Land Fires

The earliest recorded mechanical artillery piece was developed in Syracuse. Such engines of war established the principle of launching munitions far beyond the range of hand-held weapons, the defining feature of artillery.

Manpower-driven trebuchets were employed in Chinese warfare from the 4th century. They provided a mobile means of hurling projectiles against massed troops rather than fortifications.

The Wujing Zongyao described incendiary and early explosive gunpowder mixtures for use in war, documenting a Chinese tradition of gunpowder weaponry that spread over the following centuries to produce the first true cannon.

The much more powerful counterweight trebuchet appeared in the eastern Mediterranean region, with the earliest definite attestation in 1187. It became the dominant siege engine of the medieval period before gunpowder artillery displaced it.

Small crude Chinese guns spread to the Middle East as the madfaa and reached Europe in a very limited manner in the 13th century. This transfer began Europe's long trajectory towards cannon-based warfare.

The Mongols took up Chinese gunpowder artillery and used it effectively during their great conquests, spreading the technology across Asia. By the late 14th century Chinese rebels used organised artillery and cavalry to push the Mongols out.

Vase-shaped Chinese artillery such as the 'long range awe inspiring' cannon is dated from 1350 and documented in the Ming treatise Huolongjing. Improved metallurgy later allowed the vase shape to be abandoned, as in the bronze 'thousand ball thunder cannon', an early field artillery piece.

At Breteuil the besieged English demonstrated the early value of cannon in castle defence. At this stage guns were small and could not penetrate castle walls, being useful only defensively.

The word 'cannon' marks the appearance of carriages with axle, trail and animal-drawn limber, producing mobile field pieces able to accompany an army in action. Trunnions cast into the barrel allowed it to be fixed to a movable base and made elevation adjustment far easier, while better iron and gunpowder permitted smaller barrels.

Shells, explosive-filled fused projectiles, were in use by the 15th century, alongside the beginnings of specialised shipboard artillery, howitzers and mortars. Multi-barrel designs such as the ribauldequin or 'organ gun' were also produced.

After invading Ceuta in 1415 the Portuguese defended it with bombardas, colebratas and falconetes, and in 1419 Marinid forces brought cannon to the assault on the city. Hand-held firearms appeared in Morocco by 1437, showing gunpowder weapons had diversified into several classes from small guns to large artillery pieces.

During the Hussite Wars in Bohemia Žižka fielded oxen-hauled cannon, usually credited as the first mobile land artillery. Guns nevertheless remained large and cumbersome, and were largely displaced from battlefields by musketry in the 16th century.

A major change occurred as cannon barrels were elongated and gunpowder recipes improved to roughly three times their former power. Artillery could now efficiently reduce strongholds, destroying the traditional defensive advantage in sieges.

The battle is cited as an early case in which gunpowder artillery determined the outcome of a field engagement. It illustrated artillery's growing battlefield, as opposed to purely siege, role.

Fifteen batteries of sixty-nine siege guns, including the huge bronze bombard 'Basilic', bombarded the city for forty days, firing an estimated 19,320 rounds and breaching in several places walls that had withstood attackers for a thousand years. Sir Charles Oman called the fall of Constantinople perhaps the first event of supreme importance determined by the use of artillery, marking gunpowder artillery's arrival as a war-winning weapon capable of defeating the strongest defences of the age.

At the siege of Roxburgh Castle one of the king's own Flemish-imported cannon burst, killing him. The incident illustrated the notorious unreliability of early bombards, which lacked field carriages and were built of bound metal staves.

From the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese demonstrated artillery skill unequalled by European neighbours, honed by intense fighting in Morocco, where over 2,000 cannon were sent during the reign of King Manuel (1495–1521). A sharp division between siege guns and anti-personnel guns, plus bastion guns and stone-throwing howitzers, made cannon the most essential element of the Portuguese arsenal.

Duarte Barbosa reported around 1514 that the Javanese were great masters in casting artillery and very good artillerymen, and in 1513 Pati Unus's fleet attacked Portuguese Malacca with much artillery made in Java. By the early 16th century Javanese workshops produced 'sacred cannon' of 180 to 260 pounds, weighing 3 to 8 tons, so that Portuguese and Spanish arrivals were occasionally outgunned.

The Ottomans established a dedicated bombardier organisation in the 16th century. It represents an early institutionalisation of artillery as a distinct arm of service.

Fuse-delayed action shells were commonly used by Portuguese forces by 1505, ahead of other European powers, and a sixth of all rounds fired in Morocco were of this type. Portuguese engineers also invented a canister round of a thin lead case filled with iron pellets that broke up at the muzzle, and were the first to employ canister extensively against massed assaults.

The word derived from the 13th-century Old French artillier, denoting makers of all military materials, and for some 250 years covered all forms of military weapons. Ruscelli's posthumously published treatise records the term as it narrowed towards cannon.

Around 200,000 Korean and Chinese troops made active use of heavy artillery during the war in Korea. Korean forces also mounted artillery as naval guns, giving them an advantage over a Japanese navy whose largest firearms were swivel guns and large muskets.

A simple fabric bag uniting projectile and charge appeared in the 1620s and was quickly adopted by all nations, speeding and making loading safer. Unexpelled bag fragments fouled the barrel, prompting the introduction of a new clearing tool, the worm.

The book was one of the most important contemporary publications on artillery. For over two centuries it served across Europe as the basic artillery manual, codifying gunnery knowledge.

The French artillery engineer developed a 6-inch field howitzer with uniform barrel, carriage and ammunition specifications for all French cannon. Interchangeable parts down to nuts, bolts and screws made mass production and battlefield repair far easier, though the carriages were heavy and gunners marched on foot.

During the Seven Years War Frederick exploited lighter, smaller cannon to field horse artillery able to move about the battlefield. He also introduced the reversible iron ramrod, more break-resistant than wood and faster to use, raising the rate of fire.

Russian gunners fired over the tops of trees at Paltzig, an early instance of firing without direct line of sight. A comparable case occurred at Waterloo, where Royal Horse Artillery fired shrapnel indirectly at advancing French troops.

The first recorded combat use of Mysorean rockets came in 1780 during the wars between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, and they were used with considerable effect at Pollilur and the sieges of Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799. Modern rocket artillery traces its heritage to these weapons.

Artillery ceased to be overseen by 'mechanics' and became its own service branch capable of dominating the battlefield, with specially trained officers coordinating fire amid the chaos of battle. Napoleon, a former artillery officer, concentrated batteries against a critical point in the enemy line as a prelude to decisive infantry and cavalry assault.

Judging Mysorean rockets too short-ranged at under 1,000 yards, Congreve produced rockets in numerous sizes reaching 3,000 yards and eventually adopted iron casings. They were used effectively in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, establishing rocket artillery in European service.

Rifling had been tried on small arms since the 15th century, but the machinery to rifle artillery accurately only became available in the mid-19th century. Wahrendorff and Whitworth built rifled guns in the 1840s, though Armstrong's design was first to see widespread use.

Guncotton was discovered in 1846 and the high explosive nitroglycerin at nearly the same time. Until the late 19th century black powder had been the only available propellant, so these discoveries opened the way to modern propellants and high-explosive shells.

After the Crimean War exposed British artillery as barely changed since Napoleonic times, Armstrong was contracted to design a new piece, produced at the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. The gun was rifled, breech-loading and built up from successively shrunk-on wrought-iron tubes to withstand far greater explosive force, and it recoiled back into firing position on its carriage.

Armstrong's design was taken into service initially for 'special service in the field'. Production began with smaller pieces: 6-pounder mountain or light field guns, 9-pounders for horse artillery and 12-pounder field guns.

Guk set out a practical method of using aiming points for indirect fire, covering crest clearance and corrections to fire by an observer. It gave gunners the essential doctrine for firing without line of sight to the target.

The lining-plane sight invented in Germany provided a means of indirect laying in azimuth, complementing existing clinometers for elevation. Despite conservative opposition within the army, indirect fire became doctrine by the 1890s.

Expansion at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant and related facilities pushed monthly production of 155mm artillery shells toward the highest levels in decades, part of a multi-year effort to rebuild stocks depleted by transfers to Ukraine.

Hanwha Aerospace added to the K9 Thunder's export record, building on contracts with Poland, Egypt, India, Norway, Estonia and Australia, keeping it among the most widely exported self-propelled howitzers of the decade.

Sustained high rates of fire wore out gun barrels faster than industry could replace them on both sides of the Ukraine front, pushing crews to rely more heavily on drone-corrected fire to conserve rounds and extend barrel life.

Iron Dome, David's Sling and the Arrow system engaged large barrages of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones during twelve days of direct strikes between Israel and Iran, with air defence performance shaping both sides' targeting choices.

Indigenous Akash missiles and Russian-supplied S-400 batteries formed part of India's air defence response during several days of cross-border strikes and drone incursions with Pakistan, with both sides making competing claims about interception success.

Domestic output of the 2S22 Bohdana 155mm self-propelled gun rose to a monthly rate several times higher than at the start of the war, reducing reliance on Western-supplied howitzers for fire support along the front.

Taiwan's government outlined plans for a multi-layered air defence architecture, popularly dubbed T-Dome, intended to integrate missile, drone and rocket defences into a single coordinated shield modelled loosely on Israeli systems.

Rheinmetall opened additional 155mm shell production capacity in Lower Saxony, part of a wider expansion across German and European ammunition plants intended to lift combined output well beyond pre-war levels by the later 2020s.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Gulf shipping lanes remained under intermittent Houthi missile and drone attack from Yemen, prompting continued deployment of Patriot and THAAD batteries alongside US naval air defence in the Red Sea.

North Korea sent thousands of soldiers to reinforce Russian lines in the Kursk region and continued supplying large quantities of artillery ammunition, deepening a military relationship reportedly reciprocated with Russian technology assistance.

Daily shell expenditure by both sides ran into the tens of thousands of rounds, exhausting Cold War-era stockpiles within months and forcing Western and Russian industry alike into a scramble to rebuild 155mm and 152mm production capacity.

Low-flying drones and cruise missiles evaded Patriot batteries designed to counter high-altitude ballistic threats and temporarily knocked out roughly half of Saudi oil processing capacity, exposing a gap in air defence design that shaped a decade of investment in short-range and counter-drone systems.

The Global Positioning System enabled relatively cheap and accurate guidance, notably in the US 155 mm Excalibur shell and the 227 mm GMLRS rocket. Their introduction created a new requirement for very accurate three-dimensional target coordinates, the mensuration process.

Patriot batteries engaged Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia in the first widely publicised use of a missile defence system in war, though postwar analysis found its actual intercept success rate far lower than initially claimed.

An Exocet missile fired by an Argentine aircraft sank the destroyer HMS Sheffield, exposing how little warning a low-flying anti-ship missile gave and accelerating investment in close-in weapon systems for point defence at sea.

From about 1980 electronic time fuzes began replacing mechanical ones for use with cargo munitions. Electronic multi-function fuzes appeared around the same time, giving gunners far more flexible shell behaviour.

Egyptian and Syrian SA-6 batteries shot down large numbers of Israeli aircraft in the war's opening days, a shock that pushed air forces worldwide to invest heavily in suppressing enemy air defences before committing aircraft over a battlefield.

The US 155 mm Copperhead and the Soviet 152 mm Krasnopol used laser designation to illuminate targets onto which the shell homed. They broke artillery's long limitation to area fire and suppression, allowing destruction of point targets.

Smaller calibres such as 105 mm had always managed three rounds in 15 seconds, and larger fixed-round guns could too. It was not until the 1970s that a multi-charge 155 mm howitzer, the FH-70, gained the capability, an important step towards multiple-round simultaneous-impact firing.

Self-propelled artillery had been predominantly tracked, but wheeled chassis began to appear in the 1970s. Disassembled and rail transport of heavy and super-heavy equipment, used in the first half of the century, lasted only into the 1950s.

Quadrant elevation and azimuth had previously been calculated manually with instruments, tabulated data and approximations. Computers automated these calculations and improved handling of non-standard conditions data.

The proximity fuze emerged on the battlefields of Europe in late December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. It removed the guesswork from setting airburst height, whereas earlier igniferous timer fuzes lasted into the second half of the 20th century.

Stalin's wartime speech captured artillery's dominance, consistent with figures showing it caused the majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars and both world wars. Cited proportions include 58 per cent of British casualties on the Western Front in the First World War and 70 per cent of German casualties on the Eastern Front in the Second.

Fired at London and Antwerp from mobile launchers, the V-2 travelled faster than sound and gave defenders no warning and no means of interception, creating the strategic problem that missile defence programmes have tried to solve ever since.

TOT was devised at the end of 1941 and early 1942, particularly for counter-battery fire and other concentrations. It proved very popular as a means of making many batteries' rounds arrive simultaneously.

Britain linked radar stations, observers, fighter squadrons and anti-aircraft guns into a single coordinated command structure during the Battle of Britain, establishing the template for integrated air defence that later systems would follow.

The term was first used when howitzers with relatively high maximum muzzle velocities were introduced. It never became widely accepted, most armies instead widening the definitions of 'gun' or 'howitzer', and the two categories steadily merged over the 20th century.

Guns were parachuted or landed by glider in USSR trials during the 1930s. This established air-delivered fire support, later extended by helicopter lift of light towed guns and mortars from the early 1960s.

Guns registered their targets mathematically, using survey and weather data rather than ranging shots that would warn the enemy, allowing a sudden, accurate bombardment that opened the war's decisive Allied offensive and became the basis of modern indirect fire.

At the breakthrough Battle of Cambrai Tudor combined tanks with artillery and demonstrated the effectiveness of predicted fire. Germany showed the same capability the following year during Operation Michael.

From late 1914 British gunners worked to solve the problems of correcting firing data for non-standard conditions of propellant temperature, muzzle velocity, wind, air temperature and barometric pressure, aided by air photo interpretation for target location by 1916. By early 1918 effective processes were in place for field and heavy artillery, enabling 'map-shooting' against accurately located targets good enough for concentrations and barrages, and these processes remain in use in refined form.

An observer in a balloon spotted for guns engaging an enemy battery out of sight of the firing position. It marked the beginning of aerial observation for counter-battery work.

By the end of the century guns with calibres above about 60 mm had become very rare in artillery use, surviving mainly in tanks, ships and residual anti-aircraft and coastal roles. Modern howitzers by then had higher velocities and longer barrels than the guns of the century's first half, and by the 1960s most equipment had elevations up to about 70°, multiple charges and high muzzle velocities.

With the advent of powered flight at the start of the 20th century, artillery expanded to include anti-aircraft gunnery alongside coastal artillery. Anti-aircraft and anti-tank branches emerged during the First World War and its aftermath using specialised guns and direct fire, and in the 1950s and 1960s both began making extensive use of missiles.

The German firm's instrument quickly replaced the lining-plane sight. It became known as the 'Dial Sight' in Britain and the 'Panoramic Telescope' in the United States, and remained the standard means of laying guns indirectly.

The French 75 combined cased ammunition, breech-loading, modern sights and a self-contained firing mechanism, and was the first field gun with a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism keeping trail and wheels still while firing. Needing no re-aiming between shots, it could deliver fifteen rounds per minute of shrapnel or melinite high explosive to about 8,500 m.