Ten Views of Artillery in the Great War

1.  A Poilu Observes Artillery Fire

The rumbling of the artillery became more and more frequent and ended up forming a single rumbling of the whole earth. From all sides, outgoing bursts and explosions threw forth their flashing beams which lit up the dark sky over our heads with strips of light in all directions. Then the bombing grew so heavy that the flashes became continuous. In the midst of the uninterrupted chain of thunder claps we could see each other directly, helmets streaming like the bodies of fish, gleaming black iron shovels, and the whitish drops of the endless rain, truly it was like moonlight created by cannon fire.

Henri Barbusse, Under Fire

2.  An Illustrator's View of the Big Guns

3.  AI's Answer to:  "What  can  you  tell  me  about artillery  in  WWI?"

Artillery was the dominant and most destructive weapon of World War I, completely shaping how the war was fought. It caused up to 70 percent of all battlefield casualties and dictated military tactics on both sides. 

       Destructiveness

• Massive Casualties: It caused the majority of deaths and physical trauma during the conflict.
• Shell Shock: The constant psychological terror of bombardment created severe psychological trauma.
• Landscape Alteration: Millions of shells blasted fields into muddy, cratered, and completely unrecognizable terrain.

Tactical Impact 

• Enforced Trench Warfare: Heavy fire forced soldiers underground into deep defensive trenches for survival.
• No Man's Land: Continuous bombardment destroyed all cover between opposing trenches.
• Barbed Wire Destruction: Armies used prolonged bombardments to cut wire before infantry charges. 

Evolution of Tactics

• Flash Spotting: New scientific methods located enemy guns by measuring sound and light flashes.
• Creeping Barrage: Artillery fired just ahead of advancing infantry to shield them from defenders.
• Counter-Battery Fire: Armies dedicated specific batteries solely to destroying enemy artillery pieces.     
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• From Gemini at Google Chrome
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4.  A Poet's View

5. The Human Body's Response to Being Bombarded

The first thing a soldier would experience would be the concussive force of the explosion, caused by the rapid release of energy compressing the air particles. This is often referred to as “over-pressure.” Soldiers feel like the air is sucked out of the area, causing a tightening of the skin and pulsating of the eyes.

Split milliseconds after the over-pressure strikes and radiates outwards, it is followed by shock waves that create a vacuum in the immediate area of the explosion. Oxygen is pushed out, sucked back in, and then immediately pushed out again into a gut-smashing wave of energy. The blast wave followed by the shock wave creates havoc on internal organs—brain, lungs, stomach—often pulverizing them if the soldier is too close to the point of impact. Air sucked out of the lungs leaves the soldier gasping for breath. The shock wave is felt strongly in the gut. Blood is forced out of organs and arteries upwards towards the brain. After successive blasts, eardrums could rupture causing bleeding out of the ears.

This is then followed by the outward force of the rapidly expanding gases that grabs anything in the nearby area and throws it outward with relentless force. Soldiers standing are the most vulnerable to this part of the blast, as if they are hurled into something solid—such as a tree or building—they can be killed by the impact. Lying on the ground can often mitigate this effect, as the pulse of the blast rolls over them and the shock is dissipated up and out.

The sound—or report—of the blast was incredibly loud, damaging eardrums. Heat from the explosion would burn those caught in the blast—although the over-pressure would have already killed them.

So much for the explosion itself.

Shells are encased with metal sheathing, which upon detonation is broken up into tiny fragments that are projected upwards and outwards at speeds of over 60 miles per hour. These shards embed in flesh or—if large enough—rip parts of the body away. Soldiers struck directly would explode in all directions, leaving nothing remaining of their existence other than blood and fragments of bone, flesh, organs, and uniform scraps. Soldiers entering Belleau Wood in 1918 remarked with disgust at the bodies and body parts hanging from high in the shattered trees. Shrapnel shredded trees, bushes, rocks, anything in the area, creating more deadly fragments.

Multiply this by the rate of in-coming fire. Say, one concussion every second, and bombardments could last for hours.

The Angry Staff Officer

6.  A Gunner's View of Loading and Firing a 60-pounder Field Heavy Gun

First of all you put the shell into the breech, then you have a long ramming tool, a drift they called it; you stand with your back to the gun and ram it home. When you’d put that in, you put the cartridge in. Then you closed the breech, which closed the breech block itself, had threads on it. Well then the lever had a link connecting it from the lever itself to the bottom of the breech block, and when you’ve closed the breech lever further, that link caused the breech block to revolve by sixty degrees, thereby locking all the threads together. Well then there was a hole right through the breech block by which means you ignited the cartridge.  You put in a little tube, revolved it ninety degrees, which locked it, and then there was a little loop on that, metal ring on that, and you hooked your lanyard into that and when you pulled that this caused a flash – almost like striking a match – and the flash went through and impinged on the red end of the cartridge, thereby igniting the cartridge, and that blew the shell out.

Leonard Ounsworth, Royal Garrison Artillery

7.  The Lives of Artillery Shells

8.  A Statistician's View

9.  Inside a 37 MM Shell

10. Roads to the Great War's Library of Artillery Articles, HERE