howitzer的資料!~!

A howitzer is a type of artillery piece that is characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small explosive charges to propel projectiles at trajectories with a steep angle of descent. In the taxonomies of artillery pieces used by European (and European-style) armies in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, the howitzer stood between the "gun" (which was characterized by a longer barrel, larger propelling charges, smaller shells, higher velocities and flatter trajectories) and a "mortar" (which has the ability to fire projectiles at even higher angles of ascent and descent.)

19th century 12 pounder (5 kg) mountain howitzer displayed by the National Park Service at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, USA

Etymology

15-inch howitzer of the Royal Marine ArtilleryThe English word howitzer comes from the Dutch word houwitser which, in turn, was derived from the Czech word houfnice, which, having an original meaning of "catapult", was used during the Hussite Wars of the fifteenth century to refer to a particular type of artillery piece. [1] The words for "howitzer" in a number of other languages, such as the German Haubitze or the Swedish haubits, share the same root.

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". 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 strike targets on land. Thus, a number of artillery pieces that bear little resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras, such as the multi-chamber "supergun" designed by the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull for Iraq in the 1980s, are sometimes described as "howitzers".

The British had a further method of nomenclature that they adopted in the 19th century. Guns were categorised by projectile weight in pounds while howitzers were categorised by calibre in inches. This system broke down in the 1930s with the introduction of gun-howitzers.

History

US M198 gun-howitzerThe first modern howitzers were invented in the Netherlands 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

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 fortifications. In contrast to contemporary mortars, which were fired at a fixed angle and were entirely dependent upon adjustments to the size of propellant charges in order 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.

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