The Austro-Hungarian Artillery from 1867 to 1918

Over the period from 1867 to 1918 the Austro-Hungarian artillery experienced major changes both in technical and organizational terms. Proceeding from the muzzle-loader of the ‘Battery of the Dead’ at the Battle of Sadowa in 1866, the artillery was continuously modernized and evolved from the M 1875, M 1880 and M 1899 systems to barrel recoil artillery and finally the massed guns of the First World War. A total of 637 pages and more than 1,200 photographs, design sketches and illustrations, sometimes published for the first time, demonstrate not only the appearance and design principles of the more than a hundred artillery models introduced over this period, but also numerous prototypes and contemporary foreign artillery systems. Tables and organizational charts describe the structures and organization of the artillery at different times and plans and descriptions explain firing methods and artillery tactics in detail. Colour illustrations of the types of Austrian ammunition employed in the First World War round off the picture. The author of the book, Dr. M. Christian Ortner, is the Director of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna.