In a scene from the film "Colonel Volodyovsky 1969" (1969), we see heavy artillery being towed to the battlefield. In those times, transporting heavy artillery was a very difficult task.
In the article on the history of medieval and early modern artillery, we have learned about many documents of that era, as well as their interpretation by historians, including the Englishman Ian Hitter.
Because there are books by Fred and Lilian Fooken, which are dedicated to Renaissance military affairs – infantry, cavalry, and artillery.
Of course, they don't write anything in the book that we've already talked about. However, this work is notable for its illustrations, which today we will present to our readers.
In fact, all of these illustrations are based on the ** of that era. That is, the Fokkens simply redrew some of the artillery ** from ancient books into modern representations. However, this does not diminish the value of these drawings, as they are so detailed that they are perfectly consistent with the images on ancient parchment.
Today we will look at the illustrations of these authors about artillery in the transition period from the Middle Ages to modern times.
"Artillerymen, aim accurately.
This illustration shows how artillery in the 16th century carried out aiming. At that time, some artillery pieces already had a range of more than two kilometers. At such a distance, the angle of inclination of the artillery barrel had to be accurately measured.
The sighting device on the barrel of an artillery gun is very simple: there is only a triangular groove located at the muzzle expansion, but the angle of inclination of the barrel can be determined by a quadrant (fig.) or even a graduated beam placed in the tail part of the gun (fig. 2). Of course, many artillerymen fired "by feeling", relying on their experience and sight.
New and old artillery
In this illustration, we can see that Fred and Lilian Fokken use as a reference the Book of ** by Maximilian I (which we have already covered), compiled by Bartolomius Freslebain. Specifically, this refers to Figure 1 above, in which two shooters are operating a huge arquebus. This **, called the "double arquebus" (doppelhakebüchse), was introduced in 1505 and required two shooters to operate. The caliber of this ** can reach 25-30 mm, that is, it fires a bullet the size of a walnut.
Figure 2 is a clear example of rigid thinking. It was a cast bronze cannon, but it was a rifled gun cast in 1570 with a retractable tail and a wedge-shaped locking device. As a rule, rifled guns were of earlier **, welded from iron bars and connected with hoops. It didn't make much sense to cast bronze cannons to make rifled cannons, but people did it anyway, although it was not convenient to use, and even dangerous, because of the strong leakage of gunpowder gases from the locking device. This gun was used on ships for the longest time, as it saved deck space. But in the 17th century, such guns were also replaced at sea by "front-loading guns".
Barrels and gun carriages
Interestingly, despite the fact that the artillery itself at that time was very simple, there was not even a tail (perhaps for this reason!).), but their gun mounts turned out to be much more complex than those of the 17th and even 19th centuries.
Figure 1 is a 1460 artillery gun, which is equipped with a complex double gun mount and a spiral installation. That's what happens when there is no cannon tail!Figure 2 shows a multi-barreled "organ cannon" from the end of the 16th century with a rotating triangular "drum" mounted on it with 30 barrels that can fire alternately!The shaft is also a larger caliber barrel.
Figure 3 is an English double-barreled cannon from 1544 with a shield. It is pushed towards the enemy and periodically fired. Figure 4 is a seven-barreled cannon from the 16th century, again a cannon with a complex gun mount. Figure 5 is a 1500 heavy gun, again without a tail, but for aiming at the barrel, a retractable gun carriage was designed, but there were only two positions.
Artillery with curved sighting devices
The disadvantages of having only two barrel sighting positions are obvious. In order to increase its variability, two iron arc holes were installed in the gun carriage, in which a pin was inserted through the muzzle of the barrel. The position where the pin is fixed in the hole determines the position of the lifting of the barrel!
For example, Figure 1 shows a cannon from 1500 with a front frame (a) and two arcs (b) with trapezoidal teeth, which provide nine (!).Location. Before the shot, the front mount was removed, the "nose" of the gun mount was placed on the ground, and then ......Start **, raise or lower the barrel and fix it in the hole in the arc.
The 1518 cannon in Figure 2 was apparently borrowed from a painting from the Battle of Orsha. It's just that they add a soldier with a spear, and everything else is "exactly the same"!And this 1520 cannon in Figure 3 is a striking example of the ingenuity of the craftsmen-artillerymen of that time. It is equipped with vertical and horizontal sighting devices. Moreover, aiming from above it is carried out by an angle gauge with a plumb line!
Gun Mount: Getting better and better
Interestingly, in 1520, gun mounts with special attachment boxes already existed, that is, they could be said to "bring everything by themselves" (Fig. 1). During the reign of Emperor Maximilian, gun mounts were usually painted black and red. The painting depicts such a cannon, which is based on the Book of Armaments by Maximilian I.
The Maximilian barrel depicted in Figure 3 is decorated with fine bronze, but the most striking is the ......On top there are three barrels and a wooden basin with a shovel. The three barrels contained sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal, respectively, and were used to make gunpowder on the spot in the tubsAs you can imagine, these ingredients are weighed, but it can be difficult to get a homogeneous formula, especially if you're in a hurry. Therefore, shells sometimes go in exactly the wrong direction, because the same volume of gunpowder can lead to a large difference in range!
It was not until the end of the 16th century that field artillery, such as the Phocon cannon (Fig. 4), began to resemble the later 18th-19th century guns. During transportation, all attachments were fixed to the gun carriage!
Mortars
In previous articles, we mentioned that bulky artillery of the 15th-16th centuries required a large number of horses to transport. Transporting a cannon was often a whole team, sometimes requiring more horses than artillerymen. For example, the 1510 mortar shown in Figure 1 required six horses and three porters to transport it in addition to two shells.
The vertical sighting system is quite complex and includes a ratchet mechanism that fixes the previously calibrated barrel lift angle (Figure 2). Also, an angle gauge lying next to the gun carriage in the picture was used. The shells of the mortar were changed to cast iron much later than those of other guns, but by 1550 they also began to be cast, and there were also rings on the shells, which made it easier to lift them and put them into the barrel. At that time, the rupture bomb was also invented, which became a nightmare for the besieged.
It is also interesting that the artillery of that time, including mortars, would only ...... in a centuryIt's getting simpler!Thus, the mortars used during the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea and the American Civil War, compared with the mortars of the 16th century (Fig. 3), differed only one: they were made of cast iron and steel, and the gun carriages were metal, not wooden!
Thus, the origin of artillery in the Renaissance once again proves that "it is easy to do complex, but difficult to do simple". So, it is not surprising that early artillery systems were more complex than later ones, and not the other way around.
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