The troops were being bombarded by artillery. a captain in the artillery
Recent Examples on the WebUdovik started counting the seconds between hearing the deafening boom of artillery launched and the appearance of smoke in the distance. Kamila Hrabchuk, Washington Post, 17 Sep. 2022 Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko suggested the Ukrainian troops had retaken Kupiansk, a town along the main supply route to Izyum, long a focus on the Russian front line and the site of heavy artillery and other fighting. Karl Ritter And Joanna Kozlowska, USA TODAY, 11 Sep. 2022 Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko also suggested troops had retaken Kupiansk, a town along the main supply route to Izyum, long a focus on the Russian front line and the site of heavy artillery and other fighting. Joanna Kozlowska, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Sep. 2022 Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko also suggested the Ukrainian troops had retaken Kupiansk, a town along the main supply route to Izyum, long a focus on the Russian front line and the site of heavy artillery and other fighting. Karl Ritter And Joanna Kozlowska, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Sep. 2022 The advances made by Ukrainian forces are important for Kyiv’s forces, which have been facing their own hardships with supplies of artillery and ammunition. Thomas Grove, WSJ, 10 Sep. 2022 Russia still has a big advantage in potential troop strength and the quantity of artillery and shells, and Ukraine is taking heavy losses. Peter Weber, The Week, 8 Sep. 2022 Zelenskyy's remarks come as Russia's invasion, launched in February, morphs into a grinding exchange of artillery, largely in southern and eastern Ukraine. Tal Axelrod, ABC News, 7 Sep. 2022 For days on end, the brutal strikes of Russian artillery ... don't stop.Arkansas Online, 10 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English artilrie, artillerie "instruments of war, weapons for discharging missiles," borrowed from Anglo-French & continental Middle French artelrie, artillerie, from Old French artillier "to equip, provide with instruments of war" (alteration, probably after art "skill, craft, art entry 1" and its derivatives, of atiller, atillier "to order, adjust, put on pieces of armor") + -rie, -erie-ery; atiller, atillier going back to Vulgar Latin *apticulāre, from Latin aptāre "to put into position, bring to bear, make ready" + Vulgar Latin *-iculāre, as in *appariculāre "to prepare, equip, apparel entry 2" — more at adapt
Note: The expected outcome of *apticulāre would be *ateiller rather than atiller, which would appear to derive from *aptīculāre; the discrepancy has been explained as a result of interference from the semantically similar verb atirier, atirer "to equip, prepare" (see attire entry 1).