   a howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent. until fairly recently (about the end of the second world war) such weapons were characterized by a barrel length 15 to 25 times their caliber. in the taxonomies of artillery pieces used by european (and european-style) armies in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, the howitzer stood between the "gun" (characterized by a longer barrel, larger propelling charges, smaller shells, higher velocities, and flatter trajectories) and the "mortar" (which was meant to fire at even higher angles of ascent and descent). howitzers, like other artillery equipments, are usually organized in groups called batteries. ==etymology==  the english word howitzer comes from the czech word houfnice,oetymd: howitzerthe concise oxford english dictionary, 4th edition reprinted, 1956: howitzerpaul, hermann. 1960. deutsches wÃ¶rterbuch. haubitze from houf, "crowd",stephen turnbull: the hussite wars, 1419â36. p.46christopher gravett: german medieval armies 1300-1500"houfnice" in vÃ¡clav machek, etymologickÃ½ slovnÃ­k jazyka ÄeskÃ©ho, second edition, academia, 1968 and houf is in turn a borrowing from the middle high german word hÅ«fe or houfe (modern german haufen), meaning "heap". haufen, sometimes in the compound gewalthaufen, also designated a pike square formation in german. in the hussite wars of the 1420s and 1430s, the czechs used short barreled "houfnice" cannonsstephen turnbull: the hussite wars, 1419-36  to fire at short distances into such crowds of infantry, or into charging heavy cavalry, to make horses shy away.the shorter oxford english dictionary, (oxford: the clarendon press, 1973), i, p. 992 the word was rendered into german as aufeniz in the earliest attested use in a document dating from 144
Cannon