Training Circular (TC) 3-09.81, "Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery," sets forth the doctrine pertaining to the employment of artillery fires. It explains all aspects of the manual cannon gunnery problem and presents a practical application of the science of ballistics. It includes step-by-step instructions for manually solving the gunnery problem which can be applied within the framework of decisive action or unified land operations. It is applicable to any Army personnel at the battalion or battery responsible to delivered field artillery fires. The principal audience for ATP 3-09.42 is all members of the Profession of Arms. This includes field artillery Soldiers and combined arms chain of command field and company grade officers, middle-grade and senior noncommissioned officers (NCO), and battalion and squadron command groups and staffs. This manual also provides guidance for division and corps leaders and staffs in training for and employment of the BCT in decisive action. This publication may also be used by other Army organizations to assist in their planning for support of battalions. This manual builds on the collective knowledge and experience gained through recent operations, numerous exercises, and the deliberate process of informed reasoning. It is rooted in time-tested principles and fundamentals, while accommodating new technologies and diverse threats to national security.

This paper focuses on the formulation of doctrine since World War II. In no comparable period in history have the dimensions of the battlefield been so altered by rapid technological changes. The need for the tactical doctrines of the Army to remain correspondingly abreast of these changes is thus more pressing than ever before. Future conflicts are not likely to develop in the leisurely fashions of the past where tactical doctrines could be refined on the battlefield itself. It is, therefore, imperative that we apprehend future problems with as much accuracy as possible. One means of doing so is to pay particular attention to the business of how the Army's doctrine has developed historically, with a view to improving methods of future development.

As the First World War bogged down across Europe resulting in the establishment of trench systems, artillery began to grow in military importance. Never before had the use of artillery been so vital, and to this day the ferocity, duration and widespread use of artillery across the trenches of Europe has never been replicated. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork, this groundbreaking study explains and illustrates the enormous advances in the use of artillery that took place between 1914 and 1918, the central part artillery played in World War I and how it was used throughout the war, with particular emphasis on the Western Front.