King Of Battle Artillery In World War I

In King of Battle: Artillery in World War I, a distinguished array of authors examines the centrepiece of battle in the Great War: artillery. Going beyond the usual tables of calibres and ranges, the contributors consider the organization and technology of artillery, as well as present aspects of training, doctrine, and other national idiosyncrasies. Artillery dominated the battlefields of World War I, and forever changed the military doctrine of war. No nation that had participated in significant ground combat would blithely assume that morale could ever replace firepower. The essays included in this volume explain how twelve countries, including all the major combatants, handled artillery and how it affected the Great War. Contributors include Filippo Cappellano, Boyd Dastrup, Edward J. Erickson, Bruce Gudmundsson, James Lyon, Sanders Marble, Janice E. McKenney, Dmitre Minchev, Andrey Pavlov, Kaushik Roy, Cornel and Ioan Scafes, John Schindler, and David Zabecki.

"King of Battle: A Branch History of the U.S. Army's Field Artillery" is the first volume in the TRADOC Branch History Series. Based on primary sources and a wide study of secondary literature, the volume provides a comprehensive historical summary of the development of field artillery in the U.S. Army since colonial times. The study focuses on the tactical, organizational, materiel, and training lessons learned - both those of wartime action and those of peacetime planning - in the larger framework of American military policy and strategy from the origins of the branch in European warfare to the modem artillery of the 1980s. This examination of the development of a major element of the Army fighting force provides an important contribution to the study of combined arms warfare and to the institutional history of the U.S. Army.

The World War I Memoirs of Major General William J. Snow, the U. S. Army's first Chief of Field Artillery. This book has been out of of print since 1941 and includes material that was not published in the original edition. This book focuses on the problems and challenges General Snow faced in mobilizing the Field Artillery for overseas service in France. World War I was widely known as an artillery war. This book is an insiders account of how the U.S. Army's Field Artillery came close to the breaking point and how General Snow tackled these challenges. "'Signposts of Experience' is a brilliant recounting of how the U.S. Field Artillery became the King of Battle for the U.S. Army on the doorstep of the First World War. Major General William Snow's Memoirs as first Chief of Field Artillery, provide artillery and fire support leaders of today a framework of initiative, organization, disciplined training, and exacting standards that has been the backbone of Red Leg pride for over a century. As we reset the Army today and prepare for the future we must ensure that we get 'fires' right. Major General Snow's experiences are a must read for those who wear the crossed cannons of the artillery as well as those that are supported by its fires." -- Lt. Gen. David P. Valcourt, US Army (Ret.), Chief of Field Artillery (2003-2005)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, field artillery was a small, separate, unsupported branch of the U.S. Army. By the end of World War I, it had become the “King of Battle,” a critical component of American military might. Million-Dollar Barrage tracks this transformation. Offering a detailed account of how American artillery crews trained, changed, adapted, and fought between 1907 and 1923, Justin G. Prince tells the story of the development of modern American field artillery—a tale stretching from the period when field artillery became an independent organization to when it became an equal branch of the U.S. Army. The field artillery entered the Great War as a relatively new branch. It separated from the Coast Artillery in 1907 and established a dedicated training school, the School of Fire at Fort Sill, in 1911. Prince describes the challenges this presented as issues of doctrine, technology, weapons development, and combat training intersected with the problems of a peacetime army with no good industrial base. His account, which draws on a wealth of sources, ranges from debates about U.S. artillery practices relative to those of Europe, to discussions of the training, equipping, and performance of the field artillery branch during the war. Prince follows the field artillery from its plunge into combat in April 1917 as an unprepared organization to its emergence that November as an effective fighting force, with the Meuse-Argonne Offensive proving the pivotal point in the branch’s fortunes. Million-Dollar Barrage provides an unprecedented analysis of the ascendance of field artillery as a key factor in the nation’s military dominance.

As the First World War bogged down across Europe resulting in the establishment of trench systems, artillery began to grow in military importance. Never before had the use of artillery been so vital, and to this day the ferocity, duration and widespread use of artillery across the trenches of Europe has never been replicated. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork, this groundbreaking study explains and illustrates the enormous advances in the use of artillery that took place between 1914 and 1918, the central part artillery played in World War I and how it was used throughout the war, with particular emphasis on the Western Front.

A year-by-year examination of key WWI battles and how the ongoing advances in artillery shaped strategy, tactics, and oprations; includes battlefield maps! World War I is often said to have been an artillery war, yet the decisive role artillery played in shaping military decisions—and therefor the war itself—has rarely been examined. Artillery in the Great War traces the development of this all-important technology, the differing approaches to its use, the many innovations it underwent on both sides, and how those approaches and innovations in turn effected key battles such as the Battle of the Somme. This highly readable and informative history is perfect for any reader interested in understanding the legacy of World War I, or the evolution of modern warfare.