Artillery

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Artillery (from French artillerie) refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. The term also describes ground-based troops with the primary function of manning such weapons.

Just send in your Chief an' surrender — it's worse if you fights or you runs:
You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from the guns! ~ Rudyard Kipling
In peace the cry is for mobility, in war for weight of shell. ~ Alan Brooke
Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your wives?
Our wives are our loaded cannons, that's what our wives are.
The artillery is a god of modern war. ~ Joseph Stalin
"This is no place to be," said Luke. "They'll be throwing the stuff over here in a minute." ~ Alvah Bessie
Suddenly the fresh booming of cannon was heard. A two-story red brick building half a block down the street began to twist and buckle. With a shivering roar, it toppled and collapsed. Bricks flew in every direction. A rebel shell had made a direct hit. A lieutenant sprinted down the middle of the street, one hand on his clanking sword to keep it from tripping him. As he ran, he muttered, "That crazy, dumb Hindman! Shelling his own town!" ~ Harold Keith
An' as their firin' dies away the 'usky whisper runs
From lips that 'aven't drunk all day: "The Guns! Thank Gawd, the Guns!" ~ Rudyard Kipling
Our artillery... the Germans feared it more than almost anything we had. ~ Ernie Pyle

Quotes[edit]

  • We looked at each other, and back across the river. There were explosions in the town itself now; the first Fascist shells were landing in the city and there was the smoke of fires. From directly over our heads, on the crest of the hill, there came swift, violent reply that deafened us and we dropped onto the ground. Our own artillery was answering. "Nice to know we got a couple pop-guns of our own," I said. "This is no place to be," said Luke. "They'll be throwing the stuff over here in a minute."
    • Alvah Bessie, Men in Battle: A Story of American in Spain (1939), p. 127
  • From somewhere the enemy artillery awoke and the shells came over- you could count them as they came. And then you couldn't count them; they fell in no regular order, one-two-three, but with a conscious knowledge of where we were- to left, to right, ahead, behind, crashing like enormous garbage cans heaved by gigantic men. The broken earth fell on us, the cracked rock spattered against the unbroken stone of the hillsides. The growing night was loud in our ears, and the men, ordered up the right slope of the ravine, were huddled in a long line against the hillside, crouching, sitting, lying flat. My rifle was smashed to pieces in my hand.
    • Alvah Bessie, Men in Battle: A Story of American in Spain (1939), p. 252-253
  • Ahead, muffled by distance, was the sound of artillery in the night- always more terrifying than it is by day, though less effective.
    • Alvah Bessie, Men in Battle: A Story of American in Spain (1939), p. 270-271
  • Suddenly the fresh booming of cannon was heard. A two-story red brick building half a block down the street began to twist and buckle. With a shivering roar, it toppled and collapsed. Bricks flew in every direction. A rebel shell had made a direct hit. A lieutenant sprinted down the middle of the street, one hand on his clanking sword to keep it from tripping him. As he ran, he muttered, "That crazy, dumb Hindman! Shelling his own town!"
    • Harold Keith, Rifles for Watie (1957), p. 152-153
  • Our artillery... The Germans feared it almost more than anything we had.
  • Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your wives?
    Our wives are our loaded cannons, that's what our wives are.
    • Russian:
      Солдатушки, бравы ребятушки, а кто ваши жёны?
      Наши жёны — пушки заряжёны, вот кто наши жёны.
    • Traditional Russian soldiers song. [1]
  • If one has two hundred guns per kilometer of the front, he does not ask about the enemy and does not report about him. Report how far, what objective your units have reached.
    • Russian: При двухстах орудиях на километр фронта о противнике не спрашивают и не докладывают. Вы доложите, куда, до какого рубежа дошли ваши части.
    • Attributed to Colonel General (later Marshal) Kirill Moskalenko, [2]
  • "The poorer the infantry, the more artillery it needs; the American infantry needs all it can get."
    • French General Koechlin-Schwartz, speaking to U.S. General George S. Patton on two occasions. "The Patton Papers, 1940-1945"; George Smith Patton, Martin Blumenson; Houghton Mifflin (1972); pp.520-521
  • And what is the modern war, it's an interesting question, what it requires? It requires massive artillery. In modern warfare, artillery is a god... Artillery, massive artillery decides the fate of the war.
    • Russian: А что такое современная война - интересный вопрос, чего она требует? Она требует массовой артиллерии. В современной войне артиллерия это бог... артиллерия решает судьбу войны, массовая артиллерия.
    • Josef Stalin (1940) [3]
  • The artillery is a god of modern war.
    • Russian: Артиллерия — бог современной войны.
    • Josef Stalin (1941) [4]
  • …If you really want to know, I've read War and Peace. Now there's a book for you. Read it right through — and enjoyed it. Why? Because it wasn't written by any old scribbler but by an artillery officer. Have you drawn a ten? Right, you're my partner…
    • Russian: — …если угодно знать, «Войну и мир» читал… Вот, действительно, книга. До самого конца прочитал — и с удовольствием. А почему? Потому что писал не обормот какой-нибудь, а артиллерийский офицер. У вас десятка? Вы со мной…
    • Mikhail Bulgakov. The White Guard
  • An' as their firin' dies away the 'usky whisper runs
    From lips that 'aven't drunk all day: "The Guns! Thank Gawd, the Guns!"
  • For you all love the screw-guns — the screw-guns they all love you!
    So when we call round with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do — hoo! hoo!
    Just send in your Chief an' surrender — it's worse if you fights or you runs:
    You can go where you please, you can skid up the trees, but you don't get away from the guns!
  • In peace the cry is for mobility, in war for weight of shell.
    • Lt Col Alan F. Brooke (later Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke), The Evolution of Artillery in the Great War (1925)
  • When, after a three-day silence, our only six-inch battery was delivered fifty shells, this was reported by telephone immediately to all the regiments, all companies, and all the men sighed with joy and relief.
    • Gen. Anton Denikin about Russian 4th Rifle Division action in the battle of Przemyśl, May 1915. Source: Головин H. H. Военные усилия России в Мировой войне. — Париж: Т-во объединённых издателей, 1939, т. 2, гл. 7

External links[edit]

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