Editing Siege engine (section)

==Modern era==
{{main|List of siege artillery}}
[[File:Karl6.jpg|250px|thumb|One of the super-heavy [[Karl-Gerät]] siege mortars used by the German army in [[World War II]]]]
[[File:Dicke Bertha.Big Bertha.jpg|thumb|250px|A German [[Big Bertha (howitzer)|Big Bertha howitzer]] being readied for firing]]
With the advent of [[gunpowder]], [[firearm]]s such as the [[arquebus]] and [[cannon]]—eventually the [[petard]], [[mortar (weapon)|mortar]] and [[artillery]]—were developed. These weapons proved so effective that [[fortification]]s, such as [[city wall]]s, had to be low and thick, as exemplified by the designs of [[Vauban]].

The development of specialized siege artillery, as distinct from [[field artillery]], culminated during [[World War I]] and [[World War II]]. During the First World War, huge siege guns such as [[Big Bertha (howitzer)|Big Bertha]] were designed to see use against the modern fortresses of the day. The apex of siege artillery was reached with the German [[Schwerer Gustav]] gun, a huge {{convert|80|cm|abbr=on}} caliber [[railway gun]], built during early World War II. Schwerer Gustav was initially intended to be used for breaching the French [[Maginot Line]] of fortifications, but was not finished in time and (as a sign of the times) the Maginot Line was circumvented by rapid mechanized forces instead of breached in a head-on assault. The long time it took to deploy and move the modern siege guns made them vulnerable to air attack and it also made them unsuited to the rapid [[Maneuver warfare|troop movements]] of modern warfare.