Presumably overrated by every decent battlefield commander and reputable historian since 1914?
No but by amateur historians afterwards. Battlefield commanders understood that heavy artillery had its uses especially against exposed troops. It also provided good counterbattery fire as well but that once the troops dug trenches, it would take a direct hit to do much damage. The British fired far more heavy artillery at the Somme than anybody used on the Eastern front and it did them little good
No. Ordinary light artillery lacks trajectory to get into trenches and the weight of shell to displace trenches. On an individual basis most artillery is useless, but massed heavy howitzers was ultimately recognized as the preferred method to breakdown entrenched positions. Near misses from heavy howitzers could be effective in breaking down a trench network.
I'm surprised that your still repeating this. The low trajectory was a feature of the French 75s. German 77s had an over the horizon capability. Of course, this refers to taking the gun from an unlimbered position. the French 75s were capable of firing over the horizon once you dug a pit. In open warfare that was a drawback. Once trench warfare developed it wasn't
A four gun battery of 75s would put 15-20,000 shrapnel balls in under a minute- they were effectively machine guns against exposed troops. The 75s high explosive shells were used to blast away barbed wire entanglements and the 75s were the preferred means of delivering gas. The French alone made over 17,000 75s during the war and fired over 200 million shells from them. That's a lot for an "ineffective" weapon.
Troops in trenches were pretty immune from artillery which is why they dug trenches. Most of the killing was done when the men were out of the trenches
Does Skoda ring any bells? A-H actually had a skilled arms industry capable of meeting most of A-H's military needs, but military spending was generally not an A-H priority before the war and the war effort was mismanaged during the war - A-H had it's own version of the Silent Dictatorship from day 1.
Skoda vs. Krupp- do you really want to go there? And how much of the optical equipment, telephone and radio, poison gas and a host of other important stuff did the Austrians produce?
I believe in 1914 A-H was equipped with modern light artillery, but those were only important until people started to dig holes.
They had some not many by other power standards. They also had a shell reserve of only 500 rounds about half of the Russians