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The first American armoured cars began to emerge around the turn of the century, seeing their first military use in 1916 during the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa. When the United States entered World War I, the American Expeditionary Forces used some armoured cars in France, and American armoured cars were used by the French Army. The inter-war years saw considerable innovation and experimentation in armoured car design. Of the 1930s scout car designs, the M3A1 scout car was good en...

The formula for gunpowder was discovered in China in 800 AD. Known as 'fire-drug', its origin was the alchemists' search for an immortality elixir, and it was initially a medicine not an explosive; but the Chinese went on to develop every type of weapon that ever used gunpowder - incendiaries, bombs, rockets, cannon and hand-held guns - as well as fireworks. For 400 years, the Chinese kept gunpowder to themselves, until a Mongol soldier leaked the secret to the Islamic world. The Ottoman empire...

The crossbow is an iconic weapon of the Middle Ages and, alongside the longbow, one of the most effective ranged weapons of the pre-gunpowder era. Unfortunately, despite its general fame it has been decades since an in-depth history of the medieval crossbow has been published, which is why Stuart Ellis-Gorman's detailed, accessible, and highly illustrated study is so valuable. The Medieval Crossbow approaches the history of the crossbow from two directions. The first is a technical study of the...

Few people in Britain had heard much about the Falkland Islands before the Argentine invasion of 1982. Since then they have rarely been out of the headlines, and the story of the recapture of the islands by British forces is one that has been told many times. Yet, surprisingly, there are still some elements of that memorable conflict that remain largely unknown - not least among which is the uniforms and equipment that were used. In this highly-illustrated publication, soldier-historian Mark Ma...

From September 1940 until May 1941, Britain - especially Greater London - suffered heavily under a barrage of day and night-time raids by the then mighty Luftwaffe; raids which killed some 20,000 people and destroyed or damaged one million homes during what came to be known as the London Blitz. A baby blitz' followed, from January to May 1944, which was destined to be the final manned bomber offensive by a much depleted Luftwaffe. Afterwards, there came the last gasp, the final blitz on London,...

While the Red Army's arsenal at the start of the Second World War included weapons dating back to the Great War or earlier, the 1930s' modernization programme had introduced the automatic Tokarev pistol and self-loading Tokarev rifle. Its small arms were soon replaced by mass-produced sub-machine guns, such as the PPSh 1941, nicknamed the �PePeSha,'. Supplementing the submachine guns, the Degtyarev Light Machine Gun DP-27. Fitted with a circular pan magazine, it received the not-unsurprising ni...

This book tells how Israel became a secret nuclear power, recounting Israel's clandestine nuclear mission: from the building of the Dimona reactor site in the remote Negev desert during the late 1950s, to the establishment by the late 1970s of a nuclear capability that targeted and threatened the USSR. The author tells of Israel's many secret agreements with America over the years, including the KH-11 satellite agreement which aided the bombing of Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981, and the recruitme...

The AK47 catalog is simply that. Clear color photos of the AK47 and variants. All original photos, none ever published, many variants have never been published in the US.

A comprehensive and attractively illustrated guide to over 100 tanks used during World War II, now in a new flexibinding This Collins Gem is being reissued in flexibinding, providing the durability of a hardback with the flexibility of a paperback. The stylish new cover design will enliven this and 70 other bestselling Gems. Information provided by the renowned Jane's group on over 100 tanks used in World War II makes this handy pocket guide the most authoritative around. Each entry includes...

The early battles of North Africa between the Axis powers and the British Commonwealth and her European allies were among the very last clashes of chivalry. At the small town of El Alamein belligerents met and fought, on two occasions, for overall control of both Egypt and the Suez in the latter half of 1942\. For the Allies, the battles were also a chance to destroy Axis ambitions in the Western Desert, whilst gaining mastery of the Mediterranean and a foothold in Southern Europe. The two batt...

The arrow, essentially a specialized spear, is among the most ancient human inventions and can be found in cultures throughout the world. The need to launch a projectile farther and with greater accuracy than is possible with the human arm gave rise to a variety of solutions. Spearthrowers which extend the length of the user's arm and therefore transfer greater power to the projectile were developed far back in prehistory, and both the American Indian atlatl and the Australian woomera are exampl...