Customer Reviews

Artillery: An Illustrated History

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John Norris has conducted detailed research on his subject and traces the development of artillery through the ages up to modern times, from its earliest use in battle to the recent Gulf war. Artillery: A History isn't your usual picture book but a insightful and informative military history which examines how artillery plays an important part in conflicts.

John Norris writes a very informative book in an easy-to-read style. All aspects of Artillery - from technology to tactics - and discussed. The Book is divided into centuries. Within each century, chapters about specific wars or technological/strategic developments appear. The only complaints i have about this book is that the text may seem dry at times and some of the technological innovations are hard to visualize without illustrations (the picture section in the middle is almost useless for this purpose). Overall, however, Artillery: a History is a good source for general artillery knowledge.

Artillery is the killer of todays battlefield. Even in World War I, the great reputation of the machine gun was really undeserved as most of the killing was done by artillery.

In its earliest days, when artillery was just a tube closed at one end, artillery was the thing that ended the building of castles.

In the Iraq war, the allied forces fielded some 1,600 of the big guns, and had a large number on call if they should be needed later.

This book is, as the title says, a history. It's fairly general in nature, talking about the big changes that have occurred through history. For instance there's a fair amount about the famous French 75, the competitive Krupp 77mm is given less attention and the similar Japanese Type 38 barely mentioned. It's just not a big enough book to cover everything.

For a book covering the 600/800 year history of artillery, it presents the highlights often avoided in books on the artillery of only a short period like say the Americna Civil War. Besides it makes for very interesting reading.

Not a bad book, but it tries to cover too large a subject in too few pages, without benefit of diagrams and not very many photos. Really only recommended for history newbies.