e as a verb (see BOMBARDMENT). The name, in
various forms, was also given to a medieval musical instrument
("bombard," "bumhart," "pumhart," "pommer"), the forerunner of the bass
oboe or schalmey. At the present day a small primitive oboe called
_bombarde_, with eight holes but no keys, is used among the Breton
peasants.

BOMBARDIER, originally an artilleryman in charge of a bombard; now a
non-commissioned officer in the artillery of the British army, ranking
below a corporal.

BOMBARDMENT, an attack by artillery fire directed against
fortifications, troops in position or towns and buildings. In its strict
sense the term is only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or
undefended objects, houses, public buildings, &c., the object of the
assailant being to dishearten his opponent, and specially to force the
civil population and authorities of a besieged place to persuade the
military commandant to capitulate before the actual defences of the
place have been reduced to impotence. It is, therefore, obvious that
mere bombardment can only achieve its object when the amount of
suffering inflicted upon non-combatants is sufficient to break down
their resolution, and when the commandant permits himself to be
influenced or coerced by the sufferers. A threat of bombardment will
sometimes induce a place to surrender, but instances of its fulfilment
being followed by success are rare; and, in general, with a determined
commandant, bombardments fail of their object. Further, an intentionally
terrific fire at a large target, unlike the slow, steady and minutely
accurate "artillery attacks "directed upon the fortifications, requires
the expenditure of large quantities of ammunition, and wears out the
guns of the attack. Bombardments are, however, frequently resorted to in
order to test the temper of the garrison and the civil population, a
notable instance being that of Strassburg in 1870. The term is often
loosely employed to describe artillery attacks upon forts or fortified
positions in preparation for assaults by infantry.

BOMBARDON, or BASS TUBA, the name given to the bass and contrabass of
the brass wind in military bands, called in the orchestra bass tuba.

The name of bombardon is unquestionably derived from _bombardone_, the
Italian for contrabass pommer (bombard), which, before the invention of
the fagotto, formed the bass of medieval orchestras; it is also used for
a bass reed stop of 16 ft. tone