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 92 heavy machine gun placement of its iron sights – canted slightly to the right instead of center. A number of different sights were produced for the weapon, the Type 93 and Type 94 periscopic sights as well as the Type 96 telescopic sight. A ring-type anti-aircraft sight was also produced. Major problems with this weapon included the short feed strips, which did not allow for as high a volume of fire as a belt-fed gun, and the oiler, which enabled better extraction in clean conditions but could bring dirt inside the gun in the field. The gun has an internal oil pump which