THE WORLD'S GREAT ARTILLERY: FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY. by Halberstadt, Hans - 2002

Hoo, Kent: Grange, 2002. 176 pp, 12 1/4" H. Profusely illustrated with b&w and colour photographs, drawings, reproductions. "(B)egins with the earliest pieces of Western artillery that were little more than iron tubes firing stone shot. Over the next few centuries the guns became more mobile and more powerful, influencing the course of the battles in which they were involved. Muzzle loaders reached their apogee in the Napoleonic wars and the American Civil War during the nineteenth century. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, breech-loaded guns were the standard, and weapons of such large calibres were being constructed that they needed to be mounted on rail wagons to give them any form of mobility. Artillery played a significant role in shaping how that conflict was fought, and it was to play an equally signifi-cant role in World War II. Only now, in the twenty-first century, is the supremacy of artillery on the battlefield being challenged by air-dropped precision-guided weapons, but the arm is fighting back with sophisticated new munitions becoming available which will ensure that artillery has a part to play on the modern battlefield for the forseeable future." Chapter headings: Sighting Shots; The American Civil War; Storm of Steel, 1900-1935; Master of the Battlefield, 1936-1945; Cold War Killers; Glossary; Index. Book is fine. Dust jacket minor edge wear/wrinkling, minor rubbing.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Very Good+.