Revised Edition: 2016 ISBN All rights reserved.

Transcription

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2 Revised Edition: 2016 ISBN All rights reserved. Published by: Library Press 48 West 48 Street, Suite 1116, New York, NY 10036, United States

3 Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Introduction and History of Artillery Chapter 2 - Field Artillery in the American Civil War Chapter 3 - Shell (Projectile) Chapter 4 - Classification of Artillery Chapter 5 - Modern Operations of Artillery Chapter 6 - Nuclear Artillery

4 Chapter- 1 Introduction and History of Artillery French naval piece of the late 19th century Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons. These engines comprise specialised devices which use some form of stored energy to operate, whether mechanical, chemical, or electromagnetic. Originally designed to breach fortifications they have evolved from nearly static installations intended to reduce a single obstacle to highly mobile weapons of great flexibility in which now reposes the greater portion of a modern army's offensive capabilities.

5 In common speech the word artillery is often used to refer to individual devices, together with their accessories and fittings, although these assemblages are more properly referred to as equipments. By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines. Artillery may also refer to a system of applied scientific research relating to the design, manufacture and employment of artillery weapon systems although, in general, the terms ballistics and ordnance are more commonly employed in this sense. History Roman mechanical artillery Mechanical systems used for throwing ammunition in ancient warfare, also known as "engines of war", like the catapult, onager, trebuchet and the ballista are also referred to by military historians as artillery. Middle Ages first gunpowder artillery The first documented record of artillery with gunpowder propellant used on the battlefield was on January 28, 1132 when General Han Shizhong of the Song Dynasty used escalade and Huochong to capture a city in Fujian. These small, crude weapons

6 diffused into the Middle East (the madfaa) and reached Europe in the 13th century, in a very limited manner. In Asia, Mongols adopted the Chinese artillery and used it effectively in the great conquest. By late 14th AD, Chinese rebels used organized artillery and cavalry to push Mongols out. The new Ming Dynasty established the "Divine Engine Battalion" specialized in various types of artillery. Light cannons and cannons with multiple volleys were developed. In a campaign to suppress a local minority rebellion near today's Burmese border, the Ming army used a 3-line method of arquebuses/muskets to destroy an elephant formation. Between 1593 and 1597, about 300,000 Chinese and Japanese troops fought in Korea and both sides used heavy artillery in land and sea battles. French gunner in the 15th century, a 1904 illustration

7 Cannon in the Castle of São Jorge, Lisbon The Austrian Pumhart von Steyr, the earliest extant supergun.

8 In 1415, the Portuguese invaded the Mediterranean port town of Ceuta. While it is difficult to confirm the use of firearms in the siege of the city, it is known that the Portuguese defended it thereafter with firearms, namely bombardas, colebratas, and falconetes. In 1419, Sultan Abu Sa'id led an army to reconquer the fallen city, and Moroccans brought cannons and used them in the assault on Ceuta. Finally, hand-held firearms and riflemen appear in Morocco, in 1437, in an expedition against the people of Tangiers. It is clear that these weapons had developed into several different forms, from small guns to large artillery units. The artillery revolution in Europe caught on during the Hundred Years War and changed the way that battles were fought. In the following year, the English used a gunpowder weapon in a military campaign against the Scottish. However, at this time, the cannons used in battle were very small and not particularly powerful. Cannons were only useful for the defense of a castle, as demonstrated in the battle of Breteuil in 1356, when the besieged English used a cannon to destroy an attacking French assault tower. By the end of the 14th century, cannons were only powerful enough to knock in roofs, and therefore could not penetrate castle walls. fortifications, and yet her troops prevailed in that battle. In addition, she led assaults However, a major change occurred between , when artillery became much more powerful and could now batter strongholds and fortresses quite efficiently. Both the English, French, and Burgundians advanced in military technology, and as a result the traditional advantage that went to the defense in a siege was lost. The cannons during this period were elongated, and the recipe for gunpowder was improved to make it three times as powerful as before. These changes led to the increased power in the artillery weapons of the time. Joan of Arc encountered gunpowder weaponry several times. When she led the French against the English at the Battle of Tourelles, in 1429, she faced heavy gunpowder against the English-held towns of Jargeau, Meung, and Beaugency, all with the support of large artillery units. When she led the assault on Paris, Joan faced stiff artillery fire, especially from the suburb of St. Denis, which ultimately led to her defeat in this battle. In April 1430, she went to battle against the Burgundians, whose support was purchased by the English. At this time, the Burgundians had the strongest and largest gunpowder arsenal among the European powers, and yet the French, under Joan of Arc's leadership, were able to beat back the Burgundians and defend themselves. As a result, most of the battles of the Hundred Years War that Joan of Arc participated in were fought with gunpowder artillery.

9 A bombard, Malbork Castle As small smoothbore tubes these were initially cast in iron or bronze around a core, with the first drilled bore ordnance recorded in operation near Seville in They fired lead, iron, or stone balls, sometimes large arrows and on occasions simply handfuls of whatever scrap came to hand. During the Hundred Years' War ( ) these weapons became more common, initially as the bombard and later the cannon. Cannon were always loaded from the muzzles. While there were many early attempts at breechloading designs, a lack of engineering knowledge rendered these even more dangerous to use than muzzle-loaders.

10 Early modern period age of the smoothbores Artillery with Gabion fortification A forge-welded Iron Cannon in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. This cannon was built during the reign of Raghunatha Nayak ( AD), and it is said to be one of the largest cannons in the world. Artillery was used by Indian armies predominantly for defending against besieging armies.

11 Bombards developed in Europe were massive smoothbore weapons distinguished by their lack of a field carriage, immobility once emplaced, highly individual design, and noted unreliability (in 1460 James II, King of Scots, was killed when one exploded at the siege of Roxburgh). Their large size precluded the barrels being cast and they were constructed out of metal staves or rods bound together with hoops like a barrel, giving their name to the gun barrel. Bombards were of value mainly in sieges, a famous Turkish example used at the siege of Constantinople in 1453 weighed 19 tons, took 200 men and sixty oxen to emplace and could fire seven times a day. The Fall of Constantinople was perhaps "the first event of supreme importance whose result was determined by the use of artillery" when the huge bronze cannons of Mehmed II, made by the Hungarian Orban, breached the walls of Constantinople thereby ending the Byzantine Empire according to Sir Charles Oman. Cannons on display at Fort Point The use of the word "cannon" marks the introduction in the 15th century of a dedicated field carriage with axle, trail and animal-drawn limber this produced mobile field pieces that could move and support an army in action, rather than being found only in siege and static defences. The reduction in the size of the barrel was due to improvements in both iron technology and gunpowder manufacture, while the development of the trunnion projections at the side of the cannon as an integral part of the cast allowed the barrel to be fixed to a more movable base, and also made raising or lowering the barrel much easier.

12 The first land-based mobile weapon is usually credited to Jan Žižka, who deployed his oxen-hauled cannon during the Hussite Wars of Bohemia ( ). However cannons were still large and cumbersome. With the rise of musketry in the 16th century, cannon were largely (though not entirely) displaced from the battlefield the cannon were too slow and cumbersome to be used and too easily lost to a rapid enemy advance. Polish multiple gun from 16th-17th century The combining of shot and powder into a single unit, a cartridge, occurred in the 1620s with a simple fabric bag, and was quickly adopted by all nations. It speeded loading and made it safer, but unexpelled bag fragments were an additional fouling in the gun barrel and a new tool a worm was introduced to remove them. Gustavus Adolphus is identified as the general who made cannon an effective force on the battlefield pushing the development of much lighter and smaller weapons and deploying them in far greater

13 numbers than previously. But the outcome of battles was still determined by the clash of infantry. Shells, explosive-filled fused projectiles, were also developed in the 17th century. The development of specialized pieces shipboard artillery, howitzers and mortars was also begun in this period. More esoteric designs, like the multi-barrel ribauldequin, were also built. The 1650 book by Kazimierz Siemienowicz "Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima" was one of the most important contemporary publications on the subject of artillery. For over two centuries this work was used in Europe as a basic artillery manual. One of the most significant effects of artillery during this period was however somewhat more indirect by easily reducing to rubble any medieval-type fortification or city wall (some which had stood since Roman times), it abolished millennia of siege-warfare strategies and styles of fortification building. This led, amongst other things, to a frenzy of new bastion-style fortifications to be built all over Europe and in its colonies, but also had a strong integrating effect on emerging nation-states, as kings were able to use their newfound artillery superority to force any local dukes or lords to submit to their will, setting the stage for the absolutist kingdoms to come. Modern era age of rifled guns The highly effective German 15 cm field howitzers during the First World War

14 Cannons continued to become smaller and lighter Frederick II of Prussia deployed the first genuine light artillery during the Seven Years War but until the mid-19th century improvements in metallurgy, chemistry, manufacturing and other sciences did not alter the basic design and operation of a cannon. Artillery continued to gain prominence in the 18th century when Jean-Baptiste de Gribeauval, a French artillery engineer introduced the standardization of cannon design. He developed a 6-inch (150 mm) field howitzer whose gun barrel, carriage assembly and ammunition specifications were made uniform for all French cannons. The standardized interchangeable parts of these cannons down to the nuts, bolts and screws made their mass production and repair much easier. Another major change at this time was the development of a flintlock firing mechanism for the cannons. The old method of firing the cannon involved the use of a linstock or match to light a small quantity of powder charge in a touchhole drilled into the breech. This technique was quite faulty because the ignited powder could easily be extinguished by rain and an excess amount of charge could cause the guns to burst. Whitworth all independently produced rifled cannon in the 1840s, but these guns did not The flintlock mechanism on the other hand only needs to be cocked and when its trigger is pulled the flint of the hammer strikes the frizzen throwing sparks into the pan and detonating the charge at the breech. The trigger can be tied to a lanyard and fired from a safe distance. These changes laid down in 1789 would prove decisive for Napoleon's conquests. Napoleon, himself a former artillery officer, perfected the tactic of massed artillery batteries unleashed upon a critical point in his enemies' line as prelude to infantry and cavalry assault and, more often than not, victory. Rifling had been tried on small arms in the 15th century. The machinery to accurately rifle a cannon barrel did not arrive until the 19th century. Cavelli, Wahrendorff, and see widespread use until the latter stages of the American Civil War when designs such as the various caliber Rodman guns came to prominence.

15 1858 Dress Hat, a.k.a. Hardee hat, branch of service artillery From the 1860s artillery was forced into a series of rapid technological and operational changes, accelerating through the 1870s and thereafter. The first effective breech-loader (allowing a higher rate of fire while keeping the detachment behind the gun) was developed in 1855 by Sir William Armstrong, and accepted for British service in The first cannon to contain all 'modern' features is generally considered to be the French 75 of 1897 with its cased ammunition, effective breech-loading, modern sights, selfcontained firing mechanism, and hydro-pneumatic recoil dampening. After the War of 1870 the Germans became strong advocates of indirect fire. In 1882 a Russian officer Lieutenant Colonel KG Guk published a book Indirect Fire for Field Artillery that provided a practical method of using aiming points for indirect fire. A few years later the Richtfläche (lining-plane) sight was invented in Germany and provided a means of indirect laying in azimuth, clinometers for indirect laying in elevation already existed. In the following 15 years the techniques of indirect fire became available for all types of artillery. Indirect fire was the defining characteristic of 20th Century artillery and led to undreamt of changes in the amount of artillery, its tactics, organisation and techniques most of which occurred during World War I. To quote McCamley, [By WWII] decades if not centuries of weapons development had settled into maturity on an almost imperceptibly rising plateau; the sciences of ballistics and explosive chemistry

16 had achieved near perfection given the available technology of the age. Arguably the only new developments of note were discarding sabot rounds... and the hollow-charge projectile... both of which were of marginal significance in the Second World War. After the Second World War age of precision WWI German Field Gun Modern artillery is most obviously distinguished by its large caliber, firing an explosive shell or rocket, and being of such a size and weight as to require a specialized carriage for firing and transport. However, its most important characteristic is the use of indirect fire, whereby the firing equipment is aimed without seeing the target through its sights. Indirect fire emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and was greatly enhanced by the development of predicted fire methods in World War I. Indirect fire uses firing data set on the sights, predicted fire methods ensure that these data are accurate and corrects for variations from the standard conditions for muzzle velocity, temperature, wind and air density. Weapons covered by the term 'modern artillery' include "cannon" artillery such as the howitzer, mortar, and field gun, and rocket artillery. Certain smaller-caliber mortars are more properly designated small arms rather than artillery, albeit indirect-fire small arms. This term also came to include coastal artillery which traditionally defended coastal areas against seaborne attack and controlled the passage of ships. With the advent of powered

17 flight at the start of the 20th century, artillery also included ground-based anti-aircraft batteries. The term "artillery" has traditionally not been used for projectiles with internal guidance systems, even though some artillery units employ surface-to-surface missiles. Advances in terminal guidance systems for small munitions has allowed large-caliber projectiles to be developed, blurring this distinction. Overview French soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War Although not called as such, machines recogonizable as artillery have been employed in warfare since antiquity. The first references in the western historical tradition may be those of Hero of Alexandria c. AD 1C. but these devices were widely employed by the Roman Legions in Republican times well before the Christian era. Through much of their early history artillery was treated as part of the engineering art because the devices were often constructed mostly of local materials whenever needed and not permanently assembled. Until the introduction of gunpowder into western warfare artillery depended upon mechanical energy to operate and this severely limited the range and size of projectiles while also requiring the construction of very large apparatus to store sufficient energy.

18 For much of artillery's history during the Middle Ages and the Early modern period, artillery pieces on land were moved with the assistance of horse teams. During the more recent Modern era and in the Post-Modern period the artillery crew has used wheeled or tracked vehicles as a mode of transportation. Artillery used by naval forces has changed significantly also, with missiles replacing guns in surface warfare. Over the course of military history, projectiles were manufactured from a wide variety of materials, made in a wide variety of shapes, and used different means of inflicting physical damage and casualties to defeat specific types of targets. The engineering designs of the means of delivery have likewise changed significantly over time, and have become some of the most complex technological application today. In some armies, the weapon of artillery is the projectile, not the piece that fires it. The process of delivering fire onto the target is called gunnery. The actions involved in operating the piece are collectively called "serving the gun" or "detachment" by the gun crew, constituting either direct or indirect artillery fire. The manner in which artillery units or formations are employed is called artillery support, and may at different periods in history refer to weapons designed to be fired from ground, sea, and even air-based weapons platforms. The term 'artillery' is also applied to a combat arm of most military services when used Although the term also describes soldiers and sailors with the primary function of using artillery weapons, the individuals who operate them are called gunners irrespective of their rank, however 'gunner' is the lowest rank in artillery arms. There is no generally recognised generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth: some armies use 'artillery piece', while others use 'gun'. The projectiles fired by artillery are typically either 'shot' (if solid) or 'shell' if not. Shell is a widely used generic term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions. organizationally to describe units and formations of the national armed forces that operate the weapons. The gunners and their guns are usually grouped in teams called either 'crews' or 'detachments'. Several such crews and teams with other functions are combined into a unit of artillery usually called a battery, although sometimes called a company. Batteries are roughly equivalent to a company in the infantry, and are combined into larger military organizations for administrative and operational purpose. During military operations the role of field artillery is to provide close support to other arms in combat or to attack targets. The latter role is typically achieved by delivering either high explosive munitions to inflict casualties on the enemy from casing fragments and other debris and blast, or by demolition of enemy positions, equipment and vehicles. The artillery fire may be directed by an artillery observer. Military doctrine has played a significant influence on the core engineering design considerations of Artillery ordnance through its history, in seeking to achieve a balance between delivered volume of fire with ordnance mobility. However, during the modern period the consideration of protecting the gunners also arose due to the late-19th century

19 introduction of the new generation of infantry weapons using conoidal bullet, better known as the Minié ball, with a range almost as long as that of field artillery. The gunners' increasing proximity to and participation in direct combat against other combat arms and attacks by aircraft made the introduction of a gun shield necessary. The problems of how to employ a fixed or horse towed gun in mobile warfare necessitated the development of new methods of transporting the artillery into combat. Three distinct forms of artillery developed: the tank, which later became a combat arm in its own right as the technology matured beyond a simple tracked box with a cannon mounted in it; the self-propelled gun, which was designed to accompany a mobile force and provide continuous fire support; and the towed gun, which was used primarily to attack or defend a fixed line. These influences have guided the development of artillery ordnance, systems, organisations, and operations until the present, with artillery systems capable of providing support at ranges from as little as 100 m to the intercontinental ranges of ballistic missiles. The only combat in which artillery is unable to take part in is close quarters combat. Etymology The word as used in the current context originated in the Middle Ages. One suggestion is that it comes from the Old French atellier meaning "to arrange", and attillement meaning "equipment". From the 13th century an artillier referred to a builder of any war equipment, and for the next 250 years the sense of the word "artillery" covered all forms of military weapons. Hence the naming of the Honourable Artillery Company an essentially Infantry unit until the 19th century. Another suggestion is that comes from the Italian arte de tirare (art of shooting) coined by one of the first theorists on the use of artillery, Niccolo Tartaglia.

20 Ammunition Artillery ammunition can also make use of nuclear warheads, as seen here. One of the most important role of logistics is the supply of munitions as a primary type of artillery consumable, their storage and the provision of fuses, detonators and warheads at the point where artillery troops will assemble the charge, projectile, bomb or shell. A round of artillery ammunition comprises four components: 1: The Fuze 2: The Projectile 3: The Propellant 4: The Primer

21 Artillery fuze An artillery fuze or artillery fuse is the type of munition fuze used with artillery munitions, typically projectiles fired by guns (field, anti-aircraft, coast and naval), howitzers and mortars. A fuze is a device that initiates an explosive function in a munition, most commonly causing it to detonate or release its contents, when its activation conditions are met. This action typically occurs a preset time after firing (time fuze), or on physical contact with (contact fuze) or detected proximity to the ground, a structure or other target (proximity fuze). Terminology The most common spelling for this usage in the militaries of most English-speaking countries is "fuze", and some suggest this is derived from fuzee meaning a tube filled with combustible material itself derived from fusée meaning a spindle, whereas other types of fuse derive from fusus and fundu meaning to melt. but historically it has also been spelt "fuse". Early history Munitions fuzes are also used with rockets, aircraft bombs, guided missiles, grenades and mines, and some direct fire cannon munitions (small calibre and tank guns). Broadly, fuzes function on impact (percussion fuzes) or at a pre-determined time period after firing (time fuzes). However, by the 18th Century time fuzes were aimed to function in the air and in the 1940s proximity fuzes were introduced to achieve more precisely positioned airburst. Therefore the terms percussion and airburst are generally used here unless time fuzes are being explicitly described. Solid cannonballs ( shot ) did not need a fuze, but hollow balls ( shells ) filled with something, such as gunpowder to fragment the ball hopefully on the target needed a time fuze. Early reports of shells include Venetian use at Jadra in 1376 and shells with fuzes at the 1421 siege of St Boniface in Corsica. In 1596 Sebastian Halle proposed both igniting the bursting charge by percussion and regulating the burning time of fuzes, this was considered visionary and nothing much happened until These early time fuzes used a combustible material that burnt for a time before igniting the shell filling. The problem was that precise burning times required precise time measurement and recording, which did not appear until Before this the proofmaster often tested the burning time of powder by reciting the Apostles Creed for time measurement! It was not until around the middle of the following century that it was realised that the windage between ball and barrel allowed the flash from the propelling charge to pass around the shell. This led, in 1747, to single-fire and eliminated the need to light the fuze before loading the shell. At this time fuzes were made of beech wood, bored out and filled with powder and cut to the required length. Experience taught that there was a

22 minimum safe length. In 1779 the British adopted pre-cut fuze lengths giving 4, 4.5 and 5 seconds. The first account of a percussion fuze appears in 1650, using a flint to create sparks to ignite the powder. The problem was that the shell had to fall a particular way and with spherical shells this could not be guaranteed. The term blind for an unexploded shell resulted. The problem was finding a suitably stable percussion powder. Progress wasn t possible until the discovery of mercury fulminate in 1800, leading to priming mixtures for small arms patented by the Rev Alexander Forsyth, and the copper percussion cap in The concept of percussion fuzes was adopted by Britain in 1842, many designs were jointly examined by the army and navy, but were unsatisfactory, probably because of the safety & arming features. However, in 1846 the design by Quartermaster Freeburn of the Royal Artillery was adopted by the army. It was a wooden fuze some 6 inches long and used shear wire to hold blocks between the fuze magazine and a burning match. The match was ignited by propellant flash and the shear wire broke on impact. A British naval percussion fuze, made of metal did not appear until However, while the Boxer time fuze was a great advance various problems had to be There was little standardisation, well into the 19th Century, in British service, virtually every calibre had its own time fuze. For example seven different fuses were used with spherical cased shot until However, in 1829 metal fuzes were adopted by the Royal Navy instead of wooden ones. At this time fuzes were used with shrapnel, common shell (filled with explosive) and grenades. All British fuzes were prepared by cutting to length or boring into the bottom from below. The problem was that this left the powder unsupported and fuze failures were common. The indefatigable Colonel Boxer suggested a better way : wooden fuze cones with a central powder channel and holes drilled every 2/10th of an inch. There were white and black painted fuzes for odd and even tenths, clay prevented the powder spilling out. In 1853 these were combined into a single fuze with dual channels, 2 inches long for howitzers and common shell, 1 inch for shrapnel. dealt with over the following years. It also used a different fuze hole size to Freeburn s percussion fuze, which became obsolete. They were replaced in army service in 1861 by those designed by Mr Pettman, these could be used with both spherical and non-spherical shells. The final Boxer time fuze, for mortars, appeared in 1867 and the army retained wooden fuzes although the navy used metal ones. There was a similar American wooden fuze. However, in 1855 Armstrong produced his rifled breech loading (RBL) gun, which was introduced into British service in The problem was that there was little or no windage between the shell and the barrel, so the propelling charge could no longer be used to ignite the fuze. Therefore a primer was added with a hammer suspended above it, the shock of firing released the hammer which initiated the primer to ignite the powder time train. Armstrong s A pattern time fuze was introduced to British service in 1860 and the shorter length Borman fuzes in the United States.

23 The introduction of RBL guns led to non-spherical projectiles, which landed nose first. This enabled percussion nose fuzes, but they had to cope with the spinning shell and centrifugal forces. This led, by about 1870, to percussion fuzes with a direct action firing pin and detonator and a magazine to boost the detonator s sufficiently to initiate the shell s main charge. Armstrong s time fuze designs evolved rapidly, in 1867 the F pattern was introduced, this was the first time and percussion (T & P) fuze. Its percussion function was not entirely successful and was soon replaced by the E Mk III fuze, made of brass it contained a ring of slow burning composition ignited by a pellet holding a detonator cap that was set back onto a firing pin by the shock of firing. It was the prototype of the T & P fuzes used in the 20th Century, although initially it was only used with naval segment shells and it took some time for the army to adopt it for shrapnel. Description Since the second half of the 19th Century most artillery fuzes are fitted to the nose of the projectile. The base of the fuze is screwed into a recess, and its nose is designed to conform to the shape of the shell s ogive. The depth of recess can vary with the type of shell and fuze. Artillery fuzes were sometimes specific to particular types of gun or howitzer due to their characteristics, notable differences in muzzle velocity and hence the sensitivity of safety & arming mechanisms. However, by World War 2, while there were exceptions, most fuzes of one nation could be used with any required artillery shell of that nation, if it could be physically fitted to it, although different army and navy procurement arrangements often prevented this. The exceptions were mortar bomb fuzes, and this continues. An early action in NATO standardisation was to agree the dimensions and threads of the fuze recess in artillery projectiles to enable fuze interchangeability between nations. Modern artillery fuzes can generally be used with any appropriate artillery shell, including naval ones. However, smoothbore mortars, constrain the choice of safety & arming mechanisms because there is no centrifugal force and muzzle velocities are relatively low. Therefore shell fuzes cannot be used with mortar bombs, and mortar fuzes are unsuitable for the higher velocities of shells. The fuze action is initiated by impact, elapsed time after firing or proximity to a target. In most cases the fuze action causes detonation of the main high explosive charge in a shell or a small charge to eject a carrier shell s contents. These contents may be lethal, such as the now-obsolete shrapnel shell or modern sub-munitions, or non-lethal such as canisters containing a smoke compound or a parachute flare. Fuzes normally have two explosive components in their explosive train: a very small detonator (or primer) struck by a firing pin, and a booster charge at the base of the fuze (sometimes called the 'magazine'). This booster is powerful enough to detonate the main charge in a high explosive shell or the ejecting charge in a carrier shell. The two charges are typically connected by a 'flash tube'.

24 The safety & arming arrangements in artillery fuzes are critical features to prevent the fuze functioning until required, no matter how harsh its transport and handling. These arrangements use the forces created by the gun or howitzer firing high acceleration (or shock of firing ) and rotation (caused by the rifling in the gun or howitzer barrel) - to release the safety features and arm the fuze. Some older types of fuze also had safety features such as pins or caps removed by the user before loading the shell into the breach. Defective fuzes can function while the shell is in the barrel - a 'bore premature', or further along the trajectory. Different fuze designs have different safety & arming mechanisms that use the two forces in various ways. The earliest modern fuzes used wire sheared by the shock of firing. Subsequently centrifugal devices were generally preferred for use with low velocity howitzer shells because the set-back was often insufficient. However, late 19th and 20th Century designs used more sophisticated combinations of methods that applied the two forces. Examples include: Centrifugal force moving a bolt outwards, which allows another bolt to move backwards by inertia from acceleration. Inertia from acceleration overcoming the pressure of a retaining spring to release a catch that allows an arm, plate, segmented sleeve or other bolt to move outwards by centrifugal force. Centrifugal force causing a plate holding a detonator to swing into alignment with a firing pin. Centrifugal force causing a barrier plate(s) or block(s) to overcome a spring(s) and swing out of the channel between the firing pin and detonator or between the detonator and the booster (or both). Rotation causing a weighted tape to unwind from around a spindle and free the firing pin hammer. Modern safety & arming devices are part of an overall fuze design that meets insensitive munitions requirements. This includes careful selection of the explosives used throughout the explosive train, strong physical barriers between the detonator and booster until the shell is fired and positioning explosive components for maximum protection in the fuze.

25 Types of artillery fuze Percussion fuzes Early British "direct action" nose impact fuze of 1900 with no safety or arming mechanism, relying on heavy direct physical impact to detonate

26 Base-detonating fuze for Austrian 30.5 cm howitzer, as used in defeating the Belgian forts at Liège in 1914

27 German 7,5 cm Pzgr : an armour-piercing shell with base detonating fuze (1), as fired by Panzer IV and Pak 40 anti-tank gun

28 French point-detonating fuze of 1916 with inertia plunger and 1/10 second delay, used with heavy trench mortar bombs In the 20th Century, most fuzes were 'percussion'. They may be 'direct action' (also called 'point detonating' or super quick ) or 'graze'. They may also offer a delay option. Percussion fuzes remain widespread particularly for training. However, in the 19th Century combined T & P fuzes became common and this combination remain widespread with airburst fuzes in case the airburst function failed or was set too long. War stocks in western armies are now predominately 'multi-function' offering a choice of several ground and airburst functions.

29 Direct action fuzes Basically, direct action fuzes function by the fuze nose hitting something reasonably solid, such as the ground, a building or a vehicle, and pushing a firing pin into a detonator. The early British fuze at left is an example. Direct action fuze designs are 'super-quick' but may have a delay option. 20th Century designs vary in the relative positions of their key elements. The extremes being the firing pin and detonator close to the nose with a long flash tube to the booster (typical in US designs), or a long firing pin to a detonator close to the booster and a short flash tube (typical in British designs). Graze fuzes Delay fuzes Graze fuzes function when the shell is suddenly slowed down, e.g. by hitting the ground or going through a wall. This deceleration causes the firing pin to move forward, or the detonator to move backward, sharply and strike each other. Graze is the only percussion mechanism that can be used in base fuzes. Direct action fuzes can have a delay function, selected at the gun as an alternative to direct action. Delay may use a graze function or some other mechanism. Special 'concrete piercing' fuzes usually have only a delay function and a hardened and strengthened fuze nose. Base fuzes Base fuzes are enclosed within the base of the shell and are hence not damaged by the initial impact with the target. Their delay timing may be adjustable before firing. They use graze action and have not been widely used by field artillery. Base fuzed shells were used by coast artillery (and warships) against armoured warships into the 1950s. They have also had some use against tanks, including with High Explosive Squash Head (HESH), also called High Explosive Plastic (HEP) used after World War 2 by 105mm artillery for self defence against tanks and by tanks. Airburst fuzes Airburst fuzes, using a preset timing device initiated by the gun firing, were the earliest type of fuze. They were particularly important in the 19th and early 20th Centuries when shrapnel fuzes were widely used. They again became important when cluster munitions became a major element in Cold War ammunition stocks, and the moves to multifunction fuzes in the late 20th Century mean that in some western countries airburst fuzes are available with every shell used on operations.

30 Time fuzes were essential for larger calibre anti-aircraft guns, and it soon became clear that igniferous fuzes were insufficiently accurate and this drove the development of mechanical time fuzes between the world wars. During World War 2 proximity fuzes were introduced, initially for use against aircraft where they proved far superior to mechanical time, and at the end of 1944 for field artillery. Time fuzes British No. 25 time fuze Mk IV, using a burning gunpowder timer, circa 1914, used for star shells

31 beginning of the 20th Century and electronic time fuzes appeared in the 1980s, soon after A Brish clockwork Time fuze for an artillery shell using the Thiel mechanism, circa 1936 Artillery Time fuzes detonate after a set period of time. Early time fuzes were igniferous (i.e. combustible) using a powder train. Clockwork mechanisms appeared at the digital watches. Almost all artillery time fuzes are fitted to the nose of the shell. One exception was the 1950s design US 8-inch nuclear shell (M422) that had a triple-deck mechanical time base fuze. The time length of a time fuze is usually calculated as part of the technical fire control calculations, and not done at the gun although armies have differed in their arrangements. The fuze length primarily reflects the range to the target and the required height of burst. High height of burst, typically a few hundred metres, is usually used with star shell (illuminating shell) and other base ejecting shells such as smoke and cluster munitions, and for observing with high-explosive (HE) shells in some circumstances. Low airburst, typically about 10 metres, was used with HE. The height of burst with shrapnel depended on the angle of descent, but for optimal use it was a few tens of metres. Igniferous time fuzes had a powder ring in an inverted U metal channel, the fuze was set by rotating the upper part of the fuze. When the shell was fired the shock of firing set

32 back a detonator onto a firing pin, which ignited the powder ring, when the burn reached the fuze setting it flashed through a hole into the fuze magazine, which then ignited the bursting charge in the shell. If the shell contained HE then the fuze had a gaine that converted the powder explosion into a detonation powerful enough to detonate the HE. The problem with igniferous fuzes was that they were not very precise and somewhat erratic, but good enough for flat trajectory shrapnel (ranges were relatively short by later standards) or high bursting carrier shells. While improvements in powder composition helped, there were several complex factors that prevented a high degree of regularity in the field. Britain in particular encountered great difficulty in achieving consistency early in World War I (1914 and 1915) with its attempts to use its by-then obsolescent gunpowder-train time fuzes for anti-aircraft fire against German bombers and airships which flew at altitudes up to 20,000 feet. It was then discovered that standard gunpowder burned differently at differing altitudes, and the problem was then rectified to some extent by specially designed fuzes with modified gunpowder formulations. Britain finally switched to mechanical (i.e. clockwork) time fuzes just after World War I which solved this problem. Residual stocks of igniferous fuzes lasted for many years after World War 2 with smoke and illuminating shells. Mechanical time fuzes were just about good enough to use with field artillery to achieve Before World War I Krupp, in Germany, started producing the Baker clockwork fuze. It contained a spring clock with an extra rapid cylinder escapement giving 30 beats per second.. During World War 1 Germany developed other mechanical time, i.e. clockwork, fuzes. These were less erratic and more precise than igniferous fuzes, critical characteristics as gun ranges increased. Between the wars five or six different mechanical mechanisms were developed in various nations. However, three came to predominate, the Thiel pattern in British designs, Junghans pattern in United States and the Swiss Dixi mechanisms, the first two both originated in World War 1 Germany. Mechanical time fuzes remain in service with many armies. the effective HE height of burst of about 10 metres above the ground. However, 'good enough' usually meant '4 in the air and 2 on the ground'. This fuze length was extremely difficult to predict with adequate accuracy, so the height of burst almost always had to be adjusted by observation.

33 Proximity fuzes Mk 53 Proximity fuze for an artillery shell, circa 1945 The benefits of a fuze that functioned when it detected a target in proximity are obvious, particularly for use against aircraft. The first such fuze seems to have been developed by the British in the 1930s for use with their anti-aircraft unrotated projectiles rockets. These used a photo-electric fuze. After the United States entered the war British research was transferred but by this time radar had been developed and this provided a better proximity mechanism for artillery shells. These fuzes emitted radio waves and sensed their reflection from the target (aircraft or ground), the strength of the reflected signal indicated the distance to the target, when this was correct the fuze detonated.

34 For the first 18 months or so proximity fuzes were restricted to anti-aircraft use to ensure that none were retrieved by the enemy and copied. They were also called variable time or VT to obscure their nature. They were finally released for field artillery use in December 1944 in Europe. While they were not perfect and bursts could still be erratic due to rain, they were a vast improvement on mechanical time in delivering a very high proportion of bursts at the required 10 metre height. However, VT fuzes went far deeper into the shell than other fuzes because they had a battery that was activated by the shock of firing. This meant the fuze recess had to be deeper, so to enable shorter non-vt fuzes the deep recess was filled with removable supplementary HE canisters. After the war the next generation of proximity fuze included a mechanical timer to switch on the fuze a few seconds before it was due at the target. These were called controlled variable time (CVT) and reduced the incidence of early bursts. Later models had additional electronic counter counter measures. Distance measuring fuzes The mechanical distance fuze has had little use, Thompson s pattern was trialled by the British but did not enter service. The fuzes operated by counting revolutions. It has the advantage of inherent safety and not requiring any internal driving force but depended on muzzle velocity and rifling pitch. However, these are allowed for when calculating the fuze setting. Early 20th Century versions were sometimes called flag fuzes, so named due to the vane protruding from the nose of the fuze. Electronic time fuzes In the late 1970s/early 1980s electronic time fuzes started replacing earlier types. These were based on the use of oscillating crystals that had been adopted for digital watches. Like watches, advances in electronics made them much cheaper to produce than mechanical devices. The introduction of these fuzes coincided with the widespread adoption of cluster munitions in some NATO countries.

35 Multi function fuzes US point detonating fuze of 1915 combining adjustable timer up to 21 seconds, using a gunpowder train, and impact mode No. 80 "Time & Percussion" fuze licensed from Krupp was Britain's main WWI shrapnel fuze. This igniferous fuze was set to lengths up to 22 time units before detonating and was also detonated by inertia on impact if that occurred before expiration of the timer. After World War I Britain had to pay Krupp large backdated licensing fees for its wartime use, mostly against Germany

36 A fuze assembly may include more than one fuze function. A typical combination would be a T & P ("Time & Percussion") fuze with the fuze set to detonate on impact or expiration of a preset time, whichever occurred first. Such fuzes were introduced around the middle of the 19th Century. This combination may function as a safety measure or as an expedient to ensure that the shell will be actuated no matter what happens and hence not be wasted. The United States called mechanical T & P fuzes mechanical time super quick (MTSQ). T & P fuzes were normal with shrapnel and HE shells (including proximity fuzes), but were not always used with high bursting carrier shells. However, in the early 1980s electronic fuzes with several functions and options started appearing. Initially they were little more than enhanced versions of proximity fuzes, typically offering a choice proximity heights or impact options. A choice of burst heights could also be used to get optimum burst heights in terrain with different reflectivity. However, they were cheaper than older proximity fuzes and the cost of adding electronic functions was marginal, this meant they were much more widely issued. In some countries all their war stock HE was fitted with them, instead of only 5 10% with proximity fuzes. Sensor and course correcting fuzes The most modern multi-option artillery fuzes offer a comprehensive choice of functions. For example Junghans DM84U provides delay, super quick, time (up to 199 seconds), two proximity heights of burst and five depths of foliage penetration. Sensor fuzes can be considered smart proximity fuzes. Initial developments were the United States Seek and Destroy Armour (SADARM) in the 1980s using sub-munitions ejected from 203mm carrier shell. Subsequent European developments, BONUS and SmArt 155, are 155mm calibre due to advances in electronics. These sensor fuzes typically use millimetric radar to recognise a tank and then aim the sub-munition at it and fire an explosively formed penetrator from above. The main fuze development activities in the early 21st Century are course correcting fuzes. These add guidance and control functions to the standard multi-option nose fuze package. However, they are not the same a precision guided artillery munitions and are not designed to be precise or unaffordable for widespread use. Fuze setting Most fuzes have to be set before being loaded into the breech, although in the case of impact fuzes it may be very simple matter of selecting the delay option if required. However, airburst fuzes have to have the required fuze length set. Modern fuzes invariably use a fuze length in seconds (with at least tenths) that reflect the required time of flight. However, some earlier time fuzes used arbitrary units of time. The fuze length reflects the range between the gun and its target, before digital computers this range was manually calculated in the command post or fire direction center. Some

37 armies converted the range to an elevation and fuze length and ordered it to the guns. Others set the range on the sights and each gun had a fuze indicator that converted the range to a fuze length (with allowance for muzzle velocity and local conditions). With digital computers fuze lengths are usually computed in the command post or fire direction center, unless the gun itself does the full ballistic calculations. Naval and antiaircraft artillery started using analogue computers before World War 2, these were connected to the guns to automatically aim them. They also had automatic fuze setters. This was particularly important for anti-aircraft guns that were aiming ahead of their target and so needed a very regular and predictable rate of fire. Field artillery used manual time fuze setting, at its simplest this uses a hand key or wrench to turn the fuze nose to the required setting. Manual fuze setters are set at the fuze length and then used to set the fuze, this has the advantage of ensuring that every fuze is correctly and identically set. Electronic fuzes are designed use electronic setters to transfer data electronically, early ones required an electrical contact between the fuze and the setter. These have been superseded by induction fuze setters that do not require physical contact with the fuze. Electronic setters may also check fuze functioning in a Go/No Go test. Images Fuzes fitted to M mm artillery shells, circa 2000

38 An assortment of fuzes for artillery and mortar shells British No. 63 Mk I Time and Percussion fuze, circa used in shrapnel shells

39 British No. 100 Graze Fuze for high-explosive shell, World War I

40 British No 80 Mk XI Time & Percussion showing the safety & arming sequence

41 Chapter- 2 Field Artillery in the American Civil War M1857 Napoleon at Stones River battlefield cemetery Field artillery in the American Civil War refers to the important artillery weapons, equipment, and practices used by the Artillery branch to support the infantry and cavalry forces in the field. It does not include siege artillery, use of artillery in fixed fortifications, or coastal or naval artillery. Nor does it include smaller, specialized artillery termed as infantry guns or mountain guns.

42 Weapons The principal guns widely used in the field are listed in the following table. Name Field artillery weapons characteristics Tube Projectile Charge Material Bore Len Wt (lb) (lb) (in) (in) (lb) Velocity (ft/s) iron Range (yd at 5 ) M pounder bronze , ,440 1,619 "Napoleon" 12-pounder Howitzer bronze ,054 1, pounder Howitzer bronze , ,060 1, pounder Parrott ,230 1,850 rifle or inch Ordnance Rifle wrought iron 20-pounder Parrott rifle 12-pounder Whitworth breechloading rifle ,215 1,830 iron ,250 1,900 iron ,500 2,800 There were two general types of artillery weapons used during the Civil War: smoothbores and rifles. Smoothbores included howitzers and guns. Smoothbores Smoothbore artillery refers to weapons that are not rifled. At the time of the Civil War, metallurgy and other supporting technologies had just recently evolved to a point allowing the large scale production of rifled field artillery. As such, many smoothbore weapons were still in use and production even at the end of the war. Smoothbore field artillery of the day fit into two role-based categories: guns and howitzers. Further classifications of the weapons were made based on the type of metal used, typically bronze or iron (cast or wrought), although some examples of steel were produced. Additionally, the artillery was often identified by the year of design in the Ordnance department references. The smoothbore artillery was also categorized by the bore dimensions, based on the rough weight of the solid shot projectile fired from the weapon. For instance a 12- pounder field gun fired a 12 pound solid shot projectile from its 4.62-inch (117 mm) diameter bore. It was practice, dating back to the 18th century, to mix gun and howitzers into batteries. Pre-war allocations called for 6-pounder field guns matched with 12- pounder howitzers, 9 and 12-pounder field guns matched with 24-pounder howitzers. But the rapid expansions of both combatant armies, mass introduction of rifled artillery, and

43 the versatility of the 12-pounder "Napoleon" class of weapons all contributed to a change in the mixed battery practices. Guns Smoothbore guns were designed to fire solid shot projectiles at high velocity, over low trajectories at targets in the open, although shot and canister were acceptable for use. The barrels of the guns were longer than corresponding howitzers, and called for higher powder charges to achieve the desired performance. Field guns were produced in 6- pounder (3.67 inch bore), 9-pounder (4.2 inch bore), and 12-pounder (4.62 inch bore) versions. Although some older iron weapons were pressed into service, and the Confederacy produced some new iron field guns, most of those used on the battlefields were of bronze construction. these were more experimental weapons, and no field service is recorded. The 6-pounder field gun was well represented by bronze Models of 1835, 1838, 1839, and 1841 early in the war. Even a few older iron Model of 1819 weapons were pressed into service. Several hundred were used by the armies of both sides in But in practice the limited payload of the projectile was seen as a shortcoming of this weapon. From mid-war on, few 6-pounders saw action in the main field armies. The larger 9- and 12-pounders were less well represented. While the 9-pounder was still listed on Ordnance and Artillery manuals in 1861, very few were ever produced after the War of 1812 and only scant references exist to Civil War use of the weapons. The 12- pounder field gun appeared in a series of models mirroring the 6-pounder, but in far less numbers. At least one Federal battery, the 13th Indiana, took the 12-pounder field gun into service early in the war. The major shortcoming of these heavy field guns was mobility, as they required eight-horse teams as opposed to the six-horse teams of the lighter guns. A small quantity of 12-pounder field guns were rifled early in the war, but By far the most popular of the smoothbore cannon was the 12-pounder Model of 1857, Light, commonly called "Napoleon". The Model 1857 was of lighter weight than the previous 12-pounder guns, and could be pulled by a six-horse draft, yet offered the heavier projectile payload of the larger bore. It is sometimes called, confusingly, a "gunhowitzer" (because it possessed characteristics of both gun and howitzer) and is discussed in more detail separately below. Howitzers Howitzers were short-barreled guns that were optimized for firing explosive shells in a high trajectory, but also for spherical case shot and canister, over a shorter range than the guns. While field use alluded to firing at targets consisting of enemy forces arrayed in the open, Howitzers were considered the weapon of choice if the opposing forces were concealed behind terrain features or fortifications. Howitzers used lower powder charges than guns of corresponding caliber. Field Howitzer calibers used in the Civil War were 12-pounder (4.62 inch bore), 24-pounder (5.82 inch bore), and 32-pounder (6.41 inch

44 bore). Most of the howitzers used in the war were bronze, with notable exceptions of some of Confederate manufacture. Coupled to the 6-pounder field gun in allocations of the pre-war Army, the 12-pounder field Howitzer was represented by Models of 1838 and With a light weight and respectable projectile payload, the 12-pounder was only cycled out of the main field army inventories as production and availability of the 12-pounder "Napoleon" rose, and would see action in the Confederate armies up to the very end. As with the corresponding heavy field guns, the heavier Howitzers were available in limited quantities early in the war. Both Federal and Confederate contracts list examples of 24-pounders delivered during the war, and surviving examples exist of imported Austrian types of this caliber used by the Confederates. These 24-pounder Howitzers found use in the "reserve" batteries of the respective armies, but were gradually replaced over time with heavy rifled guns. Both the 24- and 32-pounders were more widely used in fixed fortifications, but at least one of the later large weapons was with the 1st Connecticut Artillery as late as pounder Napoleon The twelve-pound cannon "Napoleon" was the most popular smoothbore cannon used during the war. It was named after Napoleon III of France and was widely admired because of its safety, reliability, and killing power, especially at close range. It did not reach America until It was the last cast bronze gun used by an American army. The Federal version of the Napoleon can be recognized by the flared front end of the barrel, called the muzzle-swell. Confederate Napoleons were produced in at least six variations, most of which had straight muzzles, but at least eight catalogued survivors of 133 identified have muzzle swells. Additionally, four iron Confederate Napoleons produced by Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond have been identified, of an estimated 125 cast. M Pounder "Napoleon" Rifled guns M Pounder "Napoleon" Confederate 12-Pound "Napoleon" Rifling adds spiral grooves along the inside of the gun barrel for the purpose of spinning the shell or shot and enacting gyroscopic force that increases the accuracy of the gun by preventing the shell from rotating along axes other than the axis parallel to the gun barrel. Adding rifling to a gun tube made it more difficult and expensive to manufacture and increased the length of the tube, but it increased the range and accuracy of the piece.

45 While most of the rifled guns in the Civil War were muzzle-loaded, a small number of breech-loaded guns were used. 3-inch ordnance rifle The 3-inch (76 mm) ordnance rifle was the most widely used rifled gun during the war. Invented by John Griffen, it was extremely durable, with the barrel made of wrought iron, primarily produced by the Phoenix Iron Company of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. There are few cases on record of the tube fracturing or bursting, a problem that plagued other rifles made of brittle cast iron. The rifle had exceptional accuracy. During the Battle of Atlanta, a Confederate gunner was quoted: "The Yankee three-inch (76 mm) rifle was a dead shot at any distance under a mile. They could hit the end of a flour barrel more often than miss, unless the gunner got rattled." 3-Inch Ordnance Rifle (front view)3-inch Ordnance Rifle (rear view) Parrott rifles The Parrott rifle, invented by Robert Parker Parrott, was manufactured in different sizes, from 10-pounders up to the rare 300-pounder. The 10- and 20-pounder versions were used by both armies in the field. The smaller size was much more prevalent; it came in two bore sizes: 2.9-inch (74 mm) and 3.0-inch (76 mm). Confederate forces used both bore sizes during the war, which added to the complication of supplying the appropriate ammunition to its batteries. Until 1864, Union batteries used only the 2.9 inch. The M1863, with a 3-inch (76 mm) bore, had firing characteristics similar to the earlier model; it can be recognized by its straight barrel, without muzzle-swell. Parrotts were manufactured with a combination of cast iron and wrought iron. The cast iron improved the accuracy of the gun but was brittle enough to suffer fractures. On the Parrott, a large wrought iron reinforcing band was overlaid on the breech. Although accurate, the Parrott had a poor reputation for safety, and they were shunned by many artillerymen. (At the end of 1862, Henry J. Hunt attempted to get the Parrott eliminated from the Army of the Potomac's inventory.) The 20-pounder was the largest field gun used during the war, with the barrel alone weighing over 1,800 pounds (800 kg). Whitworth The Whitworth, designed by Joseph Whitworth and manufactured in England, was a rare gun during the war, but was an interesting precursor to modern artillery in that it was loaded from the breech and had exceptional accuracy over great distance. An engineering magazine wrote in 1864 that, "At 1,600 yards (1,500 m) the Whitworth gun fired 10 shots

46 with a lateral deviation of only 5 inches." This degree of accuracy made it effective in counter-battery fire, used almost as the equivalent of a sharpshooter's rifle, and also for firing over bodies of water. It was not popular as an anti-infantry weapon. It had a caliber of 2.75 inches (70 mm). The bore was hexagonal in cross-section, and the projectile was a long bolt that twisted to conform to the rifling. It is said that the bolts made a very distinctive eerie sound when fired, which could be distinguished from other projectiles. Ammunition 12-Pounder Whitworth Breechloading Rifle Ammunition came in wide varieties, designed to attack specific targets. A typical Union artillery battery (armed with six 12-pounder Napoleons) carried the following ammunition going into battle: 288 shot, 96 shells, 288 spherical cases, and 96 canisters. Shot (or bolt) Shot was a solid projectile that included no explosive charge. For a smoothbore, the projectile was a round "cannonball". For a rifled gun, the projectile was referred to as a bolt and had a cylindrical or spherical shape. In both cases, the projectile was used to impart kinetic energy for a battering effect, particularly effective for the destruction of enemy guns, limbers and caissons, and wagons. It was also effective for mowing down columns of infantry and cavalry and had psychological effects against its targets. Despite

47 its effectiveness, many artillerymen were reluctant to use solid shot, preferring the explosive types of ordnance. With solid projectiles, accuracy was the paramount consideration, and they also caused more tube wear than their explosive counterparts. Shell Shells included an explosive charge and were designed to burst into a number of irregular fragments in the midst of enemy infantry or artillery. For smoothbores, the projectile was referred to as "spherical shell". Shells were more effective against troops behind obstacles or earthworks, and they were good for destroying wooden buildings by setting them on fire. A primary weakness of shell was that it typically produced only a few large fragments, with fragment count increasing with caliber of the shell. Spherical shell used time fuses, while rifled shell could be detonated on impact by percussion fuses. Fuse reliability was a concern; any shell that buried itself into the earth before detonating had little anti-personnel effectiveness. Case (or shrapnel) Case (or "spherical case" for smoothbores) were anti-personnel projectiles carrying a smaller burst charge than shell, but designed to be more effective against exposed troops. While shell produced only a few large fragments, case was loaded with lead or iron balls and was designed to burst above and before the enemy line, showering down many more small but destructive projectiles on the enemy. The effect was analogous to a weaker version of canister. With case the lethality of the balls and fragments came from the velocity of the bursting projectile itself the small burst charge only fragmented the case and dispersed the shrapnel. The spherical case used in a 12-pounder Napoleon contained 78 balls. The name shrapnel derives from its inventor, Henry Shrapnel. The primary limitations to case effectiveness came in judging the range, setting the fuse accordingly, and the reliability and variability of the fuse itself. Canister Canister shot was the deadliest type of ammunition, consisting of a thin metal container loaded with layers of lead or iron balls packed in sawdust. Upon exiting the muzzle, the container disintegrated, and the balls fanned out as the equivalent of a shotgun blast. The effective range of canister was only 400 yards (370 m), but within that range dozens of enemy infantrymen could be mowed down. Even more devastating was "double canister", generally used only in dire circumstances, where two containers of balls were fired simultaneously. Grapeshot Grapeshot was the predecessor of, and a variation on, canister, in which a smaller number of larger metal balls were arranged on stacked iron plates with a threaded bolt running

48 down the center to hold them as a unit inside the barrel. It was used at a time when some cannons burst when loaded with too much gunpowder, but as cannons got stronger, grapeshot was replaced by canister. A grapeshot round (or "stand") used in a 12-pounder Napoleon contained 9 balls, contrasted against the 27 smaller balls in a canister round. By the time of the Civil War, grapeshot was outdated and largely replaced by canister. Few, if any, rounds were issued to field artillery batteries. Chain shot Chain shot was a variation on shot generally used against ships. The ships of the day often were sailing ships that were highly dependent on the complex system of sails and ropes supported by the mast, known as rigging. Chain shot consisted of two smaller cannonballs connected by a two-foot or so chain, so that both the balls and the chain could shear off masts and sever ropes. While it was effective against sailing ships, the advent of steam-powered ships not requiring sails and masts rendered it obsolete. Equipment The most pervasive piece of artillery equipment was the horse. Horse Horses were required to pull the enormous weight of the cannon and ammunition; on average, each horse pulled about 700 pounds (317.5 kg). Each gun in a battery used two six-horse teams: one team pulled a limber that towed the gun, the other pulled a limber that towed a caisson. The large number of horses posed a logistical challenge for the artillery, because they had to be fed, maintained, and replaced when worn out or injured. Artillery horses were generally selected second from the pool of high quality animals; cavalry mounts were the best horses. The life expectancy of an artillery horse was under eight months. They suffered from disease, exhaustion from long marches typically 16 miles (25.8 km) in 10 hours and battle injuries. Horses were larger targets than artillerymen when subjected to counter-battery fire, and their movements were made difficult because they were harnessed together into teams. Robert Stiles wrote about Union fire striking a Confederate battery on Benner's Hill at the Battle of Gettysburg: Such a scene as it presented guns dismounted and disabled, carriages splintered and crushed, ammunition chests exploded, limbers upset, wounded horses plunging and kicking, dashing out the brains of men tangled in the harness; while cannoneers with pistols were crawling around through the wreck shooting the struggling horses to save the lives of wounded men. The term "horse artillery" refers to the faster moving artillery batteries that typically supported cavalry regiments. The term "flying artillery" is sometimes used as well. In such batteries, the artillerymen were all mounted, in contrast to batteries in which the

49 artillerymen walked alongside their guns. A prominent organization of such artillery in the Union Army was the U.S. Horse Artillery Brigade. Limber Limber (right) and Caisson The limber was a two-wheeled carriage that carried an ammunition chest. It was connected directly behind the team of six horses and towed either a gun or a caisson. In either case, the combination provided the equivalent of a four-wheeled vehicle, which distributed the load over two axles but was easier to maneuver on rough terrain than a four-wheeled wagon. The combination of a Napoleon gun and a packed limber weighed 3,865 pounds (1,750 kg). Caisson The caisson was also a two-wheeled carriage. It carried two ammunition chests and a spare wheel. A fully loaded limber and caisson combination weighed 3,811 pounds (1729 kg). The limbers, caissons, and gun carriages were all constructed of oak. Each ammunition chest typically carried about 500 pounds (230 kg) of ammunition or supplies. In addition

50 to these vehicles, there were also battery supply wagons and portable forges that were used to service the guns. History and organization Union artillery The Union Army entered the war with a strong advantage in artillery. It had ample manufacturing capacity in Northern factories, and it had a well-trained and professional officer corps manning that branch of the service. Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt, who was the chief of artillery for the Army of the Potomac for part of the war, was well recognized as a most efficient organizer of artillery forces, and he had few peers in the practice of the sciences of gunnery and logistics. Another example was John Gibbon, the author of the influential Artillerist's Manual published in 1863 (although Gibbon would achieve considerably more fame as an infantry general during the war). Shortly after the outbreak of war, Brig. Gen. James Wolfe Ripley, Chief of Ordnance, ordered the conversion of old smoothbores into rifled cannon and the manufacture of Parrott guns. dispersed all across the battlefield. An example of the tension between infantry The basic unit of Union artillery was the battery, which usually consisted of six guns. Attempts were made to ensure that all six guns in a battery were of the same caliber, simplifying training and logistics. Each gun, or "piece", was operated by a gun crew of eight, plus four additional men to handle the horses and equipment. Two guns operating under the control of a lieutenant were known as a "section". The battery of six guns was commanded by a captain. Artillery brigades composed of five batteries were commanded by colonels and supported the infantry organizations as follows: each infantry corps was supported directly by one artillery brigade and, in the case of the Army of the Potomac, five brigades formed the Artillery Reserve. This arrangement, championed by Hunt, allowed artillery to be massed in support of the entire army's objective, rather than being commanders and artillery commanders was during the massive Confederate bombardment of Cemetery Ridge on 3 July 1863, the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Hunt had difficulty persuading the infantry commanders, such as Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, against using all of their artillery ammunition in response to the Confederate bombardment, understanding the value to the defenders of saving the ammunition for the infantry assault to come, Pickett's Charge. At the start of the war, the U.S. Army had 2,283 guns on hand, but only about 10% of these were field artillery pieces. By the end of the war, the army had 3,325 guns, of which 53% were field pieces. The army reported as "supplied to the army during the war" the following quantities: 7,892 guns, 6,335,295 artillery projectiles, 2,862,177 rounds of fixed artillery ammunition, 45,258 tons of lead metal, and a 13,320 tons of gunpowder. Confederate artillery The South was at a relative disadvantage to the North for deployment of artillery. The industrial North had far greater capacity for manufacturing weapons, and the Union

51 blockade of Southern ports prevented many foreign arms from reaching the Southern armies. The Confederacy had to rely to a significant extent on captured Union artillery pieces (either on the battlefield or by capturing armories, such as Harpers Ferry); it is estimated that two thirds of all Confederate field artillery was captured from the Union. The Confederate cannons built in the South often suffered from the shortage of quality metals and shoddy workmanship. Another disadvantage was the quality of ammunition. The fuses needed for detonating shells and cases were frequently inaccurate, causing premature or delayed explosions. All that, coupled with the Union gunners' initial competence and experience gained as the war progressed, led Southern forces to dread assaults on Northern positions backed up by artillery. A Southern officer observed, "The combination of Yankee artillery with Rebel infantry would make an army that could be beaten by no one." Confederate batteries usually consisted of four guns, in contrast to the Union's six. This was a matter of necessity, because guns were always in short supply. And, unlike the Union, batteries frequently consisted of mixed caliber weapons. Confederate batteries were generally organized into battalions (versus the Union brigades) of four batteries each, and the battalions were assigned to the direct support of infantry divisions. Each infantry corps was assigned two battalions as an Artillery Reserve, but there was no such Reserve at the army level. The chief of artillery for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton, had considerable difficulty massing artillery for best effect because of this organization. Battles Although virtually all battles of the Civil War included artillery, some battles are known better than others for significant artillery engagements, arguably critical to the overall outcome: Battle of Antietam Battle of Chancellorsville Battle of Stones River Battle of Fredericksburg Battle of Gettysburg Battle of Malvern Hill Notable Civil War artillerists Not nearly as well known as their infantry and cavalry counterparts, a small group of officers excelled at artillery deployment, organization, and the science of gunnery: Edward Porter Alexander Thomas H. Carter Alonzo Cushing John Gibbon (Artillerist's Manual)

52 Henry Jackson Hunt Stonewall Jackson (artillery instructor before the war) Joseph W. Latimer Freeman McGilvery "Willy" Pegram John Pelham William N. Pendleton Charles S. Wainwright Reuben Lindsay Walker

53 Chapter- 3 Shell (Projectile) British AP Shell Mk XXII BNT (circa 1943) for BL 15 inch Mk I naval gun, showing base fuze. A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot (AP, APCR, APCNR, APDS, APFSDS and proof shot). Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used.

54 All explosive and incendiary filled projectiles, particularly for mortars, were originally called grenades, derived from the pomegranate due to its seeds being similar to grains of powder. Grenade is still used for an artillery or mortar projectile in some European languages. The term shell is derived from the German schale meaning outer rind or bark, although in modern German granate is used. Spherical grenades used by mortars adopted the term bomb, as in bombard or bombardier from the Greek bombos. Shells are usually large calibre projectiles fired by artillery, armored fighting vehicles (including tanks), and warships. Shells usually have the shape of a cylinder topped by an ogive-shaped nose for good aerodynamic performance, possibly with a tapering base; but some specialized types are quite different. History Mortar with hollowed shell, Boshin war ( ), Japan

55 Solid cannonballs ( shot ) did not need a fuze, but hollow balls ( shells ) filled with something, such as gunpowder to fragment the ball needed a fuze, either impact (or percussion) or time. Percussion fuzes with a spherical projectile presented a challenge because there was no way of ensuring that the impact mechanism hit the target. Therefore shells needed a time fuze that was ignited before or during firing and burnt until the shell reached its target. Early reports of shells include Venetian use at Jadra in 1376 and shells with fuzes at the 1421 siege of St Boniface in Corsica. These were two hollowed hemispheres of stone or bronze held together by an iron hoop. Written evidence for early explosive shells in China appears in the early Ming Dynasty ( ) Chinese military manual Huolongjing, compiled by Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and Liu Ji ( ) sometime before the latter's death, a preface added by Jiao in As described in their book, these hollow, gunpowder-packed shells were made of cast iron. Yi jang-son made Bigyukjincheonroi in the reign of Seonjo of Joseon. Bigyukjincheonroi is a time shell that consisted of wooden tube wound with time fuze made of thread, iron scrap and cap. Its time fuze can be set the time by length of thread. It was used in Japanese invasions of Korea. could be used from guns with heavier charges. They became usual with field artillery An early problem was that until 1672 there was no means of measuring time with any useful degree of precision - clockwork mechanisms did not exist. The burning time of the powder fuze was subject to considerable trial and error. Early powder burning fuzes had to be loaded fuze down to be ignited by firing or a portfire put down the barrel to light the fuze. However, by the 18th Century it was discovered that the fuze towards the muzzle could be lit by the flash through the windage between shell and barrel. Nevertheless, shells came into regular use in the 16th Century, for example a 1543 English mortar shell filled with 'wildfire'. About 1700 shells began to be employed for horizontal fire from howitzers with a small propelling charge and in 1779 experiments demonstrated that they early in the 19th Century. By this time shells usually cast iron, but bronze, lead, brass and even glass were tried. The history of artillery fuzes is given in the article.

56 Shell with sabot in a 1824 Paixhans gun

57 Shell of the 1858 La Hitte system for muzzle-loading rifled guns Cast-iron spherical common shell (so named because they were used against "common" [usual] targets) were in use up to Typically the thickness of the metal body was about 1/6th their diameter and they were about 2/3rds the weight of solid shot of the same calibre. In order to ensure that shells were loaded with their fuzes towards the muzzle they were attached to wooden bottoms called 'sabots'. In 1819 a committee of British artillery officers recognised that they were essential stores and in 1830 Britain standardised sabot thickness as half inch. The sabot also intended to reduce jamming during loading and the rebounding of the shell as it traveled along the bore on discharge. Mortar shells were not fitted with sabots.

58 Rifling was invented by Jaspard Zoller, a Viennese gun maker at the end of the 15th Century, and it was realised that twisted rifling to spin an elongated projectile would greatly improve its accuracy. This was known to artillerists but its application to artillery was beyond the available technology until around the mid 19th Century. English inventor notable Armstong, Whitworth and Lancaster and the latter's rifled guns were used in the Crimean War. Armstrong's rifled breach-loading cannon was a key innovation and adopted for British service in Also in the 1850s rifled guns were developed by Major Cavelli in Italy, Baron Wahrendorff and Krupp in Germany and the Wiard gun in the United States. However, rifled barrels required some means of engaging the shell with the rifling. Lead coated shells were used with Armstrong guns, but were not satisfactory so studded projectiles were adopted. However these did not seal the gap between shell and barrel. Wads at the shell base were tried, without success, in 1878 the British adopted a copper 'gas-check' at the base of their studded projectiles, and in 1879 tried a rotating gas check to replace the studs, leading to the 1881 automatic gas-check. This was soon followed by the Vavaseur copper driving band as part of the projectile. The driving band rotated the projectile, centred it in the bore and prevented gas escaping forwards. A driving band has to be soft but tough enough to prevent stripping by rotational and engraving stresses. Copper is generally most suitable but cupro nickel or gilding metal are also used. The first pointed armour piercing shell was introduced by Major Palliser in 1863, it was made of chilled cast iron with an ogival head of 1 1/2 calibres radius. However, during steel shells and armour began to appear and it was realised that steel bodies for explosive filled shells had advantages - better fragmentation and resistance to the stresses of firing. These were cast and forged steel. Melinite shell section, cut for instruction, belonging to a Canon de 75 modèle 1897 Shells have never been limited to an explosive filling. An incendiary shell was invented by Valturio in The carcass was invented in 1672 by a gunner serving Christoph van Galen, Prince Bishop of Munster, initially oblong in an iron frame or carcass (with poor ballistic properties) it evolved into a spherical shell. Their use continued well into the 19th Century. In 1857 the British introduced a incendiary shell (Martin's) filled with molten iron, which replaced red hot shot used against ships, most notably at Gibraltar in

59 1782. Two patterns of incendiary shell were used by the British in World War 1, one designed for use against Zeppelins. Similar to incendiary shells were star shells, designed for illumination rather than arson. Sometimes called lightballs they were in use from the 17th Century onwards. The British adopted parachute lightballs in 1866 for 10, 8 and 5 1/2 inch calibres. The 10-inch wasn't officially declared obsolete until 1920! Smoke balls also date back to the 17th Century, British ones contained a mix of saltpetre, coal, pitch, tar, resin, sawdust, crude antimony and sulphur. They produced a 'noisome smoke in abundance that is impossible to bear'. In the 19th Century British service they were made of concentric paper with thickness about 1/15th of total diameter and filled with powder, saltpetre, pitch, coal and tallow. The were used to 'suffocate or expel the enemy in casemates, mines or between decks; for concealing operations; and as signals. Due to manufacturing difficulties the smallest shells commonly used are around 20 mm During the First World War, shrapnel shells and explosive shells inflicted terrible casualties on infantry, accounting for nearly 70% of all war casualties and leading to the adoption of steel helmets on both sides. Shells filled with poison gas were used from 1917 onwards. Frequent problems with shells led to many military disasters when shells failed to explode, most notably during the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Sizes The calibre of a shell is its diameter. Depending on the historical period and national preferences, this may be specified in millimetres, centimetres, or inches. The length of gun barrels for large cartridges and shells (naval) is frequently quoted in terms of calibre. Some guns, mainly British, were specified by the weight of their shells (see below). calibre, used in aircraft cannon and on armoured vehicles. Smaller shells are only rarely used as they are difficult to manufacture and can only have a small explosive charge. The largest shells ever fired were those from the German super-railway guns, Gustav and Dora, which were 800 mm (31.5") in calibre. Very large shells have been replaced by rockets, guided missile, and bombs, and today the largest shells in common use are 155 mm (6.1 inches). Gun calibres have standardized around a few common sizes, especially in the larger range, mainly due to the uniformity required for efficient military logistics. Shells of 105, 120, and 155 mm diameter are common for NATO forces' artillery and tank guns. Artillery shells of 122, 130 and 152 mm, and tank gun ammunition of 100, 115, or 125 mm calibre remain in use in Eastern Europe and China. Most common calibres have been in use for many years, since it is logistically complex to change the calibre of all guns and ammunition stores. The weight of shells increases by and large with calibre. A typical 150 mm (5.9") shell weighs about 50 kg, a common 203 mm (8") shell about 100 kg, a concrete demolition

60 203 mm (8") shell 146 kg, a 280 mm (11") battleship shell about 300 kg, and a 460 mm (18") battleship shell over 1500 kg. The Schwerer Gustav supergun fired 4.8 and 7.1 tonne shells. Old-style British classification by weight During the 19th Century the British adopted a particular form of designating artillery. Guns were designated by nominal standard projectile weight while Howitzers were designated by barrel calibre. British Guns and their ammunition were designated in pounds, e.g., as "two-pounder" shortened to "2-pr" or "2-pdr". Usually this referred to the actual weight of the standard projectile (shot, shrapnel or HE), but, confusingly, this was not always the case. Some were named after the weights of obsolete projectile types of the same calibre, or even obsolete types that were considered to have been functionally equivalent. Also, projectiles fired from the same gun, but of non-standard weight, took their name from the gun. Thus, conversion from "pounds" to an actual barrel diameter requires consulting a historical reference. Since the creation of NATO new British guns are designated by calibre. Types There are many different types of shells. The principal ones include:

61 High-explosive (HE) M107 - a modern 155mm High Explosive artillery shell The most common shell type is high explosive, commonly referred to simply as HE. They have a strong steel case, a bursting charge, and a fuze. The fuse detonates the bursting charge which shatters the case and scatters hot, sharp case pieces (fragments, splinters) at high velocity. Most of the damage to soft targets such as unprotected personnel is caused by shell pieces rather than by the blast. The term "shrapnel" is sometimes incorrectly used to describe the shell pieces, but shrapnel shells functioned very differently and are long obsolete. Depending on the type of fuze used the HE shell can be set to burst on the ground (percussion), in the air above the ground (time or proximity), or after penetrating a short distance into the ground (percussion with delay, either to transmit more ground shock to covered positions, or to reduce the spread of fragments).

62 Early high explosives used before and during World War I in HE shells were Lyddite (picric acid), PETN, TNT. However, pure TNT was expensive to produce and most nations made some use of mixtures using cruder TNT and ammonium nitrate, some with other compounds included. These fills included Ammonal, Schneiderite and Amatol. The latter was still in wide use in World War II. From RDX and TNT mixtures became standard. Notably "Composition B" (cyclotol). The introduction of 'insensitive munition' requirements, agreements and regulations in the 1990s caused modern western designs to use various types of plastic bonded explosives (PBX) based on RDX. The percentage of shell weight taken up by its explosive fill increased steadily throughout the 20th Century. Less than 10% was usual in the first few decades, by World War II leading designs were around 15%. However, British researchers in that war identified 25% as being the optimal design for anti-personnel purposes, based on recognition that far smaller fragments than hitherto would give the required effects. This was achieved by 1960s designed 155mm L15 shell developed as part of the FH70 program. The key requirement for increasing the HE content without increasing shell weight was to reduce the thickness of shell walls, this required improvements in high tensile steel. Mine shell Some sectioned shells from the First World War. From left to right: 90 mm fragmentation shell, 120 mm pig iron incendiary shell, 77/14 model - 75 mm high explosive shell, model mm fragmentation shell.

63 15 inch howitzer shells. Circa 1917 The mine shell is a particular form of HE shell developed for use in small caliber weapons such as 20 mm to 30 mm cannon. Small HE shells of conventional design can contain only a limited amount of explosive. By using a thin-walled steel casing of high tensile strength, a larger explosive charge can be used. Most commonly the explosive charge also was a more expensive but higher-detonation-energy type. The mine shell concept was invented by the Germans in the Second World War primarily for use in aircraft guns intended to be fired at opposing aircraft. Mine shells produced relatively little damage due to fragments, but a much more powerful blast. The aluminium structures and skins of Second World War aircraft were readily damaged by this greater level of blast. Armor-piercing (AP) The earliest naval and anti-tank shells had to withstand the extreme shock of punching through armor plate. Shells designed for this purpose sometimes had a greatly strengthened case with a small bursting charge, and sometimes were solid metal, i.e. shot. In either case, they almost always had a specially hardened and shaped nose to facilitate penetration. A further refinement of such designs improved penetration by adding a softer

64 metal cap to the penetrating nose giving APC (Armour piercing - capped). The softer cap dampens the initial shock that would otherwise shatter the round. The best profile for the cap is not the most aerodynamic; this can be remedied by adding a further hollow cap of suitable shape: APCBC (APC + Ballistic Cap). AP shells with a bursting charge were sometimes distinguished by appending the suffix "HE". At the beginning of the Second World War, solid shot AP projectiles were common. As the war progressed, ordnance design evolved so that APHE became the more common design approach for anti-tank shells of 75 mm caliber and larger, and more common in naval shell design as well. In modern ordnance, most full caliber AP shells are APHE designs. Armour-piercing, discarding-sabot (APDS) APDS was developed by engineers working for the French Edgar Brandt company, and was fielded in two calibers (75 mm/57 mm for the Mle1897/33 75 mm anti-tank cannon, 37 mm/25 mm for several 37 mm gun types) just before the French-German armistice of The Edgar Brandt engineers, having been evacuated to the United Kingdom, joined ongoing APDS development efforts there, culminating in significant improvements to the concept and its realization. British APDS ordnance for their QF 6 pdr and 17 pdr antitank guns was fielded in March even higher velocity armour piercing rounds due to their very high shock tolerance and The armor-piercing concept calls for more penetration capability than the target's armour thickness. Generally, the penetration capability of an armor piercing round is proportional to the projectile's kinetic energy. Thus an efficient means of achieving increased penetrating power is increased velocity for the projectile. However, projectile impact against armour at higher velocity causes greater levels of shock. Materials have characteristic maximum levels of shock capacity, beyond which they may shatter on impact. At relatively high impact velocities, steel is no longer an adequate material for armor piercing rounds due to shatter. Tungsten and tungsten alloys are suitable for use in shatter resistance. However, tungsten is very dense, and tungsten rounds of full-caliber design are too massive to be accelerated to an efficient velocity for maximized kinetic energy. This is overcome by using a reduced-diameter tungsten shot, surrounded by a lightweight outer carrier, the sabot (a French word for a wooden shoe). This combination allows the firing of a smaller diameter (thus lower mass/aerodynamic resistance/- penetration resistance) projectile with a larger area of expanding-propellant "push", thus a greater propelling force/acceleration/resulting kinetic energy. Once outside the barrel, the sabot is stripped off by a combination of centrifugal force and aerodynamic force, giving the shot low drag in flight. For a given caliber the use of APDS ammunition can effectively double the anti-tank performance of a gun.

65 Armour-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding-sabot (APFSDS) French "Arrow" armour-piercing round, a form of APFSDS An Armour-Piercing, Fin-Stabilised, Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) projectile uses the sabot principle with fin (drag) stabilisation. A long, thin sub-projectile has increased sectional density and thus penetration potential. However, once a projectile has a lengthto-diameter ratio greater than 10 (less for higher density projectiles), spin stabilisation becomes ineffective. Instead, drag stabilisation is used, by means of fins attached to the base of the sub-projectile, making it look like a large metal arrow. Large calibre APFSDS projectiles are usually fired from smooth-bore (unrifled) barrels, though they can be and often are fired from rifled guns. This is especially true when fired from small to medium calibre weapon systems. APFSDS projectiles are usually made from high-density metal alloys such as tungsten heavy alloys (WHA) or depleted uranium

66 (DU); maraging steel was used for some early Soviet projectiles. DU alloys are cheaper and have better penetration than others as they are denser and self-sharpening, but they present radiological and toxic hazards that remain on the battlefield. The less toxic WHAs are preferred in most countries except the USA, UK, and Russia. Armour-piercing, composite rigid (APCR) Armour-Piercing, Composite Rigid is a British term, the US term for the design is High Velocity Armour Piercing (HVAP) and German, Hartkernmunition. The APCR projectile is a core of a high-density hard material such as tungsten carbide surrounded by a full-bore shell of a lighter material (e.g. an aluminium alloy). Most APCR projectiles are shaped like the standard APCBC shot (although some of the German Pzgr. 40 and some Soviet designs resemble a stubby arrow), but the projectile is lighter: up to half the weight of a standard AP shot of the same calibre. The lighter weight allows a higher velocity. The kinetic energy of the shot is concentrated in the core and hence on a smaller impact area, improving the penetration of the target armour. To prevent shattering on impact, a shock-buffering cap is placed between the core and the outer ballistic shell as with APC rounds. However, because the shot is lighter but still the same overall size it has poorer ballistic qualities, and loses velocity and accuracy at longer ranges. The APCR was superseded by the APDS which dispensed with the outer light alloy shell once the shot had left the barrel. The Germans used an APCR round, the Panzergranate 40 (Pzgr.40) "arrowhead" shot, for their 5 cm Pak 38 antitank guns in 1942, and it was also developed for their 75 and 88 mm antitank and tank guns, and for anti-tank guns mounted in German aircraft. Shortages of the key component, tungsten, led to the Germans dropping the use of APCR during late World War II because it was more efficiently used in industrial applications such as machine tools. Armour-piercing, composite non-rigid (APCNR) Armour-Piercing, Composite Non-Rigid (APCNR), the British term, is based on the same projectile design as the APCR - a high density core within a shell of soft iron or other alloy, but it is fired by a gun with a tapered barrel, either a taper in a fixed barrel (Gerlich design in German use; original development efforts in the late 1930s in Germany, Denmark and France) or a final added section as in the British "squeeze -bore" (Littlejohn adaptor). The projectile is initially full-bore, but the outer shell is deformed as it passes through the taper. Flanges or studs are swaged down in the tapered section, so that as it leaves the muzzle the projectile has a smaller overall cross-section. This gives it better flight characteristics with a higher sectional density and the projectile retains velocity better at longer ranges than an undeformed shell of the same weight. As with the APCR the kinetic energy of the round is concentrated at the core on impact. The initial velocity of the round is greatly increased by the decrease of barrel cross-sectional area toward the muzzle, resulting in a commensurate increase in velocity of the expanding propellant gases. The Germans deployed their Schwere Panzerbüchse 41, their initial tapered barrel design, as a light anti-tank weapon early in the Second World War, but although HE projectiles were designed and put into service, the limiting of the shell diameter to the muzzle bore reduced their mass to only 85 grams and hence reduced their effectiveness.

67 The British used the Littlejohn squeeze-bore adaptor which could be attached or removed as necessary, to extend the usefulness of their QF 2 pdr gun in armoured cars and light tanks which could not take a larger gun. Although a full range of shells and shot could be used, changing the adaptor in the heat of battle was highly impractical. The APCNR was superseded by the APDS design which was compatible with non-tapered barrels. High-explosive, anti-tank (HEAT) HEAT shells are a type of shaped charge used to defeat armoured vehicles. They are extremely efficient at defeating plain steel armour but less so against later composite and reactive armour. The effectiveness of the shell is independent of its velocity, and hence the range: it is as effective at 1000 metres as at 100 metres. The speed can even be zero in the case where a soldier simply places a magnetic mine onto a tank's armor plate. A HEAT charge is most effective when detonated at a certain, optimal, distance in front of the target and HEAT shells are usually distinguished by a long, thin nose probe sticking out in front of the rest of the shell and detonating it at the correct distance, e.g., PIAT bomb. HEAT shells are less effective if spun (i.e., fired from a rifled gun). Discarding-sabot shell (DSS) In principle the same as the APDS shot but applied to high explosive shells. It is a means to deliver a shell to a greater range. The design of the sub-projectile carried inside the sabot can be optimised for aerodynamic properties and the sabot can be built for best performance within the barrel of the gun. The principle was developed by a Frenchman, Edgar Brandt, in the 1930s. With the occupation of France, the Germans took the idea for application to anti-aircraft guns a DSS projectile could be fired at a higher muzzle velocity and reach the target altitude more quickly, simplifying aiming and allowing the target aircraft less time to change course. High-explosive, squash-head (HESH) or high-explosive plastic (HEP) HESH is another anti-tank shell based on the use of explosive. Developed by the British inventor Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney in World War II for use against fortifications. A thin-walled shell case contains a large charge of a plastic explosive. On impact the explosive flattens, without detonating, against the face of the armour, and is then detonated by the fuze. Energy is transferred through the armour plate: when the compressive shock reflects off the air/metal interface on the inner face of the armour, it is transformed into a tension wave which spalls a "scab" of metal off into the tank damaging the equipment and crew without actually penetrating the armour. HESH is completely defeated by spaced armour, so long as the plates are individually able to withstand the explosion. It is still considered useful as not all vehicles are equipped with spaced armour, and it is also the most effective munition for demolishing brick and concrete. HESH shells, unlike HEAT shells, are best fired from rifled guns.

68 Proof shot A proof shot is not used in combat but to confirm that a new gun barrel can withstand operational stresses. The proof shot is heavier than a normal shot or shell, and an oversize propelling charge is used, subjecting the barrel to greater than normal stress. The proof shot is inert (no explosive or functioning filling) and is often a solid unit, although water, sand or iron powder filled versions may be used for testing the gun mounting. Although the proof shot resembles a functioning shell (of whatever sort) so that it behaves as a real shell in the barrel, it is not aerodynamic as its job is over once it has left the muzzle of the gun. Consequently it travels a much shorter distance and is usually stopped by an earth bank for safety measures. The gun, operated remotely for safety in case it fails, fires the proof shot, and is then inspected for damage. If the barrel passes the examination "proof marks" are added to the barrel. The gun can be expected to handle normal ammunition, which subjects it to less stress than the proof shot, without being damaged. Shrapnel shells Typical World War I shrapnel round Shrapnel shells were an early (1784) anti-personnel munition which delivered large numbers of bullets at ranges far greater than rifles or machine guns could attain - up to 6,500 yards by A typical shrapnel shell as used in World War I was streamlined, 75 mm (3 inch) in diameter and contained approximately 300 lead-antimony balls (bullets), each approximately 1/2 inch in diameter. Shrapnel used the principle that the bullets encountered much less air resistance if they travelled most of their journey packed together in a single streamlined shell than they would if they travelled individually, and could hence attain a far greater range. The gunner set the shell's time fuze so that it was timed to burst as it was angling down towards the ground just before it reached its target (ideally about 150 yards before, and feet above the ground). The fuze then ignited a small "bursting charge" in the base of the shell which fired the balls forward out of the front of the shell case, adding approximately ft/second to the existing velocity of ft/second. The

69 shell case dropped to the ground and the bullets continued in an expanding cone shape before striking the ground over an area approximately 250 yards x 30 yards in the case of the US 3 inch shell. The effect was of a large shotgun blast just in front of and above the target, and was deadly against troops in the open. A trained gun team could fire 20 such shells per minute, with a total of 6,000 balls, which compared very favourably with rifles and machine-guns. However, shrapnel's relatively flat trajectory (it depended mainly on the shell's velocity for its lethality, and was only lethal in a forward direction) meant that it could not strike trained troops who avoided open spaces and instead used dead ground (dips), shelters, trenches, buildings, and trees for cover. It was of no use in destroying buildings or shelters. Hence it was replaced during World War I by the high-explosive shell which exploded its fragments in all directions and could be fired by high-angle weapons such as howitzers, hence far more difficult to avoid. Cluster shells Cluster shells are a type of carrier shell or cargo munition. Like cluster bombs, an artillery shell may be used to scatter smaller submunitions, including anti-personnel grenades, anti-tank top-attack munitions, and landmines. These are generally far more lethal against both armor and infantry than simple high-explosive shells, since the multiple munitions create a larger kill zone and increase the chance of achieving the direct hit necessary to kill armor. Most modern armies make significant use of cluster munitions in their artillery batteries. However, in operational use submunitions have demonstrated a far higher malfunction rate than previously claimed, including those that have self-destruct mechanisms. This problem, the 'dirty battlefield", led to the Ottawa Treaty. Artillery-scattered mines allow for the quick deployment of minefields into the path of the enemy without placing engineering units at risk, but artillery delivery may lead to an irregular and unpredictable minefield with more unexploded ordnance than if mines were individually placed. Signatories of the Ottawa Treaty have renounced the use of cluster munitions of all types where the carrier contains more than ten submunitions.

70 Chemical Chemical shells contain just a small explosive charge to burst the shell, and a larger 155 mm artillery shells containing "HD" agent at Pueblo chemical weapons storage facility. Note the colour coding scheme on each shell. quantity of a chemical agent such as a poison gas. Signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention have renounced such shells. Non-lethal shells Not all shells are designed to kill or destroy. The following types are designed to achieve particular non-lethal effects. They are not completely harmless: smoke and illumination shells can accidentally start fires, and impact by the discarded carrier of all three types can wound or kill personnel, or cause minor damage to property. Smoke The smoke shell is designed to create a smokescreen. The main types are bursting (those filled with white phosphorus WP and a small HE bursting charge are best known) and base ejection (delivering three or four smoke canisters, or material impregnated with white phosphorus). Base ejection shells are a type of carrier shell or cargo munition.

71 Base ejection smoke is usually white, however, coloured smoke has been used for marking purposes. The original canisters were non-burning, being filled with a compound that created smoke when it reacted with atmospheric moisture, modern ones use red phosphorus because of its multi-spectral properties. However, other compounds have been used, in World War II Germany used oleum (fuming sulphuric acid) and pumice. Illumination Illumination rounds fired from a M777 howitzer Modern illuminating shells are a type of carrier shell or cargo munition. Those used in World War I were shrapnel pattern shells ejecting small burning 'pots'. A modern illumination shell has a fuze which ejects the "candle" (a pyrotechnic flare emitting white or infrared light) at a calculated altitude, where it slowly drifts down beneath a heat resistant parachute, illuminating the area below. These are also known as starshell or star shell. Coloured flare shells have also been used for target marking purposes. Carrier The carrier shell is simply a hollow carrier equipped with a fuze which ejects the contents at a calculated time. They are often filled with propaganda leaflets, but can be filled with

72 anything that meets the weight restrictions and is able to withstand the shock of firing. Famously, on Christmas Day 1899 during the siege of Ladysmith, the Boers fired into Ladysmith a carrier shell without fuze, which contained a Christmas pudding, two Union Flags and the message "compliments of the season". The shell is still kept in the museum at Ladysmith. Fireworks Aerial firework bursts are created by shells. In the United States, consumer firework shells may not exceed 1.75 inches in diameter. Unexploded shells The fuze of a shell has to keep the shell safe from accidental functioning during storage, due to (possibly) rough handling, fire, etc., it also has to survive the violent launch through the barrel, then reliably function at the correct time. To do this it has a number of arming mechanisms, which are successively enabled under the influence of the firing sequence. piezoelectric fuze can be detonated by relatively light impact to the piezoelectric element, Sometimes, one or more of these arming mechanisms fails, and if the fuze is installed on an HE shell, it fails to detonate on impact. More worrying and potentially far more hazardous are fully armed shells on which the fuze fails to initiate the HE firing. This may be due to shallow, low velocity or soft impact conditions. Whatever the reason for failure, such a shell is called a blind or unexploded ordnance (UXO). The older term, "dud", is discouraged because it implies that the shell cannot detonate. Blind shells often litter old battlefields and depending on the impact velocity may be buried some distance into the earth, all remain potentially hazardous. For example, antitank ammunition with a and others, depending on the type of fuze used can be detonated by even a small movement. The battlefields of the First World War still claim casualties today from leftover munitions. Thankfully modern electrical and mechanical fuzes are highly reliable: if they do not arm correctly they keep the initiation train out of line, or if electrical in nature, discharge any stored electrical energy. Guided shells Guided or "smart" ammunition have been developed in recent years, but have yet to supplant unguided munitions in all applications.

73 M982 Excalibur. A GPS guided artillery shell

74 M712 Copperhead approaches a target tank

75 Propellant 152 mm howitzer D-20 during the Iran-Iraq war All forms of artillery require a propellant to propel the projectile at the target. Propellant is always a low explosive, this means it deflagrates instead of detonating, as with high explosives. The shell is accelerated to a high velocity in a very short time by the rapid generation of gas from the burning propellant. This high pressure is achieved by burning the propellant in a contained area, either the chamber of a gun barrel or the combustion chamber of a rocket motor. Until the late 19th century the only available propellant was black powder. Black powder had many disadvantages as a propellant; it has relatively low power, requiring large amounts of powder to fire projectiles, and created thick clouds of white smoke that would obscure the targets, betray the positions of guns and make aiming impossible. In 1846 nitrocellulose (also known as guncotton) was discovered, and the high explosive nitroglycerin was discovered at much the same time. Nitrocellulose was significantly more powerful than black powder, and was smokeless. Early guncotton was unstable however, and burned very fast and hot, leading to greatly increased barrel wear. Widespread introduction of smokeless powder would wait until the advent of the doublebase powders, which combine nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin to produce powerful, smokeless, stable propellant.

76 Many other formulations were developed in the following decades, generally trying to find the optimum characteristics of a good artillery propellant; low temperature, high energy, non corrosive, highly stable, cheap, and easy to manufacture in large quantities. Broadly, modern gun propellants are divided into three classes: single-base propellants which are mainly or entirely nitrocellulose based, double-base propellants composed of a combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, and triple base composed of a combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin and Nitroguanidine. Artillery shells fired from a barrel can be assisted to greater range in three ways: rocket assisted projectiles (RAP) enhance and sustain the projectile's velocity by providing additional 'push' from a small rocket motor that is part of the projectile's base. Base bleed uses a small pyrotechnic charge at the base of the projectile to introduce sufficient combustion products into the low-pressure region behind the base of the projectile responsible for a large proportion of the drag. ramjet assisted, similar to rocket assisted but using a ramjet instead of a rocket motor; it is anticipated that a ramjet-assisted 120-mm mortar shell could reach a range of 22 mi (35 km). leaking out of the breech, this is called obturation. With bagged charges the breech itself Propelling charges for tube artillery can be provided in one of two ways: either as cartridge bags or in metal cartridge cases. Generally anti-aircraft artillery and smaller caliber (up to 6" or mm) guns use metal cartridge cases that include the round and propellant, similar to a modern rifle cartridge. This simplifies loading and is necessary for very high rates of fire. Bagged propellant allows the amount of powder to be raised or lowered depending on the range to the target. it also makes handling of larger shells easier. Each requires a totally different type of breech to the other. A metal case holds an integral primer to initiate the propellant and provides the gas seal to prevent the gases provides obturation and holds the primer. In either case the primer is usually percussion but electrical is also used and laser ignition is emerging. Modern 155 mm guns have a primer magazine fitted to their breech.

77 Battleship Ammunition: 16" artillery shells aboard one of America's Iowa-class battleships. Artillery ammunition has four classifications according to use: Service: ammunition used in live fire training or for wartime use in a combat zone. Also known as "warshot" ammunition. Practice: Ammunition with a non- or minimally-explosive projectile that mimics the characteristics (range, accuracy) of live rounds for use under training conditions. Practice artillery ammunition often utilizes a colored-smokegenerating bursting charge for marking purposes in place of the normal high explosive charge. Dummy: Ammunition with an inert warhead, inert primer, and no propellant; used for training or display. Blank: Ammunition with live primer, greatly reduced propellant charge (typically black powder) and no projectile; used for training, demonstration or ceremonial use.

78 Field artillery system Cyclone of the 320th French Artillery, in Hoogstade, Belgium, 5 September Because field artillery mostly uses indirect fire the guns have to be part of a system that enables them to attack targets invisible to them in accordance with the combined arms plan. The main functions in the field artillery system are: Communications Command: authority to allocate resources; Target acquisition: detect, identify and deduce the location of targets; Control: authority to decide which targets to attack and allot fire units to the attack; Production of firing data to deliver fire from a fire unit onto its target; Fire units: guns, launchers or mortars grouped together; Specialist services produce data to support the production of accurate firing data; Logistic services to provide combat supplies, particularly ammunition, and equipment support. Organisationally and spatially these functions can be arranged in many ways. Since the creation of modern indirect fire different armies have done it differently at different times and in different places. Technology is often a factor but so are military-social issues, the

79 relationships between artillery and other arms, and the criteria by which military capability, efficiency and effectiveness are judged. Cost is also an issue because artillery is expensive due to the large quantities of ammunition that it uses and its level of manpower. Communications underpin the artillery system, they have to be reliable and in real-time to link the various elements. During the 20th century communications used flags, morse code by radio, line and lights, voice and teletype (teleprinter) by line. Radio has included HF, VHF, satellite and radio relay as well as modern tactical trunk systems. In western armies at least radio communications are now usually encrypted. The emergence of mobile and man-portable radios after World War I had a major impact on artillery because it enable fast and mobile operations with observers accompanying the infantry or armoured troops. In World War II some armies fitted their self-propelled guns with radios. However, sometimes in the first half of the 20th century hardcopy artillery fire plans and map traces were distributed. artillery units are assigned in direct support or in general support. Typically, the former Data communications can be especially important for artillery because by using structured messages and defined data types fire control messages can be automatically routed and processed by computers. For example a target acquisition element can send a message with target details which is automatically routed through the tactical and technical fire control elements to deliver firing data to the gun's laying system and the gun automatically laid. As tactical data networks become pervasive they will provide any connected soldier with a means for reporting target information and requesting artillery fire. Command is the authority to allocate resources, typically by assigning artillery formations or units. Terminology and its implications vary widely. However, very broadly, mostly provide close support to manoeuvre units while the latter may provide close support and or depth fire, notably counter-battery. Generally, 'direct support' also means that the artillery unit provides artillery observation and liaison teams to the supported units. Sometimes direct support units are placed under command of the regiment/brigade they support. General support units may be grouped into artillery formations e.g. brigades even divisions, or multi-battalion regiments, and usually under command of division, corps or higher HQs. General support units tend to be moved to where they are most required at any particular time. Artillery command may impose priorities and constraints to support their combined arms commander's plans. Target acquisition can take many forms, it is usually observation in real time but may be the product of analysis. Artillery observation teams are the most common means of target acquisition. However, air observers have been use since the beginning of indirect fire and were quickly joined by air photography. Target acquisition may also be by anyone that can get the information into the artillery system. Targets may be visible to forward troops or in depth and invisible to them.

80 Observation equipment can vary widely in its complexity. Unmanned air vehicles are the latest form of air observation, having been first introduced in the early 1960s. The equipment available to observation teams has progressed from just prismatic compass, hand-held or tripod mounted binoculars and sometimes optical rangefinders. Special equipment for locating hostile artillery: flash spotting and notably sound ranging appeared in World War I the latter has been undergone increasing refinement as technology has improved. These were joined by radar in World War II. In the mid-1970s several armies started equipping their artillery observation teams with laser rangefinders, ground surveillance radars and night vision devices, these were soon followed by inertial orienting and navigating devices to improve the accuracy of target locations. The Global Positioning System (GPS) provided a smaller and cheaper means of quick and accurate fixation for target acquisition devices. Specialised units with ground surveillance radars, unattended ground sensors or observation patrols operating in depth have also been used. Targets in depth may also be 'acquired' by intelligence processes using various sources and agencies such as HUMINT, SIGINT, ELINT and IMINT. Laser guided shells require laser target designators, usually with observation teams on the ground but UAV installations are possible. Specialised artillery observation vehicles appeared in World War II and have greatly increased in sophistication since that time. fire units and the number of fire units needed depends on the nature of the target, and the Control, sometimes called tactical fire control, is primarily concerned with 'targeting' and the allotment of fire units to targets. This is vital when a target is within range of many circumstances and purpose of its engagement. Targeting is concerned with selecting the right weapons in the right quantities to achieve the required effects on the target. Allotment attempts to address the artillery dilemma important targets are rarely urgent and urgent targets are rarely important. Of course importance is a matter of perspective; what is important to a divisional commander is rarely the same as what is important to an infantry platoon commander.

81 Afghans with two captured artillery field guns in Jaji, 1984 Broadly, there are two situations: fire against opportunity targets and targets whose engagement is planned as part of a particular operation. In the latter situation command assigns fire units to the operation and an overall artillery fire planner makes a plan, possibly delegating resources for some parts of it to other planners. Fire plans may also involve use of non-artillery assets such as mortars and aircraft. Control of fire against opportunity targets is an important differentiator between different types of artillery system. In some armies only designated artillery HQs have the tactical fire control authority to order fire units to engage a target, all 'calls for fire' being requests to these HQs. This authority may also extend to deciding the type and quantity of ammunition to be used. In other armies an 'authorised observer' (e.g. artillery observation team or other target acquisition element) can order fire units to engage. In the latter case a battery observation team can order fire to their own battery and may be authorised to order fire to their own battalion and sometimes to many battalions. For example a divisional artillery commander may authorise selected observers to order fire to the entire divisional artillery. When observers or cells are not authorised they can still request fire. Armies that apply forward tactical control generally put the majority of the more senior officers of artillery units forward in command observation posts or with the supported arm. Those that do not use this approach tend to put these officers close to the guns. In either case the observation element usually controls fire in detail against the target, such as adjusting it onto the target, moving it and co-ordinating it with the supported arm as necessary to achieve the required effects. Firing data has to be calculated and is the key to indirect fire, the arrangements for this have varied widely. In the end firing data has two components: quadrant elevation and

82 azimuth, to these may be added the size of propelling charge and the fuze setting. The process to produce firing data this is sometimes called technical fire control. Before computers, some armies set the range on the gun's sights, which mechanically corrected it for the gun's muzzle velocity. For the first few decades of indirect fire, the firing data were often calculated by the observer who then adjusted the fall of shot onto the target. However, the need to engage targets at night, in depth or hit the target with the first rounds quickly led to predicted fire being developed in World War I. Predicted fire existed alongside the older method. After World War II predicted methods were invariably applied but the fall of shot usually needed adjustment because of inaccuracy in locating the target, the proximity of friendly troops or the need to engage a moving target. Target location errors were significantly reduced once laser rangefinders, orientation and navigation devices were issued to observation parties. In predicted fire the basic geospatial data of range, angle of sight and azimuth between a fire unit and its target was produced and corrected for variations from the 'standard conditions'. These variations included barrel wear, propellant temperature, different projectiles weights that all affected the muzzle velocity, and air temperature, density, wind speed & direction and rotation of the earth that affect the shell in flight. The net effect of variations can also be determined by shooting at an accurately known point, a process called 'registration'. affecting the trajectory at each step. This simulation is repeated until it produces a All these calculations to produce a quadrant elevation (or range) and azimuth were done manually by highly trained soldiers using instruments, tabulated data, data of the moment and approximations until battlefield computers started appearing in the 1960s and '70s. While some early calculators copied the manual method (typically substituting polynomials for tabulated data), computers use a different approach. They simulate a shell's trajectory by 'flying' it in short steps and applying data about the conditions quadrant elevation and azimuth that lands the shell within the required 'closing' distance of the target co-ordinates. NATO has a standard ballistic model for computer calculations and has expanded the scope of this into the NATO Armaments Ballistic Kernel (NABK). Technical fire control has been performed in various places, but mostly in firing batteries. However, in the 1930s the French moved it to battalion level and combined it with some tactical fire control. This was copied by the US. Nevertheless most armies seemed to have retained it within firing batteries and some duplicated the technical fire control teams in a battery to give operational resilience and tactical flexibility. Computers reduced the number of men needed and enabled decentralisation of technical fire control to autonomous sub-battery fire units such as platoons, troops or sections, although some armies had sometimes done this with their manual methods. Computation on the gun or launcher, integrated with their laying system, is also possible. MLRS led the way in this. A fire unit is the smallest artillery or mortar element, consisting of one or more weapon systems, capable of being employed to execute a fire assigned by a tactical fire controller. Generally it is a battery, but sub-divided batteries are quite common, and in some armies

83 very common. On occasions a battery of 6 guns has been 6 fire units. Fire units may or may not occupy separate positions. Geographically dispersed fire units may or may not have an integral capability for technical fire control. Specialist services provide data need for predicted fire. Increasingly, they are provided from within firing units. These services include: Survey: accurate fixation and orientation of the guns, historically this involved specialists within field artillery units and specialist units. In some armies mapping and amp supply has also been an artillery responsibility. Survey is also essential for some target acquisition devices. Traditional survey methods of measurement and calculation have been replaced by inertial orientation and navigators and GPS. Meteorological data: historically these were usually divisional level specialist teams but advances in technology mean they are now increasingly part of artillery units. Calibration: periodically establishing the "normal" muzzle velocity of each gun as it wears. Originally this involved special facilities and army level teams. Measurement using Doppler radar, introduced in the 1950s, started to simplify arrangements. Some armies now have a muzzle velocity measuring radar permanently fitted to every gun. units and extent to which stocks are held at unit or battery level. A key difference is Logistic services, supply of artillery ammunition has always been a major component of military logistics. Up until World War I some armies made artillery responsible for all forward ammunition supply because the load of small arms ammunition was trivial compared to artillery. Different armies use different approaches to ammunition supply, which can vary with the nature of operations. Differences include where the logistic service transfers artillery ammunition to artillery, the amount of ammunition carried in whether supply is 'push' or 'pull'. In the former the 'pipeline' keeps pushing ammunition into formations or units at a defined rate. In the latter units fire as tactically necessary and replenish to maintain or reach their authorised holding (which can vary), so the logistic system has to be able to cope with surge and slack. Artillery has always been equipment intensive and for centuries artillery provided its own artificers to maintain and repair their equipment. Most armies now place these services in specialist branches with specialist repair elements in batteries and units.

84 Chapter- 4 Classification of Artillery Artillery types can be categorised in several ways, for example by type or size of weapon or ordnance, by role or by organizational arrangements. Types of ordnance The types of cannon artillery are generally distinguished by the velocity at which they fire projectiles. Types of artillery: Field artillery French Napoleonic artillery battery. Photo taken during the 200th anniversary reenactment of the battle of Austerlitz in 1805.

85 Union Army gun squad at drill, c. 1860

86 Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These U.S. Army troops in Europe, winter , with artillery shells labeled as "Easter Eggs for Hitler". weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, long range, short range and extremely long range target engagement. Until the early 20th century, field artillery were also known as foot artillery, for while the guns were pulled by beasts of burden (often horses), the gun crews would usually march on foot, thus providing fire support mainly to the infantry. This was in contrast to horse artillery, whose emphasis on speed while supporting cavalry units necessitated lighter guns and crews riding on horseback. Whereas horse artillery has been superseded by self-propelled artillery, field artillery has survived to this day both in name and mission, albeit with motor vehicles towing the guns, carrying the crews and transporting the ammunition. Modern artillery has also advanced to rapidly deployable wheeled and tracked vehicles and precision delivered munitions capable of striking tarkets at ranges between 15 and 300 kilometers. There exists to date no other singularly effective all weather fires delivery system which rivals the modern field artillery.

87 History Early Modern era American artillery crew during the Revolutionary War Early artillery was unsuited to the battlefield, as the extremely massive pieces could not be moved except in areas that were already controlled by the combatant. Thus, their role was limited to such functions as breaking sieges. Later, the first field artilleries came into function as metallurgy allowed thinner barrels to withstand the explosive forces without bursting. However, there was still a serious risk of the constant changes of the battlefield conspriring to leave behind slow-moving artillery units - either on the advance, or more dangerously, in retreat. In fact, many cavalry units became tasked with destroying artillery units as one of their main functions. Only with a number of further inventions (such as the limber, hitched to the trail of a wheeled artillery piece equipped with trunnions), did the concept of field artillery really take off. 20th Century Prior to the first World War, field artillery batteries generally fired directly at visible targets measured in distances of meters and yards. Today, modern field batteries measure targets in kilometers and miles and often do not directly engage the enemy with observed direct fire. This hundredfold increase in the range of artillery guns in the 20th century has been the result of development of rifled cannons, improvements in propellants, better communications between observer and gunner and technical improvements in gunnery computational abilities.

88 Most field artillery situations require indirect fire due to weather, terrain, night-time conditions, distance or other obstacles. These gunners can also rely upon a trained artillery observer, also called a forward observer who sees the target, relays the coordinates of the target to their fire direction center which, in turn translates those coordinates into: a left-right aiming direction; an elevation angle; a calculated number of bags of propellant and finally a fuze with a determined waiting time before exploding, (if necessary) to be set, which is then mated to the artillery projectile now ready to be fired. Field artillery team Modern field artillery (Post-World War I) has three distinct parts: the forward observer (or FO), the fire direction center (FDC) and the actual guns themselves. On the battlefield, there will be combinations of all of the following elements. FO (Forward Observer) Because artillery is an indirect fire weapon, the forward observer must take up a position where he can observe the target using tools such as binoculars and laser rangefinders and designators and call back fire missions on his radio. This position can be anywhere from a few thousand meters to km distant from the guns. Using a standardized format, the FO sends either an exact target location or the position relative to his own location or a common map point, a brief target description, a recommended munition to use, and any special instructions such as "danger close" (the warning that friendly troops are within 600 metres of the target, requiring extra precision from the guns). Once firing begins, if the rounds are not accurate the FO will issue instructions to adjust fire and then call "fire for effect". The FO does not talk to the guns directly - he deals solely with the FDC except in the case of CAS (Close Air Support). The forward observer can also be airborne and in fact one of the original roles of aircraft in the military was airborne artillery spotting. The FO may be called upon to direct fire for CAS and/or Naval GunFire in addition to Field Artillery based howitzer and Infantry based mortar units. The US Army Field Manual describing the duties and responsibilities is FM 6-30, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Observed Fire.

89 FDC (Fire Direction Center) Calling in and adjusting artillery fire on a target visible to a forward observer but not to the soldiers manning the guns, themselves Typically, there is one FDC for a battery of six guns, in a light division. In a typical heavy division configuration, there exist two FDC elements capable of operating two four gun sections, also known as a split battery. The FDC computes firing data, fire direction, for the guns. The process consists of determining the precise target location based on the observer's location if needed, then computing range and direction to the target from the guns' location. These data can be computed manually, using special protractors and slide rules with precomputed firing data. Corrections can be added for conditions such as a difference between target and howitzer altitudes, propellant temperature, atmospheric conditions, and even the curvature and rotation of the Earth. In most cases, some corrections are omitted, sacrificing accuracy for speed. In recent decades, FDCs have become computerized, allowing for much faster and more accurate computation of firing data.

90 CP In most Artillery Batteries the Command Post or CP controls the firing of the guns. It is usually located at the battery center so as to be able to communicate easily with the guns. The CP should be well camouflaged, but the CPO (Command Post Officer) should be able to see all the guns with ease. Gun markers are sometimes placed in front of the CP to remind the CPO which gun is in which position. The CPO is assisted by two "Acks" - or assistants - who operate the fire data computers. The GPO (Gun Position Officer) and CPO work at the plotter to ensure that the data calculated by the Acks is accurate and safe. The CP signaller is contact with the OP, or Observation Post, where the FOO, or Forward Observer Officer, works with the OP team to identify targets and call-back fire data. In recent years, headset radios have become common for communication between the CPO and gun detachment commanders. Guns Infantry support gun, Mountain and Field Gun The final piece of the puzzle is the "gun line" itself. The FDC will transmit a warning order to the guns, followed by orders specifying the type of ammunition and fuze setting, bearing, elevation, and the method of adjustment or orders for fire for effect (FFE). Elevation (vertical direction) and bearing orders are specified in milliradians) or mils, and any special instructions, such as to wait for the observer's command to fire relayed through the FDC. The crews load the howitzers and traverse and elevate the tube to the required point, using either hand cranks (usually on towed guns) or hydraulics (on selfpropelled models). Infantry Support Gun Infantry support guns are artillery weapons designed and used to enhance fire power of infantry units they are intrinsic to, offering immediate tactical response to the needs of the unit's commanding officer. The designs are typically with short low velocity barrels, and light construction carriages allowing them to be more easily manoeuvred on the battlefield. Very few support guns are still in service with infantry units, their roles largely replaced in part by the grenade launchers and for the most part by the light antitank weapons and heavier wire-guided missiles in engaging point targets such as structures. Pack guns are similar in concept, but specifically refer to those guns that are meant to be disassembled into parts for movement, and are synonymous with mountain guns as infantry support weapons designed for use during mountain combat. Airborne guns are those designed for use by paratroopers, and generally reflect similar design features of portability and lighter weight when compared to field artillery.

91 Infantry support guns Development history Infantry support guns were the first type of artillery employed by armed forces, initially in China, and later brought to Europe by the Mongol invasion. In their initial form, they lacked carriages or wheels, and were simple cast barrels called pots de fer in French, or vasi in Italian. These weapons were relatively small, immobile, and fired large bolts or quarrels. Along with increases in the sizes of ordnance (the barrels) came the requirement of easier transportation. This led to two divergent approaches, the very light hand-gun, and eventually the arquebus, while another avenue of development led to the light ordnance, now on wheeled carriages, such as the 2-pounder Culvern moyane, the 1- pounder Falcon, and the 3/4-pounder Falconet. These lighter Renaissance pieces eventually led to the development of the 3-pounder and 4-pounder regimental guns of the 17th century, notably in the army of Gustavus Adolphus. The light field guns of the 17th century, commonly known as a drake in England, came in almost 100 variety of calibres, with each having its own distinct name, some of which were: 5-pounder, 3½-inch saker weighing 1 ton 4-pounder, 3-inch minion weighing 3/4 ton 2-pounder, 2¾-inch falcon weighing 1/4 ton 1-pounder, 2-inch falconet weighing 200lbs ¾-pounder, ¼-inch robinet weighing 100lbs The saker and falcon had point blank ranges of 360 and 320 yards, and 2,170 and 1,920 yards extreme ranges respectively. Although oxen were used to haul the heavier field and siege ordnance, some on wagons rather than limbers, they were too slow to keep up with the infantry, and so horses were used to pull the lighter pieces, leading to the development of the artillery carriage and horse team that survived until the late 19th century. 17th-19th century development The first School of Artillery in Venice was opened early in the 16th century, and by the late 17th century the different old names of the lighter ordnance were abandoned, and replaced with the French canon, or cannon. First regimental guns in English service were ordered by king James II in 1686, two 3-pounders for each of the seven regiments (of one battalion each) encamped in Hyde Park. Attachment of guns to the infantry had practical reasons also. While the allocation of horses was reckoned at one for each pounds of ordnance and its carriage, this was only true for availability of good horses and good roads, both in short supply due to unscrupulous civilian contractors and lack of road building technology. In cases where the work was excessive for horses alone, infantry would join them in pulling the guns, calculated at 80 lbs per infantryman, a load which remains at the upper limit of the average light infantry unit requirement today.

92 Frederick the Great of Prussia was the first to introduce artillery tactics for the regimental guns which were to accompany the infantry units as part of his reform of the Prussian artillery as a whole before and during the Seven Years War. This included the determination that canister shot was only effective at a range of 100 yards, same as that of the musket range, and therefore put the gunners into the environment of direct infantry combat due to Frederick's insistence that artillery should participate in the infantry attack. The French artillery ordnance (barrels) was standardised into five calibres in the second half of the 17th century: 4-pounders (regimental guns), 8-pounders and 12-pounders (field artillery), 24-pounders and 32-pounders (garrison or fortress artillery). Manufacture of the ordnance was also revolutionised by the early-18th century invention of the boring mechanism by the Swiss gun-founder Moritz of Geneva which allowed for a far greater precision achieved in the casting, in essence creating a huge lathe on which the barrel casting turned instead of the boring tool. Manufacture of cannon balls was also improved so the projectiles were now well-fitted to the bore of the ordnance, and after conducting experiments with gunpowder, the powder charges were determined to be one-third the weight of the shot (cannon ball). Frederick's artillery doctrine influenced the development of the French artillery troops, and after 1764 Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, the first Inspector of Artillery, after conducting trials in Strasbourg, reorganised French artillery units to provide them with greater mobility, changing length of the barrels to standard 18-calibre length, including the regimental 4-pounders. These were now pulled by four horses and used large six-wheeled vehicles that also included the caissons. The system of ordnance, carriages, ball, and powder charges introduced by de Gribeauval remained virtually unaltered through the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. 20th century development Belgium Canon de 76 FRC The Canon de 76 FRC was a Belgian infantry support gun, produced by the Fonderie Royale des Canons (FRC). The gun was typically of 76 mm calibre; however, an optional 47 mm barrel could be fitted instead. The gun was designed for transport via a trailer towed by a vehicle. In 1940, the Wehrmacht redesignated these as 7.6 cm IG 260(b). France Canon d'infantrie de 37 modele 1916 TRP The Canon d'infantrie de 37 modele 1916 TRP (37mm mle.1916) was a French infantry support gun, first used during World War I. The gun was used by a number of forces during and after the war. The US acquired a number of these guns, which they designated 37mm M1916; however, by 1941 the US Army had put these into storage (or scrapped

93 them). Poland fielded a number. In 1940, the Wehrmacht began using these as 3.7 cm IG 152(f). During the First World War, the Japanese Type 11 was based on this design. Mountain gun P. Lykoudis's original 1891 dismantleable breechloading gun with recoil control Mountain guns are artillery pieces designed for use in Mountain warfare and areas where usual wheeled transport is not possible. They are similar to infantry support guns, and are generally capable of being broken down into smaller loads (for transport by horse, human, mule, tractor, and/or truck). Due to their ability to be broken down into smaller "packages", they are sometimes called pack guns or pack howitzers. The first designs of modern breechloading mountain guns with recoil control and able to be easily broken down and reassembled into highly efficient units were made by two Greek army engineers, P. Lykoudis and Panagiotis Danglis (after whom the Schneider- Danglis gun was named) in the 1890s. Mountain guns are largely outdated, their role being filled by mortars and wire-guided missiles, and field guns can now be transported fully assembled by helicopters.

94 Field gun Spanish Marines manning an Oto Melara 105 mm pack howitzer in 1981 A WWI German 77mm field gun

95 A field gun is an artillery piece. Originally the term referred to smaller guns that could accompany a field army on the march and when in combat could be moved about the battlefield in response to changing circumstances. This was as opposed to siege cannon or mortars which were too large to be moved quickly, and would be used only in a prolonged siege. Use by Napoleon Perhaps the most famous use of the field gun in terms of advanced tactics was Napoleon's use of very large wheels on the guns that allowed them to be moved quickly even during a battle. By moving the guns from point to point during the battle, enemy formations could be broken up to be handled by the infantry wherever they were massing, dramatically increasing the overall effectiveness of the infantry. World War I German field guns captured by the NZEF displayed in London, 1918 As the evolution of artillery continued, almost all guns of any size became capable of being moved at some speed. With few exceptions, even the largest siege weapons had

96 become mobile by road or rail by the start of World War I, and evolution after that point tended to be towards smaller weapons with increased mobility. Although the Germans fielded a number of super-heavy guns (which were ineffective at best) in World War II, even these were rail or caterpillar-track mobile. In British use, a Field Gun was anything up to around 4.5 inches in calibre larger guns were Medium and the largest of all Heavy. Their largest gun (as opposed to howitzer) was the 5.5 inch (140 mm) Medium, reaching about 16,000 yards. World War II Since about the start of World War II, the term has been applied to long-range artillery pieces that fire at a relatively low angle, as opposed to howitzers which tend to fire at higher angles. By the later stages of World War II the majority of artillery in use was in the form of howitzers of 105 mm to 155 mm, and the only common field gun of the era beside the British 5.5 inch was the US 155 mm Long Tom (a development of a French World War I weapon). The 1960s The US Army tried the long-range gun again in the 1960s with the M mm gun, but this was a failure, and after a rash of cracked barrels the gun was removed from service. [Note that variants of this gun, which was technically a howitzer, were used as late as the Desert Storm/Persian Gulf War in 1991 and continue to be in service with the Israeli forces. The M107 was used extensively in the Vietnam war and was effective in artillery duels with the North Vietnamese forces. Production of the M107/M110 variants continued through the 1980s]. A nuclear shell was developed both for the 155mm gun as well as the 8 inch howitzer until US-Soviet disarmament treaties discontinued their being fielded in US ground forces. Modern times Today the gun finds itself in an area that seems to be gone for good. The class of small and highly mobile artillery has been filled with increasing capacity by the man-portable mortar, which replaced almost every artillery piece smaller than 105 mm. Gun-howitzers fill the middle ground, with the world rapidly standardizing on the 155 mm NATO or 152 mm former USSR standards. The need for a long-range weapon is filled by rocket artillery, or aircraft. Modern gun-artillery such as the L mm light gun is used to provide fire support for infantry and armour at ranges where mortars are impractical. Man-packed mortars lack the range or hitting power of gun-artillery. In between is the rifled towed mortar - this weapon (usually in 120mm calibre) is light enough to be towed by a Land Rover, has a range of over 6,000m and fires a bomb comparable in weight to an artillery shell.

97 Howitzer French TRF1 155 mm gun-howitzer A howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel (barrel length 15 to 25 times the caliber of the gun) and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent. In the taxonomies of artillery pieces used by European (and European-style) armies in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, the howitzer stood between the "gun" (characterized by a longer barrel, larger propelling charges, smaller shells, higher velocities, and flatter trajectories) and the "mortar" (which could fire at even higher angles of ascent and descent). Howitzers, like other artillery pieces, are usually organized in groups called batteries.

98 Etymology Howitzer at the Colorado State Capitol The English word howitzer originates ultimately from the Czech word houfnice. Czech houfnice is derived, through the addition of the suffix -nice, from the word houf, "crowd", suggesting the cannon's use against massed enemies, and houf is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High German word Hūfe or Houfe (modern German Haufen), meaning "heap". Haufen, sometimes in the compound Gewalthaufen, also designated a pike square formation in German. In the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 1430s, the Czechs used short barreled houfnice cannons to fire at short distances into such crowds of infantry, or into charging heavy cavalry, to make horses shy away. The word was rendered into German as aufeniz in the earliest attested use in a document dating from 1440; later German renderings include Haussnitz and, eventually Haubitze, from which derive the Swedish haubits, Finnish haupitsi, Italian obice, Spanish obús, Portuguese obús, French obusier and the Dutch word houwitser, which led to the English word howitzer. Since the First World War, the word howitzer has been increasingly used to describe artillery pieces that, strictly speaking, belong to the category of gun-howitzer - relatively long barrels and high muzzle velocity combined with multiple propelling charges and high maximum elevation. This is particularly true in the armed forces of the United States, where gun-howitzers have been officially described as "howitzers" for more than sixty years. Because of this practice, the word "howitzer" is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect

99 fire. Thus, artillery pieces that bear little resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras are now described as howitzers, although the British, perhaps favoring brevity, call them guns. Most other armies in the world still reserve the word howitzer for guns with barrel length 15 to 25 times its caliber, longer-barreled guns being cannons. The British had a further method of nomenclature that they adopted in the nineteenth century. Guns were categorized by projectile weight in pounds while howitzers were categorized by caliber in inches. This system broke down in the 1930s with the introduction of gun-howitzers. History Early modern period Mountain howitzer firing The modern howitzers were invented in Sweden towards the end of the seventeenth century. These were characterized by a shorter trail than other field guns meaning less stability when firing, which reduced the amount of powder that could be used; armies using these had to rely on a greater elevation angle to achieve a given range, which gave a steeper angle of descent.

100 Originally intended for use in siege warfare, they were particularly useful for delivering cast-iron shells filled with gunpowder or incendiary materials into the interior of fortifycations. In contrast to contemporary mortars, which were fired at a fixed angle and were entirely dependent upon adjustments to the size of propellant charges to vary range, howitzers could be fired at a wide variety of angles. Thus, while howitzer gunnery was more complicated than the technique of employing mortars, the howitzer was an inherently more flexible weapon that could fire its projectiles along a wide variety of trajectories. In the middle of the eighteenth century a number of European armies began to introduce howitzers that were mobile enough to accompany armies in the field. Though usually fired at the relatively high angles of fire used by contemporary siege howitzers, these field howitzers were rarely defined by this capability. Rather, as the field guns of the day were usually restricted to inert projectiles (which relied entirely upon momentum for their destructive effects), the field howitzers of the eighteenth century were chiefly valued for their ability to fire explosive shells. Many, for the sake of simplicity and rapidity of fire, dispensed with adjustable propellant charges. Nineteenth century 12 pounder (5 kg) mountain howitzer displayed by the National Park Service at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, United States

101 The Abus gun was an early form of howitzer in the Ottoman Empire. In the mid-nineteenth century, some armies attempted to simplify their artillery parks by introducing smoothbore artillery pieces that were designed to fire both explosive projectiles and cannonballs, thereby replacing both field howitzers and field guns. The most famous of these "gun-howitzers" was the Napoleon 12-pounder, a weapon of French design that saw extensive service in the American Civil War. The longest-serving artillery piece of the nineteenth century was the mountain howitzer, which saw service from the War with Mexico to the Spanish-American War. In 1859 the armies of Europe (including those that had recently adopted gun-howitzers) began to rearm field batteries with rifled field guns. These new field pieces used cylindrical projectiles that, while smaller in caliber than the spherical shells of smoothbore field howitzers, could carry a comparable charge of gunpowder. Moreover, their greater range let them create many of the same effects (such as firing over low walls) that previously required the sharply curved trajectories of smoothbore field howitzers. Because of this, military authorities saw no point in obtaining rifled field howitzers to replace their smoothbore counterparts but, instead, used rifled field guns to replace both guns and howitzers. siege howitzers") had calibers between 200 mm and 220 mm and fired shells that In siege warfare, the introduction of rifling had the opposite effect. In the 1860s, artillery officers discovered that rifled siege howitzers (substantially larger than field howitzers) were a more efficient means of destroying walls (particularly walls protected by certain kinds of intervening obstacles) than siege guns or siege mortars. Thus, at the same time armies were taking howitzers of one sort out of their field batteries, they were introducing howitzers of another sort into their siege trains and fortresses. The lightest of these weapons (later known as "light siege howitzers") had calibers around 150 mm and fired shells that weighed between 40 and 50 kilograms. The heaviest (later called "medium weighed about 100 kilograms (220 pounds). In the Russo-Turkish War of the inability of rifled field guns to inflict significant damage upon field fortifications led to a revival of interest in field howitzers. By the 1890s a number of European armies fielded either light (105 mm to 127 mm) or heavy (149 mm to 155 mm) field howitzers and a few, such as that of Germany, fielded both.

102 A United States howitzer during the Battle of Manila, 1899 During the 1880s a third type of siege howitzer was added to inventories of a number of European armies. With calibers that ranged between 240 mm and 270 mm and shells that weighed more than 150 kilos, these soon came to be known as "heavy siege howitzers." A good example of a weapon of this class is provided by the 9.45-inch (240 mm) weapon that the British Army purchased from the Skoda works in Intended for use against the fortifications of Pretoria, which fell before the howitzer could be used, and subsequently deployed to China for use against the fortifications of Peking, which also fell without a siege, the 9.45-inch (240 mm) howitzer was never fired in anger. Twentieth century In the early twentieth century the introduction of howitzers that were significantly larger than the heavy siege howitzers of the day made necessary the creation of a fourth category, that of "super-heavy siege howitzers". Weapons of this category include the famous Big Bertha of the German Army and the 15-inch (381 mm) howitzer of the Royal Marine Artillery. These large howitzers were transported mechanically rather than by teams of horses. They were transported as several loads and had to be assembled on their firing position. These field howitzers introduced at the end of the nineteenth century could fire shells with high trajectories giving a steep angle of descent and, as a result, could strike targets

103 that were protected by intervening obstacles. They could also fire shells that were about twice as large as shells fired by guns of the same size. Thus, while a 75 mm field gun that weighed one ton or so was limited to shells that weighed less than 8 kilograms, a 105 mm howitzer of the same weight could fire 15 kilogram shells. This is a matter of fundamental mechanics affecting the stability and hence the weight of the carriage. However, howitzers had a shorter maximum range than the equivalent gun. As heavy field howitzers and light siege howitzers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used ammunition of the same size and types, there was a marked tendency for the two types to merge. At first this was largely a matter of the same basic weapon being employed on two different mountings. Later, as on-carriage recoilabsorbing systems eliminated many of the advantages that siege platforms had enjoyed over field carriages, the same combination of barrel assembly, recoil mechanism and carriage was used in both roles. By the early twentieth century the differences between guns and howitzers were relative not absolute and generally recognized as follows: Guns - higher velocity and longer range, single charge propellant, maximum elevation generally less than 35 degrees. Howitzers - lower velocity and shorter range, multi-charge propellant, maximum elevation typically more than 45 degrees. The onset of trench warfare after the first few months of First World War greatly increased the demand for howitzers that gave a steep angle of descent, which were better suited than guns to the task of striking targets on a horizontal plane (such as trenches), with large amounts of explosive and considerably less barrel wear. The German army was well equipped with howitzers, having far more at the beginning of the war than France.

104 (7,7 cm Feldkanone 16) were often provided with carriages that allowed firing at German 10.5 cm lefh 18/40 howitzer (dating from World War II), employed as a monument on the site of the World War I Battle of Turtucaia. Many howitzers introduced in the course of World War I had longer barrels than pre-war howitzers. The standard German light field howitzer at the start of the war (the 10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 98/09) had a barrel that was 16 calibers long, but the light field howitzer adopted by the German Army in 1916 (105 mm leichte Feldhaubitze 16) had a barrel that was 22 calibers long. At the same time, new models of field gun introduced during that conflict, such as the 77 mm field gun adopted by the German Army in 1916 comparatively high angles, and adjustable propellant cartridges. In other words, there was a marked tendency for howitzers to become more "gun-like" while guns were taking on some of the attributes of howitzers.

105 5-person gun crew firing a US M777 Light Towed Howitzer In the years after World War I, the tendency of guns and howitzers to acquire each other's characteristics led to the renaissance of the concept of the gun-howitzer. This was a product of technical advances such as the French invention of autofrettage just before World War I, which led to stronger and lighter barrels, the use of cut-off gear to control recoil length depending on firing elevation angle, and the invention of muzzle brakes to reduce recoil forces. Like the gun-howitzers of the nineteenth century, those of the twentieth century replaced both guns and howitzers. Thus, the 25-pounder "gunhowitzer" of the British Army replaced both the 18-pounder field gun and the 4.5-inch howitzer. While this had the effect of simplifying such things as organization, training and the supply of ammunition, it created considerable confusion in the realm of nomenclature.

106 Breech of a US M109 self-propelled gun-howitzer In the US Army, however, the preferred term was "howitzer". Thus, as gun-howitzers replaced both guns and howitzers, words such as "obusier" (French) and "Haubitze" (German), which had originally been used to designate weapons with relatively short barrels, were applied to weapons with much longer barrels. Since World War II most of the artillery pieces adopted by land armies for attacking targets on land have combined the traditional characteristics of guns and howitzers high muzzle velocity, long barrels, long range, multiple charges and maximum elevation angles greater than 45 degrees. The term "gun-howitzer" is sometimes used for these (e.g., in Russia); many nations use "howitzer" while the UK calls them "guns", see, for example Gun, 105mm, Field, L118. o o o o gun howitzers: capable of high or low angle fire with a long barrel. mortars: typically short-barreled, high-trajectory weapons designed primarily for an indirect-fire role. anti-tank artillery : weapons, usually mobile, designed for attacking tanks. anti-aircraft artillery: weapons, usually mobile, designed for attacking aircraft from the ground. Some guns were suitable for dual-role anti-

107 o aircraft and field (anti-tank) use. The World War II German 88 mm gun was a famous example. rocket artillery : rocket-launched instead of shot or shell. Motorized artillery: towed by Artillery tractors or APU-installed. Self-propelled artillery: typically guns, mortars or gun howitzers mounted on a vehicle. Naval artillery: guns mounted on warships and used either against other ships or in support of ground forces. The crowning achievement of naval artillery was the battleship, but the advent of airpower and missiles have rendered this type of artillery largely obsolete. The correct term for an individual piece of naval artillery is a 'naval rifle'. They are typically longer-barreled, low-trajectory, highvelocity weapons designed primarily for a direct-fire role. Coastal artillery: Fixed-position weapons dedicated to defense of a particular location, usually a coast (e.g. the Atlantic Wall in WW II) or harbor. Not needing to be mobile, coastal artillery used to be much larger than equivalent field artillery pieces, giving them longer range and more destructive power. Modern coastal artillery (e.g., Russia's "Bereg" system) is often self propelled, (allowing it to avoid counter-battery fire) and fully integrated, meaning that each battery has all of the support systems that it requires (maintenance, targeting radar, etc.) organic to its unit. Naval piece of artillery, early 19th century Modern field artillery can also be split into two other categories: towed and selfpropelled. As the name suggests, towed artillery has a prime mover, usually a jeep or truck, to move the piece, crew, and ammunition around. Self-propelled howitzers are permanently mounted on a carriage or vehicle with room for the crew and ammunition and are thus capable of moving quickly from one firing position to another, both to support the fluid nature of modern combat and to avoid counter-battery fire. There are also mortar carrier vehicles, many of which allow the mortar to be removed from the vehicle and be used dismounted, potentially in terrain in which the vehicle cannot navigate, or in order to avoid detection.

108 Types of use Organizational types Australian gunners, wearing gas masks, operate a 9.2-inch (230 mm) howitzer during World War I. At the beginning of the modern artillery period, the late 19th century, many armies had three main types of artillery, in some case they were sub-branches within the artillery branch in others they were separate branches or corps. There were also other types excluding the armament fitted to warships: Horse artillery, first formed as regular units in late 18th century, with the role of supporting cavalry, they were distinguished by the entire crew being mounted. Field or "foot" artillery, the main artillery arm of the field army, using either guns, howitzers or mortars. In World War II this branch again started using rockets and later surface to surface missiles. Fortress or garrison artillery, manned a nation's fixed defences using guns, howitzers or mortars, either on land or coastal frontiers. Some had deployable elements to provide heavy artillery to the field army. In some nations coast defence artillery was a naval responsibility. Mountain artillery, a few nations treated mountain artillery as a separate branch, in others it was a speciality in another artillery branch. They used light guns or

109 howitzers, usually designed for pack animal transport and easily broken down into small easily handled loads Naval artillery, some nations carried pack artillery on some warships, these were used and manhandled by naval (or marine) landing parties. At times, part of a ship's armament would be unshipped and mated to makeshift carriages and limbers for actions ashore, for example during the Second Boer War, during the First World War the guns from the stricken SMS Königsberg formed the main artillery strength of the German forces in East Africa. Firing of an 18-pound gun, Louis-Philippe Crepin, ( ) After World War I many nations merged these different artillery branches, in some cases keeping some as sub-branches. Naval artillery disappeared apart from that belonging to marines. However, two new branches of artillery emerged during that war and its aftermath, both used specialised guns (and a few rockets) and used direct not indirect fire, in the 1950s and '60s both started to make extensive use of missiles: Anti-tank artillery, also under various organisational arrangements but typically either field artillery or a specialist branch and additional elements integral to infantry, etc., units. However, in most armies field and anti-aircraft artillery also had at least a secondary anti-tank role. After World War II anti-tank in Western

110 armies became mostly the responsibility of infantry and armoured branches and ceased to be an artillery matter, with some exceptions. Anti-aircraft artillery, under various organisational arrangements including being part of artillery, a separate corps, even a separate service or being split between army for the field and airforce for home defence. In some cases infantry and the new armoured corps also operated their own integral light anti-aircraft artillery. Home defence anti-aircraft artillery often used fixed as well as mobile mountings. Some anti-aircraft guns could also be used as field or anti-tank artillery, providing they had suitable sights. However, the general switch by artillery to indirect fire before and during World War I led to a reaction in some armies. The result was accompanying or infantry guns. These were usually small, short range guns, that could be easily man-handled and used mostly for direct fire but some could use indirect fire. Some were operated by the artillery branch but under command of the supported unit. In World War II they were joined by selfpropelled assault guns, although other armies adopted infantry or close support tanks in armoured branch units for the same purpose, subsequently tanks generally took on the accompanying role. Equipment types Continental Artillery crew from the American Revolution handling a cannon The three main types of artillery 'gun' are guns, howitzers and mortars. During the 20th century, guns and howitzers have steadily merged in artillery use, making a distinction between the terms somewhat meaningless. By the end of the 20th century, true guns with calibers larger than about 60 mm had become very rare in artillery use, the main users being tanks, ships, and a few residual anti-aircraft and coastal guns. The traditional definitions differentiated between guns and howitzers in terms of maximum elevation (well less than 45 as opposed to close to or greater than 45 ),

111 number of charges (one or more than one charge), and having higher or lower muzzle velocity, sometimes indicated by barrel length. These three criteria give eight possible combinations, of which guns and howitzers are but two. However, modern 'howitzers' have higher velocities and longer barrels than the equivalent 'guns' of the first half of the 20th century. True guns are characterised by long range, having a maximum elevation significantly less than 45, a high muzzle velocity and hence a relatively long barrel, and a single charge. The latter often led to fixed ammunition where the projectile is locked to the cartridge case. There is no generally accepted minimum muzzle velocity or barrel length associated with a gun. A British 60-pounder (5-inch (130 mm)) gun at full recoil, in action during the Battle of Gallipoli, Photo by Ernest Brooks. Howitzers can fire at maximum elevations at least close to 45, and up to about 70 is normal for modern ones. They also have a choice of charges, meaning that the same elevation angle of fire will achieve a different range depending on the charge used. They have lower muzzle velocities and shorter barrels than equivalent guns. All this means they can deliver fire with a steep angle of descent. Because of their multi-charge capability, their ammunition is mostly separate loading (the projectile and propellant are loaded separately). That leaves six combinations of the three criteria, some of which have been termed gun howitzers. A term first used in the 1930s when howitzers with a relatively high maximum muzzle velocities were introduced, it never became widely accepted, most armies electing to widen the definition of 'gun' or 'howitzer'. By the 1960s, most equipments had

112 maximum elevations up to about 70, were multi-charge, had quite high maximum muzzle velocities and relatively long barrels. Mortars are simple, the modern mortar originated in World War I and there were several patterns. After that war, most mortars settled on the Stokes pattern, characterised by a short barrel, smooth bore, low muzzle velocity, generally firing at an elevation angle greater than 45, and a very simple and light mounting using a 'baseplate' on the ground. The projectile with its integral propelling charge was dropped down the barrel from the muzzle to hit a fixed firing pin. Since that time, a few mortars have become rifled and adopted breech loading. There are other recognised typifying characteristics for artillery. First the type of obturation used to seal the chamber and prevent gases escaping through the breech. This may use a metal cartridge case that also holds the propelling charge, a configuration called 'QF' or 'quickfiring' by some nations. The alternative does not use a metal cartridge case, the propellant being merely bagged or in combustible cases with the breech itself providing all the sealing. This is called 'BL" or 'breech loading' by some nations. early 1960s it has been possible to carry lighter towed guns and most mortars by A second characteristic is the form of propulsion. Basically modern equipment can either be towed or self-propelled (SP). A towed gun fires from the ground and any inherent protection is limited to a gun shield. Towing by horse teams lasted throughout World War II in some armies, but others were fully mechanised with wheeled or tracked gun towing vehicles by the outbreak of that war. The size of a towing vehicle depends on the weight of the equipment and the amount of ammunition it has to carry. A variation of towed is portee where the vehicle carries the gun which is dismounted for firing. Mortars are often carried this way. A mortar is sometimes carried in an armoured vehicle and can either fire from it or be dismounted to fire from the ground. Since the helicopter. Even before that, they were parachuted or landed by glider from the time of the first airborne trials in the USSR in the 1930s. In an SP equipment, the gun is an integral part of the vehicle that carries it. SPs first appeared during World War I, but did not really develop until World War II. They are mostly tracked vehicles, but wheeled SPs started to appear in the 1970s. Some SPs have no armour and carry little or no ammunition. Armoured SPs usually carry a useful ammunition load. Early armoured SPs were mostly a 'casemate' configuration, in essence an open top armoured box offering only limited traverse. However, most modern armoured SPs have a full enclosed armoured turret, usually giving full traverse for the gun. Many SPs cannot fire without deploying stabilisers or spades, sometimes hydraulic. A few SPs are designed so that the recoil forces of the gun are transferred directly onto the ground through a baseplate. A few towed guns have been given limited selfpropulsion by means of an auxiliary engine. Two other forms of tactical propulsion were used in the first half of the 20th century: Railways or transporting the equipment by road, as two or three separate loads, with

113 disassembly and re-assembly at the beginning and end of the journey. Railway artillery took two forms, railway mountings for heavy and super-heavy guns and howitzers and armoured trains as 'fighting vehicles' armed with light artillery in a direct fire role. Disassembled transport was also used with heavy and super heavy weapons and lasted into the 1950s. Caliber categories A third form of artillery typing is to classify it as 'light', 'medium', 'heavy' and various other terms. It appears to have been introduced in World War I, which spawned a very wide array of artillery in all sorts of sizes so a simple categorical system was needed. Some armies defined these categories by bands of calibers. Different bands were used for different types of weapons field guns, mortars, anti-aircraft guns and coast guns.

114 Chapter- 5 Modern Operations of Artillery Two French Army Giat GCT 155mm (155mm AUF1) Self-propelled Guns, 40th Regiment d' Artillerie, with IFOR markings are parked at Hekon base, near Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in support of Operation Joint Endeavor. Artillery is used in a variety of roles depending on its type and caliber. The general role of artillery is to provide fire support "the application of fire, coordinated with the manoeuvre of forces to destroy, neutralize or suppress the enemy". This NATO definition, of course, makes artillery a supporting arm although not all NATO armies agree with this logic. The italicised terms are NATO's. Unlike rockets, guns (or howitzers as some armies still call them) and mortars are suitable for delivering close supporting fire. However, they are all suitable for providing deep supporting fire although the limited range of many mortars tends to exclude them from the role. Their control arrangements and limited range also mean that mortars are

115 most suited to direct supporting fire. Guns are used either for this or general supporting fire while rockets are mostly used for the latter. However, lighter rockets may be used for direct fire support. These rules of thumb apply to NATO armies. Modern mortars, because of their lighter weight and simpler, more transportable design, are usually an integral part of infantry and, in some armies, armor units. This means they generally don't have to concentrate their fire so their shorter range is not a disadvantage. Some armies also consider infantry operated mortars to be more responsive than artillery, but this is a function of the control arrangements and not the case in all armies. However, mortars have always been used by artillery units and remain with them in many armies, including a few in NATO. In NATO armies artillery is usually assigned a tactical mission that establishes its relationship and responsibilities to the formation or units it is assigned to. It seems that not all NATO nations use the terms and outside NATO others are probably used. The standard terms are: direct support, general support, general support reinforcing and reinforcing. These tactical missions are in the context of the command authority: operational command, operational control, tactical command or tactical control. In NATO direct support generally means that the directly supporting artillery unit provides observers and liaison to the manoeuvre troops being supported, typically an artillery battalion or equivalent is assigned to a brigade and its batteries to the brigade's battalions. However, some armies achieve this by placing the assigned artillery units under command of the directly supported formation. Nevertheless, the batteries' fire can be concentrated onto a single target, as can the fire of units in range and with the other tactical missions.

116 Application of fire A 155 mm artillery shell fired by a United States 11th Marine Regiment M-198 howitzer There are several dimensions to this subject. The first is the notion that fire may be against an opportunity target or may be prearranged. If it is the latter it may be either oncall or scheduled. Prearranged targets may be part of a fire plan. Fire may be either observed or unobserved, if the former it may be adjusted, if the latter then it has to be predicted. Observation of adjusted fire may be directly by a forward observer or indirectly via some other target acquisition system. NATO also recognises several different types of fire support for tactical purposes: Counterbattery fire: delivered for the purpose of destroying or neutralizing the enemy's fire support system. Counterpreparation fire: intensive prearranged fire delivered when the imminence of the enemy attack is discovered. Covering fire: used to protect troops when they are within range of enemy small arms. Defensive fire: delivered by supporting units to assist and protect a unit engaged in a defensive action. Final Protective Fire: an immediately available prearranged barrier of fire designed to impede enemy movement across defensive lines or areas. Harassing fire: a random number of shells are fired at random intervals, without any pattern to it that the enemy can predict. This process is designed to hinder

117 enemy forces' movement, and, by the constantly imposed stress, threat of losses and inability of enemy forces to relax or sleep, lowers their morale. Interdiction fire: placed on an area or point to prevent the enemy from using the area or point. Preparation fire: delivered before an attack to weaken the enemy position. These purposes have existed for most of the 20th century, although their definitions have evolved and will continue to do so, lack of suppression in counterbattery is an omission. Broadly they can be defined as either: Deep supporting fire: directed at objectives not in the immediate vicinity of own force, for neutralizing or destroying enemy reserves and weapons, and interfering with enemy command, supply, communications and observation; or Close supporting fire: placed on enemy troops, weapons or positions which, because of their proximity present the most immediate and serious threat to the supported unit. USMC M-198 firing outside of Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 Two other NATO terms also need definition:

118 Neutralization fire: delivered to render a target temporarily ineffective or unusable; and Suppression fire: that degrades the performance of a target below the level needed to fulfill its mission. Suppression is usually only effective for the duration of the fire. The tactical purposes also include various "mission verbs", a rapidly expanding subject with the modern concept of "effects based operations". Targeting is the process of selecting target and matching the appropriate response to them taking account of operational requirements and capabilities. It requires consideration of the type of fire support required and the extent of coordination with the supported arm. It involves decisions about: what effects are required, e.g. neutralization or suppression; the proximity of and risks to own troops or non-combatants; what types of munitions, including their fuzing, are to be used and in what quantities; when the targets should be attacked and possibly for how long; what methods should be used, e.g. converged or distributed, whether adjustment is permissible or surprise essential, the need for special procedures such as precision or danger close how many fire units are needed and which ones they should be from those that are available (in range, with the required munitions type and quantity, not allotted to another target, have the most suitable line of fire if there is a risk to own troops or non-combatants); The targeting process is the key aspect of tactical fire control. Depending on the circumstances and national procedures it may all be undertaken in one place or may be distributed. In armies practicing control from the front, most of the process may be undertaken by a forward observer or other target acquirer. This is particularly the case for a smaller target requiring only a few fire units. The extent to which the process is formal or informal and makes use of computer based systems, documented norms or experience and judgement also varies widely armies and other circumstances. Surprise may be essential or irrelevant. It depends on what effects are required and whether or not the target is likely to move or quickly improve its protective posture. During World War II UK researchers concluded that for impact fuzed munitions the relative risk were as follows: men standing 1 men lying 1/3 men firing from trenches 1/15 1/50 men crouching in trenches 1/25 1/100

119 Airburst munitions significantly increase the relative risk for lying men, etc. Historically most casualties occur in the first seconds of fire, i.e. the time needed to react and improve protective posture, however, this is less relevant if airburst is used. There are several ways of making best use of this brief window of maximum vulnerability: ordering the guns to fire together, either by executive order or by a "fire at" time. The disadvantage is that if the fire is concentrated from many dispersed fire units then there will be different times of flight and the first rounds will be spread in time. To some extent a large concentration offsets the problem because it may mean that only one round is required from each gun and most of these could arrive in the 15 second window. burst fire, a rate of fire to deliver three rounds from each gun within 10 or 15 seconds, this reduces the number of guns and hence fire units needed, which means they may be less dispersed and have less variation in their times of flight. Smaller caliber guns, such as 105 mm, have always been able to deliver three rounds in 15 seconds, larger calibers firing fixed rounds could also do it but it wasn't until the 1970s that a multi-charge 155 mm howitzer, FH-70 first gained the capability. multiple round simultaneous impact (MRSI). time on target, fire units fire at the time less their time of flight, this works well with prearranged scheduled fire but is less satisfactory for opportunity targets because it means delaying the delivery of fire by selecting a 'safe' time that all or most fire units can achieve. It can be used with both the previous two methods. Counter-battery fire Counter-battery fire is a type of mission assigned to military artillery forces, which are tasked with locating and firing upon enemy artillery. Background Indirect fire was introduced so that artillery could fire from behind cover to reduce its exposure to enemy artillery by making itself more difficult to find. Interestingly, while armies were doing this, little thought was given to the need for counter-counter measures. Perhaps the only means of finding concealed guns was observation from kites or balloons. However, effective counterbattery fire needs far more than a single method of observation. Counterbattery (CB) fire emerged and developed extremely quickly during World War I. Since that war, CB has continued to evolve, mainly due to improvements in technology. The targets of CB fire are usually the enemy's guns, launchers and mortars, both the materiel and the men serving them. The formal NATO definition of the term counterbattery is "fire delivered for the purpose of destroying or neutralising the enemy's fire support system", with the note that it may be proactive or reactive. This may be achieved

120 by attacks on any part of the field artillery system. In some armies at some periods CB has been called 'counter-bombardment' and occasionally 'counter-mortar' has been handled somewhat separately. Functions There are four functions in the system for CB fire: Target acquisition. CB Intelligence. CB fire control. CB fire units. Target acquisition Target acquisition is the source of information for CB intelligence. It may produce accurate locations for enemy fire units or merely inputs to a more complex process for locating and assessing hostile artillery. At the end of World War I, the following were recognised as the principal sources of artillery intelligence, this seems to be in descending order of usefulness: Aeroplanes (i.e. visual observation) Aeroplane photography Survey sections (i.e. flash spotting) Sound ranging sections Balloon observation Ground observers (artillery and 'intelligence posts of other arms') Liaison officers (artillery at infantry brigade HQs, these obtained reports of enemy artillery activity) Officers' patrols Secret agents and epatries Captured documents and prisoner's statements Listening sets (i.e. monitoring enemy communications) Intercepted wireless (by 'wireless compass stations') Apart from balloons and officers' patrols, these sources continued to play their part in World War II, and their technology improved, although flash spotting became less useful as ranges increased and flashless (or low flash) propellants became widespread. A successor to officers' patrols had an isolated emergence in Italy when Canadian artillery observers were put ashore behind German lines and established themselves to observe gun positions. Sound ranging and flash spotting both required enemy guns to fire. Furthermore others, such as radio direction finding and information from prisoners, are insufficiently precise to 'fix' a target for artillery attack. Information from others may not be received quickly and hence be out of date, the hostile battery having moved.

121 These methods were joined by radar in World War II; while this could detect a shell in flight the gun that fired it could not usually be seen and the shell's elliptical trajectory made it impossible to extrapolate backwards with the technology of that time. However, mortar bombs have a parabolic trajectory (as do guns firing in 'high angle') defined by a simple mathematical equation with two points on the parabolic curve. It was therefore possible to deduce a mortar's position by tracking its bomb and recording two points on its trajectory. Another method that emerged was crater examination, this could reveal the azimuth back to the hostile gun or mortar and study of fragments could reveal its type. However, while it was a useful source of information it was not sufficiently accurate to give a location for the firer. Most armies abandoned flash spotting in the 1950s. However, several new target acquisition technologies emerged. These included: UAVs, about 1960 an Unmanned Air Vehicle, the SD-1, entered artillery service. This early UAV used wet film photography by day or night, had short range and short endurance. However, being under artillery control they were responsive to CB needs, which was just as well because other forms of air reconnaissance were becoming less available and were not notably timely. Other UAVs, including drones (flying a programmed course) duly emerged, including the ability to transmit imagery in real-time. Next, in the 1970s Hughes Aircraft developed the US Firefinder RADAR system and created the algorithms that could extrapolate a gun's position from a segment of an elliptic trajectory. It's likely the Soviet Union created similar algorithms. Non-communications ELINT, which can detect and locate radars, including those used by artillery is an often forgotten source. A few armies established artillery observation patrol units to operate in likely artillery deployment areas behind the enemy's forward units. CB Intelligence CB Intelligence applies the intelligence cycle and principles to CB. It uses information about hostile artillery from all sources to maintain detailed records and apply specialist techniques that exploit the nature of artillery fire to produce: Intelligence about hostile artillery positions. The enemy artillery order of battle. Intelligence about hostile artillery activity and deployment and assessments of its wider implications. CB Intelligence is usually combined with CB fire control (see below), although intelligence purists recognise this is not good practice and the two were separate in the British forces in France in World War 1. In both World Wars CB intelligence and CB control were found to be most effective when they were at corps level. However, the final year of World War 2 showed that the counter mortar battle was really one for brigade

122 level. Since that war CB has tended to move to lower levels and in some armies has grown into a wider deep supporting fire organisation. CB fire control The CB fire control problem is that it does not always make tactical sense to attack hostile batteries the moment they are located. This is magnified by the challenges of targeting hostile batteries. The are many factors, and their significance depends on the circumstances. The first issue, for targeting, is that historically it's difficult to 'knock-out' a battery, although smart munitions against SP guns may change this. This highlights the point that it is important to be clear what result is wanted from CB fire. As the quoted definition states 'Destroy' is one possibility, another is Neutralization to render the battery temporarily ineffective or unusable, including by suppressing it or forcing it to move. However, suppression only lasts while CB fire is falling and if a hostile battery moves then it has to be found again. It's important to get the result that best fits the tactical situation, and sometimes it is best just to record the location of the hostile battery and leave it for later. Good CB officers are cunning and wily tacticians. CB fire units The final aspect of the CB equation is having available CB fire units and appropriate munitions. Typically these are general supporting fire units, but direct supporting fire units are also used if they are available and not fully occupied by their primary role. With conventional HE shells it may require the concentrated fire of 5 10 batteries to deal effectively with one hostile battery. Hence the attraction multi-rocket launchers such as MLRS able to deliver a heavy and concentrated attack from relatively few launchers. Counter-measures Needless to say CB counter-measures have emerged, some old, some new, they include: Digging in - in World War I, even heavy artillery was dug-in with several feet of overhead protection. Even today North Korean artillery is widely thought to be somewhat resistant to CB fire because of its deeply entrenched positions. More generally precision munitions have decreased the value of digging. Fully armoured self-propelled guns were introduced to provide protection against conventional HE fire. Nuclear artillery adopted "shoot-and-scoot". Guns fired a single round and moved out immediately. It seemed to surprise many when Iraqi Scuds used the technique in Some multi-rocket launchers use the same tactic and move after firing a salvo, while mobile howitzers such as the G6 are designed specifically with shoot-and-scoot tactics in mind. Increasing the dispersion of guns in a position, this has been aided by computers for technical fire control. Introduction of guns with self-survey and orientation has led to the concept of "gun manoeuvre areas" where the troops, platoons or

123 sections of a battery keep moving around, although there are doubts about how sustainable this is. Concealment, while firing guns cannot be concealed from sound ranging and radar, concealment and deception can reduce their likelihood of detection by other methods. Of course there are many potential target "nodes" in the field artillery system, including those dedicated to finding hostile artillery. Attacking these may significantly blind the enemy's CB capability counter counter counter measures. Modern artillery ammunition. Caliber 155mm as used by the PzH 2000

124 Field artillery team Calling in and Adjusting Artillery Fire on a Target In the land-based field artillery, the field artillery team is organized to direct and control indirect artillery fire on the battlefield. Since World War I, to conduct indirect artillery fire, three distinct components have evolved in this organization: the forward observer (or FO), the fire direction center (FDC) and what is called the gun line (the actual guns themselves). On the battlefield, the field artillery team consists of some combinations of all of the these elements. In other words there may be multiple FOs calling in fire on multiple targets to multiple FDCs and any component may be in communication with some of the other elements depending on the situational requirements. Motivation To understand the modern field artillery team concept, it is necessary to understand that modern artillery batteries shoot at targets measured in distances of kilometers and miles rather than the old 18th Century concept of meters and yards, representing a hundredfold increase in range. Because of this dramatic increases in range, in most cases, gunners no

125 longer directly see their targets and so they can not directly engage the enemy with observed direct fire. Typically, they use what is called indirect fire whereby they can not directly see the target(s) that they are engaging. This dramatic range increase has been driven by the development of rifled cannons, improvements in propellants, better communications and technical improvements in gunnery computational abilities. These technical developments have been ongoing since the end of the 19th Century. Since a modern enemy is engaged at such great distances, there is now the need for trained observers linked to the artillery units by modern communications, to find and adjust fire on targets at great distances. In most field artillery situations, because of weather, terrain, night-time conditions, distance or other obstacles, the soldiers manning the guns can not see the target that they are firing upon. The term indirect fire is therefore used to describe firing at targets that gunners cannot see. In most cases, the target is either over the horizon or on the other side of some physical obstruction, such as a hill, mountain or valley. Since the target is not visible these gunners have to rely on a trained artillery observer, also called a forward observer, who sees the target and relays the coordinates of the target to their fire direction center. The fire direction center, in turn, translates those coordinates into first, a left-right aiming direction, second, an elevation angle, third, a calculated number of bags of propellant and finally, a fuse with a determined waiting time before exploding to be set (if necessary). The fuse is then mated to the artillery projectile. Organization Forward Observer (FO) Because artillery is an indirect fire weapon, the forward observer must take up a position where he can observe the target using tools such as maps, compass, binoculars and laser rangefinder/designators; then call back fire missions on his radio or other communication device. This position can be anywhere from a few hundred meters to km distant from the guns. Modern day FOs are also trained in the rudiments of calling Close Air Support, Sea-borne Weapons and other weapons systems. Using a standardized format, the FO sends either an exact target location or the position relative to his own location or a registered map point, a brief target description, a recommended munition to use, and any special instructions such as "danger close" (The warning that friendly troops are within a certain distance from the target, which varies based upon the weapon system being used and which requires extra precision from the guns). Once firing begins, if the rounds are not accurate the FO will issue instructions to adjust fire in four dimensions (Three physical; left/right, forward/back, up/down and one for time, when using timed fuses) and then usually call "fire for effect", unless his purpose in that fire mission has an objective other than suppression or destruction of the target. A "Fire For Effect" or "FFE" calls for all of the guns or tubes to fire a round; as opposed to the adjustment phase wherein only a single gun is firing.

126 The FO does not talk to the guns directly - he deals solely with the FDC. The forward observer can also be airborne and in fact one of the original roles of aircraft in the military was airborne artillery spotting. FDC (Fire Direction Center) Typically, there is one FDC for a battery of six guns, in a light division. In a typical heavy division configuration, there exists two FDC elements capable of operating two four gun sections, also known as a split battery. The FDC computes firing data, fire direction, for the guns. The process consists of determining the precise target location based on the observer's location if needed, then computing range and direction to the target from the guns' location. This data can be computed manually, using special protractors and slide rules with precomputed firing data. Corrections can be added for conditions such as a difference between target and howitzer altitudes, propellant temperature, atmospheric conditions, and even the curvature and rotation of the Earth. In most cases, some corrections are omitted, sacrificing accuracy for speed. In recent decades, FDCs have become computerized, allowing for much faster and more accurate computation of firing data. The final piece of the puzzle is the "gun line" itself. The FDC will transmit a warning order to the guns, followed by orders specifying the type of ammunition and fuze setting, bearing, elevation, and the method of adjustment or orders for fire for effect (FFE). Elevation (vertical direction) and bearing orders are specified in milliradians or mils, and any special instructions, such as to wait for the observer's command to fire relayed through the FDC. The crews load the howitzers and traverse and elevate the tube to the required point, using either hand cranks (usually on towed guns) or hydraulics (on self- propelled models). Guns Parent battalion and US Army brigade/usmc regimental FDCs FDCs also exist in the next higher parent battalion that "owns" 2-4 artillery batteries. Once again, an FDC exists at the US Army brigade or USMC regimental level that "owns" the battalions. These higher level FDCs monitor the fire missions of their subordinate units and will coordinate the use of multiple batteries or even multiple battalions in what is called a battalion or brigade/regimental mission. In training and wartime exercises, as many as 72 guns from 3 battalions may all be coordinated to put "steel on the target" in what is called a "brigade/regimental time on target" or brigade/regimental TOT for short. The rule is "silence is consent," meaning that if the lower unit does not hear a "cancel the mission" (don't shoot) or even a "check firing" (cease firing) order from the higher monitoring unit, then the mission goes on. Higher level units monitor their subordinate unit's missions both for both active as well as passive purposes. Higher level units also may get involved to coordinate artillery fire

127 across fire support coordination boundaries (often parallel lines on maps) where one unit can not fire into without permission from higher and/or adjacent units that "own" the territory. Direct fire exceptions to usual mission of artillery indirect fire Artillery gunners are taught how to use direct fire to engage a target such as mounted or dismounted troops attacking them. In such a case, however, the artillery crews are able to see what they are shooting at. With indirect fire, in normal artillery missions, the crews manning the guns cannot see their target directly, or observers are doing that work for them. There have been exceptions to this situation, but even when US Marines assaulted Iwo Jima during World War Two, and gunners could see the impact of their rounds on Mt. Suribachi, the actual adjustment of their fires was accomplished by forward observers directly supporting and attached to infantry units, because they were in the position to see not only the enemy but to prevent friendly fire incidents and to coordinate shelling the Japanese with their infantry unit's movements. Time on Target A technique called Time on Target was developed by the U.S. Army during World War II. This technique uses a precise determination of the time of flight from each firing battery to the target area. When a Time on Target (TOT) is designated each battery that will join in firing on that target subtracts the time of flight from the TOT to determine the time to fire. Individual firing batteries train to fire their rounds as close to simultaneously as possible. When each firing battery fires their rounds at their individual time to fire every round will reach the target area nearly simultaneously. This is especially effective when combined with techniques that allow fires for effect to be made without preliminary adjusting fires. A similar effect may be obtained by a single battery firing sequential rounds with different trajectories, with all rounds timed to arrive simultaneously.

128 MRSI Impact). This is because there is more than one trajectory for the rounds to fly to any Illustration of different trajectories used in MRSI: For any muzzle velocity there is a steeper (> 45, solid line) and a lower (<45, dashed line) trajectory. On these different trajectories, the shells have different flight times. This is a modern version of the earlier "time on target" concept in which fire from different weapons was timed to arrive on target at the same time. It is possible for modern computer-controlled artillery to fire more than one volley at a target and have all the shells arrive simultaneously, which is called MRSI (Multiple Rounds Simultaneous given target: typically one is below 45 degrees from horizontal and the other is above it, and by varying the amount of propellant with each shell, it is possible to create multiple trajectories. Because the higher trajectories cause the shells to arc higher into the air, they take longer to reach the target and so if the shells are fired on these trajectories for the first volleys (starting with the shell with the most propellant and working down) and then after the correct pause more volleys are fired on the lower trajectories, the shells will all arrive at the same time. This is useful because many more shells can land on the target with no warning. With traditional volleys along the same trajectory, anybody at the target point will have a certain amount of time (however long it takes to reload and re-fire the guns) to run away or take cover between volleys. In addition, if guns in more than one location are firing on one target, with careful timing it can be arranged for all their shells to land at the same time for the same reason. Examples of MRSI guns are South Africa's Denel G6-52 (which can land six rounds simultaneously at targets at least 25 km (16 mi) away), Germany's Panzerhaubitze 2000 (which can land five rounds simultaneously at targets at least 17 km (11 mi) away) and Slovakia's 155 mm SpGH ZUZANA model The Archer project (Developed by

129 BAE-Systems in Sweden), a 155 mm howitzer on a wheeled chassis claiming to be able to deliver up to 7 shells on target simultaneously from the same gun. The 120 mm twin barrel AMOS mortar system, developed in Finland, is capable of shells MRSI. The United States Crusader program (now canceled) was slated to have MRSI capability. MRSI was a stunt popular at artillery demonstrations in the 1960s. With its increased risk of a mistake (needing a range to the target that gives time for several rounds to be fired and only useful against a few types of target in an era where PPD fuzes are becoming standard), whether MRSI is still merely a stunt or has real tactical value over other methods is debatable. Air burst An air burst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target or a delayed armor piercing explosion. Aerial bursts may also arise from the explosion, above the ground, of incoming self-detonating meteoroids as some postulate happened in the Tunguska event. History The principal military advantage of an air burst over a ground burst is that the energy from the explosion (as well as any shell fragments) is distributed more evenly over a wider area; however, the peak energy is lower. Air burst artillery has a long history. The shrapnel shell, invented by Henry Shrapnel of the British army in about 1780, was widely used by the time of the War of 1812 and stayed in use until it was superseded during the First World War. The original shell was a hollow sphere filled with musket balls and a charge of gun powder. A burning fuse caused the charge to explode, bursting the shell and spraying the enemy with lead musket balls. The shell was subsequently improved and made in the cylindrical, pointed shape of normal artillery shells. Mechanical and chemical time fuses caused the detonation of the powder charge which launched the musket balls out the front of the cylindrical shell. Shrapnel shells have had various names including spherical case shot, the original name. The name shrapnel was a nickname given to the shell to honour the inventor. The common use of the term "shrapnel" to describe modern artillery shells is technically not correct. Modern shells produce fragments and splinters, not shrapnel. Air bursts were used in the First World War to shower enemy positions and men with shrapnel balls to kill the largest possible number of them with a single burst, assuming that the burst was directly in front of the trench in which the men were positioned. When infantry moved into deep trenches, shrapnel shells were rendered useless and high explosive shells were used to attack field fortifications and troops in the open. The time fuses for the shells could be set to function on contact or in the air. During the Second

130 World War, a Variable Time Fuse was developed. This fuse could not be set by the gun detachment but was controlled by a doppler radar device which caused the shell to explode when near the target. During the Vietnam War, air bursting shells were used to great effect to defend US Army bases. This tactic was known as Killer Junior when referring to 105 mm or 155 mm shells, and 'Killer Senior' when employed with larger howitzers. Some anti-personnel land mines such as the "Bouncing Betty" fire a grenade into the air which detonates at approximately two foot eleven inches, causing the fragments to fly out at waist level, severely maiming limbs and genitalia of anyone within a fifteen foot radius. With nuclear weapons, the air burst usually several hundred to a few thousand feet in the air allows the shockwave of the fission or fusion driven explosion to destroy the largest possible number of buildings, military units or vehicles, etc. This also minimizes the generation of irradiated soil and other debris (fallout) by keeping the fireball from touching the ground, limiting the amount of additional debris that is vaporized and drawn up in the radioactive debris cloud. Tactics Air bursts are used primarily against infantry in the open or unarmored targets, as the resulting fragments cover a large area but will not penetrate armor, entrenchments, or fortifications.

131 Chapter- 6 Nuclear Artillery Upshot-Knothole Grable, a 1953 test of a nuclear artillery projectile at Nevada Test Site (photo depicts an artiller piece with a 280 mm bore (11 inch), and the explosion of its artillery shell) Nuclear artillery is a subset of limited-yield tactical nuclear weapons, in particular those weapons that are launched from the ground at battlefield targets. Nuclear artillery is commonly associated with shells delivered by a cannon, but in a technical sense shortrange rockets or missiles are also included.

132 The development of nuclear artillery was part of a broad push by nuclear weapons countries to develop nuclear weapons which could be used tactically against enemy armies in the field (as opposed to strategic uses against cities, military bases, and heavy industry). Nuclear artillery was both developed and deployed by a small group of nations, including the USA, USSR, and France. The United Kingdom planned and partially developed such weapon systems (the Blue water missile and the Yellow Anvil artillery shell) but did not put these systems into production. A second group of nations has derivative association with nuclear artillery. These nations fielded artillery units trained and equipped to use nuclear weapons, but did not control the devices themselves. Instead, the devices were held by embedded custodial units of developing countries. These custodial units retained control of the nuclear weapons until they were released for use in a crisis. This second group has included such NATO countries as Belgium, Canada, West Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. United States nuclear artillery Weapons designers and a full-size W mm artillery shell mockup United States developments resulted in nuclear weapons for various artillery systems, after the short-lived M65 Atomic Cannon standard howitzers were used. Delivery systems include, in approximate order of development: MGR-1 Honest John free flight rocket delivering W7 nuclear weapon, 1953 M65 Atomic Cannon delivering 280mm W9 and W19 nuclear shells, 1953 MGM-5 Corporal missile delivering W7 nuclear weapon, 1955

133 M110 howitzer delivering 203mm W33 nuclear shell, deployed in 1957 MGM-18 Lacrosse missile with nuclear warhead. It was deployed in West Germany from 1959 to M109 self-propelled and M114 towed howitzers delivering 155mm W48 nuclear weapon starting in 1963 MGM-29 Sergeant missile delivering W52 nuclear weapon, 1963 MGM-31 Pershing missile delivering W50 nuclear weapon, 1969 MGM-52 Lance missile delivering W70 nuclear weapon, 1972 Pershing II missile delivering W85 nuclear weapon, 1983 The first artillery test was on May 25, 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. Fired as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole and codenamed Shot GRABLE, a 280 mm (11 inch) shell with a gun-type fission warhead was fired 10,000 m (6.2 miles) and detonated 160 m (525 ft) above the ground with an estimated yield of 15 kilotons. This was the only nuclear artillery shell ever actually fired in the U.S. nuclear weapons test program. The shell was 1384 mm (4.5 ft) long and weighed 365 kg (805 lb). It was fired from a special, very large, artillery piece, nicknamed the "Atomic Annie", built by the Artillery Test Unit of Fort Sill, Oklahoma. About 3,200 soldiers and civilians were present. The warhead was designated the W9 nuclear warhead and 80 were produced in 1952 to 1953 for the T- 124 shell. It was retired in mm 'Atomic Annie' at the Virginia War Museum

134 A 280 mm Atomic Cannon at Aberdeen Proving Grounds Development work continued and resulted in the W19. A 280 mm shell, it was a longer version of the W9. Only 80 warheads were produced and the system was retired in 1963 coinciding with the introduction of the W48 warhead. The W48 was 846 mm long and weighed 58 kg; it was in a 155 mm M-45 AFAP (artillery fired atomic projectile) for firing from standard 155 mm howitzer. The fission warhead was a linear implosion type, consisting of a long cylinder of subcritical fissile material which is compressed and shaped by explosive into a supercritical sphere. The W48 yielded an explosive force of just 100 tons of TNT. The W48 went into production beginning in 1963, and 135 Mod 0 version projectiles were produced by 1968 when it was replaced by the Mod 1. The Mod 1 was manufactured from 1965 through of these were produced. Only one type of artillery round other than the W48 was produced in large numbers. It was the W33 nuclear warhead for use in an 8-inch-diameter (200 mm) artillery shell. About 2,000 of these warheads were produced from 1957 to Each XM422 projectile was 940 mm long, it and had a projectile weight of 243 pounds. XM422 were fitted with a triple-deck mechanical time-base fuze. They were to be fired from a standard eight-inch howitzer, if the use of this weapon had ever been called for.