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ARTILLERY (the O. Fr. artiller, to eq...

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 685 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARTILLERY (the O. Fr. artiller, to equip with engines of See also:war, probably comes from See also:Late See also:Lat. articulum, dim. of ars, See also:art, cf. " See also:engine " from ingenium, or of artus, See also:joint)  , a See also:term originally applied to all engines for discharging missiles, and in this sense used in See also:English in the See also:early 17th See also:century . In a more restricted sense, See also:artillery has come to mean all firearms not carried and used by See also:hand, and also the personnel and organization by which the See also:power of such weapons is wielded . It is, however, not usual to class See also:machine guns (q.v.) as artillery . The See also:present See also:article deals with the development and contemporary See also:state of the artillery See also:arm in See also:land warfare, in respect of its organization, personnel and See also:special or " formal " employment . For the materiel—the guns, their carriages and their See also:ammunition—see See also:ORDNANCE and AMMUNITION . For See also:ballistics, see that heading, and for the See also:work of artillery in See also:combination with the other arms, see See also:TACTICS . Artillery, as distinct from ordnance, is usually classified in accordance with the functions it has to perform . The simplest See also:division is that into See also:mobile and immobile artillery, the former being concerned with the handling of all weapons so mounted as to be capable of more or less easy See also:movement from See also:place to place, the latter with that of weapons which are installed in fixed positions . Mobile artillery is subdivided, again chiefly in respect of its employment, into See also:horse and See also:field batteries, heavy field or position artillery, field howitzers, See also:mountain artillery and See also:siege trains, adapted to every See also:kind of terrain in which field troops may be employed, and work they may have to do . Immobile artillery is used in fixed positions of all kinds, and above all in permanent fortifications; it cannot, therefore, be classified as above, inasmuch as the raison d'etre, and consequently the armament of one fort or See also:battery may be totally distinct from that of another . " Fortress," " See also:Garrison " and " See also:Foot " artillery are the usual names for this See also:branch . The dividing See also:line, indeed, in the See also:case of the heavier weapons, varies with circumstances; guns of position may remain on their ground while elaborate-ARTILLERY 685 fortifications grow up around them, or the deficiencies of a field See also:army in artillery may be made See also:good from the materiel, more frequently still from the personnel, of the fortress artillery .

Thus it may happen that mobile artillery becomes immobile and See also:

vice versa . But under normal circumstances the principle of See also:classification indicated is maintained in all organized military forces .

End of Article: ARTILLERY (the O. Fr. artiller, to equip with engines of war, probably comes from Late Lat. articulum, dim. of ars, art, cf. " engine " from ingenium, or of artus, joint)
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