordnance Department, can be found on the website of the National Archives by searching on the phrase ‘types of ordnance’.
When looking for detailed drawings of artillery pieces, I start my search with the Engineering (Hathi), a British journal that employed the services of first-class draftsmen.
When looking for information about ordnance employed by English-speaking armies, I make extensive use of the handbooks published by the War Office (of the United Kingdom) and the War Department (of the United States).
The Tactical Notebook has already published a guide to the handbooks for British guns and howitzers of the Edwardian Era (which offers links to the best scans of such works I could find) and an introduction of the American ‘system of mobile artillery’ (which links to some, but not all, of the relevant manuals.) Readers can find additional handbooks by searching, at the Internet Archive, for works published by the Ordnance Department between 1904 and 1918.
Italian wars 1493-1526…