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Artillery: An Illustrated History of Its Impact (Weapons and Warfare) PDF

550 Pages·2007·33.94 MB·English
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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 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in the United States of America Senior Production Editor, Cami Cacciatore Editorial Assistant, Sara Springer Production Manager, Don Schmidt Media Manager, Caroline Price Media Editor, J. R. Withers File Management Coordinator, Paula Gerard C O N T E N T S Introduction to Weapons and Warfare Series, vii Spencer C. Tucker ix Preface xi Acknowledgments chapter one 1 Ancient and Medieval Artillery chapter two 31 Early Gunpowder Artillery chapter three 69 The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries chapter four 105 Eighteenth- and Early-Nineteenth-Century Artillery chapter five 163 Nineteenth-Century U.S. Artillery, 1800–1865 chapter six 221 Late-Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Artillery v vi C O N T E N T S chapter seven 269 The Interwar Years and World War II, 1921–1945 chapter eight Post–World War II and 299 Late-Twentieth-Century Developments reference section 325 Chapter Six Specifications 387 Chapter Seven Specifications 465 Chapter Eight Specifications 501 Glossary 505 Bibliography 509 Index 537 About the Author 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

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Artillery: An Illustrated History of Its Impact charts the development of large, crew-operated battlefield weapons from the dart firers and catapults of the ancient world to the invention of gunpowder in China and its applications in medieval Europe, and from the emergence of naval and land gunnery
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