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Grand Battery (Grande Batterie, meaning big or great battery) was a French artillery tactic of the Napoleonic Wars.[1] It involved massing batteries into a single large, temporary battery, and concentrating the firepower of their guns at a single point in the enemy's lines which could lead to a split in the line.
Substituting volume of fire for accuracy, a rate of fire and rapid movement, it was rarely used in the wars' early years. As the quality of artillery crews and their horses declined, it was employed more frequently during later (post-1808) campaigns.
During the last battle at Waterloo in 1815 a grand battery was put together to fire at Wellingtons position though to small effect. [2]
- ^ Cornwell, Bernard (2015). Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-0-06-231206-8.
- ^ Rothenberg, Gunther E.; Keegan, John (2000). The Napoleonic Wars. The Cassell history of warfare. London: Cassell. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-304-35267-8.