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 41 75 mm cavalry gun Type 95 75 mm field gun. This Schneider type gun was especially constructed to give artillery support to cavalry regiments. Its design is almost identical with that of the original Model 38 75 mm gun. It is somewhat lighter than the Model 38 improved 75 mm gun, the corresponding direct-support artillery in the infantry division. In 1944, Japanese cavalry brigades had not yet been in combat against U. S. forces, it was not certain whether this old-fashioned gun with unmodified box trails and hydrospring recoil remained in general use or if it had been superseded by a more modern weapon.