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Although air power and the panzers are more famous, the artillery was still the main killer on the battlefields of the Second World War. This book looks at the structure and scale of the Germany field artillery of the Second World War, along with a set of brief descriptions of the guns.
We start with a brief look at the organisation of German artillery in the infantry divisions and the army level artillery. This can only be an overview as there were so many variants of the divisional structure over the war. Next comes a look at the main guns. Again, the shere number of guns involved means that we get a brief look at each type, with the longest section going to the 10.5cm light field howitzer. Here we get a look at the weapon itself, how howitzer batteries were organised, and how they operated in combat. If you are looking for a detailed technical guide to artillery this isn’t it, but if you want an overview of what the Germans had available then it is a good resource.
The last ten pages look at the artillery in combat, split into three sections – blitzkrieg, Eastern Front and Western Front 1944-45. The main focus here is on number of guns and number of shells fired, comparing the German figures to their opponents. One surprise is that the Germans fired more artillery shells and a higher weight of explosives than the Red Army in 1942-44, only falling behind in 1945. The opposite was true on the Western Front, where superior Allied ammo production meant the Germans were almost always far behind their opponents.
This is an unusual approach to this topic. It would work well alongside the more detailed technical books to give an idea of how the guns were actually used in combat and how that compared to the artillery of their enemies.
Chapters
Artillery Organization
Artillery in Combat
Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 48
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2023