cannon Archives

An artist of a much later age attempted to depict classical artillery in the painting below. Greeks devised weaponry that launched bolts and stones, often with great accuracy.

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Types of Weapons Used by Ancient Greece

By Mike Markowitz

When we think “catapult,” we imagine the types of weapons used for hurling rocks, dead plague victims, or unlucky cows against a castle. Read more

This mortar battery was erected outside Confederate earthworks at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1862. McClellan slowed his advance to bring mortars up. The Southerners then retired toward Richmond.

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Civil War Artillery

By John D. Gresham

For much of its history, artillery has been a weapon of mass destruction and attrition, a force designed to cause casualties, destroy fortifications, and wear an enemy down with its noise, explosions, and shrapnel. Read more

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World War I Weapons: Germany’s Big Guns

By William Scheck

World War I’s stalemate on the Western Front ushered up varied solutions. The Allies developed tanks for traversing no man’s land to get at the enemy. Read more

In a rubble-strewn Norman street near St. Martin des Basaces, a British soldier is on alert at his PIAT gun, ready to engage enemy tanks.

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Ordnance: The British PIAT (Projector Infantry Anti-Tank) Gun

By Robert Barr Smith

It was surely as ungainly a weapon as was ever made, and one of the clumsiest. It was a 3-foot, 32-pound steel tube with a monopod to support it, a huge trigger on the underside, and a padded shoulder piece at one end. Read more

A panther tank and panzer grenadiers of the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking help to break the encirclement of the Russian town of Kowel in the strategically important area of the Pripet Marshes.

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Waffen SS General Felix Steiner’s WWII Legacy

By Pat McTaggart

“Where is Steiner?” Adolf Hitler demanded as his Thousand Year Reich crumbled around him in April 1945. “Is he attacking yet?” Read more

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The Gatling Gun: A Civil War Innovation

By A.B. Feuer

Richard Gatling was born in Hertford County, NC, on December 12, 1818. His father was a prosperous farmer and inventor, and the son was destined to inherit the “invention bug.” Read more

Wounded but triumphant, Grand Master Pierre D’Aubusson receives homage from his worshipful Knights Hospitallers after beating back the Turkish siege of Rhodes.

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Siege of Rhodes: The Will Of The Hospitallers

By William McPeak

Although the great Crusades were over by 1309 ad, one old crusading order continued to evolve, flourish, and make enemies—the Knights Hospitallers of St. Read more

An American infantryman training at Fort Belvoir prepares to hurl a pineapple grenade during World War II.

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The Modern Grenade: A Brief History

By William McPeak

When did humanity begin throwing explosive devices? What are the origins of the modern grenade, and how did explosives evolve? Read more

Molly Pitcher was said to have fought at the Battle of Monmouth, but she may have been a persona created from numerous sources.

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Female Revolutionary War Heroes: ‘Molly Pitcher’

One of the more obscure and contestable female Revolutionary War heroes, Molly Pitcher was said to have fought in the Battle of Monmouth. Read more

In just one year following Abraham Lincoln’s victory over Stephen Douglas in the election of 1860, America would be on the brink of a bloody Civil War.

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Abraham Lincoln and the Election that Shaped the Confederacy

by Roy Morris Jr.

The sudden wreck of the Whig Party in the 1850s led to the development of a new political party to contend with Stephen Douglas and the Democrats. Read more

By the late 15th century, knights’ suits of armor had reached their pinnacle. But the weapon that would make them obsolete turned out to be the cannon.

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How the Cannon Marked the End of the Knight’s Suit of Armor

By David Alan Johnson

By the latter part of the 15th century, armor worn by knights in the field had reached its pinnacle. Read more

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Innovative Soviet Fighter Ace

By Christopher J. Chlon

According to contemporary Soviet news sources, fighter Ace Alexander Pokryshkin was the most famous pilot in the Red Air Force during World War II. Read more

In addition to the Founding Fathers, there were numerous female Revolutionary War heroes who contributed substantially to the fight for independence, like Martha Washington.

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Female Revolutionary War Heroes: the Front Lines and at Home

by Mike Haskew Martha Custis Washington: General’s Wife and First Lady

Martha Custis Washington, wife of General George Washington, came to the winter quarters of her husband’s army each winter of the Revolutionary War. Read more

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Operation Aphrodite

By Mason B. Webb

When it came to advanced military technology in World War II, arguably no one was better at it than Nazi Germany, whose scientists Adolf Hitler keep busy trying to invent the ultimate “super weapon” capable of defeating his enemies. Read more

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Battle of Chickamauga: Death in the Deep Woods

By Cowan Brew

It was nearly 11 on the morning of September 20, 1863, and the woods around slow-moving Chickamauga Creek in northwest Georgia were ominously quiet. Read more

Robert Taylor’s painting Valor in the Pacific shows Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 499th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, headed home to bases in the Marianas after dropping their cargoes of death and destruction on Tokyo. Low on fuel, their escort of P-51 Mustang fighters begins to turn away toward bases of their own.

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Prelude to Iwo Jima: The Japanese Assault On B-29 Base On Marianas

By Michael P. Slater

From an altitude of 30,000 feet, the swift Japanese reconnaissance aircraft flew high over Saipan and Tinian, photographing the brisk and extensive engineering effort under way on the American airfields far below. Read more

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Sherman Tanks vs. Tiger Tanks: Which Was Best at the Bulge?

by Michael D. Hull

When American soldiers landed in France in June 1944 as part of the great Allied crusade to liberate Europe, they were well trained, fully equipped, and brimming with confidence. Read more

The British Universal Carrier—often incorrectly referred to as the "Bren Gun Carrier"—was a WWII vechile used by every Allied army in every theater.

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WWII Vehicles: The British Universal (or “Bren Gun”) Carrier

by Arnold Blumberg

The origins of the Universal Bren Gun Carrier can be traced to the Ford T-powered Carden-Loyd machines developed in Great Britain in the mid-1920s, specifically the Mark VI model of 1927. Read more

Despite its high production numbers, the Hawker Typhoon 1A and 1B were both plagued by a series of design and technical problems.

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The Hawker Typhoon 1A & 1B: Worst RAF Fighters in WWII?

by Arnold Blumberg

In 1934 the British War office accepted a new aircraft design eventually designated the Hawker Hurricane Mark 1. Read more

Shooting up a German airfield with their eight .50-caliber wing-mounted machine guns, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes of the 84th Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, Eighth Air Force roar past a flaming German fighter.

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P-47 Thunderbolts at the Battle of the Bulge

By Robert F. Dorr & Thomas D. Jones

The captured German pilot was cocky and boastful. He had just parachuted into the American airfield, now lit up by the fires of burning Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, a sprinkling of bright torches amid the gray January gloom and the dirty white snow. Read more

From Around the Network

Grant’s Army of the Tennesee overcame adversity on the roundabout road to Vicksburg.

Civil War Stories: Libby Prison’s ‘Lottery of Death’

Military Vehicles: German Motorcycles in WWII

Australia’s Venerable Albert Jacka