Artillery caused more casualties than any other weapon in World War I, accounting for some 75% of deaths. The power that artillery lent the German army meant that it could not be ignored in the peace settlement. Article 166 of the Versailles Treaty limited the number of artillery pieces that the German army could possess to 204 7.7-cm guns and 84 10.5-cm howitzers. Limits were also put on shell numbers. Germany had ended the war with some 5,000 heavy guns, and its main battle weapon on the Western Front had been the 15-cm howitzer. In other words, the Treaty eliminated the threat that German heavy artillery otherwise posed.