Modernizing the King of Battle 1973-1991
Modernizing the King of Battle 1973-1991

Author: United States Army Field Artillery Center and School

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-01-23

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 9781507681688

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Modernizing the King of Battle, the companion volume to Boyd L. Dastrup's King of Battle: A Branch History of the U.S. Army's Field Artillery, records the U.S. Army's aggressive program to modernize field artillery during the decades between the end of the Vietnam conflict in 1973 and the start of the Persian Gulf War in 1991. In order to fight effectively across the entire spectrum of conflict, the Army resurrected itself as a powerful fighting force capable of taking on the heavily mechanized Soviet and Warsaw Pact armies on both high-intensity and low- to mid-intensity battlefields. As recent events in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated, field artillery is still a vital component of the contemporary battlefield. Those involved in the ongoing modernization of the King of Battle will benefit greatly from a careful reading of the historical background in this valuable work.

Bracketing the Enemy
Bracketing the Enemy

Author: John R. Walker

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2013-08-08

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0806150327

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

After the end of World War II, General George Patton declared that artillery had won the war. Yet howitzers did not achieve victory on their own. Crucial to the success of these big guns were forward observers, artillerymen on the front lines who directed the artillery fire. Until now, the vital role of forward observers in ground combat has received little scholarly attention. In Bracketing the Enemy, John R. Walker remedies this oversight by offering the first full-length history of forward observer teams during World War II. As early as the U.S. Civil War, artillery fire could reach as far as two miles, but without an “FO” (forward observer) to report where the first shot had landed in relation to the target, and to direct subsequent fire by outlining or “bracketing” the targeted range, many of the advantages of longer-range fire were wasted. During World War II, FOs accompanied infantrymen on the front lines. Now, for the first time, gun crews could bring deadly accurate fire on enemy positions immediately as advancing riflemen encountered these enemy strongpoints. According to Walker, this transition from direct to indirect fire was one of the most important innovations to have occurred in ground combat in centuries. Using the 37th Division in the Pacific Theater and the 87th in Europe as case studies, Walker presents a vivid picture of the dangers involved in FO duty and shows how vitally important forward observers were to the success of ground operations in a variety of scenarios. FO personnel not only performed a vital support function as artillerymen but often transcended their combat role by fighting as infantrymen, sometimes even leading soldiers into battle. And yet, although forward observers lived, fought, and bled with the infantry, they were ineligible to wear the Combat Infantryman’s Badge awarded to the riflemen they supported. Forward observers are thus among the unsung heroes of World War II. Bracketing the Enemy signals a long-overdue recognition of their distinguished service.

American Artillery
American Artillery

Author: Michael Green

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2021-03-15

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 1526776677

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An extensively illustrated history covering the artillery weaponry of the United States military from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. The first regiment of artillery in the American Continental Army was formed in 1775. During the American Civil War almost a century later, artillery evolved from the employment of individual batteries to massed fire of grouped batteries. In 1907, the US Army Artillery Corps was reorganized into the Field Artillery and the Coast Artillery Corps. During the First World War, a lack of American-made weapons saw the adoption of foreign artillery pieces. The Second World War demanded the introduction of many new field artillery pieces by the US Army. General Patton later commented, “I don’t have to tell you who won the war, you know our artillery did.” American artillery firepower also took a heavy toll of the enemy during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. During the Cold War American artillery continued to develop, as the military embraced new weapons systems including tactical nuclear missiles, which thankfully never had to be used. Conventional artillery continued to prove highly effective in the country’s twenty-first century wars. This superbly illustrated and authoritative work covers the full range of artillery weaponry that has been in service with US armed forces. “Full of technical details on cannon, rocket and missile launchers, munitions, and fire-direction equipment. There is also considerable information on how new ordnance was developed and adopted into service over time.” —Military Heritage Magazine

The organizational history of field artillery 1775-2003 (Hardcover)
The organizational history of field artillery 1775-2003 (Hardcover)

Author: Janice E. McKenney

Publisher: Government Printing Office

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780160872877

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Organizational History of Field Artillery, 1775-2003, traces the evolution of one of the U.S. Army's premier combat arms-field artillery, the King of Battle. Janice E. McKenney's study is a systematic account of the organization of artillery units, both field and coast (until their separation in the early twentieth century) and then field artillery alone until 2003. Tracing the development of one of the Army's most complex arms, the author highlights the rationale behind each major change in the branch's organization, weapons, and associated equipment, and lays out for all field artillery soldiers the rich heritage and history of their chosen branch. The work also complements the forthcoming revised edition of the lineage volume Field Artillery.

Tank Warfare
Tank Warfare

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2020-10-27

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0253050006

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“An “insightful and informative” overview of the role of tanks in combat from the First World War to the present day (Dennis Showalter, author of Armor and Blood). The story of the battlefield in the twentieth century was dominated by a handful of developments. Foremost of these was the introduction and refinement of tanks. In Tank Warfare, Jeremy Black, a recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society for Military History, offers a comprehensive global account of the history of tanks and armored warfare in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. First introduced onto the battlefield during World War I, tanks represented the reconciliation of firepower and mobility and immediately seized the imagination of commanders and commentators concerned about the constraints of ordinary infantry. The developments of technology and tactics in the interwar years were realized in the German blitzkrieg in World War II and beyond. Yet the account of armor on the battlefield is a tale of limitations and defeats as well as of potential and achievements. Tank Warfare examines the traditional narrative of armored warfare while at the same time challenging it, and Black suggests that tanks were no “silver bullet” on the battlefield. Instead, their success was based on their inclusion in the general mix of weaponry available to commanders and the context in which they were used. “An excellent overview of the subject.” —Alaric Searle, author of Armoured Warfare: A Military, Political and Global History