With their long-range capabilities, howitzers can be used to great effect in a battery formation with other artillery pieces, such as long-barreled guns, mortars, and rocket artillery.Howitzers were valued for their ability to fire explosive shells and incendiary materials into fortifications.

Contemporary howitzers are often self-propelled, mounted on tracked or wheeled vehicles, and capable of firing at high angles with adjustable propellant charges for increased range and accuracy.

[10] The word was rendered into German as aufeniz in the earliest attested use in a document dating from 1440; later German renderings include haussnitz and, eventually haubitze, from which derive the Scandinavian haubits, Polish and Croatian haubica, Estonian haubits, Finnish haupitsi, Russian gaubitsa (гаубица), Serbian haubica (xаубицa), Ukrainian (гаубиця), Italian obice, Spanish obús, Portuguese obus, French obusier, Romanian obuzier and the Dutch word houwitser, which led to the English word howitzer.

This is particularly true in the armed forces of the United States, where gun-howitzers have been officially described as howitzers since World War II.

Because of this practice, the word howitzer is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect fire.

[15] Originally intended for use in siege warfare, they were particularly useful for delivering cast iron shells filled with gunpowder or incendiary materials into the interior of fortifications.

[18] In 1758, the Russian Empire introduced a specific type of howitzer (or rather gun-howitzer), with a conical chamber, called a licorne, which remained in service for the next 100 years.

Moreover, their greater range let them create many of the same effects (such as firing over low walls) that previously required the sharply curved trajectories of smoothbore field howitzers.

The lightest of these weapons (later known as "light siege howitzers") had calibers around 150 mm (5.9 in) and fired shells that weighed between 40 and 50 kg (88 and 110 lb).

The heaviest (later called "medium siege howitzers") had calibers between 200 and 220 mm (7.9 and 8.7 in) and fired shells that weighed about 100 kg (220 lb).

Weapons of this category include the famous Big Bertha of the German Army and the 15-inch (381 mm) howitzer of the British Royal Marine Artillery.

[24] Field howitzers introduced at the end of the 19th century could fire shells with high trajectories giving a steep angle of descent and, as a result, could strike targets that were protected by intervening obstacles.

[citation needed] By the early 20th century, the differences between guns and howitzers were relative, not absolute, and generally recognized[25] as follows: The onset of trench warfare after the first few months of World War I greatly increased the demand for howitzers that gave a steep angle of descent, which were better suited than guns to the task of striking targets in a vertical plane (such as trenches), with large amounts of explosive and considerably less barrel wear.

[27] In the years after World War I, the tendency of guns and howitzers to acquire each other's characteristics led to the renaissance of the concept of the gun-howitzer.

[28] During World War II, the military doctrine of Soviet deep battle called for extensive use of heavy artillery to hold the formal line of front.