King of Battle: Artillery in World War I

Sanders Marble, Ph.D. (1998), King's College, University of London, has published three books and seven articles on artillery and its role in the Great War.

"The new book, King of Battle: Artillery in World War I, is an excellent international study of artillery during the war. Whether comparatively smaller cannons or mortars manned by infantrymen or huge railroad guns served by sailors, these pieces made themselves known on the battlefield, causing death and destruction and driving changes in fortifications and tactics. World War I artillery even “holds the dubious distinction of causing a new diagnosis, shellshock” (p. vii). While acknowledging that scholars have written about artillery since the war, editor Dr. Sanders Marble then states: “Overall, there are only a few books examining artillery in World War I on a comparative, international basis” (p. vii). Marble and his contributors seek to address the gap with this book."Major Peter L. Belmonte, Marine Corps History 3.1 (2017)."Bringing together some of the most renowned scholars from their respective national specializations, King of Battle provides a skillful and important study of World War I artillery. Alongside trenches and machine guns, artillery stands are at the core of the most evocative imagesof the conflict. As the most lethal category of weapons, artillery in many theaters literally dominated the war. In view of the importance of the topic, it perhaps seems surprising that more has not previously been done to encapsulate World War I artillery. The immensity of the topic helps explain the earlier absence. This work goes a long way toward filling a significant gap. [...] Each part of the book is excellent, and the workas a whole is even more impressive than the sum of its parts. [...] In sum, King of Battle packs a formidable punch—in keeping with its subject." Nicholas Sambaluk, Air University, in: H-War, H-Net Reviews, (2017).

• ContentsPreface viiList of Maps, Figures and Tables viiiList of Contributors xii1 Introduction 1Bruce Gudmundsson2 The British Artillery in World War I 35Sanders Marble3 The French Artillery in the First World War 62Bruce Gudmundsson4 German Artillery in the First World War 101David T. Zabecki5 Austria-Hungary in the First World War 126John R. Schindler6 Bulgarian Artillery in the First World War 157Dimitre Minchev7 Ottoman Army Artillery in the First World War 173Edward J. Erickson8 Italian Artillery during the First World War: Its Structural, Organic,Tactical and Material Evolution 196Filippo Cappellano9 Serbia’s Artillery during the First World War 221James Lyon10 Russian Artillery 255Andrey Pavlov11 United States Field Artillery in World War I 281Janice McKenney12 Artillery of the Army in India in World War I 299Kaushik Roy13 Romanian Artillery in the First World War 324Cornel and Ioan Scafeş14 Conclusion: Artillery as a Result of World War I 360Boyd DastrupIndex 377