German Artillery in World War II, 1939-1945

Book excerpt: Never before in German military history did the German Artillery possess such variety and magnitude as in the World War II era. From North Cape to Tobruk, Biscay to Lapland, Den Helder to the Caucasus, there were more than 1000 light and about 340 heavy artillery units, as well as the light and heavy field howitzer units, assault gun units, brigades and batteries, observation units, railroad batteries, mountain artillery units, light gun units and launcher regiments. The German Artillery included 655,000 men in 1943, or 22 percent of all the soldiers who went into action. Thirty-nine German gun tipes and forty captured gun types from ten different European countries were utilized by these units. The German Artillery took on special significance in the spring of 1943 when the fighting strength of the exhausted infantry began to decrease and armored vehicles became less and less effective in their battle against overwhelming Soviet power. During this period, the Artillery again and again provided the backbone of the German resistance and defense. This volume of photographs presents a look into the operations, action and everyday life of the German artillery - a frequently over-looked aspect of Wehrmacht history.