ABSTRACT
Artillery in 1939 was a neglected arm, whose proven value in the First World War had been questioned in peace, often because its firepower had seemed to characterize the horrors of that war. The theories of armour and mobility that flourished in the 1930s were seen as alternatives to the dominance of firepower and, with the exception of the USSR, the armies of the major powers were organized and equipped to fight accordingly. The lessons of the First World War were thus discarded.
