Talk:Howitzer

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Contents 1 Old spellings 2 Firing angles? 3 Spelling "hauwitzer" removed 4 Caption on Photo Corrected 5 Improvement? 6 the Czech word "houfnice" and Hussite Wars 7 Gun-Howitzer

[edit] Old spellings

Old spellings like hobbits and hobits can refer to a single specimen of the sort of artillery gun called a howitz or a howitzer.

Someone may wish to incorporate this into this article —jiy (talk) 21:46, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Currently, the name Howitzer is a U.S. Registered Trademark for "Howitzer AEC Suite" software owned by American Reprographics Company through it's wholly owned subsidiary, Engineering Repro Systems.

Some one may wish to incorporate the mechanism/ devices used to measure the total and effective recoil of howitzers and other firearms

[edit] Firing angles?

How come the text says that howitzers fire at high angles, but most of the pictures show howitzers firing at low angles? CuriousOliver 15:08, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Because the description is wrong. Howitzers can fire both at high angles and in direct fire. I corrected this. 69.69.73.94 06:06, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spelling "hauwitzer" removed

I haven't been able to find the spelling "hauwitzer" (which was added to the article on 13 January 2004) in any (print) English dictionary. Most Google hits turn out to be versions of this very article found at Wikipedia mirror sites. Seeing that "howitzer" is loanword (from Dutch houwitser < German Haubitze, < Czech houfnice), there are probably a lot of infrequent variant spellings that are not found in any modern English dictionary (including the old spellings mentioned by jiy above), but that doesn't mean they should be listed as permissible variant spellings in the article. Unless someone comes up with a reference to a modern (print) English dictionary that includes the "hauwitzer" spelling, I believe it should be removed from the article. (I have created a Hauwitzer redirect page so as not to "lose" any readers who enter that spelling and hit the "Go" button.) --Bwiki 14:29, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

The "hauwitzer" spelling has been removed. I also removed the phrase about the word being "of Germanic origin" because Czech is a West Slavic language. --Bwiki 03:51, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Caption on Photo Corrected

The artillery piece described as a "World War I 105mm Howitzer used in the Battle of Turtucaia" is clearly from a later era. That is, it has features, such as rubber tires and a muzzle brake, that were not employed on howitzers of its size during World War I. I have therefore changed the caption to read "World War II 105mm howitzer employed as a monument on the site of the World War I Battle of Turtucaia." User:Trossknecht 5 May 2007

[edit] Improvement?

June 12, congratulations, removal of 'bullcrap' has achieved a 49 word sentence with 3 commas. Breaking up slabs of text like this are a good use of bullets.

[edit] the Czech word "houfnice" and Hussite Wars

Being Czech, I found the reference to "houfnice" as a "catapult" quite funny. Though in the 15th century, the Hussites already used firearms including houfnice AP cannons - indeed, it was a small wheeled field cannon used against herds of enemies (in Czech "houf" stands for a group or a herd)

Please note that the Hussite army was considering tactics and armaments probably the most advanced military force at that time. Modern words like "pistol" also derive from there as "píšťala" ['pi:shtialah](Czech for the "pipe") was the name for their hand-held firearm.

Martin85.71.171.224 19:43, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, and where does "houf" come from, if not from the targets, German "Haufen" formations? -- Matthead  DisOuß   04:36, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gun-Howitzer

"Since the First World War, the word "howitzer" has been increasingly used to describe artillery pieces that, strictly speaking, belong to the category of "gun-howitzer"." That's a very important point, but I'm not sure what the strict definition of the gun-howitzer is. Are we talking about (a) absolute barrel length, (b) relative barrel length (in calibers), or a design feature like (c) maximum elevation or (d) the existence of a chamber. Did guns in the WWI still lack chambers? I gather that they did in the 1860s, while howitzers had them. If (b) is the answer, is there a caliber ratio which would qualify a piece as gun, gun-howitzer, etc? Artillery in mid-20th century is often described in "inch, caliber" format which may allow us to tell at a glance if it is a howitzer. Boris B (talk) 18:03, 13 January 2008 (UTC)