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 100 submachine gun that was first delivered to the Imperial Army in 1942. Japan was surprisingly late to introduce the sub-machine gun to its armed forces — a few models of the SIG Bergmann 1920 (a licensed version of the German MP 18) were purchased from Switzerland in the 1920s. These were examined and copied, with was first delivered for service, used by Japanese marines during the invasion of Southern China. The Type 100 was typical of the class of simple, inexpensive, wartime submachine guns produced by all military powers—designed for maximum ease of production. It is based on a simplified Bergmann MP18,