Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons built to launch munitions [bombs] far beyond the range and power of infantry [步兵] firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower.

[picture: Soldiers of the Royal Artillery firing 105mm light howitzers during an exercise]

A howitzer is generally a large ranged weapon that stands between an artillery gun (also known as a cannon outside the US) – which have smaller, higher-velocity shells fired at flatter trajectories – and a mortar – which fires at higher angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like other artillery equipment, are usually organized in groups called batteries [炮组]. Howitzer的词源是捷克语"weapon for throwing large rocks".

...1939年冬日军进占黄土岭...李二喜所在的炮兵连，实际上只有他一个人和一门迫击炮、四发炮弹...“名将之花”阿部规秀被炸死...*台好像播放过：首先炮打得很准，落在院子里；其次鬼子托大，坐在屋子里屋门不关，弹片击中腹部嗝屁。

Since the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, "artillery" has largely meant cannons, and in contemporary usage, usually refers to shell-firing guns, howitzers, mortars, and rocket artillery. 自从火药和大炮问世以来，“火炮”在很大程度上指的是大炮，在当代使用中，通常指的是发射炮弹的火炮、榴弹炮、迫击炮和火箭炮。

In common speech, the word "artillery" is often used to refer to individual devices, along with their accessories and fittings, although these assemblages are more properly called "equipment". However, there is no generally recognized generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth: the United States uses "artillery piece", but most English-speaking armies use "gun" and "mortar". The projectiles fired are typically either "shot" (if solid) or "shell" (if not solid). Historically, variants of solid shot including canister, chain shot and grapeshot were also used. "Shell" is a widely used generic term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions. 固体弹丸的变体包括霰弹筒、链弹和葡萄弹。“炮弹”是一个广泛使用的通用术语，指的是作为弹药组成部分的射弹。霰弹筒内装弹丸或催泪气体。A grapeshot is a type of shot that is not one solid element, but a mass of small metal balls or slugs [形状不规则的弹] packed tightly into a canvas bag.

By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines. In some armies, the artillery arm has operated field, coastal, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank artillery; in others these have been separate arms, and with some nations coastal has been a naval or marine responsibility.

In the 20th century, technology-based target acquisition devices (such as radar) and systems (such as sound ranging and flash spotting) emerged in order to acquire targets, primarily for artillery. These are usually operated by one or more of the artillery arms. The widespread adoption of indirect fire in the early 20th century introduced the need for specialist data for field artillery, notably survey and meteorological, and in some armies, provision of these are the responsibility of the artillery arm.

Artillery is inarguably the most lethal form of land-based armament currently employed, and has been since at least the early Industrial Revolution. The majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery. In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was "the God of War".

...赵章成观察后，继续使用“火炮赋予射向法”，先试射了一炮，结果没有打准。之后他简单调整后，第二炮就击中了目标，一击将敌人的火力点打掉。我军顺利过江之后，和敌人在滩头胶着。此时赵章成再发一炮，准确的打在敌反击部队中。敌人的反冲锋随之溃散，红一方面军借势突破了天险乌江... 只见他如同拜佛一样地瞄了一下，然后一手扶着炮管，一手装填炮弹。随着间隔极短的三声炮响，3发炮弹弹无虚发，准确摧毁对岸3个火力点！敌人从炮火密度判断，以为对面红军来了炮兵连，立刻斗志溃散，舍弃阵地扭头就跑。十八勇士顺利地占领阵地，攻向敌人侧翼。最终，泸定桥被我军拿下，红军胜利地完成了转移...

Early Chinese artillery had vase-like shapes. This includes the "long range awe inspiring" cannon [威远炮] dated from 1350 and found in the 14th century Ming Dynasty treatise Huolongjing [火龙经]. With the development of better metallurgy techniques, later cannons abandoned the vase shape of early Chinese artillery. This change can be seen in the bronze "thousand ball thunder cannon", an early example of field artillery. These small, crude weapons diffused into the Middle East and reached Europe in the 13th century, in a very limited manner.

六级/考研单词: artillery, militant, siege, mobile, cannon, flatter, equip, powder, contemporary, usage, rocket, seldom, accessory, unite, shot, component, parcel, canvas, marine, radar, data, revolve, combat, awe, inspire, dynasty, abandon, bronze, thunder, crude, diffuse