Artillery are military units which function as the modern equivalents of siege engines by attacking enemy formations from far-off, safer, often immobile positions.
Artillery causes enemy casualties, damages/destroys enemy equipment and disrupts enemy communications.[1]
Artillery in the form of cannons was a key element of Napoleonic warfare, used to "shell" (attack) enemy infantry line-of-battle formations. Artillery pieces were also a key element in the Civil War, leading to many bloody battles, such as Antietam. In WWII, Joseph Stalin called artillery the "god of war".[2]
References
- ↑ Effects of artillery
- ↑ Bellamy, Christopher (2004). "artillery". Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860696-3.