Royal Artillery Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations

Historical and Modern

Since its creation in 1716, the Royal Artillery has been a cornerstone of the British Armed Forces, as their motto Ubique—Everywhere—implies. In this book Philip Jobson has collated the enormous and complex artillery lexicon which has accumulated since that day, as dynamic as its subject to keep pace with technical and tactical innovation. The development of indirect fire, counter-battery, anti-tank and anti-aircraft fire all required a novel vocabulary, as did advances in survey and locating. Changes in communication from shouts, to flags, to line, to radio, to compressed data transmission all left their mark on the language. Epic in scope and detail, even the most expert gunner would be likely to fail an unseen test based on this work. It will therefore be a pleasure to those who think themselves expert to browse this volume, and will serve as an invaluable reference for historians and researchers to ensure that they use the correct term and understand its true meaning.