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.