Artillery: An Illustrated History of Its Impact

550 Pages·2008·34.17 MB·english

by  Jeff Kinard

A R T I L L E R Y
Other Titles in ABC-CLIO’s
WEAPONS AND WA R FARE SERIES
Aircraft Carriers, Paul E. Fontenoy
Ancient Weapons, James T. Chambers
Ballistic Missiles, Kev Darling
Battleships, Stanley Sandler
Cruisers and Battle Cruisers, Eric W. Osborne
Destroyers, Eric W. Osborne
Helicopters,Stanley S. McGowen
Machine Guns,James H. Willbanks
Medieval Weapons, Kelly DeVries, Robert D. Smith
Military Aircraft in the Jet Age,Justin D. Murphy
Military Aircraft, 1919–1945, Justin D. Murphy
Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918, Justin D. Murphy
Pistols,Jeff Kinard
Rifles, David Westwood
Submarines, Paul E. Fontenoy
Tanks, Spencer C. Tucker
A R T I L L E RY
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
OF ITS IMPA C T
Jeff Kinard
Santa Barbara, California • Denver, Colorado • Oxford, England
Copyright 2007 by ABC-CLIO
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kinard, Jeff, 1954-
Artillery : an illustrated history of its impact / Jeff Kinard.
p. cm. — (Weapons and warfare series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-85109-556-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-85109-561-2 (ebook)
1. Artillery—History. I. Title.
UF15.K55 2007
623.4'109—dc22
2006103178
11 10 09 08 07 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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C O N T E N T S
Introduction to Weapons and Warfare Series,
Spencer C. Tucker vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
chapter one
Ancient and Medieval Artillery 1
chapter two
Early Gunpowder Artillery 31
chapter three
The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 69
chapter four
Eighteenth- and Early-Nineteenth-Century Artillery 105
chapter five
Nineteenth-Century U.S. Artillery, 1800–1865 163
chapter six
Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Artillery 221
v
vi C O N T E N T S
chapter seven
The Interwar Years and World War II, 1921–1945 269
chapter eight
Post–World War II and
Late-Twentieth-Century Developments 299
reference section
Chapter Six Specifications 325
Chapter Seven Specifications 387
Chapter Eight Specifications 465
Glossary 501
Bibliography 505
Index 509
About the Author 537
INTRODUCTION TO
WEAPONS AND WA R FARE SERIES
Weapons both fascinate and repel. They are used to kill and
maim individuals and to destroy states and societies, and occasion-
ally whole civilizations, and with these the greatest of man’s cultural
and artistic accomplishments. Throughout history tools of war have
been the instruments of conquest, invasion, and enslavement, but
they have also been used to check evil and to maintain peace.
Weapons have evolved over time to become both more lethal and
more complex. For the greater part of human existence, combat was
fought at the length of an arm or at such short range as to represent
no real difference; battle was fought within line of sight and seldom
lasted more than the hours of daylight of a single day. Thus individ-
ual weapons that began with the rock and the club proceeded
through the sling and boomerang, bow and arrow, sword and axe, to
gunpowder weapons of the rifle and machine gun of the late nine-
teenth century. Study of the evolution of these weapons tells us
much about human ingenuity, the technology of the time, and the
societies that produced them. The greater part of technological de-
velopment of weaponry has taken part in the last two centuries, es-
pecially the twentieth century. In this process, plowshares have been
beaten into swords; the tank, for example, evolved from the agricul-
tural caterpillar tractor. Occasionally, the process is reversed and
military technology has impacted society in a positive way. Thus
modern civilian medicine has greatly benefited from advances to
save soldiers’lives, and weapons technology has impacted such areas
as civilian transportation or atomic power.
Weapons can have a profound impact on society. Gunpowder
weapons, for example, were an important factor in ending the era of
the armed knight and the Feudal Age. They installed a kind of rough
vii
viii I N T R O D U C T I O N
democracy on the battlefield, making “all men alike tall.” We can
only wonder what effect weapons of mass destruction (WMD) might
have on our own time and civilization.
This series will trace the evolution of a variety of key weapons sys-
tems, describe the major changes that occurred in each, and illus-
trate and identify the key types. Each volume begins with a descrip-
tion of the particular weapons system and traces its evolution, while
discussing its historical, social, and political contexts. This is fol-
lowed by a heavily illustrated section that is arranged more or less
along chronological lines that provides more precise information on
at least eighty key variants of that particular weapons system. Each
volume contains a glossary of terms, a bibliography of leading books
on that particular subject, and an index.
Individual volumes in the series, each written by a specialist in
that particular area of expertise, are as follows:
Aircraft Carriers
Ancient Weapons
Artillery
Ballistic Missiles
Battleships
Cruisers and Battle Cruisers
Destroyers
Helicopters
Machine Guns
Medieval Weapons
Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918
Military Aircraft, 1919–1945
Military Aircraft in the Jet Age
Pistols
Rifles
Submarines
Tanks
We hope that this series will be of wide interest to specialists, re-
searchers, and even general readers.
Spencer C. Tucker
Series Editor
P R E FA C E
This volume traces the history of artillery and its place in soci-
ety from the ancient world to the present. The term “artillery” is de-
rived from the Latin ars, or artis, terms for “craft” that later evolved
through the Old French atillier, meaning “to deck, adorn with care
or arrange”; atil, meaning “decoration, armor or equipment”; and at-
t i l l e m e n t , or “apparatus.” In 1268, Etienne Boileau defined an a r-
tillier as “a manufacturer of war engines, especially bows and offen-
sive weapons.” Throughout the Middle Ages “artillery” remained a
general term for all types of military equipment. According to
Gillaume Guiart in the early fourteenth century, “Artillery is the
waggon-train which by duke, count or king or by any earthly lord is
loaded with quarrels for war, crossbows, darts, lances and shields of
similar kind” (Contamine, 193).
By about 1500, the term “artillery” had reached its current mean-
ing, describing the actual cannons themselves, as well as their am-
munition, support equipment, and operating personnel. Deriving
from the Greek word k a n u n and Latin c a n n a , or “tube,” the word
canones is found first in a document written in Italy in 1326. Antoine
de Lalaing describes cannons in “the arsenal of Maximilian von Hab-
sburg at Innsbruck” as pieces d’artillerie (ibid., 139). The word “can-
non” was first used in France in 1339 and in England in 1378. Geof-
frey Chaucer mentions cannons in his poems written between 1375
and 1400; “cannon” was more often used in France, with the term
“gun” seeing more usage in England. The first English use of the
word “gun” to describe a firearm was in 1339. Earlier forms were
g u n n e , g o n e , and g u n n a , with possible etymological sources from
Old Norse (Hall, 44).
“Artillery” can also describe weapons capable of launching heav-
i e r, more destructive projectiles at longer ranges than those of the
ordinary infantry or cavalry arms. Early nongunpowder siege
ix