Field ArTillery - US Army Center Of Military History

CHAPTER 5
A Time of Growth
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, developments in field artillery
doctrine and materiel in the United States had lagged behind those in Europe. Disturbed
by the lack of effective artillery support during the War With Spain, Army
officers and others worked diligently to reorganize and revital ize the arm. They
made great strides in the early twentieth century, and by the end of World War I,
field artillery in the U.S. Army could equal or surpass that in most modern European
armies. Technical and organizational improvements—for example, breechloading
guns with effective recoil mechanisms and the capacity for indirect laying, that is,
sighting on an aiming point rather than the target; new means of communication
and transportation; and unit structures above the battery level—all contributed to the
effectiveness of artillery support during World War I. But the road traveled proved
rougher and more challenging than anyone would have ever imagined.
Modernizing the Arm
The development of modern breechloading rifles with effective recoil mechanisms
changed field artillery gunnery profound ly, with direct fire giving way to
indirect fire. The former had been relatively simple. Laying (pointing) the pieces
and delivering accurate direct fire were critical, with the actual firing executed at a
range and direction judged by the eye. Sighting mechanisms were fairly rudimentary,
and gunners used the piece to determine the natural line of sight to a target
at pointblank range, usually under 1,000 yards (914.4 meters). Fire was massed
at key points by grouping the pieces. Each piece was fired independently, and the
results depended mostly on the chief of the piece and the gunner—often the same
person. Aiming and laying were the art of the cannoneer; a good one knew how his
gun fired and corrected his own fire, similar to an infantryman firing his rifle. The
role of the battery commander, who had little to do with the actual firing, was to
indicate the target, supervise fire discipline and ammunition resupply, and monitor
security and unit mobility. 1
While the coast artillery had been testing new fire control methods for a number
of years, the field artillery was slow in adopting them. Artillerists, who traditionally
1 Anthoni, trans., “Influence of the Adoption of the New Guns,” pp. 283–84.