Field Artillery | Evolution of Warfare 1450-1650
Artillery was a touchy subject in the late medieval and the early modern period. For example, captured enemy master gunners were frequently made a human cannonball. Friendly artillerymen, in contrast, were usually appreciated for their destructive capabilities but not trusted completely. Their craft of killing and destroying at a distance was incomprehensible to the other soldiers and considered by many to be a dark art. So, without further ado let’s look at what this dark art looked like in practice and what the position of artillery was within early modern armies.
Patreon (thank you): / sandrhomanhistory
Merch store: sandrhoman.creator-spring.com/
Paypal (thank you: www.paypal.com/paypalme/SandR...
Twitter: / sandrhoman
Go to squarespace.com/sandrhoman to get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Bibliography:
Fiedler, S., Kriegswesen und Kriegsführung im Zeitalter der Landsknechte, Koblenz 1985.
Van Nimwegen, O., The Dutch Army and the Military Revolutions. 1588-1688.
Ortenburg, G., Waffe und Waffengebrauch im Zeitalter der Landsknechte, Koblenz 1984.
Schmidtchen, V., "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", Technikgeschichte, 44.3(1977), pp 213-237.
DeVries, K./ Smith, R. D., Medieval Military Technology, Toronto 2012.
Quaas, Gerhard, s.v. Artillery, in: Enzyklopädie der frühen Neuzeit Online, referenceworks.brillonline.co... (letzter Aufruf am 19.05.2022).
Pepper, Simon, Operational Art: Communication, Cannon, Small War, in: Tallet, Frank/Trim, D. J. B. (Ed.), European Warfare 1350-1750, Cambridge 2010.
Any suggestions / ideas for this years’ Q4 content?
give us more sieges and we will be happy.
I would love to see a video discussing the 1527 siege of Rome
How about the fall of the Roman Empire and the transition to the Merovingians and Franconian kings?🤔
Maybe a bit more naval combat.
@@swordsmen8856 The sack? we already have an old video about that! Not too much focuse on the siege itself though!
"What kind of dark art is this?" "Bruh I'm just loading giant ball into giant tube"
"And then burning a thing behind it."
@@Zappygunshot "After that it flies out very fast."
@@DNS-Freakz "...sometimes. Sometimes everything just flies apart. And that's why you probably shouldn't be standing here talking to me right now."
"The year fourteen hundred and fifty three, Constantinople has fallen, Muslim Ottoman ☪ Turks, 🇹🇷 swept into eastern europe threatening all of christendom, 💒 here in Wallachia, 🇷🇴 arose a wallachian warlord of the sacred order of the dragon, 🐲 Vlad Dracula the 3rd." 🧛♂️ The Narrator.
That would also kill the enemy without the chance of him killing you. its a God grace!
Fun Fact: 45 Degrees is indeed the mathematical optimal elevation. But thanks to air resistance, the maximum range is more likely to be reached with 40 degree.
Cool didn't know that
Yeah, but that only works if you first appease the demons and dark forces that inhabit your cannon.
@@samy7013 they're a needy bunch
While true, range is also largely determined by projectile and charge... This got particularly complex in the late 1700's-mid 1800's as timed airburst fragmentation shells (typically mortar fired) technology developed... A different charge for each different shell, a different length of fuse depending on flight time, plus range and trajectory. It's really fascinating and the documents can be found online, I believe for a fee.
@@hshgf3410 : lol, very much so. 🤣😂😁
Vauban, Louis XIV's general, perfected the art of siege artillery of his time in the late 17th century. He would deserve an episode by himself. He could exactly predict how long a fortification could hold given the numbers and types of cannons, and had a geometric theory for how to optimize their emplacements.
"By Heracles! A man's valor is dead." Archidamus when he saw a catapult fire for the first time.´
No he didn't.
Don't forget Coehoorn
"City besieged by Vauban, city taken. City fortified by Vauban, impregnable city". Saying at Vauban's time.
Gunpowder has to be the worst invention in history. Cant think anything worse but I'm only up to WW1 history. Next semester we start on WW2 and all the horrors of that war. Maybe something new, something worse is to come? I'll keep you posted
I always loved how in AOE2 the bombards are pushed around by a single dude with back problems.
That guy might be strong, but he is no match for the autonomous robot artillery from Cossacks which just pushes itself.
while onagers and scorpions and trebuchets are sentient beings
"How do I turn this on?" Your petty & puny cannons are no match against mine, lol if you know, you know XD 🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️🏎️ Lol
I must say, artillery is just… _staggering_ .
Just ask the Ukrainians at Donbass. They would know.
Is this a firing drill pun?
@@user-bi7vj7sp7x ooooof
All this for a smoothbore tube
Damned wizards and their artillery pieces.
Gandalf? why did you shot that damn cannon again? it's not good for the master gunner's health!
Reminds me of the final battle in the old movie "Wizards" ;)
Could it be that they receive preferential treatment because their craft is highly technical and requires a significant investment of time and training? No. Clearly they have used witchcraft to bewitch our leaders into doing them favors.
@@Vyleea "let me show you some REAL magic" *boom!* truly a classic piece of cinema that. Good taste in films, lady.
Your channel is something special because you always surprise me with the choice of topics and how thoroughly you cover them. gj man.
Glad he specified the scope. By narrowing down to European history in the introduction there is no need to mention other parts of the world without looking Eurocentric
Artillery makes a dignified fight, of what would otherwise be an ugly brawl.
Yes, Frederick the Great.................although there is nothing dignified about the incoming side of the artillery.
@@sanderwissink5330 True
Somehow I doubt Frederick the Great would be of the same mindset if he witnessed the first world war up close.
No it doesn't.
Isn't he criticised for not using Artillery effectively?
Sounds like the evolution of tank forces, from being a prototype like unit into a standardized forces.
like every new miltary equipment
Only that happened in one generation, artillery has been in use through 4 different ages of humanity. Tanks were also an evolution of artillery themselves, mainly becoming a moving weapons platform.. for artillery.
@@WhatIsSanity Self propelled artillery and tanks are 2 different types of things though.
@@ultraranger1286 Conceptually speaking tanks are artillery. Take the main gun off a tank and put it on a carriage -you have a field gun being used for the exact same purpose as the tank, only worse.
@@WhatIsSanity Not to um actually you but... _um, actually_ tanks are an evolution of the role of cavalry. They are used to punch holes in enemy lines at specific points and overrun fortified positions, as well as advancing deeper into enemy territory and disrupting supply lines; much like what the various forms of cavalry were for before armoured vehicles existed. The tactics used on the battlefield are even highly similar, and in fact in the early days armoured divisions were still referred to as 'cavalry'. A good clue to this is the fact that there's no more horses running around on the battlefield, whereas big static cannons firing from a fortified position are still a thing to this day - one of them was made obsolete by another invention that could take over the role, whilst the other continued to grow and develop.
King of Battle is a title won with blood, lots of blood. Field Artillery is seen as an upstart usurper when it was infantry and cavalry who had been battling for supremacy for most of written human history. The same applies to the Air Force now.
The Air Force, besides performing reconnaissance, is essentially an airborne artillery platform.
@@mjfleming319 : Don’t forget the transport capacity for moving troops, equipment, and supplies.
True!
@National Socialism : Ferrying troops or specialized equipment in a hurry from place to place, transporting paratroopers and commandos for special operations, transporting wounded to live-saving specialized medical treatment quickly, all of these (and more, which I haven’t covered) still matter. You’re just an amateur making amateurish statements.
@National Socialism : lol, you’re acting like SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) doesn’t exist. There are tons of soft-kill and hard-kill methods to suppress even the most robust air defenses. And in the real world, air defense systems (and crews) don’t always perform up to specification or training, which gives plenty of openings to the enemy to penetrate your airspace. Air defense systems are not some magical impregnable force field, and can break down or be overwhelmed. They have their place on the battlefield, but are not a silver bullet. Also, a good air transport capability even behind your own lines can make the difference between victory and defeat in battle, so to discount it out of hand is just silly. I never implied in my original comment that air transport capability had to be offensive. I was replying to the person who looked at air forces as nothing but flying artillery and reconnaissance vehicles, and I reminded them that air forces are much more than that.
So, you‘re telling me the only difference between bell and canon is the shape?
also the sound it makes.
@@clintmoor422 : And the demons that inhabit them.
@@clintmoor422 even that, the best cannons Will "sing" like bells if you hit them. Barrel Harmony Is crucial when It comes to accuracy
An interesting sidenote: this is also an era of colonial expansion, and most colonial powers, particularly Spain (to my definitive knowledge) limited or (in the case of Spin) completely prohibited colonial manufacture of all firearms, artillery, and/or gunpowder. By amazing coincidence, this video came out just after I spent a few hours researching colonial prohibitions on firearms, artillery and powder manufacture. Okay, it's not amazing, I randomly research things.
That is interesting though
@@JacksonHighlander it shows how powerful they knew they knew how effective firearms, particularly artillery, was. It was prohibited in the Spanish American colonies for anyone who wasn't of pure Spanish (or at least "white" blood) to own one, use one, or manufacture them... It's much harder to start an insurrection without firearms and explosives, and the process to make artillery requires permanent infrastructure, something which the natives and non whites of every variety just had to live with.... Or make questionable near deathtrap "cannons" out of hollow logs and barrel hoops that could only throw shrapnel. Given the massive sulphur deposits in central America, native powder manufacture was fairly easily accomplished... And of course, even the richest in the New World, born in Spain and everything... Well, even they had to, or were supposed to, import their weapons and powder directly from Spain. Of course, this monopoly only bred high level deception, and shortly workshops were opening (run by the already wealthy, secretly) producing counterfeit Spanish goods. This has not only been proven by records of them getting shut down, but also on the antique firearms market. It's an interesting study, and I barely scratched the surface, researching it.
This is perfectly in line with other colonial polices. Spain also didn't allow printing presses or higher education in the colonies, and all trade in the entire Spanish Americas was legally restricted to 2 ports in the Atlantic and one on the Pacific, The Spanish realized their massive empire would inherently difficult to control and these over the top-regulations were the result. Of course it only lead to an explosion in smuggling and corruption because the Spanish could never really enforce all these laws.
@@Oxtocoatl13 I suspect you know more about this than I, looking at your name... I just ran into this randomly because I'm always researching something historical, I started with the pre-Columbian Inca years ago, and have slowly been moving further north and further through time. The rise of the Aztecs as seen through their eyes as opposed to some of the surrounding tribes, combined with the obvious cultural influence of earlier inhabitants of the area, I found particularly interesting. Unfortunately, I get very confused with the names, but I did get the -coatl suffix on your name, that's serpent in Nahuatl, I believe. I spent a large bit of the spring trying to figure out the Aztec pantheon and how it's related to the other older civilizations nearby. It is very interesting, albeit confusing for me. I'd love to continue this discussion and I'll happily take any good links you have on the topic(s). I'm used to doing 700-1100 northern European (Germanic) history and the Napoleonic era. I'm not fluent in any useful language for studying south or central America unless it's in Latin, I hate to say.
I see
Wow, the graphics in this video are awesome. This is an amazing channel, and it keeps getting better!
No they aren't.
@@HornyIndianMan that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
WW1 showed the absolute brutality and horror of artillery, now combined with machineguns.
BRB inventing a machinegun that fires cannons...
@@alexreilly6121Mark 19: You rang?
Thank you for putting so much work and effort for this great video. 😊
Truly great video, one of your best. Thank you for posting!!
I would L O V E to see a form of competitive sport artillery with 3-man teams using small-caliber pieces to compete in contests of accuracy and efficiency.
Me too bud, me too.
Unless I'm mistaken, you could set this up in some US states where muzzleloaders aren't subject to gun laws and therefore unregulated. Any governing body for competitive sports would probably have an aneurysm at the idea, though.
what your talking about is basically war games. its fairly common among militaries
@@joedatius Nah man I want Red Bull to have a 3 man team operating a meticulously engineered 4lb canon trying to hit wooden cutout targets on a hillside 500 yards away with drone footage and beautiful scenery, complete with commentary. I want pageantry, modernized historical uniforms, the teams show up on horseback. Teams try to hit as many targets as possible in a set amount of time or have a set amount of shots to score as many points as possible. That sort of thing.
3:09 an episode on them would be amazing
I just wanted to say kudos to whomever does the animations, they did a great job!
They're getting better all the time aren't they
Could you please take a look at fortifications after the star fortresses? I've found very little information on the topic (mostly both world wars, especially the time up to the great war)
Very high quality video, congratulations!
Artillery is a very magical beauty, indeed.
yeah the fitting weapon for a coward. There was once a little war criminal who had a kind of fetish with it
@@claas.relotius : Huh? Did a cannon beat you up steal your lunch when you were a kid?
@@samy7013 he was bullied by a Howitzer gun pfft
@@claas.relotius ah, yes, I suppose not wanting to die in a war while still wishing for victory is cowardly. Not like that's what everyone's ancestors have attempted since they thought to throw rocks at opponents at a distance.
wow so many artillery fetishists. Only little Boney the coward he is didn't dare to respond
i was looking up for this video for sooo long. grea job, guys!
lookking up dark art?^^
I really appreciate you putting the ad at the end so I can... give it my full attention...
I've always found history fascinating! New subscriber here!
Fun fact: in Sweden if we really like something, we simply say the Swedish word for canon ("kanon").
Almost win Denmark 🇩🇰 in war battle. Sand historie 🇩🇰
“Artillery adds dignity, to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl” - Frederick the Great
Yes, now you could die a horrific death without even being granted the dignity of looking your killer in the eye, or knowing he existed at all. Such dignity and grace, watching limbs turn to ragged ribbons and comrades turn to red mist. And those were the lucky ones...
I wonder... why do other youtubers not reach this level of depth in their videos? Is it because it doesn't sell well? or are they lazy?
Could also be access to information
probably both. also remember that many youtube "history" channels dont employ actual historians, only enthusiasts, that dont have the academic training on how to best utilize sources
Yes
Appreciate the subtitles
The Alamo defenders loaded their cannon with nails, chopped up horseshoes, etc., turning the cannon into a shotgun or had solid balls. Remember these were frontiersmen, scouts, volunteers, etc.
So Master Gunners were disliked like snipers
very interesting video!
My Favourite YT Channel
I did not know there was such things as an artilery guild.
Something noteworthy about artillery is how its still the king of the battlefield even today
The who is the emperor?
@@Napoleonic_British_India3919 ABCs
It the early days it was a problem of consistency: of shot, gunpowder and the quality of the casting of the cannon, any of which could effect and accurate result.
Very nice video, good job! It seems strange to me that it was the people of Europe who really took to gunpowder and not China or India or the Near East. I think they all had the formula years before it reached Europe, and they also had a hell of lot more nitrate naturally available than Europe ever had. Only the Europeans it seems made the massive investments in chemistry, metallurgy, and basic scholarship needed to turn an interesting toy into a world beating weapon.
Hm, my quick guess: While China had a lot of fighting, at the point of its discovery it was mainly with their own. Plus conservative mindset (Mandate of heaven as an example). India has Monsun, at which time artillery is useless, especially early ones. Plus conservative. While in Europe, you had different, more heterogen cultures, vastly different opinions and as a result of that the most beneficial thing for development - conflict, especially war. Lots and lots of war.
I mean the Near Eastern cultures made very effective use of gunpowder in the 15th and 16th Centuries. The Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire and Safavid Persia were all built with gunpowder weapons. Further east, although gunpowder was always used, climate conditions and political factors were probably decisive. In the late Middle Ages China was still the cutting edge in gunpowder weapons, but it seems after the Ming dynasty consolidated power and turned inward less research was made on the subject and eventually the Chinese fell behind.
Austria and the Holy Roman Empire maintained the artillery guilds into the 20th century. WWI brought them to an end. In the 18th century, the great artilleryman Lieutenant General Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval cut his teeth in the Austrian artillery guild and developed his system because of that experience.
That didn't happen.
11:14 Is that the Triple Hollyhock heraldry I see in the top right corner? I bet this illustration is depicting the 1639 demonstration of Dutch Mortar for the Tokugawa Shogunate, where out of 13 shells, only 1 hits the target, a farming hut. The second shell exploded inside the mortar, so the last shell was set in the hut to save face.
The standardisation of artillery calibres, during the 16th century, was the greatest improvement to artillery logistics for both maritime & land operated artillery everywhere. Most 16th century ships utilised Falconet / Fawconet calibre cannon (2.25 inch / 57mm. bore shooting a 2 inch / 53mm. ball). We still use a few of these 16th century artillery calibres today, though we've stopped using the mythical creature nicknames assigned to each calibre long ago.
Naval warfare would indeed be an interesting subject for a video
Thank you for using KZhead's auto-generating English. I am always interested in how some of the terms and names are pronounced and spelled so I can look them up later, and I've had to do a lot of guessing in your past videos.
dark arts, sorcerery, the devil? I'm sure some believed this, but I bet the origin & intent behind these "suspicions" were rooted in something more timeless & human. Greed & envy due to status, pay, perks, etc.
I mean, people still pay some mind to superstition. Even in a world with public schooling and education and science. Imagine back then.
Generals likely enjoyed quite some benefit from spreading demonising propaganda about the nature of artillery pieces and their operators. A sketchy reputation would make it much harder for them to find jobs and safety elsewhere without the protection of the army they served, so it created incentives to remain loyal. Conversely, fear of witchcraft, devilry and the unknown would've scared away most from trying to unearth the secrets the master gunners so closely guarded, so they likely benefitted from the arrangement just as much.
@@Zappygunshot I understand everything you're saying, but I think you're ascribing a bit too much power to the "holy" ruling over living life day-to-day. I can't prove this, but there were reasons behind my comment. First off, I think we're pretty close in understanding. I concede during that time more superstition & unsubstantiated-belief was incorporated. As for real "fear", yes it lead (*at times*) to some nasty responses. Simple, we're agreed. But it's the "at times" I believe is most relevant. I can't think of how to say what I need w/out going too long, maybe a list will work: - just from reading history I'm pretty sure if I was sent back to @1400AD, (1st cannons) or even ancient Rome, there'd be little problem relating to the people. At least for @2.5K years I basically see us all as contemporary to one another. Those in the past 'seem' so distant only b/c of our average human lifespan. - thinking @ war, it remained largely unchanged until the 20th century. meaning most time is spent doing...nothing. Which leads to sitting around, bonding, and forming cliques. All of which inevitably leads to...judgement...of every kind! - For example, how much it grates on the common grunts that "those guys" are treated so much better, even though "we run around dying while they hide behind those massive things. It's bullshit, man"! ;) - as for the "devil" tech, I'd bet anything that Cost-of-Entry was Far more a barrier than fear. No? - basically I see men as men, little changed no matter how bright we've made the night. Even with the (much) greater adherence to religion then, they were simply people living long days & nights. Which means "earthly" concerns frequently rule, regardless of how devout. - I look & see tombs, barrow-mounds, pyramids, etc., being raided going back BEFORE Rome began. And that screams one thing for me...man's desire for desire, for getting ahead. Powerful & related is the "coveting" of what someone else has but you don't! Inescapable emotions, existing no matter how you're "supposed" to feel. - oh, and murder has always been a "cardinal sin", yet countless men who feared eternal damnation overcame those jitters! - In summary...man is as man was, ruled chiefly by the moments that exist right in front of him. - I think that took way too long, sorry. But that's basically all I meant. ✌️.
I view it as being used as more of an insult, rather than to be taken literally as them being dark magicians. People weren’t stupid back then, it’s easily discernible that these big tubes making flashes of fire were launching giant balls out of them, some kind of fire powered catapult one would assume? ~ that’s a logical thought process, rather than ‘huh duh they’re demonic wizards’ I refuse to be,Evie people were that silly. So I’m rather sure labelling them as ‘dark arts’ was an insult with some sarcasm, rather than people literally thinking they were wizards.
Bring in the big guns! My favorite branch.
"Now the Mayans will think,🤔 if Pedro de Alvarado is some kind of God?" "Who can summon thunder ⚡ and lightning 🌩 down 👇 from the sky?"
You should have mentioned Casimir Siemenowicz's artis magnae artileriae which was really influential and was studied up to the ww1. Otherwise great work
"Now the Aztecs will think, 🤔 if Hernan Cortez is some kind of God?" "Who can summon thunder ⚡ and lightning 🌩 down 👇 from the sky?"
"Now the Hopi tribe will think, 🤔 if Francisco Coronado is some kind of God?" "Who can summon thunder ⚡ and lightning 🌩 down 👇 from the sky?"
Spain went from the Reconquista to the keepers of Catholithism in Europe essentially keeping the Pope's power past its middle age epoc. perhaps videos on the evolution of their armies as I feel they maintained hegemony over a quickly changing warfare age.
Please make more videos on artillery and coins
Kind of a nice job on the battlefield , saver than as an infantry soldier for sure.
Artillery was prime target for cavalry tho, and being captured in the early artillery era was very dangerous
11:22 is that a Portugese or some other European demonstrating the mortar for the Tokugawa Shogunate?
At 12:04 it shows "fireballs" being used in ship to ship combat, but the Wikipedia article on heated shots say it was primarily used from land against ships. And the Wikipedia article on the Paixhans gun claims that prior to 1823 explosive shells were used only by mortars and howitzers, not by flat trajectory cannons against ships.
when quoting wikipedia, you should remember to mention the source book that wikipedia refernces. if you look at the numbered notes at the end of the page, it says what book is referenced for each number in the main text. at least that's what we normally do in the university when we ever use wikipedia in our bibliography for research
@@apokos8871 I hope instead you actually go to the referenced books and see yourself what they say about the subject, and not just copy the references from Wikipedia...
@@jankoodziej877 we never copy text from wikipedia, or even from source books, that's plagiarism and your paper gets disqualified
@@apokos8871 I was talking about copying references, not coping the text.
@@jankoodziej877 if you use a reference the text must match (but not exactly) what the source book says, so you cant just use a source without reading it first. that goes without saying
No puedo entender que daño puede causar en campo abierto. Una bola de piedra o de metal,que además necesitan tanto tiempo para recargarse
Crafting and maintaining the same quality in gunpowders was the hardest challenge up to the invention of smokeless powders. In fact, the military gunpowders made in the 19th century were superior in quality of the ones made today.
Can you make a video on camel mounted riflemen?
Would have have thought Battle of Dessau Bridge would have been mentioned for its role in artillery advancement. Or rather the importance of artillery there. Wallenstein wasn’t exact an experienced commander after all then but he decided to simply buy the biggest guns available. Great video otherwise
0:09 ROTFLMAO That's horrible *collapses laughing*
"Now the Arawak tribe, Mixtecs, Olmecs, Toltecs, Zapotecs, and the Muisca, will think, 🤔 if the spanish, 🇪🇸 conquistadors were some kind of God?" "Who can summon thunder ⚡ and lightning 🌩 down 👇 from the sky?"
Wait was the moder background a Japanese rice patty?
Just for the irony, if I ever go back to a time with lots of cannons and am used as one of those human cannonballs, there's no way I'm not yelling CANNONBALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL all the way into my own wall :D
King of Battle, it's good to be the king.
Perusing the early history of field artillery, you come across the Chinese cannon, awesomely named ... "Thousand Ball Thunder Cannon"
Did people think pre-gunpowder artillery was dishonorable and cowardly in the same way?
No because it was too imprecise and also was harder to apply than cannons
Absolutely, people have always been mad at people that throws stuff at them from a distance
The Black Art of BOOM! 💣 💥
Dark arts: Put black powder here, put ball here, make BOOM. Profit.
meanwhile me in CK3 building SO MANY bombards in the early 1200's: "Yes, very rare. I did have far fewer of them than elephants when I conquered Bohemia."
Naval battles of the 16th century are quite rare. Especially in the Mediterranean.
I'm not so sure about that: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_naval_battles#16th_century It's not a comprehensive list but it has a few examples.
@@SchwarzStein89 Wrong Phrasing: I meant with rare: quite rare that documentaries focus on them except the big ones like Lepanto (which is really more like laaaaaate 15th century 1499/1500)
@@KakyouKuzuki2001 Lepanto was late 16th century, it was in 1571. But I get what you mean now.
@@SchwarzStein89 Ah yes, the big battle of Lepanto was in the late 16th.. But there were two more naval battles of Lepanto in the crossing from the 15th to the 16th century.. First Battle of Lepanto and Battle of Modon, there the players were the Ottomans and the Republic of Venice... But the very big naval battle of Lepanto with the whole christian coalition against the Ottomans was, as you said in 1571... It is the same as with the Siege of Vienna. The big siege that is well known and covered very often is the siege of 1683 but the first siege from 1529 is rarely covered ;)
@@KakyouKuzuki2001 djerba, preveza, lepanto, Tunis, Algiers…
If soldiers of the early modern era thought that black powder artillery was a dark art then modern drone-assisted artillery work would rightfully scare the shit out of them.
Artillery, the King of Battlefield. Infantry wins skirmishes, tanks win battles, but artillery wins wars.
Interestingly enough, similarly to sappers, gunners were the only group of people where non nobility could become officers.
"Yo ho ho, and a bottle 🍾 of rum!" 🥃 🏴☠️ ☠️ 🦜
Would not want to be an early gunner back when they were still working the kinks out of cannon's 😬
2:09 cute Disney-like bird
Top
In Japan early matchlocks and artillery were considered dishonourable and Saigō Takamori is depicted in shogun 2 to have said My Ancestors honour me do yours? When he was fighting the imperial army
No you are wrong. It's a false depiction of medieval Japan thanks to Hollywood... Firearms were an integral part of a Samurai's arsenal and were not seen as dishonourable because there were even dojos specialised in the mastery of Tanegashima
@@xXArnOdu974Xx both of you are correct, various groups thought that firearms and such where dishonorable but the effectiveness could not be ignored. just like in all cultures, the Samurai where not an all agreeing group and always had different opinions on how battles should of been fought.
King of Battle! Airborne!!!!
Artillery is the god of war. -Stalin In WW2, artillery accounted for 2/3 of killed enemy soldiers.
❤️🔥
5 Reasons Why You Should Make a Video about Early Gunpowder: 1. Most people don't know how exactly gunpowder was invented. 2. Most people don't know how and where the gunpowder weapons were used before Europeans. 3. Most people don't know how guns appeared in Europe. 4. Early firearms and their uses are rarely discussed. 5. Early artillery and its uses are rarely discussed. Some of the previous videos only answer the 1st and partially 2nd and 3rd questions.
Totally agree! I posses a matchlock arquebuse and i would like to see more videos about the First "reliable" gun.
Assalomu alaykum iltimos taglavhani o'zbekcha qilib bering ❤ ❤
12:45 I think you mean halfshot not a bullet cut in half. Typical chain shot uses two smaller caliber balls connected with a chain.
It could be either really.
Is there a video describing the different unit and formation imagery used in these videos? Ex: single diagonal=cavalry, cross=infantry, but what are the formations with 4 little squares and sidebars around the infantry unit?
Those are Spanish tercios. A mass of pikemen with a detachment of arquebusiers at each corner. The latter could be sent out as a detached group of light infantry to harass the approaching enemy, or form in lines in front of the sides of the masses pikemen.
@@terry7907 Thank you very much!
You know, with all the various forms of mistreatment POWs throughout the years and into modern times received, getting shot out of a bombard doesn't sound that bad...
Wow, you stopped showing the historians' faces! Awesome!
👍🏻
Same way most people thought of Atomic bomb sorcery devilish and unreligious
Nobody thought that.
👍🏿🤠👍🏿
No mention of chinese or Turkish or Mongol source
I wonder if those are harder to find in english. I would love to see them use those sources as well tho
Did artillerymen generally get to wear fancier clothes like depicted here? That might be another perk of the position 😂
master gunners...
hey dude whats the deal with yur name im not sure what it means exactly
im a descendant of nicolo Tartaglia ^___^
the ottomans used large numbers of guns compared to other countries.
I love how early engineers are often more akin to the Cult Mechanicus from Warhammer: 40,000 setting than to what we think of as a modern engineer. Poorly understood individuals following rote teachings about devices they themselves hardly understand, and praying hard that each activation wouldn't be their last. Then again, I did see an electrician actually kneel to pray for a few minutes before flipping the power breaker on for the first time at a job site.
The chain shot cutting ropes wss tested by Mythbusters. They found the two half shots did not spread near to work as intended.
Chain shot was not for targetting ropes alone, but sails and masts as well
@@l00k69 but the shot would simply spread slowly like a charge of grape
SIEGE!
How could 8 cannons be deciding a battle with 12000 soldiers on your side? -Unless there's a fortification, or bridge involved? The only 8 cannons that I see that could achieve such a feat would be machine cannons or mortars with massive area coverage...
If you cannot conceive of a way that 8 cannon can decide a battle, then you've not read a lot of history. Here are some examples: Cannister or grapeshot unloading into the enemy formation at close range. A stray shit killing the enemy general. Suppressing the enemy cannons. Setting fire to enemy supplies. Causing inexperienced infantry to rout. ...it isn't hard to think of these possibilities. You should read more.
if you have 8 cannons and the other side has 5, the side with the less cannons has to abandon their position and attack, otherwise they will lose more men as the time passes. you dont need lots of cannons, just more than your enemy, to make them come to you
Well-placed cannon fire can deal a devastating blow to the enemy morale. You don't need to kill half of the enemy troops... you only have to kill enough to make the rest flee or surrender
@@Seldonlair thanks for the examples. I expected that the only thing that could do sizeable damage would be grapeshot, but depending on the enemy, they might have no chance to reload, or perhaps only once. They need to wait until they can do maximum damage with the little they have, but then the enemy could fire grenades or solid shot at the cannons from further away. That's why I thought that they could only do little against such overwhelming numbers.
🙃