King Of Battle Analysis

Armies throughout the ages from ancient Greeks to modern armies on the battle field today all vie for technological and tactical advantages. One technological advantage brought to the battle filed time after time winning small skirmishes to wars is artillery, the king of battle. Modern filed artillery has a vast history in war. As early as the 1st century BC. Artillery was used by the ancient Roman armies to not only create divisive victories on the battle filed but all so to break sieges (www.ancient.eu/article n.d). In 322 BC. Andrews, E. (2013) said that, Alexander the great lay siege to the city of Tyre. This primitive form of artillery took several month to eventually take the city and its 150 foot walls. The King of Battle has stood the test of time by undergoing some major technological and tactical changes throughout history and will continue to be a threat on the battle filed in the future.

Ballistae were the first form of artillery. They looked like a modern cross bow. They hurled large piece of wood

or rocks in to armies that were cranked, under pressure, into place by a several men. Several centuries later the Romans developed the catapult. An indirect method of firing rocks weighing up to several hundred pounds. According to (History of Catapults n.d.) it was documented by Roman historian Vegetus, that these catapults needed a crew of eight to man. It comes to no surprise that crew drills, which are still the backbone of any artillery piece today, were honed and practiced in order to maximize the effectiveness of catapults. The Chinese developed a variant of the catapult called a trebuchet around 300 BC. (History of Catapults. n.d.). This was very similar to a catapult however, it did not use torque to create leverage to fire the round in its basket. The trebuchet used a counter weight on a fulcrum to generate kinetic energy. This slight change in the design allowed for a greater increase in range and less recoil than its counterpart. The arm balanced on the fulcrum could be up to 60 foot long. This siege engine would now allow armies to siege and destroy a city with walls that stood for hundreds of years and kept invading armies out.
Around the 12th century artillery with the use of explosives were first utilized by the Chinese infantry to hold off the Mongol army, according to, Chinese Cannons History, the first cannons were hand held and used up close as a buck shot weapon to cause incendiary burns. Shortly after the Chinese started to place projectiles inside to create a “buck shot” effect. Although this method caused the cannon holder to be up close and personal with their weapon, the use of artillery was a key player in multiple battles for Chinese to win the war with the Mongol army. Around the 14th century the need for artillery once again dominated the battlefield. During the English and French 100 years wars (1431-1453), new metal cannons, won the day. Metal cannons allowed for more concentrated fire power. It also allowed for stronger powder to be used which created a more devastating projectile. In the article, Early Cannon and Castilian, during the war the king of France name Jean Bureau, chief artillery engineer. He was responsible for the design, training of the crew, and all logistics of the French artillery. In 1453 artillery was the lich pin for Turkish victory in the siege of Constantinople. The Turkish army had 56 small cannons and two cannons that weighed at much as 50,000 pounds. The city of Constantinople that lasted 1,500 years fell to artillery fire in just seven days.
The technology of field artillery continued to evolve along with man’s favorite past time. One major technological change was the invention of the breech loading cannon which could be dated as far back as the discovery of the cannon itself. One notable battle being the Siege of Orleans in 1428 where the English employed 14 breech loaded cannons.
A few hundred years later another break through was adding unprecedented range and accuracy to field artillery. The Rifled cannon originated in 1664 in Berlin, the cannon was made of iron, had 13 grooves inside its barrel and was equipped with a screw breech. In 1776 while trying to put the rebellious Americans in their place the English developed a rifled cannon that had a range of 1100 yards and a deviation of only 2 feet (NY Times, 1861).
The standard cannon projectile for many years was a simple ball shaped round. The conical projectile first emerged at the Siege of La Rochelle, a protestant strong hold which was taken by in English in 1627. While the conical round may have been in use as early as the 1600’s it didn’t begin to gain any real traction until the 1800’s. In 1808 a French Chemist by the name of Guitton De Morneau proposed a substitute to the common round projectile. His was cylindrical and made of iron semi-spherical on one end and coated with lead to create a tighter seal.
From the 1428 to the 1808 many people experimented with breech loading, cannon rifling and the conical projectile, however no one attempted to combine all three technologies. It wasn’t until 1816 that Bavarian CPT of artillery M. Reichenbach combined the rifled cannon with the conical projectile. He developed a bronze cannon with 7 grooves and loaded it with conical balls. Then in 1828 CPT Delvigne fired his breech loading gun with cylindro-conical rounds finally proving that the conical projectile was superior to its predecessor (“History of the rifled cannon”, 1861).
The invention of the Howitzer is possibly the most important technological evolution of field artillery to date. The howitzer gave gunners the ability to not only elevate and depress the tube but also to be able to traverse which added flexibility to artillery. One of the earliest howitzers was the Krupp 420mm Howitzer also known as Big Bertha. This howitzer was used by the Germans while advancing through Belgium in 1914. This piece proved extremely effective against the poorly constructed Belgian forts which were constructed with layered concrete. However it was somewhat less effective against the French forts which were constructed of steel reinforced concrete. The largest down fall of Big Bertha was also its greatest attribute, its size meant that it had to be transported by rail and then assembled in place which made it extremely vulnerable to counter battery fire (Hanlon, 1998).
The M1911 30.5mm Skoda was one of the most notable howitzers of WWI as well as WWII. It was used by the Austro- Hungarian Empire during WWI and added much needed fire support during the war because there were no bomber planes at the time. The piece was comparable in size to a 12” ship cannon, fired a 1,000 pound round up to 4 miles and only took 6minutes to load aim and fire. In 1916 the barrel was lengthened giving it the M1916 designator (Cross, 2015).
Another notable howitzer from WWI and WWII was the Cannon De 155 GPF MLE 1917which was designed by French Colonel L.J.F.

Filloux. Originally used by the French and later adopted by the Americans this piece was transported by a split trail wheeled carriage and towed by either animal or vehicle. It weighed 28,500 pounds, had a 20’ long barrel, could elevate from 0 to +35 degrees and traverse up to 60 degrees each side. The howitzer was operated by a crew of 8 and had a max range of 21,325 yards

World War 2 gave way to a major advancement in artillery, Airborne Artillery. The M3 105mm Howitzer was designed to be able to load onto planes and drop with airborne troopers (ONWAR.COM). The tube was a Shorten version of the M2 howitzer. It was designed to provide troops with direct and indirect fire with a Maximum range 8,300 yards. This helped the allied troops greatly, it was issued to cannon companies of infantry regiments and air dropped behind enemy

lines.
The Gulf war was a chance for Artillery to integrate a new nonlethal piece of technology, GPS. Global Positioning System is an accurate worldwide navigational and surveying facility based on the reception of signals from an array of orbiting satellites. It helped with navigation in a place they had never been before. It also helped serve as a time clock for time on target in sequence with the forward observers, fire direction control, and the howitzers. Brigadier General Abrams said that almost half of the Army learned what GPS was good for, and how to operate it, and even how to jury rig it all without formal training (The Gulf War and “European Artillery”).
Today artillery howitzers have come a long way. The FH 77 155mm field Howitzer is one of themost advanced artillery systems available. The FH 77 155mm field howitzer is a 6x6 all-terrain vehicle, and is extremely powerful, and mobile. Global Security.org states the FH 77 155mm Howitzer can occupy a location and fire its first round in less than 50 seconds. The gun has a range of 30 Km and can fire 3 rounds with in the first 13 seconds, with a sustained rate of fire of 8 rounds a minute (GlobalSecurity.org FH 77 155mm Field Howitzer System). I believe the FH77 155mm field howitzer is redefining the way howitzers shoot move and communicate