Who used guns first?

The first GUNS

The first GUNS were in use in China by 1128, according to recent research by the world’s leading authority on Chinese scientific history, Dr Joseph Needham of Cambridge University. While exploring a Buddhist cave in Szechuan in 1986 he discovered a stone carving representing a mythical army surrounding a statue of the Buddha. This included the figure of a soldier carrying what Needham recognized as a bombard. The carving is known to have been executed in 1128, which is about 150 years earlier than the date hitherto assigned to the invention of the gun in China.

The first recorded use ARTILLERY IN WARFARE occurred at the Siege of Cividale in Italy by German forces in 1331, when vasi and sclopi were employed by the defenders to repel the attack. The first use of artillery by British forces took place at the Battle of Crecy on 26 August 1346. According to an anonymous Italian MS, ‘The English knights, taking with them the Black Prince, a body of wild Welshmen and many bombards, advanced to meet the French army … they fired all the bombards at once and then the French began to flee.’ The earliest record of a handgone’ is contained in a list of equipment carried on Edward I’s ship Christophe de la Tour in 1338. They were first used in warfare by the Duke of Orleans, who equipped his army with 4,000 pieces, each handled by two men, in 1411. Indifferent marksmanship limited their effectiveness at first but by 1414 the Duke’s men had learned to handle the new weapon and proved themselves at the Siege of Arras.