Howitzer groups called batteries. The English word ""howitzer"" comes from the Czech word ""houfnice"", from "houf", "crowd", and "houf" is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High German word "Hūfe" 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"" cannons to fire at short distances into crowds of infantry, or into charging heavy cavalry, to make horses shy away. The word was rendered into German as "aufeniz" in the earliest attested use in
Type 3 75 mm tank gun gun was based on the Japanese Type 90 field gun which in turn was loosely based on the French Schneider et Cie "Canon de 85 mle 1927". The Type 3 gun was license-built by the Osaka Arsenal. The Type 3 Chi-Nu, in which the gun was mounted, was the most powerful tank in regular series production for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The Type 3 Chi-Nu was developed to cope with the M4 Sherman. By 1943, the low priority given to tank production meant that the Type 3 did not actually enter production until 1944. By that