A fascinating history of the men who invented the machine gun - and the devastating impact it had on the course of war Why did the British start the First World War with only 264 machine guns, far fewer than the other great powers? Why were the generals so disdainful of them, despite the way the Maxim gun had decimated native armies in numerous colonial wars? In the First War, the British had to learn the hard way, with 20,000 men mown down by machine guns on the first day of the battle of the Somme. Around 80 percent of all the casualties in that war were caused by machine guns. Anthony Smith explores this extraordinary paradox in his important new book; he also tells the story of the remarkable men who invented and developed the machine gun - men like Samuel Colt, Richard Gatling and Hiram Maxim. Gatling's gun was first used in the American Civil War; but it was Maxim, with his barnstorming salesmanship to all the leading military powers, who did most to create a deadly new form of warfare. Filled with fresh insights and vivid eye-witness accounts, Machine Gun is history at its most readable and provocative.
- ISBN10 0786263466
- ISBN13 9780786263462
- Publish Date April 2004 (first published 24 October 2002)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 17 November 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Thorndike Press
- Edition Large type / large print edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 480
- Language English