Imperial Dane was practically correct if he was referring to older patches, the damage was extremely low, until the increased in a patch.
The bofors barrage and artillery cover used to no damage, and even 25p used to do extremely low damage 2.5%. A direct hit from howitzer would do 4 damage.
Is it 100% now? Few days ago the british base howitzer one-shot wiped a full health penal squad from my soviet teammate.
Btw I agree, increase FF from all allied rocket arty pieces (I think pwerfer and stuka already have 50% ff damage). It's just silly that people can carelessly run into their own barrages while pushing in with their inf. But leave mortars as they are, that would be frustrating.
PLEASE adress this in an upcoming patch! It's easy to do