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 95 75 mm field gun I, the Imperial Japanese Army was largely equipped with Krupp cannons from Germany. After the Versailles Treaty, the Japanese Army switched to the French Schneider company, and developed the Type 90 75 mm field gun loosely based on the Schneider et Cie Canon de 85 mle 1927. However, the Schneider design was very complex and expensive to build, requiring very tight dimensional tolerances which were beyond the limits of Japanese industry to sustain at the time. Maintenance was also difficult to sustain in front line combat service. The Army Technical Bureau, following combat experience gained in the invasion of Manchuria