A chum wrote to me, in miniscule part, "During WWII the United States had the 155 mm gun and 155 mm howitzer, and the 8 inch gun and the 8 inch howitzer. The 105 howitzer and the 155 howitzer were organic to the Infantry Division (DIVARTY). The 8 inchers, both howitzer and gun, and the 155 gun were generally assigned to the Corps Artillery."
Being of naval extraction, only a small part of this makes any sense to me. Before I write back (and expose my enormous ignorance), can anyone tell me the difference (to the artillery) between a "howitzer" and a "gun"?
I'm guessing that all howitzers are guns but not all guns are howitzers, but that is just off the seat of my britches.
Onelook's quick definition says that a howitzer is a muzzle loading, high-angle, short-range gun.
http://onelook.com/?w=howitzer&ls=a
When a long time ago I was in the Swiss army, I was in a 105mm howitzer battery. The things were high-angle alright, but not muzzle-loading. Guns have longer barrels.
Parboly your battery din't never read onelook's quick definitions.
Picture of a howitzer (German):
http://www.ypres-battlefield-tours.com/images/German 150mm howitzer.gifHowitzer
A weapon firing slower than a gun and faster, but at lower angle, than a mortar. http://www.hydrocut.com/Terms/H.html
1687, via Du. houwitser (1663), Ger. Haubitze from Czech houfnice "a catapult," introduced to Ger. during the Hussite wars, 14c.
Dutch houwitser, ultimately from Czech houfnice ballista
Late 17th century. Via Dutch houwitser from, ultimately, Czech haufnice “catapult,” from hauf “heap” (of stones), of prehistoric Germanic origin.
Dutch houwitser, from German Haubitze, alteration of obsolete haufnitz, catapult, from Old Czech haufnice, probably from haufný, catapult that slung many stones at once : hauf, group, heap (from probably from Middle High German hfe, from Old High German hfo) + -ny, n. suff.
HOWITZER (derived, through an earlier form howitz, and the Ger, Haubitz, from the Bohemian houf nice = catapult, from which come also, through the Ital. obiza or obice, the French forms obus = shell and obusier = howitzer),
from Haubitze "howitzer": < Dutch houwitser, houvietser < German Haubitze < Middle High German haufnitz < Czech houfnice "catapult, slingshot, sling".
So did someone look at a catapult and a heap of stones and say "How it's - er - oh, I see how it does it..."
