Field gun
A field gun is a gun that is designed for mobile use in the field and is mostly used to support the infantry. This means that the field guns are to be separated from the stationary fortress guns or the siege guns that are only partially movable .
The first guns were mainly used in sieges at the beginning of the 14th century. They were only posable to a limited extent, loading and aiming at the target was tedious. Only mobile mounts on wheels allowed mobile use, and during the Hussite Wars (1419–1434) field guns established themselves in the warfare of the time. The field artillery had to be able to follow the infantry and cavalry in any terrain, so the field guns had to be very mobile and steerable; furthermore, they had to be very ready to fire and allow the fastest possible service. The targets, which they should shoot, were mostly troops, more rarely fortifications of low resistance, therefore smaller calibers than for fortress and siege guns were used. At the time of the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), the field guns reached a range of around 1200 meters.
In the middle of the 19th century, the field guns included the 4-, 6-, 8- and 12-pound field cannons and the 7- and 10-pound, 42/5, 51/2 and 8-inch field howitzers . For transport over long distances, the field gun was connected to a limber , which also took a small supply of ammunition.
Since the time after the First World War , field guns have increasingly been used on self-propelled guns . The newly developed tanks were initially fought with light field guns. However, they subsequently took over anti-tank guns . Light field guns were also used as infantry guns for direct fire support to the infantry . Machine cannons, which are part of the equipment of the infantry and are used to support fire, are still called field cannons today.
In some modern armies there are no longer any field guns. The FH155-1 field howitzer was the last field gun in the Bundeswehr . The function is performed today by the armored artillery as with the Panzerhaubitze 2000 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon, Volume 2. Leipzig 1838., pp. 201–203 [1]
- ↑ Allgemeine militair-Encyclopädie, Verlag Webel, 1868, [2] page 217
- ↑ Michael Busch, Karl-Volker Neugebauer : Basic course in German military history, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2008 ISBN 978-3-486-57853-9 , [3] , page 175
- ↑ Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon, Volume 2. Leipzig 1838., pp. 201–203 [4]
- ^ Claus Heinrich Gattermann: "Because with us one stands for all" the Panzerartilleriebataillon 25 na from 1997 to 2008, Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2007, ISBN 978-3-940344-16-8 , page 28 [5]