GUNS, MORTARS, AND HOWITZERS
In military parlance a “gun” is a long-barreled piece that fires its projectiles with a flat trajectory, that is, the projectile is fired at a low angle and describes a long flat curve. A “mortar” is a short-ranged weapon which fires at a high angle so as to land its projectile over the walls of a fortification. The barrel of the mortar was formerly very short and had a smooth bore, but later the barrel was extended and the bore rifled so as to give a greater range, developing what is known as the “howitzer.” The famous 42-centimeter gun with which the Germans started the war was a howitzer which fired a shell a yard and a half long weighing 2,108 pounds. We have big guns to defend our coasts which fire a shell 16 inches in diameter, which is half an inch less than 42 centimeters, and the weight of the shell is 2,400 pounds. But the startling thing about the German big howitzers was that they were portable and could be brought up to smash fixed defenses. As the war proceeded enormous guns as well as howitzers were set on railroad mounts and moved about from time to time to avoid discovery by spying aviators.