The M-Gerät designed in 1911 as an iteration of earlier super-heavy German siege guns intended to break modern fortresses in France and Belgium
and entered production in 1912. Test firing began in early 1914 and the
gun was estimated to be finished by October 1914. When the First World War broke out, the two M-Gerät guns, still prototypes, were sent to Liège, Belgium, and destroyed Forts Pontisse and Loncin.
German soldiers bestowed the gun with the nickname "Big Bertha", which
then spread through German newspapers to the Allies, who used it as a nickname for all super-heavy German artillery. The Paris Gun, a railway gun used to bomb Paris in 1918, has historically been confused for the M-Gerät.
Due to losses from faulty ammunition and Allied counter-battery artillery, a smaller-calibre (30.5 cm (12.0 in)) gun called the Beta-M-Gerät was built and fielded from 1916 until the end of the war. It had a longer and heavier barrel that was mated to the M-Gerät's carriage but was found to be less effective than the base gun.
Development and design
The
quick advancement of artillery technology beginning in the 1850s
provoked an arms race between artillery and military architecture. Rifled
artillery could now fire out of range of fortress guns, so military
architects began placing forts in rings around cities or in barriers to
block approaching armies. These forts were vulnerable to new artillery
shells, which could penetrate earth to destroy masonry underground. In
response, star forts evolved into polygonal forts, mostly underground and made of concrete with guns mounted in armoured, rotating casemates.
Combining rings and barriers, France created a vast fortified zone on
its border with Germany, while Belgium began construction of the National Redoubt in 1888.
The German Empire also fortified its borders, but Chief of the General StaffHelmuth von Moltke the Elder desired the ability to break through Franco-Belgian fortifications. Although German artillery had been effective during the Franco-Prussian War,
it had been allowed to stagnate. By the 1880s the barrel diameter of
the German Army's most powerful gun, the 21 cm (8.3 in) field howitzer,
was no longer adequate against fortresses. Moltke began requesting more
powerful guns that same decade. More powerful artillery became essential
to his successor, Alfred von Schlieffen, who planned quickly to defeat France by sweeping through Belgium (the Schlieffen Plan) in response to the 1893 Franco-Russian Alliance. To be able to reduce French and Belgian fortresses, the Artillerieprüfungskommission [de] (Artillery Test Commission, APK) formed a partnership with Krupp AG in 1893. The first result of this partnership was a 30.5 cm (12.0 in) mortar, accepted into service four years later as the schwerer Küstenmörser L/8, but known as the Beta-Gerät (Beta Apparatus) to disguise its purpose as a siege gun. Tests in the mid-1890s showed that the Beta-Gerät could not destroy French or Belgian forts, even with improved shells. Interest in a more powerful siege gun waned until the Russo-Japanese War, during which the Japanese Army used 28 cm howitzer L/10 (28 cm (11 in) coastal guns) brought from Japan to end the 11-month long Siege of Port Arthur.
In 1906, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger became Chief of the General Staff and instructed the APK to study and improve the performance of the Beta-Gerät.
The APK recommended a more powerful gun, with a diameter as large as 45
centimetres (18 in), but the German Army opted for a 30.5-centimetre howitzer, the Beta-Gerät 09 and a 42 cm (17 in) gun. Design and testing for the Gamma-Gerät began in 1906 and lasted until 1911. Although the Gamma-Gerät
had the destructive power the General Staff required and could outrange
French and Belgian fort guns, it could only be emplaced near rail lines
and took 24 hours to prepare. As early as 1907, Krupp began development of siege artillery transported by gun carriage.
Testing resulted in a 28 cm (11 in) howitzer transportable over road
and countryside but it was rejected by the APK, as was Krupp's
30.5-centimetre model. Finally, in late 1911, Krupp and the APK
developed a wheeled 42-centimetre howitzer, the 42-centimetre kurze Marinekanone 14 L/12 or Minenwerfer-Gerät (M-Gerät). The APK ordered its first M-Gerät
in July 1912 and another in February 1913. Tests of the gun's mobility
began in December 1913 and found that gas-powered tractors were best for
pulling it. Test firing, at one point observed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, began in February 1914, and Krupp estimated that the M-Gerät would be complete by October 1914.
Design and production
Assembled and emplaced, the M-Gerät weighed 42.6 t (47.0 tons),
was 4.5 m (15 ft) tall, 10 m (33 ft) long and 4.7 m (15 ft) wide, and
sat on a steel base with a spade for bracing. This spade could be lifted
out of the ground while the M-Gerät was emplaced to move it, giving it a traverse of 360°. The gun was breech loaded, using a horizontally-sliding breech block and had a 5.04 m (16.5 ft) barrel that could be elevated to a maximum of 65°. The M-Gerät had a muzzle velocity of about 815 m/s (2,670 ft/s) and a maximum range of 9,300 m (30,500 ft). Post-prototype M-Gerät guns had a crew platform in front of the blast shield, a detachable breech, and solid wheels. The APK ordered the first M-Gerät in July 1912, delivered the following December, and a second in February 1913. Another two guns were ordered before the First World War on 31 July 1914, and then two more on 28 August and another pair on 11 November. Krupp eventually built 12 M-Gerät howitzers.
The M-Gerät had to be assembled for firing and for transport was dismantled and towed in five wagons.
These wagons, weighing 16 to 20 t (16 to 20 long tons; 18 to 22 short
tons) each, were designed to hold a specific portion of the M-Gerät,
sans the gun carriage, which was its own wagon. These were towed by
purpose-built, gas-powered tractors as the wagons were too heavy to be
pulled by horses. To move across open country, the wagon wheels were
fitted with articulated feet called radgürteln to reduce their ground pressure. Under optimal circumstances, the tractors and wagons could move at 7 km/h (4.3 mph).
The 30.5-centimetre Beta-M-Gerät, called the schwere Kartaune L/30, was developed in late 1917 to replace M-Gerät guns that had been rendered inoperable by premature detonation of shells. To increase the range of the M-Gerät
and lower the likelihood of premature detonation, the APK selected a
9 m (30 ft)-long, 16 t (16 long tons; 18 short tons) naval barrel to be
mounted onto the chassis of the M-Gerät.
Two large spring cylinders were added to the front of the gun to
counterbalance the new barrel, which had to be carried in a new carriage
weighing 22 t (22 long tons; 24 short tons). Fully assembled, the Beta-M-Gerät
weighed 47 t (46 long tons; 52 short tons) and had a maximum range of
20,500 m (67,300 ft). The propellant used to achieve that range caused
three of the four Beta-M-Gerät
guns to explode, forcing their crews to limit its range by 4,000 m
(13,000 ft), defeating the purpose of the longer L/30 barrel. Only four
Beta-M-Gerät guns were modified from two M-Gerät guns and two Gamma-Gerät guns (a one- to two-month-long process per gun), but 12 L/30 barrels were built.
German siege artillery had three types of projectiles: armour-piercing,
high-explosive and intermediate. The armour-piercing shell was designed
to smash through concrete and metal armour but was largely ineffective
against reinforced concrete. High-explosive shells were fitted with two
charges and could be set to have no delay, a short delay or a long
delay. If set to "no delay" the shell burst on impact. If set to a
delayed detonation, it could penetrate up to 12 m (39 ft) of earth.
Finally, the intermediate, or "short shell", weighed half as much as the
high-explosive shell and was fitted with a ballistic tip for range and
accuracy. Shells for the 42-centimetre guns were generally 1.5 m (4 ft
11 in) long, weighed between 400 and 1,160 kg (880 and 2,560 lb), and
were propelled via primer loaded into the gun with a brass casing. Siege
artillery shells were produced in limited runs of varying quality.
Beginning in early 1916, German siege guns began to suffer internal
explosions due to faulty ammunition. Crews were required to disembark
from the gun before firing via a lanyard.
Service history
The kurze Marinekanone (KMK) batteries
that formed with M-Gerät guns were 3 (2 August 1914), 5 (June 1915), 6
(Summer 1915) and 7 (early 1916). Battery 3 was split in half in April
1916 to form 10 with a single M-Gerät each. The four Beta-M-Gerät guns
produced were fielded by KMK Batteries 8 and 10 after their M-Gerät gun
barrels had been destroyed by premature detonation. When the German Army was reorganised in late 1918, only Battery 5 had M-Gerät guns, and schwere Küstenmörser (SKM) Battery 3 was assigned the remaining two Beta-M-Gerät guns.
By June 1914, the prototype M-Gerät howitzers had returned to Essen for final adjustments and would have been formed into a reserve artillery battery on completion in October. On 2 August 1914, they were organised into KMK Battery 3 and sent to the Western Front with 240 men. On 4 August, the 1st Army arrived near Liège, Belgium, the first objective of the Schlieffen Plan and began the Battle of Liège. Although German troops entered the city on 7 August, its forts were firing upon the road to be taken by the 2nd Army and had to be reduced. Heavy artillery began their attack on 8 August. KMK Battery 3 was the first siege battery sent into battle to bombard the Fort de Pontisse on 12 August, which surrendered after two days. The battery next moved to the Fort de Liers but the fort surrendered as the battery was being emplaced. KMK Battery 3 relocated to the Fort de Loncin, where Gérard Leman directed the defence of Liège. Firing commenced on 15 August and lasted two hours, as the 25th shot fired struck a magazine and caused an explosion that destroyed the fort. The Germans carried Leman, unconscious, out of Loncin, and the last two forts, Hollogne and Flémalle, capitulated on 16 August.
With Liège captured, the 1st Army continued north-west while the 2nd and 3rd Armies marched to Namur,
whose forts were undermanned, unmaintained, and poorly stocked with
ammunition. The 2nd Army arrived on 20 August 1914 to open the Siege of Namur, but began their main attacks the following day with 400 pieces of artillery. KMK Battery 3 fired upon the Fort de Marchovelette, which was destroyed on 23 August by a magazine explosion. The battery shifted its fire to the Fort de Maizeret, already under bombardment by four Austro-Hungarian Skoda 30.5-centimetre guns, and compelled its surrender. With the eastern forts occupied, the Germans entered Namur and the remaining Belgian forces evacuated from the city.
A ruined cupola at one of the Maubeuge forts, 1914
Following the defeat of the Western Allies at Charleroi and at Mons, the British Expeditionary Force withdrew past Maubeuge,
their base of operations after arriving in France. On 24 August 1914,
the advancing Germans arrived at the fortresses of Maubeuge and began
the Siege of Maubeuge and its garrison of 45,000 soldiers. The next day, the VII Reserve Corps were left behind the main German armies to take the city. Bombardment of the forts began on 30 August, with KMK Battery 3 tasked with reducing Ouvrage Les Sarts
(Fort Sarts) but it mistakenly shelled an interval fortification in
front of Sarts. By 5 September, a hole in the fortress ring had been
opened by German 21-centimetre guns, but they had by now exhausted their
ammunition. To widen that gap, the siege guns then expended their
remaining ammunition against Forts Leveau, Héronfontaine, and
Cerfontaine on 7 September, and destroyed them in quick succession. The
two remaining French forts surrendered that same day and the Germans
occupied Maubeuge on 8 September.
With Maubeuge taken, German siege guns were available for an attack on Paris, but Germany's defeat at the Battle of the Marne blocked the advance of the 1st and 2nd Armies, and the guns were instead sent to Antwerp. King Albert I
had ordered a general retreat to Antwerp on 18 August, and his army
arrived in the city two days later. From Antwerp, Albert made attacks on
the German flank on 24–25 August and 9 September, prompting General Alexander von Kluck of the 1st Army to send the III Reserve Corps to seize Antwerp.
It arrived and partially surrounded Antwerp from the south-west on
September 27, and bombardment began the next day. KMK Battery 3 arrived
on 30 September and opened fire on the Fort de Lier [nl],
whose artillery narrowly missed the battery. The fort was abandoned by
its garrison on 2 October, allowing KMK Battery 3 to attack and destroy
the Fort de Kessel [nl] in a day. The battery then moved to attack the Fort de Broechem [nl], which was also destroyed within two days. From 7 to 9 October, the Belgian army fled from Antwerp and the city surrendered on 10 October.
Early in 1916, all 42-centimetre guns were assigned to the 5th Army, which amassed a total of 24 siege guns, the highest concentration of them during the war. The Battle of Verdun was opened on 21 February 1916 with an intense, nine-hour long artillery bombardment. The 42-centimetre guns had to suppress the artillery of Forts Vaux, Douaumont, Souville and Moulainville [fr]
but were unable to penetrate the concrete of the modern fortresses. On
the second day of the battle, both of KMK Battery 7's M-Gerät guns were
destroyed by premature detonations and KMK Batteries 5 and 6 both lost
an M-Gerät each to the same cause. Most of the siege guns at Verdun were
moved north in July to participate in the Battle of the Somme, and by September the only M-Gerät units left in Verdun were KMK Batteries 3 and 6.
In the final two years of the war, KMK batteries that suffered
losses of their big guns had them replaced with smaller–calibre weapons.
Those that remained primarily shelled field works and often had low
survivability due to malfunctions or Allied counter-battery artillery. KMK Battery 10 lost one M-Gerät to a premature detonation and the other to British warships near Ostend
in August 1917 and was rearmed with captured Russian 12 cm (4.7 in)
howitzers. It and KMK Battery 10 were given the four Beta-M-Geräts made
during the war in early 1918. For the German spring offensive, KMK Battery 8 was assigned to the 6th Army, Battery 6 to the 2nd Army, and Battery 3 to the 18th Army.
The effect of the siege guns was negligible. For Germany's final
offensive in July 1918, KMK Batteries 5 and 6 were reassigned to the 7th Army at the Marne, while Batteries 3, 8 and 10 went to the 1st Army at Reims. The batteries again had little to no effect, and Battery 10 became the last German siege battery to fire on a fort, the Fort de la Pompelle. In November 1918, KMK Battery 5 surrendered its guns, the remaining two M-Gerät howitzers, to the American Expeditionary Force.
Eastern Front
Kaunas's Fort II in ruins, 2011
On 2 May 1915, August von Mackensen launched the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. By the end of the month, his forces neared Przemyśl, which had been captured by the Russians from Austria-Hungary on 22 March 1915.
KMK Battery 6 took part in the bombardment of forts X, Xa, XI and XIa,
opened on 30 March. Two days later, the Germans took and held forts X,
Xa and XI against counter-attack, compelling the Russians to abandon
Przemyśl. German troops entered the city on 3 June, then took the
remaining forts two days later. From 8 August, KMK Battery 6 supported
the XXXX Reserve Corps in its attack on Kaunas Fortress
by bombarding Kaunas's three westernmost forts. Although the German
siege artillery's shelling of Kaunas was slow, the fortifications were
outdated and were easily destroyed. The city fell on 18 August.
To the south, KMK Batteries 3 and 5 participated in the siege of Novogeorgievsk,
which the Germans had surrounded on 10 August. On 13 August, KMK
Batteries 3 and 5 attacked with the siege guns from the north, shelling
forts XIV, XV and XVI. On 16 August, German infantry stormed forts XV
and XVI as the artillery bombarded them. A 42-centimetre shell struck
German troops attacking Fort XV, resulting in heavy casualties but the
Germans took the forts. The Russians abandoned the outer ring on 18
August, allowing the Germans to open a hole in the inner ring and
capture Novogeorgievsk the next day. The Russians abandoned fortresses
wholesale during the Great Retreat. At Grodno,
KMK Batteries 3, 5, and 6 were not even fully emplaced when the
fortress was evacuated on 3 September. The last deployment of M-Gerät
guns on the Eastern Front was in October 1915, when KMK Battery 6 was
attached to the German 11th Army as it invaded Serbia.
Replicas and legacy
The nickname "Big Bertha" appeared early in the war, when German soldiers named the guns Dicke Berta at the Battle of Liège, a reference to Bertha Krupp,
who had inherited the Krupp works from her father. The name spread to
German newspapers and then to Allied troops as "Big Bertha" and became
slang for all heavy German artillery, but especially the 42-centimetre
guns. The name has since entered the public consciousness, for example being applied as a moniker to a line of Callawaygolf clubs and a satirical French-language magazine and a bond-buying policy by Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank.
Two M-Gerät guns were surrendered to the US Army at Spincourt in November 1918. One was taken to the United States, evaluated and then put on display at the Aberdeen Proving Ground,
while the other was left unassembled in its transport configuration.
Both were scrapped in 1943 and the early 1950s. World War I veteran Emil
Cherubin built a replica of an M-Gerät, which toured Germany and
appeared on a few postage stamps. The Paris Gun, a railway gun developed during the war and used to bomb Paris in 1918, has historically been confused with the M-Gerät since World War I.
The German Paris Gun, also known as the Kaiser Wilhelm Gun, was the largest gun of World War I. In 1918 the Paris Gun shelled Paris from 120 km (75 mi) away.
Scale model of a Paris Gun on its fixed mounting, Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung Koblenz
The Paris Gun (German: Paris-Geschütz / Pariser Kanone) was the name given to a type of German long-range siege gun, several of which were used to bombard Paris during World War I.
They were in service from March to August 1918. When the guns were
first employed, Parisians believed they had been bombed by a
high-altitude Zeppelin,
as the sound of neither an airplane nor a gun could be heard. They were
the largest pieces of artillery used during the war by barrel length,
and qualify under the (later) formal definition of large-calibre artillery.
Also called the "Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz" ("Kaiser Wilhelm Gun"), they were often confused with Big Bertha, the German howitzer used against Belgian forts in the Battle of Liège in 1914; indeed, the French called them by this name as well. They were also confused with the smaller "Langer Max" (Long Max) cannon, from which they were derived. Although the famous Krupp-family artillery makers produced all these guns, the resemblance ended there.
As military weapons, the Paris Guns were not a great success: the
payload was small, the barrel required frequent replacement, and the
guns' accuracy was good enough for only city-sized targets. The German
objective was to build a psychological weapon to attack the morale of the Parisians, not to destroy the city itself.
Description
A Paris gun turntable mounting, as captured by United States forces near Château-Thierry, 1918 postcard
Due to the weapon's apparent total destruction by the Germans in the
face of the final Entente offensives, its capabilities are not known
with full certainty. Figures stated for the weapon's size, range, and
performance varied widely depending on the source—not even the number of
shells fired is certain. In the 1980s a long note on the gun was
discovered and published. This was written by Dr. Fritz Rausenberger
(in German), the Krupp engineer in charge of the gun's development,
shortly before his death in 1926. Thanks to this, the details of the
gun's design and capabilities were considerably clarified.
The gun was capable of firing a 106-kilogram (234 lb) shell to a range of 130 kilometres (81 mi) and a maximum altitude of 42.3 km (26.3 mi)—the greatest height reached by a human-made projectile until the first successfulV-2 flight test in October 1942. At the start of its 182-second flight, each shell from the Paris Gun reached a speed of 1,640 m/s (5,904 km/h; 5,381 ft/s; 3,669 mph).
The distance was so far that the Coriolis effect—the
rotation of the Earth—was substantial enough to affect trajectory
calculations. The gun was fired at an azimuth of 232 degrees (southwest)
from Crépy-en-Laon, which was at a latitude of 49.5 degrees north.
Seven barrels were constructed. They used worn-out 38 cm SK L/45 "Max"
17,130 millimeter gun barrels that were fitted with an internal tube
that reduced the caliber from 380 mm (15 in) to 210 mm (8 in). The tube
was 31 metres (102 ft) long and projected 13.9 m (46 ft) out of the end
of the gun, so an extension was bolted to the old gun-muzzle to cover
and reinforce the lining tube. A further, 6-meter–long smooth-bore
extension was attached to the end of this, giving a total barrel length
of 37 m (121 ft). This smooth section was intended to improve accuracy and reduce the dispersion of the shells, as it reduced the slight yaw a shell might have immediately after leaving the gun barrel produced by the gun's rifling.
The barrel was braced to counteract barrel drop due to its length and
weight, and vibrations while firing; it was mounted on a special
rail-transportable carriage and fired from a prepared, concrete
emplacement with a turntable. The original breech of the old 38 cm gun
did not require modification or reinforcement.
The Paris Gun prepared for rail transport.
Since it was based on a naval weapon, the gun was manned by a crew of 80 Imperial Navy sailors under the command of Vice-Admiral Maximilian Rogge, chief of the Ordnance branch of the Admiralty.
It was surrounded by several batteries of standard army artillery to
create a "noise-screen" chorus around the big gun so that it could not
be located by French and British spotters.
The projectile flew significantly higher than projectiles from previous guns. Writer and journalist Adam Hochschild
put it this way: "It took about three minutes for each giant shell to
cover the distance to the city, climbing to an altitude of 25 miles
[40 km] at the top of its trajectory. This was by far the highest point
ever reached by a man-made object, so high that gunners, in calculating
where the shells would land, had to take into account the rotation of
the Earth. For the first time in warfare, deadly projectiles rained down
on civilians from the stratosphere". This reduced drag from air resistance, allowing the shell to achieve a range of over 130 kilometres (81 mi).
The unfinished V-3 cannon
would have been able to fire larger projectiles to a longer range, and
with a substantially higher rate of fire. The unfinished Iraqi super gun would also have been substantially bigger.
Projectiles
Diagram of a Paris gun shell published in 1921The damage caused by a shell landing on the Père Lachaise Cemetery on the 25 March 1918
The Paris Gun shells weighed 106 kg (234 lb). The shells initially used had a diameter of 216 mm (8.5 in) and a length of 960 mm (38 in). The main body of the shell was composed of thick steel, containing 7 kg (15 lb) of TNT.
The small amount of explosive – around 6.6% of the weight of the
shell – meant that the effect of its shellburst was small for the
shell's size.
The thickness of the shell casing, to withstand the forces of firing,
meant that shells would explode into a comparatively small number of
large fragments, limiting their destructive effect. A crater produced by a shell falling in the Tuileries Garden was described by an eyewitness as being 10 to 12 ft (3.0 to 3.7 m) across and 4 ft (1.2 m) deep.
The shells were propelled at such a high velocity that each
successive shot wore away a considerable amount of steel from the rifled
bore. Each shell was sequentially numbered according to its increasing
diameter, and had to be fired in numeric order, lest the projectile
lodge in the bore and the gun explode. Also, when the shell was rammed
into the gun, the chamber was precisely measured to determine the
difference in its length: a few inches off would cause a great variance
in the velocity, and with it, the range. Then, with the variance
determined, the additional quantity of propellant was calculated, and
its measure taken from a special car and added to the regular charge.
After 65 rounds had been fired, each of progressively larger caliber to
allow for wear, the barrel was sent back to Krupp and rebored with a new
set of shells.
The shell's explosive was contained in two compartments,
separated by a wall. This strengthened the shell and supported the
explosive charge under the acceleration of firing. One of the shell's
two fuzes was mounted in the wall, with the other in the base of the
shell. The fuzes proved very reliable as every single one of the 303
shells that landed in and around Paris successfully detonated.
The shell's nose was fitted with a streamlined, lightweight, ballistic cap and the side had grooves that engaged with the rifling of the gun barrel, spinning the shell as it was fired so its flight was stable. Two copper driving bands provided a gas-tight seal against the gun barrel during firing.
Use in World War I
Map
of central districts of Paris, showing where shells fired by the Paris
Gun landed, June-August 1918, and a line indicating the direction of the
German guns. (Some shells landed outside this area.) Based on Miller
(1921), pg. 735The damage to St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church (1918)
The Paris gun was used to shell Paris at a range of 120 km (75 mi). The gun was fired from a wooded hill (Le mont de Joie) near Crépy, and the first shell landed at 7:18 a.m. on 23 March 1918 on the Quai de la Seine, the explosion being heard across the city. Shells continued to land at 15-minute intervals, with 21 counted on the first day. On the first day, fifteen people were killed and thirty-six wounded.
The effect on morale in Paris was immediate: by 27 March, queues of
thousands had started at the Gare d'Orsay and, at the Gare Montparnasse,
ticket sales out of the capital were suspended due to demand.
The initial assumption was these were bombs dropped from an airplane or Zeppelin flying too high to be seen or heard.
Within a few hours, sufficient casing fragments had been collected to
show that the explosions were the result of shells, not bombs. By the
end of the day, military authorities were aware the shells were being
fired from behind German lines by a new long-range gun, although there
was initial press speculation on the origin of the shells. This included
the theory they were being fired by German agents close by Paris, or
even within the city itself, so abandoned quarries close to the city
were searched for a hidden gun.
Three emplacements for the gun were located within days by the French reconnaissance pilot Didier Daurat,
the path of the shells which landed in Paris having revealed the
direction from which they were being fired. The closest emplacement was
engaged by a 34 cm railway gun while the other two sites were bombed by aircraft, although this failed to interrupt the German bombardment.
Between 320 and 367 shells were fired, at a maximum rate of
around 20 per day. The shells killed 250 people and wounded 620, and
caused considerable damage to property. The worst incident was on 29
March 1918, when a shell hit the roof of the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church,
collapsing the roof onto the congregation then hearing the Good Friday
service. A total of 91 people were killed and 68 were wounded. There
was no firing between 25 and 29 March, when the first barrel was being
replaced; an unconfirmed intelligence report claimed that it had
exploded. Barrels were probably changed again between 7-11 April and
again between 21-24 April. The diameter of the later shells increased
from 21 to 24 cm, indicating that the used barrels had been re-bored.
A further emplacement, later identified as specifically designed
for the Paris Gun, was found by advancing US troops at the beginning of
August, on the north side of the wooded hill at Coucy-le-Château-Auffrique, some 86 kilometres (53 mi) from Paris.
The gun was taken back to Germany in August 1918 as Allied
advances threatened its security. No guns were ever captured by the
Allies. It is believed that near the end of the war they were completely
destroyed by the Germans. One spare mounting was captured by American
troops in Bruyères-sur-Fère, near Château-Thierry, but the gun was never found; the construction plans seem to have been destroyed as well.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the Germans were required to turn over a complete Paris Gun to the Allies, but they never complied with this.
In the 1930s, the German Army became interested in rockets for
long-range artillery as a replacement for the Paris Gun—which was
specifically banned under the Versailles Treaty. This work eventually led to the V-2 rocket that was used in World War II.
Despite the ban, Krupp continued theoretical work on long-range
guns. They started experimental work after the Nazi government began
funding the project upon coming to power in 1933. This research led to
the 21 cm K 12 (E), a refinement of the Paris Gun design concept.
Although it was broadly similar in size and range to its predecessor,
Krupp's engineers had significantly reduced the problem of barrel wear.
They also improved mobility over the fixed Paris Gun by making the K 12 a
railway gun.
The first K 12 was delivered to the German Army in 1939 and a second in 1940. During World War II, they were deployed in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France; they were used to shell Kent in Southern England between late 1940 and early 1941. One gun was captured by Allied forces in the Netherlands in 1945.
Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of 1044 AD.
Gunpowder is the first explosive to have been developed. Popularly listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China, it was invented during the late Tang dynasty (9th century) while the earliest recorded chemical formula for gunpowder dates to the Song dynasty (11th century). Knowledge of gunpowder spread rapidly throughout Asia and Europe, possibly as a result of the Mongol conquests during the 13th century, with written formulas for it appearing in the Middle East between 1240 and 1280 in a treatise by Hasan al-Rammah, and in Europe by 1267 in the Opus Majus by Roger Bacon. It was employed in warfare to some effect from at least the 10th century in weapons such as fire arrows, bombs, and the fire lance
before the appearance of the gun in the 13th century. While the fire
lance was eventually supplanted by the gun, other gunpowder weapons such
as rockets and fire arrows continued to see use in China, Korea, India,
and this eventually led to its use in the Middle East, Europe, and
Africa. Bombs too never ceased to develop and continued to progress into
the modern day as grenades, mines, and other explosive implements. Gunpowder has also been used for non-military purposes such as fireworks for entertainment, or in explosives for mining and tunneling.
The use of gunpowder in warfare during the course of the 19th century diminished due to the invention of smokeless powder. Gunpowder is often referred to today as "black powder" to distinguish it from the propellant used in contemporary firearms.
Chinese beginnings
A fire arrow using a bag of gunpowder as incendiary. As depicted in the Huolongjing (c. 1390).Depiction of fire arrows known as "divine engine arrows" (shen ji jian 神機箭) from the Wubei Zhi (1621).The 'divine flying fire crow' (shen huo fei ya), an aerodynamic winged rocket bomb from the Huolongjing
Gunpowder was invented in China sometime during the first millennium AD. The earliest possible reference to gunpowder appeared in 142 AD during the Eastern Han dynasty when the alchemistWei Boyang, also known as the "father of alchemy", wrote about a substance with gunpowder-like properties. He described a mixture of three powders that would "fly and dance" violently in his Cantong qi, otherwise known as the Book of the Kinship of Three, a Taoist text on the subject of alchemy. At this time, saltpeter was produced in Hanzhong, but would shift to Gansu and Sichuan later on. Wei Boyang is considered to be a semi-legendary figure meant to represent a "collective unity", and the Cantong qi was probably written in stages from the Han dynasty to 450 AD.
While it was almost certainly not their intention to create a
weapon of war, Taoist alchemists continued to play a major role in
gunpowder development due to their experiments with sulfur and saltpeter involved in searching for eternal life and ways to transmute one material into another.
Historian Peter Lorge notes that despite the early association of
gunpowder with Taoism, this may be a quirk of historiography and a
result of the better preservation of texts associated with Taoism,
rather than being a subject limited to only Taoists. The Taoist quest for the elixir of life attracted many powerful patrons, one of whom was Emperor Wu of Han. One of the resulting alchemical experiments involved heating 10% sulfur and 75% saltpeter to transform them.
The next reference to gunpowder occurred in the year 300 during the Jin dynasty (266–420). A Taoist philosopher by the name of Ge Hong wrote down the ingredients of gunpowder in his surviving works, collectively known as the Baopuzi ("The Master Who Embraces Simplicity"). The "Inner Chapters" (neipian) on Taoism contains records of his experiments to create gold with heated saltpeter, pine resin, and charcoal among other carbon materials, resulting in a purple powder and arsenic vapours.
In 492, Taoist alchemists noted that saltpeter, one of the most
important ingredients in gunpowder, burns with a purple flame, allowing
for practical efforts at purifying the substance.
During the Tang dynasty, alchemists used saltpeter in processing the
"four yellow drugs" (sulfur, realgar, orpiment, arsenic trisulfide).
The first confirmed reference to what can be considered gunpowder
in China occurred more than three hundred years later during the Tang
dynasty, first in a formula contained in the Taishang Shengzu Jindan Mijue (太上聖祖金丹秘訣) in 808, and then about 50 years later in a Taoist text known as the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe (真元妙道要略).
The first formula was a combination of six parts sulfur to six parts
saltpeter to one part birthwort herb. The Taoist text warned against an
assortment of dangerous formulas, one of which corresponds with
gunpowder: "Some have heated together sulfur, realgar
(arsenic disulfide),
and saltpeter with honey; smoke [and flames] result, so that their hands
and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house burned down."
Alchemists called this discovery fire medicine ("huoyao" 火藥), and the
term has continued to refer to gunpowder in China into the present day, a
reminder of its heritage as a side result in the search for longevity
increasing drugs. A book published in 1185 called Gui Dong (The Control of Spirits) also contains a story about a Tang dynasty alchemist whose furnace exploded, but it is not known if this was caused by gunpowder.
The earliest surviving chemical formula of gunpowder dates to 1044 in the form of the military manual Wujing Zongyao, also known in English as the Complete Essentials for the Military Classics, which contains a collection of entries on Chinese weaponry. However the 1044 edition has since been lost and the only currently extant copy is dated to 1510 during the Ming dynasty. The Wujing Zongyao
served as a repository of antiquated or fanciful weaponry, and this
applied to gunpowder as well, suggesting that it had already been
weaponized long before the invention of what would today be considered
conventional firearms. These types of gunpowder weapons styles an
assortment of odd names such as "flying incendiary club for subjugating
demons", "caltrop fire ball", "ten-thousand fire flying sand magic
bomb", "big bees nest", "burning heaven fierce fire unstoppable bomb",
"fire bricks" which released "flying swallows", "flying rats", "fire
birds", and "fire oxen". Eventually they gave way and coalesced into a
smaller number of dominant weapon types, notably gunpowder arrows,
bombs, and guns. This was most likely because some weapons were deemed
too onerous or ineffective to deploy.
The early gunpowder formula contained too little saltpeter (about
50%) to be explosive, but the mixture was highly flammable, and
contemporary weapons reflected this in their deployment as mainly shock
and incendiary weapons. One of the first, if not the first of these
weapons was the fire arrow. The first possible reference to the use of fire arrows was by the Southern Wu in 904 during the siege of Yuzhang. An officer under Yang Xingmi
by the name of Zheng Fan (鄭璠) ordered his troops to "shoot off a
machine to let fire and burn the Longsha Gate", after which he and his
troops dashed over the fire into the city and captured it, and he was
promoted to Prime Minister Inspectorate for his efforts and the burns
his body endured.
A later account of this event corroborated with the report and
explained that "by let fire (飛火) is meant things like firebombs and fire
arrows."
Arrows carrying gunpowder were possibly the most applicable form of
gunpowder weaponry at the time. Early gunpowder may have only produced
an effective flame when exposed to oxygen, thus the rush of air around
the arrow in flight would have provided a suitably ample supply of
reactants for the reaction.
Rockets
The
first fire arrows were arrows strapped with gunpowder incendiaries but
they eventually became gunpowder propelled projectiles (rockets). It's not certain when this happened. According to the History of Song,
in 969 two Song generals, Yue Yifang and Feng Jisheng (馮繼升), invented a
variant fire arrow which used gunpowder tubes as propellants.
These fire arrows were shown to the emperor in 970 when the head of a
weapons manufacturing bureau sent Feng Jisheng to demonstrate the
gunpowder arrow design, for which he was heavily rewarded. However Joseph Needham argues that rockets could not have existed before the 12th century, since the gunpowder formulas listed in the Wujing Zongyao are not suitable as rocket propellant.
According to Stephen G. Haw, there is only slight evidence that rockets
existed prior to 1200 and it is more likely they were not produced or
used for warfare until the latter half of the 13th century.
Rockets are recorded to have been used by the Song navy in a military
exercise dated to 1245. Internal-combustion rocket propulsion is
mentioned in a reference to 1264, recording that the 'ground-rat,' a
type of firework, had frightened the Empress-Mother Gongsheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the Emperor Lizong.
In 975, the state of Wuyue
sent to the Song dynasty a unit of soldiers skilled in the handling of
fire arrows and in the same year, the Song used fire arrows to destroy
the fleet of Southern Tang. In 994, the Liao dynasty attacked the Song and laid siege to Zitong with 100,000 troops. They were repelled with the aid of fire arrows.
In 1000 a soldier by the name of Tang Fu (唐福) also demonstrated his own
designs of gunpowder arrows, gunpowder pots (a proto-bomb which spews
fire), and gunpowder caltrops, for which he was richly rewarded as well.
The imperial court took great interest in the progress of
gunpowder developments and actively encouraged as well as disseminated
military technology. For example, in 1002 a local militia man named Shi
Pu (石普) showed his own versions of fireballs and gunpowder arrows to
imperial officials. They were so astounded that the emperor and court
decreed that a team would be assembled to print the plans and
instructions for the new designs to promulgate throughout the realm.
The Song court's policy of rewarding military innovators was reported
to have "brought about a great number of cases of people presenting
technology and techniques" (器械法式) according to the official History of Song.
Production of gunpowder and fire arrows heavily increased in the 11th
century as the court centralized the production process, constructing
large gunpowder production facilities, hiring artisans, carpenters, and
tanners for the military production complex in the capital of Kaifeng.
One surviving source circa 1023 lists all the artisans working in
Kaifeng while another notes that in 1083 the imperial court sent 100,000
gunpowder arrows to one garrison and 250,000 to another.
Evidence of gunpowder in the Liao dynasty and Western Xia
is much sparser than in Song, but some evidence such as the Song decree
of 1073 that all subjects were henceforth forbidden from trading sulfur
and saltpeter across the Liao border, suggests that the Liao were aware
of gunpowder developments to the south and coveted gunpowder
ingredients of their own.
An illustration of fire arrow launchers as depicted in the Wubei Zhi (1621). The launcher is constructed using basketry.
A "charging leopard pack" arrow rocket launcher as depicted in the Wubei Zhi.
A "nest of bees" or "wasp nest" (yi wo feng 一窩蜂) arrow rocket launcher as depicted in the Wubei Zhi. So called because of its hexagonal honeycomb shape.
A "long serpent enemy breaking" fire arrow launcher as depicted in the Wubei Zhi. It carries 32 medium small poisoned rockets and comes with a sling to carry on the back.
The 'convocation of eagles chasing hare' rocket launcher from the Wubei Zhi.
A double-ended rocket pod that carries 30 small poisoned rockets on
each end for a total of 60 rockets. It carries a sling for transport.
The 'divine fire arrow screen' from the Huolongjing.
A stationary arrow launcher that carries one hundred fire arrows. It is
activated by a trap-like mechanism, possibly of wheellock design.
Explosives
An illustration of a thunderclap bomb as depicted in the 1044 text Wujing Zongyao. The top item is a through awl and the bottom one is a hook awl, used to ignite the projectile before it was hurled.A later fire lance
shooting a blast of flame with lead pellets as co-viative projectiles.
The 'phalanx-charging fire-gourd' (chong zhen huo hu-lu 衝陣火葫蘆) forgoes
the spearhead and relies solely on the force of gunpowder and
projectiles. As depicted in the Huolongjing, a 14th-century military treatise.
Gunpowder bombs had been mentioned since the 11th century. In 1000
AD, a soldier by the name of Tang Fu (唐福) demonstrated a design of
gunpowder pots (a proto-bomb which spews fire) and gunpowder caltrops,
for which he was richly rewarded.
In the same year, Xu Dong wrote that trebuchets used bombs that were
like "flying fire", suggesting that they were incendiaries. In the military text Wujing Zongyao
of 1044, bombs such as the "ten-thousand fire flying sand magic bomb",
"burning heaven fierce fire unstoppable bomb", and "thunderclap bomb" (pilipao) were mentioned. However detailed accounts of their use did not appear until the 12th century.
The Jurchen people of Manchuria united under Wanyan Aguda and established the Jin dynasty
in 1115. Allying with the Song, they rose rapidly to the forefront of
East Asian powers and defeated the Liao dynasty in a shockingly short
span of time, destroying the 150-year balance of power between the Song,
Liao, and Western Xia. Remnants of the Liao fled to the west and became
known as the Qara Khitai,
or Western Liao to the Chinese. In the east, the fragile Song-Jin
alliance dissolved once the Jin saw how badly the Song army had
performed against Liao forces. Realizing the weakness of Song, the Jin
grew tired of waiting and captured all five of the Liao capitals
themselves. They proceeded to make war on Song, initiating the Jin-Song Wars.
For the first time, two major powers would have access to equally formidable gunpowder weapons.
Initially the Jin expected their campaign in the south to proceed
smoothly given how poorly the Song had fared against the Liao. However
they were met with stout resistance upon besieging Kaifeng in 1126 and
faced the usual array of gunpowder arrows and fire bombs, but also a
weapon called the "thunderclap bomb" (霹靂炮), which one witness wrote, "At
night the thunderclap bombs were used, hitting the lines of the enemy
well, and throwing them into great confusion. Many fled, screaming in
fright." The thunderclap bomb was previously mentioned in the Wujing Zongyao, but this was the first recorded instance of its use. Its description in the text reads thus:
The thunderclap bomb contains a
length of two or three internodes of dry bamboo with a diameter of 1.5
in. There must be no cracks, and the septa are to be retained to avoid
any leakage. Thirty pieces of thin broken porcelain the size of iron
coins are mixed with 3 or 4 lb of gunpowder, and packed around the
bamboo tube. The tube is wrapped within the ball, but with about an inch
or so protruding at each end. A (gun)powder mixture is then applied all
over the outer surface of the ball.
Jin troops withdrew with a ransom of Song silk and treasure but
returned several months later with their own gunpowder bombs
manufactured by captured Song artisans.
According to historian Wang Zhaochun, the account of this battle
provided the "earliest truly detailed descriptions of the use of
gunpowder weapons in warfare." Records show that the Jin used gunpowder arrows and trebuchets
to hurl gunpowder bombs while the Song responded with gunpowder arrows,
fire bombs, thunderclap bombs, and a new addition called the "molten
metal bomb" (金汁炮).
As the Jin account describes, when they attacked the city's Xuanhua
Gate, their "fire bombs fell like rain, and their arrows were so
numerous as to be uncountable."
The Jin captured Kaifeng despite the appearance of the molten metal
bomb and secured another 20,000 fire arrows for their arsenal.
The molten metal bomb appeared again in 1129 when Song general Li
Yanxian (李彥仙) clashed with Jin forces while defending a strategic pass.
The Jin assault lasted day and night without respite, using siege
carts, fire carts, and sky bridges, but each assault was met with Song
soldiers who "resisted at each occasion, and also used molten metal
bombs. Wherever the gunpowder touched, everything would disintegrate
without a trace."
The Song relocated their capital to Hangzhou and the Jin followed. The fighting that ensued would see the first proto-gun, the fire lance, in action – with earliest confirmed employment by Song dynasty forces against the Jin in 1132 during the siege of De'an (modern Anlu, Hubei), Most Chinese scholars reject the appearance of the fire lance prior to the Jin-Song wars, but its first appearance in art with a silk banner painting from Dunhuang dates to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in the mid-10th century.
The siege of De'an marks an important transition and landmark in
the history of gunpowder weapons as the fire medicine of the fire lances
were described using a new word: "fire bomb medicine" (火炮藥), rather
than simply "fire medicine." This could imply the use of a new more
potent formula, or simply an acknowledgement of the specialized military
application of gunpowder. Peter Lorge suggests that this "bomb powder" may have been corned, making it distinct from normal gunpowder.
Evidence of gunpowder firecrackers also points to their appearance at
roughly around the same time fire medicine was making its transition in
the literary imagination.
Fire lances continued to be used as anti-personnel weapons into
the Ming dynasty, and were even attached to battle carts on one
situation in 1163. Song commander Wei Sheng constructed several hundred
of these carts known as "at-your-desire-war-carts" (如意戰車), which
contained fire lances protruding from protective covering on the sides.
They were used to defend mobile trebuchets that hurled fire bombs. They were used as cavalry weapons by the 13th century.
Naval bombs
Gunpowder
technology also spread to naval warfare and in 1129 Song decreed that
all warships were to be fitted with trebuchets for hurling gunpowder
bombs.
Older gunpowder weapons such as fire arrows were also used. In 1159 a
Song fleet of 120 ships caught a Jin fleet at anchor near Shijiu Island
(石臼島) off the shore of Shandong
peninsula. The Song commander "ordered that gunpowder arrows be shot
from all sides, and wherever they struck, flames and smoke rose up in
swirls, setting fire to several hundred vessels."
Song forces took another victory in 1161 when Song paddle boats
ambushed a Jin transport fleet, launched thunderclap bombs, and drowned
the Jin force in the Yangtze.
The men inside them paddled fast on
the treadmills, and the ships glided forwards as though they were
flying, yet no one was visible on board. The enemy thought that they
were made of paper. Then all of a sudden
a thunderclap bomb was let off: It was made with paper (carton) and
filled with lime and sulphur. (Launched from trebuchets) these
thunderclap bombs came dropping down from the air, and upon meeting the
water exploded with a noise like thunder, the sulphur bursting into
flames. The carton case rebounded and broke, scattering the lime to form
a smoky fog which blinded the eyes of men and horses so that they could
see nothing. Our ships then went forward to attack theirs, and their
men and horses were all drowned, so that they were utterly defeated.
— Hai Qiu Fu
According to a minor military official by the name of Zhao Wannian
(趙萬年), thunderclap bombs were used again to great effect by the Song
during the Jin siege of Xiangyang in 1206–1207. Both sides had gunpowder
weapons, but the Jin troops only used gunpowder arrows for destroying
the city's moored vessels. The Song used fire arrows, fire bombs, and
thunderclap bombs. Fire arrows and bombs were used to destroy Jin
trebuchets. The thunderclap bombs were used on Jin soldiers themselves,
causing foot soldiers and horsemen to panic and retreat. "We beat our
drums and yelled from atop the city wall, and simultaneously fired our
thunderclap missiles out from the city walls. The enemy cavalry was
terrified and ran away."
The Jin were forced to retreat and make camp by the riverside. In a
rare occurrence, the Song made a successful offensive on Jin forces and
conducted a night assault using boats. They were loaded with gunpowder
arrows, thunderclap bombs, a thousand crossbowmen, five hundred
infantry, and a hundred drummers. Jin troops were surprised in their
encampment while asleep by loud drumming, followed by an onslaught of
crossbow bolts, and then thunderclap bombs, which caused a panic of such
magnitude that they were unable to even saddle themselves and trampled
over each other trying to get away. Two to three thousand Jin troops
were slaughtered along with eight to nine hundred horses.
Hard-shell explosives
The
introduction of the iron bomb was significant to the history of
gunpowder weaponry. Traditionally the inspiration for the development of
the iron bomb is ascribed to the tale of a fox hunter named Iron Li.
According to the story, around the year 1189 Iron Li developed a new
method for hunting foxes which used a ceramic explosive to scare foxes
into his nets. The explosive consisted of a ceramic bottle with a mouth,
stuffed with gunpowder, and attached with a fuse. Explosive and net
were placed at strategic points of places such as watering holes
frequented by foxes, and when they got near enough, Iron Li would light
the fuse, causing the ceramic bottle to explode and scaring the
frightened foxes right into his nets. While a fanciful tale, it's not
exactly certain why this would cause the development of the iron bomb,
given the explosive was made using ceramics, and other materials such as
bamboo or even leather would have done the same job, assuming they made
a loud enough noise. Nonetheless, the iron bomb made its first appearance in 1221 at the siege of Qizhou (in modern Hubei),
and this time it would be the Jin who possessed the technological
advantage. The Song commander Zhao Yurong (趙與褣) survived and was able to
relay his account for posterity.
Qizhou was a major fortress city situated near the Yangtze and a
25 thousand strong Jin army advanced on it in 1221. News of the
approaching army reached Zhao Yurong in Qizhou, and despite being
outnumbered nearly eight to one, he decided to hold the city. Qizhou's
arsenal consisted of some three thousand thunderclap bombs, twenty
thousand "great leather bombs" (皮大炮), and thousands of gunpowder arrows
and gunpowder crossbow bolts. While the formula for gunpowder had become
potent enough to consider the Song bombs to be true explosives, they
were unable to match the explosive power of the Jin iron bombs. Yurong
describes the uneven exchange thus, "The barbaric enemy attacked the
Northwest Tower with an unceasing flow of catapult projectiles from
thirteen catapults. Each catapult shot was followed by an iron fire bomb
[catapult shot], whose sound was like thunder. That day, the city
soldiers in facing the catapult shots showed great courage as they
maneuvered [our own] catapults, hindered by injuries from the iron fire
bombs. Their heads, their eyes, their cheeks were exploded to bits, and
only one half [of the face] was left."
Jin artillerists were able to successfully target the command center
itself: "The enemy fired off catapult stones ... nonstop day and night,
and the magistrate's headquarters [帳] at the eastern gate, as well as my
own quarters ..., were hit by the most iron fire bombs, to the point
that they struck even on top of [my] sleeping quarters and [I] nearly
perished! Some said there was a traitor. If not, how would they have
known the way to strike at both of these places?"
Zhao was able to examine the new iron bombs himself and described
thus, "In shape they are like gourds, but with a small mouth. They are
made with pig iron, about two inches thick, and they cause the city's
walls to shake."
Houses were blown apart, towers battered, and defenders blasted from
their placements. Within four weeks all four gates were under heavy
bombardment. Finally the Jin made a frontal assault on the walls and
scaled them, after which followed a merciless hunt for soldiers,
officers, and officials of every level. Zhao managed an escape by
clambering over the battlement and making a hasty retreat across the
river, but his family remained in the city. Upon returning at a later
date to search the ruins, he found that the "bones and skeletons were so
mixed up that there was no way to tell who was who."
The early fire lance, considered to be the ancestor of firearms, is
not considered a true gun because it did not include projectiles,
whereas a gun by definition uses "the explosive force of the gunpowder
to propel a projectile from a tube: cannons, muskets, and pistols are
typical examples.".
Even later on when shrapnel such as ceramics and bits of iron were
added to the fire lance, these didn't occlude the barrel, and were only
swept along with the discharge rather than making use of windage, and so are referred to as "co-viatives."
In 1259 a type of "fire-emitting lance" (tuhuoqiang 突火槍) made an appearance and according to the History of Song:
"It is made from a large bamboo tube, and inside is stuffed a pellet
wad (子窠). Once the fire goes off it completely spews the rear pellet wad
forth, and the sound is like a bomb that can be heard for five hundred
or more paces."
The pellet wad mentioned is possibly the first true bullet in recorded
history depending on how bullet is defined, as it did occlude the
barrel, unlike previous co-viatives used in the fire lance. Fire lances transformed from the "bamboo- (or wood- or paper-) barreled firearm to the metal-barreled firearm"
to better withstand the explosive pressure of gunpowder. From there it
branched off into several different gunpowder weapons known as
"eruptors" in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, with different
functions such as the "filling-the-sky erupting tube" which spewed out
poisonous gas and porcelain shards, the "orifice-penetrating flying sand
magic mist tube" (鑽穴飛砂神霧筒) which spewed forth sand and poisonous
chemicals into orifices, and the more conventional "phalanx-charging
fire gourd" which shot out lead pellets.
The earliest artistic depiction of what might be a hand cannon – a rock sculpture found among the Dazu Rock Carvings
– is dated to 1128, much earlier than any recorded or precisely dated
archaeological samples, so it is possible that the concept of a
cannon-like firearm has existed since the 12th century.
This has been challenged by others such as Liu Xu, Cheng Dong, and
Benjamin Avichai Katz Sinvany. According to Liu, the weight of the
cannon would have been too much for one person to hold, especially with
just one arm, and points out that fire lances were being used a decade
later at De'an. Cheng Dong believes that the figure depicted is actually
a wind spirit letting air out of a bag rather than a cannon emitting a
blast. Stephen Haw also considered the possibility that the item in
question was a bag of air but concludes that it is a cannon because it
was grouped with other weapon wielding sculptures. Sinvany believes in
the wind bag interpretation and that the cannonball indentation was
added later on.
Archaeological samples of the gun, specifically the hand cannon (huochong), have been dated starting from the 13th century. The oldest extant gun whose dating is unequivocal is the Xanadu Gun
because it contains an inscription describing its date of manufacture
corresponding to 1298. It is so called because it was discovered in the
ruins of Xanadu,
the Mongol summer palace in Inner Mongolia. The Xanadu Gun is 34.7 cm
in length and weighs 6.2 kg. The design of the gun includes axial holes
in its rear which some speculate could have been used in a mounting
mechanism. Like most early guns it is small, weighing just over six
kilograms and thirty-five centimeters in length.
Although the Xanadu Gun is the most precisely dated gun from the 13th
century, other extant samples with approximate dating likely predate it.
The Heilongjiang hand cannon
is dated a decade earlier to 1288, but the dating method is based on
contextual evidence; the gun bears no inscription or era date. According to the History of Yuan, in 1287, a group of soldiers equipped with hand cannons led by the Jurchen commander Li Ting (李庭) attacked the rebel prince Nayan's camp. The History
reports that the hand cannons not only "caused great damage," but also
caused "such confusion that the enemy soldiers attacked and killed each
other." The hand cannons were used again in the beginning of 1288. Li Ting's "gun-soldiers" or chongzu (銃卒) were able to carry the hand cannons "on their backs". The passage on the 1288 battle is also the first to coin the name chong (銃) for metal-barrel firearms. Chong was used instead of the earlier and more ambiguous term huo tong (fire tube; 火筒), which may refer to the tubes of fire lances, proto-cannons, or signal flares.
Another specimen, the Wuwei Bronze Cannon,
was discovered in 1980 and may possibly be the oldest as well as
largest cannon of the 13th century: a 100 centimeter 108 kilogram bronze
cannon discovered in a cellar in Wuwei,
Gansu containing no inscription, but has been dated by historians to
the late Western Xia period between 1214 and 1227. The gun contained an
iron ball about nine centimeters in diameter, which is smaller than the
muzzle diameter at twelve centimeters, and 0.1 kilograms of gunpowder in
it when discovered, meaning that the projectile might have been another
co-viative.
Ben Sinvany and Dang Shoushan believe that the ball used to be much
larger prior to its highly corroded state at the time of discovery.
While large in size, the weapon is noticeably more primitive than later
Yuan dynasty guns, and is unevenly cast. A similar weapon was
discovered not far from the discovery site in 1997, but much smaller in
size at only 1.5 kg.
Chen Bingying disputes this however, and argues there were no guns
before 1259, while Dang Shoushan believes the Western Xia guns point to
the appearance of guns by 1220, and Stephen Haw goes even further by
stating that guns were developed as early as 1200. Sinologist Joseph Needham
and renaissance siege expert Thomas Arnold provide a more conservative
estimate of around 1280 for the appearance of the "true" cannon.
Whether or not any of these are correct, it seems likely that the gun was born sometime during the 13th century.
Use by the Mongols
Three hollow pottery caltrops speculated to have been filled with gunpowder. 13th – 14th century, possibly Yuan dynasty (1206–1368).Ming dynasty exploding pottery caltrops. From Jizhou District, Tianjin.A 'magic fire meteor going against the wind' bomb as depicted in the Huolongjing.A 'bone-burning and bruising fire-oil magic bomb' (lan gu huo you shen pao 爛骨火油神砲) fragmentation bomb from the Huolongjing.
It is composed of a cast iron casing, iron pellets coated in tung oil,
urine, sal ammoniac, feces, and scallion juice. In the middle is a
gunpowder stick.Stoneware bombs, known in Japanese as Tetsuhau (iron bomb), or in Chinese as Zhentianlei (thunder crash bomb), excavated from the Takashima shipwreck, October 2011, dated to the Mongol invasions of Japan (1271–1284).
The Mongols
and their rise in world history as well as conflicts with both the Jin
and Song played a key role in the evolution of gunpowder technology.
Mongol aptitude in incorporating foreign experts extended to the
Chinese, who provided artisans that followed Mongol armies willingly and
unwillingly far into the west and even east, to Japan. Unfortunately
textual evidence for this is scant as the Mongols left few documents.
This lack of primary source documents has caused some historians and
scholars such as Kate Raphael to doubt the Mongol's role in
disseminating gunpowder throughout Eurasia. On the opposite side stand
historians such as Tonio Andrade
and Stephen Haw, who believe that the Mongol Empire not only used
gunpowder weapons but deserves the moniker "the first gunpowder empire."
The first concerted Mongol invasion of Jin occurred in 1211 and total
conquest was not accomplished until 1234. In 1232 the Mongols besieged
the Jin capital of Kaifeng and deployed gunpowder weapons along with
other more conventional siege techniques such as building stockades,
watchtowers, trenches, guardhouses, and forcing Chinese captives to haul
supplies and fill moats.
Jin scholar Liu Qi (劉祈) recounts in his memoir, "the attack against the
city walls grew increasingly intense, and bombs rained down as [the
enemy] advanced." The Jin defenders also deployed gunpowder bombs as well as fire arrows (huo jian 火箭) launched using a type of early solid-propellant rocket.
Of the bombs, Liu Qi writes, "From within the walls the defenders
responded with a gunpowder bomb called the heaven-shaking-thunder bomb
(震天雷). Whenever the [Mongol] troops encountered one, several men at a
time would be turned into ashes."
A more fact based and clear description of the bomb exists in the History of Jin:
"The heaven-shaking-thunder bomb is an iron vessel filled with
gunpowder. When lighted with fire and shot off, it goes off like a crash
of thunder that can be heard for a hundred li [thirty miles], burning
an expanse of land more than half a mu [所爇圍半畝之上, a mu is a sixth of an
acre], and the fire can even penetrate iron armor."
A Ming official named He Mengchuan would encounter an old cache of
these bombs three centuries later in the Xi'an area: "When I went on
official business to Shaanxi Province, I saw on top of Xi'an's city
walls an old stockpile of iron bombs. They were called
'heaven-shaking-thunder' bombs, and they were like an enclosed rice bowl
with a hole at the top, just big enough to put your finger in. The
troops said they hadn't been used for a very long time."
Furthermore, he wrote, "When the powder goes off, the bomb rips open,
and the iron pieces fly in all directions. That is how it is able to
kill people and horses from far away."
Heaven-shaking-thunder bombs, also known as thunder crash bombs,
were used prior to the siege in 1231 when a Jin general made use of
them in destroying a Mongol warship. The Jin general named Wanyan Eke
had lost the defense of Hezhong to the Mongols and fled on ships with
3,000 of his men. The Mongols pursued them with their ships until the
Jin broke through by using thunder crash bombs that caused flashes and
flames.
However during the siege the Mongols responded by protecting themselves
with elaborate screens of thick cowhide. This was effective enough for
workers to get right up to the walls to undermine their foundations and
excavate protective niches. Jin defenders countered by tying iron cords
and attaching them to heaven-shaking-thunder bombs, which were lowered
down the walls until they reached the place where the miners worked. The
protective leather screens were unable to withstand the explosion, and
were penetrated, killing the excavators.
Another weapon the Jin employed was an improved version of the fire lance called the flying fire lance. The History of Jin
provides a detailed description: "To make the lance, use chi-huang
paper, sixteen layers of it for the tube, and make it a bit longer than
two feet. Stuff it with willow charcoal, iron fragments, magnet ends,
sulfur, white arsenic [probably an error that should mean saltpeter],
and other ingredients, and put a fuse to the end. Each troop has hanging
on him a little iron pot to keep fire [probably hot coals], and when
it's time to do battle, the flames shoot out the front of the lance more
than ten feet, and when the gunpowder is depleted, the tube isn't
destroyed."
While Mongol soldiers typically held a view of disdain toward most Jin
weapons, apparently they greatly feared the flying fire lance and
heaven-shaking-thunder bomb.
Kaifeng managed to hold out for a year before the Jin emperor fled and
the city capitulated. In some cases Jin troops still fought with some
success, scoring isolated victories such as when a Jin commander led 450
fire lancers against a Mongol encampment, which was "completely routed,
and three thousand five hundred were drowned."
Even after the Jin emperor committed suicide in 1234, one loyalist
gathered all the metal he could find in the city he was defending, even
gold and silver, and made explosives to lob against the Mongols, but the
momentum of the Mongol Empire could not be stopped. By 1234, both the Western Xia and Jin dynasty had been conquered.
The Mongol war machine moved south and in 1237 attacked the Song city of Anfeng (modern Shouxian, Anhui) "using gunpowder bombs [huo pao] to burn the [defensive] towers."
These bombs were apparently quite large. "Several hundred men hurled
one bomb, and if it hit the tower it would immediately smash it to
pieces."
The Song defenders under commander Du Gao (杜杲) rebuilt the towers and
retaliated with their own bombs, which they called the "Elipao," after a
famous local pear, probably in reference to the shape of the weapon.
Perhaps as another point of military interest, the account of this
battle also mentions that the Anfeng defenders were equipped with a type
of small arrow to shoot through eye slits of Mongol armor, as normal
arrows were too thick to penetrate.
By the mid 13th century, gunpowder weapons had become central to
the Song war effort. In 1257 the Song official Li Zengbo was dispatched
to inspect frontier city arsenals. Li considered an ideal city arsenal
to include several hundred thousand iron bombshells, and also its own
production facility to produce at least a couple thousand a month. The
results of his tour of the border were severely disappointing and in one
arsenal he found "no more than 85 iron bomb-shells, large and small, 95
fire-arrows, and 105 fire-lances. This is not sufficient for a mere
hundred men, let alone a thousand, to use against an attack by the ...
barbarians. The government supposedly wants to make preparations for the
defense of its fortified cities, and to furnish them with military
supplies against the enemy (yet this is all they give us). What chilling
indifference!" Fortunately for the Song, Möngke Khan died in 1259 and the war would not continue until 1269 under the leadership of Kublai Khan, but when it did the Mongols came in full force.
Blocking the Mongols' passage south of the Yangtze were the twin
fortress cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng. What resulted was one of the
longest sieges the world had ever known, lasting from 1268 to 1273. In
1273 the Mongols enlisted the expertise of two Muslim engineers, one
from Persia and one from Syria, who helped in the construction of
counterweight trebuchets. These new siege weapons had the capability of
throwing larger missiles further than the previous traction trebuchets.
One account records, "when the machinery went off the noise shook heaven
and earth; every thing that [the missile] hit was broken and
destroyed." The fortress city of Xiangyang fell in 1273.
The next major battle to feature gunpowder weapons was during a
campaign led by the Mongol general Bayan, who commanded an army of
around two hundred thousand, consisting of mostly Chinese soldiers. It
was probably the largest army the Mongols had ever used. Such an army
was still unable to successfully storm Song city walls, as seen in the
1274 Siege of Shayang. Thus Bayan waited for the wind to change to a
northerly course before ordering his artillerists to begin bombarding
the city with molten metal bombs, which caused such a fire that "the
buildings were burned up and the smoke and flames rose up to heaven." Shayang was captured and its inhabitants massacred.
Gunpowder bombs were used again in the 1275 Siege of Changzhou in
the latter stages of the Mongol-Song Wars. Upon arriving at the city,
Bayan gave the inhabitants an ultimatum: "if you ... resist us ... we
shall drain your carcasses of blood and use them for pillows."
This didn't work and the city resisted anyway, so the Mongol army
bombarded them with fire bombs before storming the walls, after which
followed an immense slaughter claiming the lives of a quarter million.
The war lasted for only another four years during which some remnants
of the Song held up last desperate defenses. In 1277, 250 defenders
under Lou Qianxia conducted a suicide bombing and set off a huge iron
bomb when it became clear defeat was imminent. Of this, the History of Song
writes, "the noise was like a tremendous thunderclap, shaking the walls
and ground, and the smoke filled up the heavens outside. Many of the
troops [outside] were startled to death. When the fire was extinguished
they went in to see. There were just ashes, not a trace left."
So came an end to the Mongol-Song Wars, which saw the deployment of all
the gunpowder weapons available to both sides at the time, which for
the most part meant gunpowder arrows, bombs, and lances, but in
retrospect, another development would overshadow them all, the birth of
the gun.
In 1280, a large store of gunpowder at Weiyang in Yangzhou
accidentally caught fire, producing such a massive explosion that a
team of inspectors at the site a week later deduced that some 100 guards
had been killed instantly, with wooden beams and pillars blown sky high
and landing at a distance of over 10 li (~2 mi. or ~3 km) away from the explosion, creating a crater more than ten feet deep.
By the time of Jiao Yu and his Huolongjing
(a book that describes military applications of gunpowder in great
detail) in the mid 14th century, the explosive potential of gunpowder
was perfected, as the level of nitrate in gunpowder formulas had risen
from a range of 12% to 91%, with at least 6 different formulas in use that are considered to have maximum explosive potential for gunpowder. By that time, the Chinese had discovered how to create explosive round shot by packing their hollow shells with this nitrate-enhanced gunpowder.
Gunpowder may have been used during the Mongol invasions of Europe. "Fire catapults", "pao", and "naphtha-shooters" are mentioned in some sources.
However, according to Timothy May, "there is no concrete evidence that
the Mongols used gunpowder weapons on a regular basis outside of China."
Shortly after the Mongol invasions of Japan
(1274–1281), the Japanese produced a scroll painting depicting a bomb.
Called tetsuhau in Japanese, the bomb is speculated to have been the
Chinese thunder crash bomb. Japanese descriptions of the invasions also talk of iron and bamboo pao causing "light and fire" and emitting 2–3,000 iron bullets. The Nihon Kokujokushi, written around 1300, mentions huo tong (fire tubes) at the Battle of Tsushima in 1274 and the second coastal assault led by Holdon in 1281. The Hachiman Gudoukun of 1360 mentions iron pao "which caused a flash of light and a loud noise when fired." The [[Taihe[ki]] of 1370 mentions "iron pao shaped like a bell."
The commanding general kept his
position on high ground, and directed the various detachments as need be
with signals from hand-drums. But whenever the (Mongol) soldiers took
to flight, they sent iron bomb-shells (tetsuho) flying against us, which
made our side dizzy and confused. Our soldiers were frightened out of
their wits by the thundering explosions; their eyes were blinded, their
ears deafened, so that they could hardly distinguish east from west.
According to our manner of fighting, we must first call out by name
someone from the enemy ranks, and then attack in single combat. But they
(the Mongols) took no notice at all of such conventions; they rushed
forward all together in a mass, grappling with any individuals they
could catch and killing them.
— Hachiman Gudoukun
The samurai Takezaki Suenaga facing Mongol and Korean arrows and bombs.
According to historian Tonio Andrade, "Scholars today overwhelmingly concur that the gun was invented in China,"
however multiple independent gunpowder and gun invention theories
continue to exist today, advocating for European, Islamic, or Indian
origins. Opponents of Chinese invention and transmission criticize the
vagueness of Chinese records on specific gunpowder usage in weaponry,
the possible lack of gunpowder in incendiary weapons as described by
Chinese documents, the weakness of Chinese firearms, the lack of
evidence of guns between Europe and China before 1326, and emphasize the
appearance of earlier or superior gunpowder weapons. For example, Stephen Morillo, Jeremy Black, and Paul Lococo's War in World History
argues that "the sources are not entirely clear about Chinese use of
gunpowder in guns. There are references to bamboo and iron cannons, or
perhaps proto-cannons, but these seem to have been small, unreliable,
handheld weapons in this period. The Chinese do seem to have invented
guns independently of the Europeans, at least in principle; but, in
terms of effective cannon, the edge goes to Europe." Independent invention theories include examples such as the attribution of gunpowder to Berthold Schwarz (Black Berthold), the usage of cannons by Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, and descriptions of gunpowder and firearms to various Sanskrit texts.
The problem with all theories of non-Chinese invention boils down to
lack of evidence and dating. It's not certain who exactly Berthold
Schwarz was since there are no contemporary records of him. According to
J.R. Partington, Black Berthold is a purely legendary figure invented
for the purpose of providing a German origin for gunpowder and cannon. The source for Mamluk usage of cannons in the Battle of Ain Jalut is a text dated to the late 14th century.The dating of the cited Sanskrit texts is often dubious at best, with one example, Sukraniti, containing descriptions of a musket and a cart-drawn gun.
Proponents of Chinese invention and transmission point out the
acute dearth of any significant evidence of evolution or experimentation
with gunpowder or gunpowder weapons leading up to the gun outside of
China.
Gunpowder appeared in Europe primed for military usage as an explosive
and propellant, bypassing a process which took centuries of Chinese
experimentation with gunpowder weaponry to reach, making a nearly
instantaneous and seamless transition into firearm warfare, as its name
suggests. Furthermore, early European gunpowder recipes shared identical
defects with Chinese recipes such as the inclusion of the poisons sal
ammoniac and arsenic, which provide no benefit to gunpowder. Bert S. Hall explains this phenomenon in his Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics
by drawing upon the gunpowder transmission theory, explaining that
"gunpowder came [to Europe], not as an ancient mystery, but as a
well-developed modern technology, in a manner very much like
twentieth-century 'technology-transfer' projects."
In a similar vein, Peter Lorge supposes that the Europeans experienced
gunpowder "free from preconceived notions of what could be done," in
contrast to China, "where a wide range of formulas and a broad variety
of weapons demonstrated the full range of possibilities and limitations
of the technologies involved."
There is also the vestige of Chinese influence on Muslim terminology of
key gunpowder related items such as saltpeter, which has been described
as either Chinese snow or salt, fireworks which were called Chinese
flowers, and rockets which were called Chinese arrows.
Moreover, Europeans in particular experienced great difficulty in
obtaining saltpeter, a primary ingredient of gunpowder which was
relatively scarce in Europe compared to China, and had to be obtained
from "distant lands or extracted at high cost from soil rich in dung and
urine."
Thomas Arnold believes that the similarities between early European
cannons and contemporary Chinese models suggests a direct transmission
of cannon making knowledge from China rather than a home grown
development.
An "eruptor" as depicted in the Huolongjing.
Essentially a fire lance on a frame, the 'multiple bullets magazine
eruptor' shoots lead shots, which are loaded in a magazine and fed into
the barrel when turned around on its axis.
An illustration of a 'flying-cloud thunderclap-eruptor,' a cannon firing thunderclap bombs, from the Huolongjing.
A 'poison fog divine smoke eruptor' (du wu shen yan pao) as depicted in the Huolongjing. Small shells emitting poisonous smoke are fired.
Cannon and cannon-shooters from the page from About the Secrets of Secrets manuscript by Pseudo-Aristotle, 1320s
Portrait identifying Schwarz as the "inventor of artillery"
Spread throughout Eurasia and Africa
Arabic illustration showing a gunpowder arrow on the left, fireworks in the middle, and a midfa (fire lance or hand cannon) on the right, from Rzevuski MS, c. 1320–1350
Middle East
Arabic illustration showing soldiers holding a fire tube on the left, a naphtha flask/bomb and midfa
(fire lance or hand cannon) on the right, and a rider holding gunpowder
cartridges in the middle, from Rzevuski MS, c. 1320–1350
The Muslim world acquired the gunpowder formula some time after 1240, but before 1280, by which time Hasan al-Rammah
had written, in Arabic, recipes for gunpowder, instructions for the
purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries.
Early Muslim sources suggest that knowledge of gunpowder was acquired
from China and may have been introduced by invading Mongols. This is implied by al-Rammah's usage of "terms that suggested he derived his knowledge from Chinese sources." Early Arab texts on gunpowder refer to saltpeter as "Chinese snow" (Arabic: ثلج الصينthalj al-ṣīn), fireworks as "Chinese flowers" and rockets as "Chinese arrows" (sahm al-Khitai). Similarly, the Persians called saltpeter "Chinese salt" or "salt from Chinese salt marshes" (namak shūra chīnīPersian: نمک شوره چيني). Fireworks listed by al-Rammah include "wheels of China" and "flowers of China".
The gunpowder formula of al-Rammah has a saltpeter content of 68%
to 75%, which is more explosive than is necessary for rockets, however
no explosives are mentioned. Al-Rammah's text, The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices (Kitab al-Furusiya wa'l-Munasab al-Harbiya), does however mention fuses, incendiary bombs, naphtha pots, fire lances, and an illustration and description of the earliest torpedo. The torpedo was called the "egg which moves itself and burns."
Two iron sheets were fastened together and tightened using felt. The
flattened pear shaped vessel was filled with gunpowder, metal filings,
"good mixtures," two rods, and a large rocket for propulsion. Judging by
the illustration, it was evidently supposed to glide across the water.
Hasan al-Rammah was the first Muslim to describe the purification of saltpeter using the chemical processes of solution and crystallization. This was the first clear method for the purification of saltpeter.
According to Joseph Needham, fire lances were used in battles between the Muslims and Mongols in 1299 and 1303.
The earliest surviving documentary evidence for cannons in the
Islamic world is from an Arabic manuscript dated to the early 14th
century. The author's name is uncertain but may have been Shams al-Din Muhammad, who died in 1350.
Dating from around 1320–1350, the illustrations show gunpowder weapons
such as gunpowder arrows, bombs, fire tubes, and fire lances or
proto-guns. The manuscript describes a type of gunpowder weapon called a midfa which uses gunpowder to shoot projectiles out of a tube at the end of a stock.
Some consider this to be a cannon while others do not. The problem with
identifying cannons in early 14th century Arabic texts is the term midfa,
which appears from 1342 to 1352 but cannot be proven to be true
hand-guns or bombards. Contemporary accounts of a metal-barrel cannon in
the Islamic world do not occur until 1365. Needham believes that in its original form the term midfa refers to the tube or cylinder of a naphtha projector (flamethrower),
then after the invention of gunpowder it meant the tube of fire lances,
and eventually it applied to the cylinder of hand-gun and cannon.
Description of the drug (mixture)
to be introduced in the madfa'a (cannon) with its proportions: barud,
ten; charcoal two drachmes, sulphur one and a half drachmes. Reduce the
whole into a thin powder and fill with it one third of the madfa'a. Do
not put more because it might explode. This is why you should go to the
turner and ask him to make a wooden madfa'a whose size must be in
proportion with its muzzle. Introduce the mixture (drug) strongly; add
the bunduk (balls) or the arrow and put fire to the priming. The madfa'a
length must be in proportion with the hole. If the madfa'a was deeper
than the muzzle's width, this would be a defect. Take care of the
gunners. Be careful
— Rzevuski MS, possibly written by Shams al-Din Muhammad, c. 1320–1350
According to Paul E. J. Hammer, the Mamluks certainly used cannons by 1342. According to J. Lavin, cannons were used by Moors at the siege of Algeciras in 1343. A metal cannon firing an iron ball was described by Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas al-Qalqashandi between 1365 and 1376.
Europe
Recipes for gunpowder (pulveres pixidum) in a manuscript dated c. 1400 (GNM 3227a fol. 6rĎ).European tiller gun lighted by a hot iron rod being fired from a stand, manuscript by Konrad Kyeser: Bellifortis. c. 1402–1404Swiss soldier firing a hand cannon late 14th, 15th centuries, illustration produced in 1874.
A common theory of how gunpowder came to Europe is that it made its way along the Silk Road
through the Middle East. Another is that it was brought to Europe
during the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century.
Some sources claim that Chinese firearms and gunpowder weapons may have
been deployed by Mongols against European forces at the Battle of Mohi in 1241. It may also have been due to subsequent diplomatic and military contacts. Some authors have speculated that William of Rubruck,
who served as an ambassador to the Mongols from 1253 to 1255, was a
possible intermediary in the transmission of gunpowder. His travels were
recorded by Roger Bacon, who was the first European to mention gunpowder, but the records of William's journey do not contain any mention of gunpowder.
The earliest European references to gunpowder are found in Roger Bacon's Opus Majus from 1267, in which he mentions a firecracker toy found in various parts of the world.
The passage reads: "We have an example of these things (that act on the
senses) in [the sound and fire of] that children's toy which is made in
many [diverse] parts of the world; i.e., a device no bigger than one's
thumb. From the violence of that salt called saltpeter [together with
sulfur and willow charcoal, combined into a powder] so horrible a sound
is made by the bursting of a thing so small, no more than a bit of
parchment [containing it], that we find [the ear assaulted by a noise]
exceeding the roar of strong thunder, and a flash brighter than the most
brilliant lightning." In the early 20th century, British artillery officer Henry William Lovett Hime proposed that another work tentatively attributed to Bacon, Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate Magiae contained an encrypted formula for gunpowder. This claim has been disputed by historians of science including Lynn Thorndike, John Maxson Stillman and George Sarton and by Bacon's editor Robert Steele, both in terms of authenticity of the work, and with respect to the decryption method.
In any case, the formula claimed to have been decrypted (7:5:5
saltpeter:charcoal:sulfur) is not useful for firearms use or even
firecrackers, burning slowly and producing mostly smoke.
However, if Bacon's recipe is taken as measurements by volume rather
than weight, a far more potent and serviceable explosive powder is
created suitable for firing hand-cannons, albeit less consistent due to
the inherent inaccuracies of measurements by volume. One example of this
composition resulted in 100 parts saltpeter, 27 parts charcoal, and 45
parts sulfur, by weight.
The oldest written recipes for gunpowder in Europe were recorded
under the name Marcus Graecus or Mark the Greek between 1280 and 1300 in
the Liber Ignium, or Book of Fires. One recipe for "flying fire" (ignis volatilis) involves saltpeter, sulfur, and colophonium,
which, when inserted into a reed or hollow wood, "flies away suddenly
and burns up everything." Another recipe, for artificial "thunder",
specifies a mixture of one pound native sulfur, two pounds linden or
willow charcoal, and six pounds of saltpeter. Another specifies a 1:3:9
ratio.
The text is likely a translation from Arabic through a Spanish
intermediary due to the terminology used and recipes for items found in
12th century Arabic texts.
The earliest known European depiction of a gun appeared in 1326 in a manuscript by Walter de Milemete, although not necessarily drawn by him, known as De Nobilitatibus, sapientii et prudentiis regum
(Concerning the Majesty, Wisdom, and Prudence of Kings), which displays
a gun with a large arrow emerging from it and its user lowering a long
stick to ignite the gun through the touchole.
In the same year, another similar illustration showed a darker gun
being set off by a group of knights, which also featured in another work
of de Milemete's, De secretis secretorum Aristotelis. On 11 February of that same year, the Signoria of Florence appointed two officers to obtain canones de mettallo and ammunition for the town's defense. In the following year a document from the Turin
area recorded a certain amount was paid "for the making of a certain
instrument or device made by Friar Marcello for the projection of
pellets of lead." The bronze vase-shaped gun from Mantua,
unfortunately disappeared in 1849, but of which we have drawings and
measurements taken in 1786, dates back to 1322. It was 16.4 cm long,
weighed about 5 kg and had a caliber of 5.5 cm.
The 1320s seem to have been the takeoff point for guns in Europe
according to most modern military historians. Scholars suggest that the
lack of gunpowder weapons in a well-traveled Venetian's catalogue for a
new crusade in 1321 implies that guns were unknown in Europe up until
this point. From the 1320s guns spread rapidly across Europe. The French raiding party that sacked and burned Southampton in 1338 brought with them a ribaudequin and 48 bolts (but only 3 pounds of gunpowder).
By 1341 the town of Lille had a "tonnoire master," and a tonnoire was
an arrow-hurling gun. In 1345, two iron cannons were present in
Toulouse. In 1346 Aix-la-Chapelle too possessed iron cannons which shot
arrows (busa ferrea ad sagittandum tonitrum). The Battle of Crécy in 1346 was one of the first in Europe where cannons were used. By 1350 Petrarch wrote that the presence of cannons on the battlefield was 'as common and familiar as other kinds of arms'.
Around the late 14th century European and Ottoman guns began to
deviate in purpose and design from guns in China, changing from small
anti-personnel and incendiary devices to the larger artillery pieces
most people imagine today when using the word "cannon."
If the 1320s can be considered the arrival of the gun on the European
scene, then the end of the 14th century may very well be the departure
point from the trajectory of gun development in China. In the last
quarter of the 14th century, European guns grew larger and began to
blast down fortifications.
Vase-shaped gun of Mantua (image produced 1869), no longer extant
Oldest known European depiction of a firearm from De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum by Walter de Milemete (1326).
Reconstruction of an arrow-firing cannon that appears in a 1326 manuscript.
Western European handgun, 1380. 18 cm-long and weighing 1.04 kg, it was fixed to a wooden pole to facilitate manipulation. Musée de l'Armée.
The Mörkö gun is another early Swedish
firearm discovered by a fisherman in the Baltic Sea at the coast of
Södermansland near Nynäs in 1828. It has been given a date of c. 1390.
The Tannenberg handgonne is a cast bronze
firearm. Muzzle bore 15–16 mm. Found in the water well of the 1399
destroyed Tannenberg castle. Oldest surviving firearm from Germany.
Southeast Asia
A double barrelled cetbang on a carriage, with swivel yoke, c. 1522. The mouth of the cannon is in the shape of Javanese Nāga.
In Southeast Asia, cannons were used by the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1352 during its invasion of the Khmer Empire. Within a decade large quantities of gunpowder could be found in the Khmer Empire. By the end of the century firearms were also used by the Trần dynasty in Đại Việt.
The Mongol invasion of Java in 1293 brought gunpowder technology to the Nusantara archipelago in the form of cannon (Chinese: 炮—Pào). The knowledge of making gunpowder-based weapon has been known after the failed Mongol invasion of Java. The predecessor of firearms, the pole gun (bedil tombak), was recorded as being used in Java by 1413,
while the knowledge of making "true" firearms came much later, after
the middle of 15th century. It was brought by the Muslim traders from
West Asia, most probably the Arabs. The precise year of introduction is unknown, but it may be safely concluded to be no earlier than 1460.
Portuguese influence to local weaponry after the capture of Malacca (1511) resulted in a new type of hybrid tradition matchlock firearm, the istinggar.
Saltpeter harvesting was recorded by Dutch and German travelers as
being common in even the smallest villages and was collected from the
decomposition process of large dung hills specifically piled for this
purpose. The Dutch punishment for possession of non-permitted gunpowder
appears to have been amputation. Ownership and manufacture of gunpowder was later prohibited by the colonial Dutch occupiers. According to colonel McKenzie quoted in the book The History of Java (1817) by Thomas Stamford Raffles, the purest sulfur was supplied from a crater from a mountain near the straits of Bali.
India
Gunpowder technology is believed to have arrived in India by the mid-14th century, but could have been introduced much earlier by the Mongols,
who had conquered both China and some borderlands of India, perhaps as
early as the mid-13th century. The unification of a large single Mongol Empire
resulted in the free transmission of Chinese technology into Mongol
conquered parts of India. Regardless, it is believed that the Mongols
used Chinese gunpowder weapons during their invasions of India. It was written in the Tarikh-i Firishta (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a dazzling pyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258.
The first gunpowder device, as opposed to naphtha-based pyrotechnics,
introduced to India from China in the second half of the 13th century,
was a rocket called the "hawai" (also called "ban"). The rocket was used as an instrument of war from the second half of the 14th century onward, and the Delhi sultanate as well as the Bahmani Sultanate made good use of them. As a part of an embassy to India by Timurid leader Shah Rukh (1405–1447), 'Abd al-Razzaq mentioned naphtha-throwers mounted on elephants and a variety of pyrotechnics put on display. Roger Pauly has written that "while gunpowder was primarily a Chinese innovation," the saltpeter
that led to the invention of gunpowder may have arrived from India,
although it is also likely that it originated indigenously in China.
Firearms known as top-o-tufak also existed in the Vijayanagara Empire of Southern India by as early as 1366.
In 1368–1369, the Bahmani Sultanate may have used firearms against
Vijayanagara, but these weapons could have been pyrotechnics as well. By 1442 guns had a clearly felt presence in India as attested to by historical records. From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in India was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 by Muhammad Shah III.
Muslim and Hindu states in the south were advanced in artillery
compared to the Delhi rulers of this period because of their contact
with the outside world, especially Turkey, through the sea route. The
south Indian kingdoms imported their gunners (topci) and artillery from
Turkey and the Arab countries, with whom they had developed good
relations.
Korea had already come into possession of cannons by 1373, when a
Korean mission was sent to China requesting gunpowder supplies for the
artillery on their ships. However Korea did not natively produce gunpowder until the years 1374–76. In the 14th century a Korean scholar named Choe Museon discovered a way to produce it after visiting China and bribing a merchant by the name of Li Yuan for the gunpowder formula.
In 1377 he figured out how to extract potassium nitrate from the soil
and subsequently invented the juhwa, Korea's first rocket, and further developments led to the birth of singijeons, Korean arrow rockets. Korea also began producing cannons in 1377. The multiple rocket launcher known as hwacha ("fire cart" 火車) was developed from the juhwa and singijeon in Korea by 1409 during the Joseon Dynasty. Its inventors include Yi Do (이도, not to be mistaken for Sejong the Great) and Choi Hae-san (최해산, son of Choe Museon). However the first hwachas did not fire rockets, but used mounted bronze guns that shot iron-fletched darts. Rocket launching hwachas were developed in 1451 under the decree of King Munjong
and his younger brother Pe. ImYung (Yi Gu, 임영대군 이구). This "Munjong
Hwacha" is the well-known type today, and could fire 100 rocket arrows
or 200 small Chongtong bullets at one time with changeable modules. At the time, 50 units were deployed in Hanseong
(present-day Seoul), and another 80 on the northern border. By the end
of 1451, hundreds of hwachas were deployed throughout Korea.
Naval gunpowder weapons also appeared and were rapidly adopted by
Korean ships for conflicts against Japanese pirates in 1380 and 1383.
By 1410, 160 Korean ships were reported to have equipped artillery of
some sort. Mortars firing thunder-crash bombs are known to have been
used, and four types of cannons are mentioned: chonja (heaven), chija
(earth), hyonja (black), and hwangja (yellow), but their specifications
are unknown. These cannons typically shot wooden arrows tipped with
iron, the longest of which were nine feet long, but stone and iron balls
were sometimes used as well.
Firearms seem to have been known in Japan around 1270 as
proto-cannons invented in China, which the Japanese called teppō (鉄砲
lit. "iron cannon").
Gunpowder weaponry exchange between China and Japan was slow and only a
small number of hand guns ever reached Japan. However Japanese samurai used Fire lances in 15th-century. The first recorded appearance of the Fire lances in Japan was in 1409.
The use of gunpowder bombs in the style of Chinese explosives is known
to have occurred in Japan from at least the mid-15th century onward. The first recorded appearance of the cannon in Japan was in 1510 when a Buddhist monk presented Hōjō Ujitsuna with a teppō iron cannon that he had acquired during his travels in China. Firearms saw very little use in Japan until Portuguese matchlocks were introduced in 1543. During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi effectively used matchlock firearms against the Korean forces of Joseon, although they would ultimately be defeated and forced to withdraw from the Korean peninsula.
Africa
In Africa, the Adal Empire and the Abyssinian Empire both deployed gunpowder weapons during the Adal-Abyssinian War. Imported from Arabia, and the wider Islamic world, the Adalites, led by Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, were the first African power to introduce cannon warfare to the African continent. Later on as the Portuguese Empire entered the war it would supply and train the Abyssinians with cannon and muskets, while the Ottoman Empire sent soldiers and cannon to back Adal. The conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value of firearms such as the matchlockmusket, cannon, and the arquebus over traditional weapons.
Ernest Gellner in his book 'Nations and Nationalism' argues that the centralizing potential of the gun and the book, enabled both the Somali people and the Amhara people to dominate the political history of a vast area in Africa, despite neither of them being numerically predominant.
"In the Horn of Africa
both the Amharas and the Somalis possessed both gun and Book (not the
same Book, but rival and different editions), and neither bothered
greatly with the wheel. Each of these ethnic groups was aided in its use
of these two pieces of cultural equipment by its link to other members
of the wider religious civilization which habitually used them, and were
willing to replenish their stock." – Ernest Gellner
Ming artillerymen from a mural in Yanqing District, Beijing.Iron cannons, Ming dynastyDefensive wall of Prince Qin Mansion, western section.
Gun development and proliferation in China continued under the Ming dynasty. The success of its founder Zhu Yuanzhang, who declared his reign to be the era of Hongwu, or "Great Martiality," has often been attributed to his effective use of guns.
Most early Ming guns weighed two to three kilograms while guns
considered "large" at the time weighed around only seventy-five
kilograms. Ming sources suggest guns such as these shot stones and iron
balls, but were primarily used against men rather than for causing
structural damage to ships or walls. Accuracy was low and they were
limited to a range of only 50 paces or so.
Despite the relatively small size of early Ming guns, some elements of gunpowder weapon design followed world trends.
The growing length to muzzle bore ratio matched the rate at which
European guns were developing up until the 1450s. The practice of
corning gunpowder had been developed by 1370 for the purpose of
increasing explosive power in land mines,
and was arguably used in guns as well according to one record of a
fire-tube shooting a projectile 457 meters, which was probably only
possible at the time with the usage of corned powder.
Around the same year Ming guns transitioned from using stone shots to
iron ammunition, which has greater density and increased firearm power.
Aside from firearms, the Ming pioneered in the usage of rocket
launchers known as "wasp nests", which it manufactured for the army in
1380 and was used by the general Li Jinglong in 1400 against Zhu Di, the future Yongle Emperor.
The peak of Chinese cannon development prior to the incorporation
of European weaponry in the 16th century is exemplified by the muzzle
loading wrought iron "great general cannon" (大將軍炮) which weighed up to
360 kilograms and could fire a 4.8 kilogram lead ball. Its heavier
variant, the "great divine cannon" (大神銃), could weigh up to 600
kilograms and was capable of firing several iron balls and upward of a
hundred iron shots at once. The great general and divine cannons were
the last indigenous Chinese cannon designs prior to the incorporation of
European models in the 16th century.
The lack of larger siege weapons in China unlike the rest of the
world where cannons grew larger and more potent has been attributed to
the immense thickness of traditional Chinese walls,
which Tonio Andrade suggests provided no incentive for creating larger
cannons, since even industrial artillery had trouble overcoming them.
Asianist Kenneth Chase also argues that larger guns were not
particularly useful against China's traditional enemies: horse nomads.
An organ gun known as the 'mother of a hundred bullets gun' (zi mu bai dan chong) from the Huolongjing.
An illustration of a bronze "thousand ball thunder cannon" from the Huolongjing.
A seven barreled organ gun with two auxiliary guns by its side on a two-wheeled carriage. From the Huolongjing.
A 'barbarian attacking cannon' as depicted in the Huolongjing. Chains are attached to the cannon to adjust recoil.
An "awe-inspiring long range cannon" (威遠砲), from the Huolongjing
A depiction of the "crouching tiger cannon" from the Huolongjing
Drawing of a Great General Cannon, from 'Wu Bei Yao Lue (《武備要略》').
The development of large artillery pieces began by Burgundy.
Originally a minor power, the duchy grew to become one of the most
powerful states in 14th-century Europe, and a great innovator in siege
warfare. The Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold
(1363–1404), based his power on the effective use of big guns and
promoted research and development in all aspects of gunpowder weaponry
technology. Philip established manufacturers and employed more cannon
casters than any European power before him.
Whereas most European guns before 1370 weighed about 20 to 40 lbs (9–14 kg), the French siege of Château de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte in 1375 during the Hundred Years War saw the use of guns weighing over a ton (900 kg), firing stone balls weighing over 100 lbs (45 kg). Philip used large guns to help the French capture the fortress of Odruik
in 1377. These guns fired projectiles far larger than any that had been
used before, with seven guns that could shoot projectiles as heavy as
90 kilograms. The cannons smashed the city walls, inaugurating a new era
of artillery warfare and Burgundy's territories rapidly expanded.
Europe entered an arms race to build ever larger artillery
pieces. By the early 15th century both French and English armies were
equipped with larger pieces known as bombards, weighing up to 5 tons (4,535 kg) and firing balls weighing up to 300 lbs (136 kg). The artillery trains used by Henry V of England in the 1415 Siege of Harfleur and 1419 Siege of Rouen proved effective in breaching French fortifications, while artillery contributed to the victories of French forces under Joan of Arc in the Loire Campaign (1429).
These weapons were transformational for European warfare. A
hundred years earlier the Frenchman Pierre Dubois wrote that a "castle
can hardly be taken within a year, and even if it does fall, it means
more expenses for the king's purse and for his subjects than the
conquest is worth," but by the 15th century European walls fell with the utmost regularity.
The Ottoman Empire was also developing their own artillery pieces. Mehmed the Conqueror (1432–1481) was determined to procure large cannons for the purpose of conquering Constantinople. Hungarian Urban produced for him a six-meter (20-foot) long cannon, which required hundreds of pounds of gunpowder to fire; during the actual siege of Constantinople the gun proved to be somewhat underwhelming. However, dozens of other large cannons bombarded Constantinople's walls in their weakest sections for 55 days, and despite a fierce defense, the city's fortifications were overwhelmed.
Battle of Nicopolis 1398
Faule Metze (Metze, old term for a whore)("Lazy Mette"), a medieval supergun from 1411 from Braunschweig, Germany
As a response to gunpowder artillery, European fortifications began
displaying architectural principles such as lower and thicker walls in
the mid-1400s.
Cannon towers were built with artillery rooms where cannons could
discharge fire from slits in the walls. However this proved problematic
as the slow rate of fire, reverberating concussions, and noxious fumes
produced greatly hindered defenders. Gun towers also limited the size
and number of cannon placements because the rooms could only be built so
big. Notable surviving artillery towers include a seven layer defensive
structure built in 1480 at Fougères in Brittany, and a four layer tower built in 1479 at Querfurth in Saxony.
The star fort, also known as the bastion fort, tracé à l'italienne,
or renaissance fortress, was a style of fortification that became
popular in Europe during the 16th century. The bastion and star fort was
developed in Italy, where the Florentine engineer Giuliano da Sangallo (1445–1516) compiled a comprehensive defensive plan using the geometric bastion and full tracé à l'italienne that became widespread in Europe.
The main distinguishing features of the star fort were its angle
bastions, each placed to support their neighbor with lethal crossfire,
covering all angles, making them extremely difficult to engage with and
attack. Angle bastions consisted of two faces and two flanks. Artillery
positions positioned at the flanks could fire parallel into the opposite
bastion's line of fire, thus providing two lines of cover fire against
an armed assault on the wall, and preventing mining parties from finding
refuge. Meanwhile, artillery positioned on the bastion platform could
fire frontally from the two faces, also providing overlapping fire with
the opposite bastion.
Overlapping mutually supporting defensive fire was the greatest
advantage enjoyed by the star fort. As a result, sieges lasted longer
and became more difficult affairs. By the 1530s the bastion fort had
become the dominant defensive structure in Italy.
Outside Europe, the star fort became an "engine of European expansion",
and acted as a force multiplier so that small European garrisons could
hold out against numerically superior forces. Wherever star forts were
erected the natives experienced great difficulty in uprooting European
invaders.
In China, Sun Yuanhua advocated for the construction of angled bastion forts in his Xifashenji
so that their cannons could better support each other. The officials
Han Yun and Han Lin noted that cannons on square forts could not support
each side as well as bastion forts. Their efforts to construct bastion
forts and their results were inconclusive. Ma Weicheng built two bastion
forts in his home county, which helped fend off a Qing
incursion in 1638. By 1641, there were ten bastion forts in the county.
Before bastion forts could be spread any further, the Ming dynasty fell
in 1644, and they were largely forgotten as the Qing dynasty was on the
offensive most of the time and had no use for them.
Classical cannon
Gun
development and design in Europe reached its "classic" form in the
1480s – longer, lighter, more efficient, and more accurate compared to
its predecessors only three decades prior. The design persisted, and
cannons of the 1480s show little difference and surprising similarity
with cannons three centuries later in the 1750s. This 300-year period
during which the classic cannon dominated gives it its moniker.
The early classical European guns are exemplified by two cannons
from 1488 now preserved in a plaza in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The
Neuchâtel guns are 224 centimeters long, with a bore of 6.2 centimeters
and the other is slightly longer, 252 centimeters, with the same bore
size. They are differentiated from older firearms by an assortment of
improvements. Their longer length-to-bore ratio imparts more energy into
the shot, enabling the projectile to shoot further. Not only longer,
they were also lighter as the barrel walls were made thinner to allow
for faster dissipation of heat. They also no longer needed the help of a
wooden plug to load since they offered a tighter fit between projectile
and barrel, further increasing the accuracy of gunpowder warfare
– and were deadlier due to developments such as gunpowder corning and
iron shot. When these guns reached China in the 1510s, the Chinese were
highly impressed by them, primarily for their longer and thinner
barrels.
The two primary theories for the appearance of the classic gun
involve the development of gunpowder corning and a new method for
casting guns.
The corning hypothesis stipulates that the longer barrels came
about as a reaction to the development of corned gunpowder. Not only did
"corned" powder keep better, because of its reduced surface area, but
gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into
guns. Prior to corning, gunpowder would also frequently demix into its
constitutive components and was therefore unreliable.
The faster gunpowder reaction was suitable for smaller guns, since
large ones had a tendency to crack, and the more controlled reaction
allowed large guns to have longer, thinner walls.
However, the corning hypothesis has been argued against on two grounds:
One, the powder makers were probably more worried about spoilage than
the effect of corned gunpowder on guns; and two, corning as a practice
had existed in China (for explosives) since the 1370s.
The second theory is that the key to developing the classic gun may have been a new method of gun casting, muzzle side up.
Smith observes: "The surviving pieces of ordnance from earlier in the
15th century are big pieces with large bore sizes. They do not look like
the long thin gun.… Essentially they are parallel-sided tubes with flat
ends. The explanation is, probably, that they were cast muzzle down in
the traditional bell-founding method whereas the long thin guns were
cast muzzle up.… Perhaps this marks the real 'revolution' in artillery.
Once the technique of casting muzzle up with the attendant advantages,
and it is not clear what those are at present, had been mastered by
cannon founders, the way was open for the development of the 'classic'
form of artillery."
However, Smith himself states that it is not clear what advantages this
technique would have conferred, despite its widespread adoption.
16th-century Artillerie
French bastard culverin dated to 1548, 85mm 300 cm 1076 kg.
Two 15th-century culverins, one of forged iron, the other of cast bronze.
Different shapes of corned gunpowder, each with its own function
Iron and bronze
Across
the 15th and 16th centuries there were primarily two different types of
manufactured cannons. The wrought iron cannon and the cast-bronze
cannon. Wrought iron guns were structurally composed of two layers: an
inner tube of iron staves held together in a tight fit by an outer case
of iron hoops. Bronze cannons on the other hand were cast in one piece
similar to bells. The technique used in casting bronze cannons was so
similar to the bell that the two were often looked upon as a connected
enterprise.
Both iron and bronze cannons had their advantages and
disadvantages. Forged iron cannons were up to ten times cheaper, but
more unstable due to their piece built nature. Even without use, iron
cannons were liable to rust away, while bronze cannons did not. Another
reason for the dominance of bronze cannons was their aesthetic appeal.
Because cannons were so important as displays of power and prestige,
rulers liked to commission bronze cannons, which could be sculpted into
fanciful designs containing artistic motifs or symbols. It was for all
these reasons that the cast-bronze cannon became the preferred type by
the late 1400s.
Some cannons cast in China during the 1370s may have been of steel rather than iron.
Composite metal
Composite iron/bronze cannons were far less common, but were produced in substantial numbers during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The resulting bronze-iron composite cannons were superior to iron or
bronze cannons in many respects. They were lighter, stronger, longer
lasting, and able to withstand more intensive explosive pressure.
Chinese artisans also experimented with other variants such as cannons
featuring wrought iron cores with cast iron exteriors. While inferior to
their bronze-iron counterparts, these were considerably cheaper and
more durable than standard iron cannons. Both types were met with
success and were considered "among the best in the world"
during the 17th century. The Chinese composite metal casting technique
was effective enough that Portuguese imperial officials sought to employ
Chinese gunsmiths for their cannon foundries in Goa, so that they could
impart their methods for Portuguese weapons manufacturing.
The Gujarats experimented with the same concept in 1545, the English at
least by 1580, and Hollanders in 1629. However the effort required to
produce these weapons prevented them from mass production. The Europeans
essentially treated them as experimental products, resulting in very
few surviving pieces today.
Of the currently known extant composite metal cannons, there are 2
English, 2 Dutch, 12 Gujarati, and 48 from the Ming-Qing period.
Arquebus and musket
Two soldiers on the left using arquebuses, 1470.A serpentine matchlock mechanism.Musketeer from Jacob van Gheyn's Wapenhandelingen van Roers, Musquetten ende Spiesen, (1608).
The arquebus was a firearm that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman
Empire in the early 15th century. Its name is derived from the German
word Hakenbüchse. Although the term arquebus was applied
to many different forms of firearms from the 15th to 17th centuries, it
was originally used to describe "a hand-gun with a hook-like projection
or lug on its under surface, useful for steadying it against battlements
or other objects when firing."
These "hook guns" were in their earliest forms defensive weapons
mounted on German city walls in the early 1400s, but by the late 1400s
had transitioned into handheld firearms, with heavier variants known as
"muskets" that were fired from resting Y-shaped supports appearing by
the early 1500s.
The musket was able to penetrate all forms of armor available at
the time, making armor obsolete, and as a consequence the heavy musket
as well. Although there is relatively little to no difference in design
between arquebus and musket except in size and strength, it was the term
musket which remained in use up into the 1800s.
It may not be completely inaccurate to suggest that the musket was in
its fabrication simply a larger arquebus. At least on one occasion the
musket and arquebus have been used interchangeably to refer to the same
weapon, and even referred to as an "arquebus musket." A Habsburg commander in the mid-1560s once referred to muskets as "double arquebuses."
The definition of arquebus and similar firearms is therefore quite
convoluted as the term has been applied to different sorts of firearms
as well as acquiring several names like hackbut,harquebus, schiopo,sclopus,tüfenk, tofak, matchlock, and firelock. Some say that the hackbut was a forerunner of the arquebus.
The dating of the matchlock firing mechanism's first appearance is disputed. The first references to the use of what may have been arquebuses (tüfek) by the Janissary corps of the Ottomanarmy date them from 1394 to 1465.
However it's unclear whether these were arquebuses or small cannons as
late as 1444, but the fact that they were listed separate from cannons
in mid-15th century inventories suggest they were handheld firearms. In Europe, a shoulder stock, probably inspired by the crossbow stock,
was added to the arquebus around 1470 and the appearance of the
matchlock mechanism is dated to a little before 1475. The matchlock
arquebus was the first firearm equipped with a trigger mechanism.It is also considered to be the first portable shoulder-arms firearm.
Matchlock became a common term for the arquebus after it was
added to the firearm. Prior to the appearance of the matchlock, handguns
were fired from the chest, tucked under one arm, while the other arm
maneuvered a hot pricker to the touch hole to ignite the gunpowder.
The matchlock changed this by adding a firing mechanism consisting of
two parts, the match, and the lock. The lock mechanism held within a
clamp a two to three feet long length of smoldering rope soaked in
saltpeter, which was the match.
Connected to the lock lever was a trigger, which lowered the match into
a priming pan when pulled, igniting the priming powder, causing a flash
to travel through the touch hole, also igniting the gunpowder within
the barrel, and propelling the bullet out the muzzle.
While matchlocks provided a crucial advantage by allowing the
user to aim the firearm using both hands, it was also awkward to use.
To avoid accidentally igniting the gunpowder the match had to be
detached while loading the gun. In some instances the match would also
go out, so both ends of the match were kept lit. This proved cumbersome
to maneuver as both hands were required to hold the match during
removal, one end in each hand. The procedure was so complex that a 1607
drill manual published by Jacob de Gheyn in the Netherlands listed 28
steps just to fire and load the gun. In 1584 the Ming general Qi Jiguang
composed an 11 step song to practice the procedure in rhythm: "One,
clean the gun. Two pour the powder. Three tamp the powder down. Four
drop the pellet. Five drive the pellet down. Six put in paper (stopper).
Seven drive the paper down. Eight open the flashpan cover. Nine pour in
the flash powder. Ten close the flashpan, and clamp the fuse. Eleven,
listen for the signal, then open the flashpan cover. Aiming at the
enemy, raise your gun and fire." Reloading a gun during the 16th century took anywhere from between 20 seconds to a minute under the most ideal conditions.
The arquebus is considered to be the first portable "shoulder" arms firearm.
Arquebuses were used as early as 1472 by the Spanish and Portuguese at
Zamora. Likewise, the Castilians used arquebuses as well in 1476. In 1496 Philip Monch of the Palatinate composed an illustrated Buch der Strynt un(d) Buchsse(n) on guns and "harquebuses."
The Mamluks in particular were conservatively against the incorporation
of gunpowder weapons. When faced with cannons and arquebuses wielded by
the Ottomans they criticized them thus, "God curse the man who invented
them, and God curse the man who fires on Muslims with them."
Insults were also levied against the Ottomans for having "brought with
you this contrivance artfully devised by the Christians of Europe when
they were incapable of meeting the Muslim armies on the battlefield." Similarly, musketeers and musket-wielding infantrymen were despised in society by the feudalknights, even until the time of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616). Eventually the Mamluks under Qaitbay
were ordered in 1489 to train in the use of al-bunduq al-rasas
(arquebuses). However, in 1514 an Ottoman army of 12,000 soldiers
wielding arquebuses still managed to rout a much larger Mamluk force.
The arquebus had become a common infantry weapon by the 16th century
due to its relative cheapness – a helmet, breastplate and pike cost
about three and a quarter ducats while an arquebus only a little over
one ducat.
Another advantage of arquebuses over other equipment and weapons was
its short training period. While a bow potentially took years to master,
an effective arquebusier could be trained in just two weeks.
According to a 1571 report by Vincentio d'Alessandri, Persian arms
including arquebuses "were superior and better tempered than those of
any other nation."
In the early 1500s a larger arquebus known as the musket
appeared. The heavy musket, while being rather awkward to handle,
requiring a fork rest to fire properly, had the advantage of being able
to penetrate the best armor within a range of 180 meters, regular armor
at 365 meters, and an unarmed man at 548 meters. However, both the
musket and arquebus were effectively limited to a range of only 90 to
185 meters regardless of armor since they were incredibly inaccurate. According to some sources, a smoothbore musket was completely incapable of hitting a man sized target past the 73-meter mark.
While rifled guns did exist at this time in the form of grooves cut
into the interior of a barrel, these were considered specialist weapons
and limited in number.
In some aspects this made the smoothbore musket an inferior weapon
compared to the bow. The average Mamluk archer for example was capable
of hitting targets only 68 meters far away but could keep up a pace of
six to eight shots per minute. In comparison, sixteenth-century
matchlocks fired off one shot every several minutes, and much less when
taking into consideration misfires and malfunctions which occurred up to
half the time. This is not to say that firearms of the 16th century
were inferior to the bow and arrow, for it could better penetrate armor
and required less training, but the disadvantages of the musket were
very real, and it would not be until the 1590s that archers were for the
most part phased out of European warfare.
This was possibly a consequence of the increased effectiveness of
musket warfare due to the rise of volley fire in Europe as first applied
by the Dutch. At this time gunners in European armies reached as high as 40 percent of infantry forces.
As the virtues of the musket became apparent it was quickly
adopted throughout Eurasia so that by 1560 even in China generals were
giving praise to the new weapon. Qi Jiguang, a noted partisan of the
musket, gave a eulogy on the effectiveness of the gun in 1560:
It is unlike any other of the many
types of fire weapons. In strength it can pierce armor. In accuracy it
can strike the center of targets, even to the point of hitting the eye
of a coin [i.e., shooting right through a coin], and not just for
exceptional shooters.… The arquebus [鳥銃] is such a powerful weapon and
is so accurate that even bow and arrow cannot match it, and … nothing is
so strong as to be able to defend against it.
— Jixiao Xinshu
Other East Asian powers such as Đại Việt
also adopted the matchlock musket in quick order. Đại Việt in
particular was considered by the Ming to have produced the most advanced
matchlocks in the world during the 17th century, surpassing even
Ottoman, Japanese, and European firearms. European observers of the Trịnh–Nguyễn War
also corroborated with the Ming in the proficiency of matchlock making
by the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese matchlock was said to have been able
to pierce several layers of iron armour, kill two to five men in one
shot, yet also fire quietly for a weapon of its caliber.
Gunpowder Empires
An illustration by Byam Shaw from the book The Adventures of Akbar by Flora Annie Steel. It depicts artillerymen.
The Gunpowder Empires generally refer to the Islamic Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires. The phrase was first coined by Marshall Hodgson in the title of Book 5 ("The Second Flowering: The Empires of Gunpowder Times") of his highly influential three-volume work, The Venture of Islam (1974).
Hogdson applied the term "gunpowder empire" to three Islamic
political entities he identified as separate from the unstable,
geographically limited confederations of Turkic clans that prevailed in
post-Mongol times. He called them "military patronage states of the
Later Middle Period," which possessed three defining characteristics:
first, a legitimization of independent dynastic law; second, the
conception of the whole state as a single military force; third, the
attempt to explain all economic and high cultural resources as appanages
of the chief military families.
Connecting these empires were their traditions which grew "out of
Mongol notions of greatness," but "[s]uch notions could fully mature and
create stable bureaucratic empires only after gunpowder weapons and
their specialized technology attained a primary place in military life."
William H. McNeill
further expanded on the concept of gunpowder empires by arguing that
such states "were able to monopolize the new artillery, central
authorities were able to unite larger territories into new, or newly
consolidated, empires."
In 2011 Douglas E. Streusand criticized the Hodgson-McNeill
Gunpowder-Empire hypothesis, calling it into disfavor as a neither
"adequate [n]or accurate" explanation, although the term remains in use.
The main problem he saw with the Hodgson-McNeill theory is that the
acquisition of firearms does not seem to have preceded the initial
acquisition of territory constituting the imperial critical mass of any
of the three early modern Islamic empires, except in the case of the
Mughals. Moreover, it seems that the commitment to military autocratic
rule pre-dated the acquisition of gunpowder weapons in all three cases.
Whether or not gunpowder was inherently linked to the existence
of any of these three empires, it cannot be questioned that each of the
three acquired artillery and firearms early in their history and made
such weapons an integral part of their military tactics.
Ottoman Empire
It's not certain when the Ottomans
started using firearms, however it's argued that they had been using
cannons since the Battles of Kosovo (1389) and Nukap (1396) and most
certainly by the 1420s.
Some argue that field guns only entered service shortly after the
Battle of Varna (1444) and more certainly used in the Second Battle of
Kosovo (1448). Firearms, (especially grenades) were used in the 1683
siege of Vienna The arquebus reached them around 1425.
India and the Mughal Empire
An illustration from the Akbarnama written by Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1551–1602) depicts a gun in Akbar's court (bottom center).
In India, guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut (1504) and Diu (1533). By the 17th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore, Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad. Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century. Bengal and Mālwa participated in saltpeter production. The Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English used Chāpra as a center of saltpeter refining.
The Indian war rockets were formidable weapons before
such rockets were used in Europe. They had bam-boo rods, a rocket-body
lashed to the rod, and iron points. They were directed at the target and
fired by lighting the fuse, but the trajectory was rather erratic. The
use of mines and counter-mines with explosive charges of gunpowder is
mentioned for the times of Akbar and Jahāngir.
Gunpowder
was used for hydraulic engineering in China by 1541. Gunpowder blasting
followed by dredging of the detritus was a technique which Chen Mu
employed to improve the Grand Canal at the waterway where it crossed the Yellow River. In Europe, gunpowder was used in the construction of the Canal du Midi in Southern France. It was completed in 1681 and linked the Mediterranean sea with the Atlantic with 240 km of canal and 100 locks. Another noteworthy consumer of black powder was the Erie Canal in New York, which was 585 km long and took eight years to complete, starting in 1817.
Mining
Before
gunpowder was applied to civil engineering, there were two ways to break
up large rocks, by hard labor or by heating with large fires followed
by rapid quenching. The earliest record for the use of gunpowder in
mines comes from Hungary in 1627. It was introduced to Britain in 1638 by German miners, after which records are numerous. Until the invention of the safety fuse by William Bickford in 1831, the practice was extremely dangerous. Another reason for danger were the dense fumes given off and the risk of igniting flammable gas when used in coal mines.
Tunnel construction
Gunpowder
was also extensively used in railway construction. At first railways
followed the contours of the land, or crossed low ground by means of
bridges and viaducts, but later railways made extensive use of cuttings and tunnels. One 2400-ft stretch of the 5.4 mi Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway line between London and Bristol consumed a ton of gunpowder per week for over two years. The 12.9 km long Mont Cenis Tunnel was completed in 13 years starting in 1857 but, even with black powder, progress was only 25 cm a day until the invention of pneumatic drills sped up the work.
United States
Revolutionary War
During
the American Revolutionary War, a number of caves were mined for
saltpeter to make gunpowder when supplies from Europe were embargoed. Abigail Adams reputedly also made gunpowder at her family farm in Massachusetts.
The New York Committee of Safety produced some essays on making gunpowder that were printed in 1776.
Civil War
During the American Civil War, British India was the main source for saltpeter for the manufacture of gunpowder for the Union armies. This supply was threatened by the British government during the Trent Affair,
when Union naval forces stopped a British ship, the RMS Trent, and
removed two Confederate diplomats. The British government responded in
part by halting all exports of saltpeter to the United States,
threatening their gunpowder manufacturing resources. Shortly thereafter,
the situation was resolved and the Confederate diplomats were released.
The Union Navy blockaded the southern Confederate States, which reduced the amount of gunpowder that could be imported from overseas. The Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau was formed to produce gunpowder for the army and the navy from domestic resources. Nitre is the English spelling of "Niter". While carbon and sulfur were readily available throughout the south, potassium nitrate was often produced from the Calcium nitrate
found in cave dirt, tobacco barn floors and barn stalls other places. A
number of caves were mined, and the men and boys who worked in the
caves were called "peter monkey", somewhat in imitation of the naval term "powder monkey" that was used for the boys who brought up charges of gunpowder on gunboats.
On 13 November 1862, the Confederate government advertised in the
Charleston Daily Courier for 20 or 30 "able bodied Negro men" to work
in the new nitre beds at Ashley Ferry, S.C. The nitre beds
were large rectangles of rotted manure and straw, moistened weekly with
urine, "dung water", and liquid from privies, cesspools and drains, and
turned over regularly. The process was designed to yield saltpeter, an
ingredient of gunpowder, which the Confederate army needed during the
Civil War. The South was so desperate for saltpeter for gunpowder that
one Alabama official reportedly placed a newspaper ad asking that the
contents of chamber pots be saved for collection. In the winter of
1863, scores of enslaved people were set to work extracting it from a
huge cave in Barstow County, Ga., where they labored by torchlight in
grim conditions, hauling out and processing the so-called "peter dirt",.
In South Carolina, in April 1864, the Confederate government hired 31
enslaved people to work at the Ashley Ferry Nitre Works.
Decline
The latter half of the 19th century saw the invention of nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose and smokeless powders which soon replaced traditional gunpowder in most civil and military applications.
.jpg)
_-_Emplacement_d-une_Bertha_(pd).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
