Evolution of Field Artillery Tactics, Technique, and Organization on the Western Front During the World War

This purpose of the study is to point out the fundamental ideas governing the employment of field artillery held by the warring nations at the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, and to trace the modification and evolution of these ideas during the successive periods of the First World War. Topics include the artillery doctrine at the outbreak of the war, materiel, organization and technique, the initial period of maneuver, the period of deliberate trench warfare, the period of attempted breakthrough, the return to limited objective attacks, and the breakthrough accomplished and the return to maneuver.