From the beginning of 'trench warfare' in winter 1914/15, artillery
became the absolutely dominant arm in all the major armies for the rest
of World War I, to a degree never seen before or since. The numbers and
capabilities of the guns and ammunition available governed all the
generals' battle plans; and the ways in which they were employed, and
either succeeded or failed, decided the outcome of battles. The majority
of the millions of casualties suffered during the war fell victim to
artillery fire.
The artillery war fell into three distinct phases along a four-year
learning curve (with the necessary equipment and training for the second
and third phases always lagging behind the tactical needs). The war
began with mostly light, mobile artillery equipped and trained to
support fast-moving infantry and cavalry by direct fire, mostly with
air-bursting shrapnel shells.
The entirely unexpected end of the first campaigns of manoeuvre as the
armies bogged down in static trench warfare found both sides ill
equipped and ill trained for what was in essence siege warfare on an
industrial scale. This demanded more and heavier guns and high-explosive
shells, and more complex skills for indirect fire - observation on the
ground and in the air, locating targets (including enemy artillery),
dropping the right kind of shells on them, the communications needed for
co-ordinating the work of hugely increased numbers of guns, and getting
many millions of shells up to them for week-long bombardments. These
seldom worked as anticipated (classically, by failing to 'cut the wire'
or to penetrate deep bunkers); so innovative officers on both sides
worked to devise new tactics, with more versatile mixes of ammunition
(e.g. gas shells, smoke shells, star shells and so on) and more
imaginative ways of using them, such as box barrages and creeping
barrages.
Finally, in early 1918, the static slogging broke down into a renewed
phase of manoeuvre warfare, made possible by sophisticated co-operation
between artillery and infantry, plus the newly important air and
mechanised forces. The lessons that were finally learned shaped the use
of artillery worldwide for the rest of the 20th century.
Fully illustrated with period photographs and specially drawn colour
artwork and drawing upon the latest research, this engaging study
explains the rapid development of artillery tactics and techniques
during the conflict in which artillery played a pre-eminent role - World
War I.
