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
Name of the Czech Republic the Nazis, who used the term "remaining Czechia" when they annexed the western parts of Czechoslovakia in early 1939. Since the restoration of Czechoslovakia and after the Second World War, the term is in use instead, as suggested by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as German and Austrian linguists. is a term from the 19th century that was originally used for the Czech lands that were part of Austria-Hungary. The Federal Foreign Office uses Tschechien on its official list of countries. Name of the Czech Republic The Czech Republic's official formal and short names at the United