King Uzziah of Judah equipped the walls of Jerusalem with machines that shot great stones during the 7th century BC. This early use predates many other recorded instances of projectile-throwing devices in history.
Diodorus Siculus described the invention of a mechanical arrow-firing catapult by a Greek task force in 399 BC. This weapon was soon employed against Motya, a key Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily, in 397 BC.
The earliest documented catapults date back to at least the 7th century BC, marking a significant shift in warfare technology. Chinese sources describe mangonels appearing between the 5th and 3rd centuries B.C.E., later reaching the Mediterranean by the 6th century C.E.
Edward I's army constructed Warwolf, a giant trebuchet that leveled sections of Stirling Castle walls in 1304. Traction trebuchets required people to pull ropes while counterpoise versions replaced humans with weights.
CAM ships temporarily installed catapults on merchant vessels during World War II to launch Hawker Hurricane fighters against German Focke Wulf Condor maritime reconnaissance aircraft. Hurricanes could not be recovered after launch requiring pilots to head for land or ditch in open ocean.