Figure 1.--

Field artillery is what one usually thinks of when discussing artillery. Field artillery served both offensive and defensive funtions. It was use to prepare or soften up an area to be attacked or to help hold a defensive position. There are different ways of catehorizing artillery. The two most obvious are howitzers and mortars, based on the trajectory. Most wguns were howitzers. Heavy mortars were less common. Light mortars were infantry weapons. A major innovation here was the self propelled gun. World War I artillery was moved by animals, mostly horses. And this was also the case og a good deal of German artillery in World war II. American use of field artillery and its mobility at Bastoign helped save it during the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944). Field artillery fired various projectiles (high explosive and covering smoke to anti-aircraft and armour-piercing, anti-tank rounds). There were specialized artillery pieces. Perhps the most important were anti-tank gun and anti-aircraft guns. Anti-tank guns were an innovation in World War II. It was the Germans who first developed an effective one, in fact using an anti-asircraft gun and mastered effective tactics. It was not just a matter of the shell used. The barrel had to generate high velocity. At first neithter the Allies or the Soviets had a gun to match the German 88. One option was to use a tank gun, but entirely new guns were developed. both the Allies and the Soviets had effective nti-tank guns by the latter phase of the war. A Red Army anti-tnk gunner writes, "The panzer pivoted and stated movinbg toward us. It was firing its machine guns and the bullets were striking the shield. It fired a round from its cannon, but missed--we were in a slight hollow and the shell flew overhead. After my second shot, because the spades hadn't been dug in, the gun's left wheel had pressed me against the wall of the barn. I had to step over the trail and aim the gun by its barrel. I fired a total of five rounds before I finally hit the tank at adistance of just 10 meters and it burst into flames." [Drabkin] By the end of the War, the Soviets were uing the 100mm long-barrel BS-3. Unlike World War I, poison gas shells were not used. There were various types of guns including howitzers and mortars. Rocket artillery was also deployed as field artillery, primarily by the Germans and Soviets. While the U.S. Army made relatively little use of rockets, but the U.S. Navy used them in the Pacific as part of the pre-invasion bombardment of Japanese-held islands. Rockets were hardley new, but there use was limited until World War II. Field artillery could be employed in arange of tactical situations. This included direct, line-of-sight firing to howitzer lobs, which could deliver rounds behind obstacles, including buildings.

Created: 9:05 PM 7/26/2023
Last updated: 9:05 PM 7/26/2023