Artillery and Heavy Weapons

I finished my PDP on Artillery and Heavy Weapons today:

The term “artillery” is used to describe mounted and self-propelled explosive weapons that reach beyond the effective range of and are larger than light weapons carried by personnel. Not long after the invention of gunpowder, cannons were first used by the Chinese in defense of Mongol invasion. The artillery revolution soon hit Europe as cannons were used to defend castles during the Hundred Years’ War. In the 15th century cannons evolved into mobile field pieces. Eventual standardizations in the manufacturing process and improvements in firing mechanisms and munitions helped prove cannons decisive in Napoleon’s conquests and the American Civil War. Indirect fire was the defining characteristic of 20th century artillery, and the developments of predicted fire techniques and battlefield adjustments of fire led to near precision weapons, mass casualties, and artillery as it is known today. Modern and precision artillery includes howitzers and rockets as well as surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles. Technological advances in guidance systems have blurred the lines between missilery, artillery, and heavy weapons.

March 1, 2013

I continued with my research today for the Artillery and Heavy Weapons Patron Discovery Page I am creating. I have located many interesting resources in the main stacks at the library, including sources on Napoleon’s artillery, WWI & WWII artillery, German artillery, Civil War tactics, and Mortar tactics -- just to name a few. There are also a couple of Russian artillery resources written in Russian (I’m assuming) -- unfortunately the diagrams are all I can decipher. Long story short, the evolution of artillery from the civil war cannons of the 1860s to the precision smart-munitions used by today’s military is quite impressive. PML is really a goldmine of primary sources for military history and I enjoy wandering through the stacks. I’m used to searching for online resources in JSTOR and Pegasus -- maybe occasionally placing a book on reserve to pick up at the Cudahy Library circulation desk. Exploring the shelves is an entirely different experience, the sources seem more tangible when you can page through them.