Early modern ,
falconet and
mortar By the 16th century, cannons were made in a great variety of lengths and bore diameters, but the general rule was that the longer the barrel, the longer the range. Some cannons made during this time had barrels exceeding in length, and could weigh up to . Consequently, large amounts of gunpowder were needed to allow them to fire stone balls several hundred yards. By mid-century, European monarchs began to classify cannons to reduce the confusion.
Henry II of France opted for six sizes of cannon, but others settled for more; the Spanish used twelve sizes, and the English sixteen. They are, from largest to smallest: the cannon royal, cannon, cannon serpentine, bastard cannon, demicannon, pedrero, culverin, basilisk, demiculverin, bastard culverin, saker, minion, falcon, falconet, serpentine, and rabinet. Better powder had been developed by this time as well. Instead of the finely ground powder used by the first bombards, powder was replaced by a "corned" variety of coarse grains. This coarse powder had pockets of air between grains, allowing fire to travel through and ignite the entire charge quickly and uniformly. The end of the Middle Ages saw the construction of larger, more powerful cannon, as well as their spread throughout the world. As they were not effective at breaching the newer fortifications resulting from the development of cannon,
siege engines—such as
siege towers and
trebuchets—became less widely used. However, wooden "battery-towers" took on a similar role as siege towers in the gunpowder age—such as that used at
Siege of Kazan in 1552, which could hold ten large-calibre cannon, in addition to 50 lighter pieces. Another notable effect of cannon on warfare during this period was the change in conventional fortifications.
Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, "There is no wall, whatever its thickness that artillery will not destroy in only a few days." Instead of majestic
towers and
merlons, the walls of new fortresses were thick, angled, and sloped, while towers became low and stout; increasing use was also made of earth and brick in
breastworks and
redoubts. These new defences became known as
bastion forts, after their characteristic shape which attempted to force any advance towards it directly into the firing line of the guns. By the end of the 15th century, several technological advancements made cannons more mobile. Wheeled gun carriages and
trunnions became common, and the invention of the
limber further facilitated transportation. As a result, field artillery became more viable and began to see more widespread use, often alongside the larger cannons intended for sieges. Better gunpowder, cast-iron projectiles (replacing stone), and the standardisation of calibres meant that even relatively light cannons could be deadly. This was the case at the
Battle of Flodden, in 1513: the English
field guns outfired the Scottish siege artillery, firing two or three times as many rounds. Despite the increased maneuverability, however, cannon were still the slowest component of the army: a heavy
English cannon required 23 horses to transport, while a culverin needed nine. Even with this many animals pulling, they still moved at a walking pace. Due to their relatively slow speed, lack of organisation, and undeveloped tactics, the combination of
pike and shot still dominated the battlefields of Europe. Innovations continued, notably the German invention of the
mortar, a thick-walled, short-barrelled gun that blasted shot upward at a steep angle. Mortars were useful for sieges, as they could hit targets behind walls or other defences. This cannon found more use with the Dutch, who learnt to shoot bombs filled with powder from them. Setting the bomb fuse was a problem. "Single firing" was first used to ignite the fuse, where the bomb was placed with the fuse down against the cannon's propellant. This often resulted in the fuse being blown into the bomb, causing it to blow up as it left the mortar. Because of this, "double firing" was tried where the gunner lit the fuse and then the touch hole. This required considerable skill and timing, and was especially dangerous if the gun misfired, leaving a lighted bomb in the barrel. Not until 1650 was it accidentally discovered that double-lighting was superfluous as the heat of firing would light the fuse.
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden emphasised the use of light cannon and mobility in his army, and created new formations and tactics that revolutionised artillery. He discontinued using all 12 pounder—or heavier—cannon as field artillery, preferring, instead, to use cannons that could be handled by only a few men. One obsolete type of gun, the "
leatheren", was replaced by 4 pounder and 9 pounder demi-culverins. These could be operated by three men, and pulled by only two horses. Gustavus Adolphus's army was also the first to use a cartridge that contained both powder and shot which sped up reloading, increasing the rate of fire. Finally, against infantry he pioneered the use of
canister shot—essentially a tin can filled with musket balls. Until then there was no more than one cannon for every thousand infantrymen on the battlefield but Gustavus Adolphus increased the number of cannons sixfold. Each regiment was assigned two pieces, though he often arranged them into batteries instead of distributing them piecemeal. He used these batteries to break his opponent's infantry line, while his cavalry would
outflank their heavy guns. At the
Battle of Breitenfeld, in 1631, Adolphus proved the effectiveness of the changes made to his army, by defeating
Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly. Although severely outnumbered, the Swedes were able to fire between three and five times as many volleys of artillery, and their infantry's
linear formations helped ensure they did not lose any ground. Battered by cannon fire, and low on morale, Tilly's men broke ranks and fled. In England, cannons were being used to besiege various fortified buildings during the
English Civil War.
Nathaniel Nye is recorded as testing a
Birmingham cannon in 1643 and experimenting with a
saker in 1645. From 1645 he was the master gunner to the
Parliamentarian garrison at
Evesham and in 1646 he successfully directed the artillery at the
Siege of Worcester, detailing his experiences and in his 1647 book
The Art of Gunnery. his explanations focused on
triangulation,
arithmetic, theoretical mathematics, and
cartography His book acknowledged mathematicians such as
Robert Recorde and
Marcus Jordanus as well as earlier military writers on artillery such as
Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia and Thomas (or Francis) Malthus (author of
A Treatise on Artificial Fire-Works). In the latter half of the 17th century, the French engineer
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban introduced a more systematic and scientific approach to attacking gunpowder fortresses, in a time when many field commanders "were notorious dunces in siegecraft". Careful
sapping forward, supported by
enfilading ricochets, was a key feature of this system, and it even allowed Vauban to calculate the length of time a siege would take. These principles were followed into the mid-19th century, when changes in armaments necessitated greater depth defence than Vauban had provided for. It was only in the years prior to
World War I that new works began to break radically away from his designs. Image:TheTsarCannonJuly2004.jpg | The
Tsar Cannon, the largest
howitzer ever made, cast by
Andrey Chokhov Image:Youghal Battery.JPG | Remains of a post-medieval
cannon battery, mounted on a medieval
town wall, although without carriages. File:Fotothek df tg 0000132 Ballistik ^ Quadrant ^ Kanone.jpg | Contemporary illustration on how a cannon could be used with the aid of
quadrants for improved precision. File:Sixteenth Century Cannon2.jpg | The use of
gabions with cannon was an important part in the attack and defence of fortifications. Image:Fortbourtange.jpg |
Fort Bourtange, a
bastion fort, was built with angles and sloped walls specifically to defend against cannon.
18th and 19th centuries at the ready The lower tier of 17th-century English
ships of the line were usually equipped with demi-cannons, guns that fired a solid shot, and could weigh up to . Demi-cannons were capable of firing these heavy metal balls with such force that they could penetrate more than a metre of solid oak, from a distance of , and could dismast even the largest ships at close range. Full cannon fired a shot, but were discontinued by the 18th century, as they were too unwieldy. By the end of the 18th century, principles long adopted in Europe specified the characteristics of the
Royal Navy's cannon, as well as the acceptable defects, and their severity. The
United States Navy tested guns by measuring them, firing them two or three times—termed "proof by powder"—and using
pressurized water to detect leaks. The
carronade was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1779; the lower muzzle velocity of the round shot when fired from this cannon was intended to create more wooden splinters when hitting the structure of an enemy vessel, as they were believed to be more deadly than the ball by itself. The carronade was much shorter, and weighed between a third to a quarter of the equivalent
long gun; for example, a 32-pounder carronade weighed less than a
ton, compared with a 32-pounder long gun, which weighed over . The guns were, therefore, easier to handle, and also required less than half as much gunpowder, allowing fewer men to crew them. Carronades were manufactured in the usual
naval gun calibres, but were not counted in a ship of the line's rated number of guns. As a result, the classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can be misleading, as they often carried more cannons than were listed. shows action in a British artillery battery during the
Crimean War with cannon firing and being loaded and men bringing in supplies. Cannons were crucial in
Napoleon's rise to power, and continued to play an important role in his army in later years. During the
French Revolution, the unpopularity of the
Directory led to riots and rebellions. When over 25,000 royalists led by General Danican assaulted Paris,
Paul Barras was appointed to defend the capital; outnumbered five to one and disorganised, the Republicans were desperate. When Napoleon arrived, he reorganised the defences but realised that without cannons the city could not be held. He ordered
Joachim Murat to bring the guns from the Sablons artillery park; the Major and his cavalry fought their way to the recently captured cannons, and brought them back to Napoleon. When Danican's poorly trained men attacked, on
13 Vendémiaire 1795 (5 October in the
calendar used in France at the time), Napoleon ordered his cannon to fire grapeshot into the mob, an act that became known as the "
whiff of grapeshot". The slaughter effectively ended the threat to the new government, while, at the same time, making Bonaparte a famous—and popular—public figure. Among the first generals to recognise that artillery was not being used to its full potential, Napoleon often massed his cannon into batteries and introduced several changes into the French artillery, improving it significantly and making it among the finest in Europe. Such tactics were successfully used by the French, for example, at the
Battle of Friedland, when 66 guns fired a total of 3,000
roundshot and 500 rounds of grapeshot, inflicting severe casualties to the Russian forces, whose losses numbered over 20,000 killed and wounded, in total. At the
Battle of Waterloo—Napoleon's final battle—the French army had many more artillery pieces than either the
British or
Prussians. As the battlefield was muddy,
recoil caused cannons to bury themselves into the ground after firing, resulting in slow rates of fire, as more effort was required to move them back into an adequate firing position; also, roundshot did not
ricochet with as much force from the wet earth. Despite the drawbacks, sustained artillery fire proved deadly during the engagement, especially during the
French cavalry attack. The British infantry, having formed
infantry squares, took heavy losses from the French guns, while their own cannons fired at the
cuirassiers and
lancers, when they fell back to regroup. Eventually, the French ceased their assault, after taking heavy losses from the British cannon and musket fire. In the 1810s and 1820s, greater emphasis was placed on the accuracy of long-range gunfire, and less on the weight of a broadside. Around 1822,
George Marshall wrote ''Marshall's Practical Marine Gunnery''. The book was used by cannon operators in the United States Navy throughout the 19th century. It listed all the types of cannons and instructions. from the
Battle of Chancellorsville The carronade, although initially very successful and widely adopted, disappeared from the Royal Navy in the 1850s after the development of wrought-iron-jacketed steel cannon by
William Armstrong and
Joseph Whitworth. Nevertheless, carronades were used in the American Civil War. Western cannons during the 19th century became larger, more destructive, more accurate, and could fire at longer range. One example is the American wrought-iron, muzzle-loading rifle, or
Griffen gun (usually called the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle), used during the
American Civil War, which had an effective range of over . Another is the smoothbore
12-pounder Napoleon, which originated in France in 1853 and was widely used by both sides in the American Civil War. This cannon was renowned for its sturdiness, reliability, firepower, flexibility, relatively lightweight, and range of . (1868–69). on the yard of Eastern Finland military office in
Mikkeli,
South Savo, Finland The practice of
rifling—casting spiralling lines inside the cannon's barrel—was applied to artillery more frequently by 1855, as it gave cannon projectiles
gyroscopic stability, which improved their accuracy. One of the earliest rifled cannons was the
breech-loading Armstrong Gun—also invented by William Armstrong—which boasted significantly improved range, accuracy, and power than earlier weapons. The projectile fired from the Armstrong gun could reportedly pierce through a ship's side and explode inside the enemy vessel, causing increased damage and casualties. The British military adopted the Armstrong gun, and was impressed;
the Duke of Cambridge even declared that it "could do everything but speak". Despite being significantly more advanced than its predecessors, the Armstrong gun was rejected soon after its integration, in favour of the muzzle-loading pieces that had been in use before. While both types of gun were effective against wooden ships, neither had the capability to pierce the armour of
ironclads; due to reports of slight problems with the breeches of the Armstrong gun, and their higher cost, the older muzzle-loaders were selected to remain in service instead. Realising that iron was more difficult to pierce with breech-loaded cannons, Armstrong designed rifled muzzle-loading guns, which proved successful;
The Times reported: "even the fondest believers in the invulnerability of our present ironclads were obliged to confess that against such artillery, at such ranges, their plates and sides were almost as penetrable as wooden ships." The superior cannon of the Western world brought them tremendous advantages in warfare. For example, in the
First Opium War in China, during the 19th century, British battleships bombarded the coastal areas and fortifications from afar, safe from the reach of the Chinese cannons. Similarly, the shortest war in recorded history, the
Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896, was brought to a swift conclusion by shelling from British cruisers. The cynical attitude towards recruited infantry in the face of ever more powerful field artillery is the source of the term
cannon fodder, first used by
François-René de Chateaubriand, in 1814; however, the concept of regarding soldiers as nothing more than "food for powder" was mentioned by
William Shakespeare as early as 1598, in
Henry IV, Part 1.
20th and 21st centuries Cannons in the 20th and 21st centuries are usually divided into sub-categories and given separate names. Some of the most widely used types of modern cannon are howitzers, mortars, guns, and autocannon, although a few very
large-calibre cannon, custom-designed, have also been constructed.
Nuclear artillery was experimented with, but was abandoned as impractical. Modern artillery is used in a variety of roles, depending on its type. According to
NATO, the general role of artillery is to provide fire support, which is defined as "the application of fire, coordinated with the manoeuvre of forces to destroy, neutralize, or suppress the enemy". When referring to cannons, the term
gun is often used incorrectly. In military usage, a gun is a cannon with a high muzzle velocity and a
flat trajectory, useful for hitting the sides of targets such as walls,
howitzers at the
Battle of the Somme By the early 20th century,
infantry weapons had become more powerful, forcing most artillery away from the front lines. Despite the change to
indirect fire, cannons proved highly effective during
World War I, directly or indirectly causing over 75% of casualties. The onset of
trench warfare after the first few months of World War I greatly increased the demand for howitzers, as they were more suited to hitting targets in trenches. Furthermore, their shells carried more explosives than those of guns, and caused considerably less barrel wear. The German army had the advantage here as they began the war with many more howitzers than the French. World War I also saw the use of the
Paris Gun, the longest-ranged gun ever fired. This calibre gun was used by the Germans against Paris and could hit targets more than away. The Second World War sparked new developments in cannon technology. Among them were
sabot rounds, hollow-charge projectiles, and
proximity fuses, all of which increased the effectiveness of cannon against specific targets. The proximity fuse emerged on the battlefields of Europe in late December 1944. Used to great effect in
anti-aircraft projectiles, proximity fuses were fielded in both the
European and
Pacific Theatres of Operations; they were particularly useful against
V-1 flying bombs and
kamikaze planes. Although widely used in naval warfare, and in anti-air guns, both the British and Americans feared unexploded proximity fuses would be reverse engineered, leading to them limiting their use in continental battles. During the
Battle of the Bulge, however, the fuses became known as the American artillery's "Christmas present" for the German army because of their effectiveness against German personnel in the open, when they frequently dispersed attacks.
Anti-tank guns were also tremendously improved during the war: in 1939, the British used primarily
2 pounder and
6 pounder guns. By the end of the war,
17 pounders had proven much more effective against German tanks, and 32 pounders had entered development. Meanwhile, German tanks were continuously upgraded with better
main guns, in addition to other improvements. For example, the
Panzer III was originally designed with a 37 mm gun, but was
mass-produced with a 50 mm cannon. To counter the threat of the Russian
T-34s, another, more powerful 50 mm gun was introduced, Despite the improved guns, production of the Panzer III was ended in 1943, as the tank still could not match the T-34, and was replaced by the
Panzer IV and
Panther tanks. In 1944, the
8.8 cm KwK 43 and many variations, entered service with the
Wehrmacht, and was used as both a tank main gun, and as the
PaK 43 anti-tank gun. One of the most powerful guns to see service in World War II, it was capable of destroying any
Allied tank at very long ranges. Despite being designed to fire at trajectories with a steep angle of descent, howitzers can be fired
directly, as was done by the
11th Marine Regiment at the
Battle of Chosin Reservoir, during the
Korean War. Two
field batteries fired directly upon a
battalion of Chinese infantry; the Marines were forced to brace themselves against their howitzers, as they had no time to dig them in. The Chinese infantry took heavy casualties, and were forced to retreat. The tendency to create larger calibre cannons during the World Wars has reversed since. The
United States Army, for example, sought a lighter, more versatile howitzer, to replace their aging pieces. As it could be towed, the M198 was selected to be the successor to the World War II–era cannons used at the time, and entered service in 1979. Still in use today, the M198 is, in turn, being slowly replaced by the
M777 Ultralightweight howitzer, which weighs nearly half as much and can be more easily moved. Although land-based artillery such as the M198 are powerful, long-ranged, and accurate, naval guns have not been neglected, despite being much smaller than in the past, and, in some cases, having been replaced by
cruise missiles. However, the 's planned armament included the
Advanced Gun System (AGS), a pair of 155 mm guns, which fire the
Long Range Land-Attack Projectile. The warhead, which weighed , had a
circular error of probability of , and was mounted on a rocket, to increase the effective range to , further than that of the Paris Gun. The AGS's barrels would be water-cooled, and fire 10 rounds per minute, per gun. The combined firepower from both turrets would give a
Zumwalt-class destroyer the firepower equivalent to 12 conventional M198 howitzers. The reason for the re-integration of cannons as a main armament in United States Navy ships was because satellite-guided munitions fired from a gun would be less expensive than a cruise missile but have a similar guidance capability. Explosive ammunition weighing less than 400 grams, as used by machine-gun calibers, is additionally banned in international conflict for parties to the
Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868. Most nations use rapid-fire cannon on light vehicles, instead of a more powerful, but heavier, tank gun with a low rate of fire. A typical autocannon is the
25 mm US "
Bushmaster"
chain gun, mounted on the
LAV-25 and
M2 Bradley armoured vehicles. Autocannons may be capable of a very high rate of fire, but ammunition is heavy and bulky limiting the amount that can be carried, and the rate of fire is often kept lower—for example by the 25 mm Bushmaster and the 30 mm
RARDEN—than the maximum attainable to increase the firing duration of a load of ammunition. The typical rate of fire for a modern autocannon ranges from 90 to 1,800 rounds per minute; systems with multiple barrels, such as rotary autocannon, can have rates of fire of several thousand rounds per minute. The fastest of these is the
GSh-6-23, which has a rate of fire of over 10,000 rounds per minute. Autocannons are often fitted in aircraft and as shipboard anti-aircraft weapons, as they provide greater destructive power than previously-used machine guns. The first autocannon were developed during World War I as anti-aircraft guns, and one of these, the
Coventry Ordnance Works "
COW 37 mm gun", was installed in an aircraft. However, the war ended before it could be given a field trial, and it never became standard equipment in a production aircraft. Later trials had it fixed at a steep angle upwards in both the
Vickers Type 161 and the
Westland C.O.W. Gun Fighter, an idea that returned later. During this period autocannons became available, and several fighters of the German and the
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service were fitted with 20 mm cannons. They continued to be installed as an adjunct to machine guns rather than as a replacement, as the rate of fire was too low and each gun was too heavy. There was some debate in the RAF as to whether the greater number of possible rounds being fired from a machine gun, or a smaller number of explosive rounds from a cannon was preferable. Improvements during the war in regards to rate of fire allowed the cannon to displace the machine gun almost entirely. The
Lockheed AC-130 gunship, based on a transport aircraft, can carry a 105 mm howitzer and a variety of autocannons ranging up to 40 mm. Both are used in the
close air support role. File:Westland C.O.W. Gun Fighter.jpg |
Westland C.O.W. Gun Fighter with 37 mm C.O.W. gun mounted to fire upwards File:Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI.jpg|
Supermarine Spitfire with 20 mm cannon protruding from the leading edge of the wing File:GSh-23 on MiG-23.jpg |
GSh-23 autocannon mounted on the underside of a
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 File:GAU-8 in A-10.jpg | The
GAU-8/A Avenger rotary cannon, mounted in a
Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II == Composition ==