What is the difference between a mortar a howitzer a cannon a naval rifle and a field gun?

Answer 1

A mortar, with the exception of the US Navy's Swift Boat mortar (Vietnam War), which can be fired with a lanyard, fires by gravity (being dropped into the tube), and is lobbed into a target area. A howitzer, is typically a "field gun", towed behind horses (the US Army always preferred mules however), or during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, behind military cargo trucks, such as the deuce an a half (2 1/2 ton) & 5 ton trucks. Howitzers do primarily the same thing as mortars do, lob shells at short range via a wide arch then dropping into enemy positions. Naval guns can do the same thing; lob shells in a wide arch onto a target. However, like US Army tank guns (90mm & 152mm for Patton & Sheridan tanks during the Vietnam War), or 105mm & 120mm for post Viet War US tanks, naval guns are for direct fire. Naval guns & Army tank guns (cannons) both have optical sights for firing DIRECTLY at the target. Just as one would aim a rifle or pistol at a target. SP Guns (Self Propelled) look like tanks. But they are not tanks. They lack the armor of tanks. An SP Gun is nothing more than a field gun/howitzer, that can move by itself, without being towed. Some SP Guns, such as the old 8 inch and 175mm SP's that were used in Vietnam, did not look like tanks; they were simply guns (cannons) mounted atop a tracked chassis. The gun crews were totally exposed, as was the gun itself. Mortars, howitzers, and naval/tank guns can all be rifled. The term 16" rifles sometimes used when referring to the battleship's 16" guns, is considered accurate. Self-Propelled Guns differed from a tank in that the gun was not mounted in a turrent and could not rotate as much. The SP Gun carriage had to be placed in the general direction that you wanted the gun to fire and then minor adjustments were made to the elevation and azimuth. Mortars fired a shell in a high arc trajectory in order that it would go over a hill or fortification before exploding. Howitzers were considered more mobile artillery than a Mortar. During WW2 the standard artillery adopted for the field was the 105mm Howitzer. The next gun in size was the 155mm, which was made in 2 versions. The 155mm Howitzer looked very similar to the 105mm Howitzer and was mounted on a 2-wheel carriage. The 155mm Cannon was a longer barrel gun that fired a heavier charge. It was carried on a 8-wheel carriage that had to be erected before firing. Source: Osprey's booklet "US Field Artillery of World War II"