Kategoria BISAC: History >> Military - Weapons

The Fairbairn-Sykes Commando dagger has become iconic as the most widely recognized fighting knife in the world. The origins of the dagger can be traced to Shanghai in the 1930s where W. E. Fairbairn and US Marine officers including Sam Yeaton carried out experiments in developing what they considered the perfect knife for close combat.

When Fairbairn and Sykes became instructors for the Commandos, they refined the design which would evolve into the classic Fairbairn-Sykes dagger. The dagger was first used during early Commando raids into occupied Europe but saw action in every...

The first Rolls-Royce armoured car was a privately owned vehicle fitted with a machine-gun and a limited amount of armour plate at a dockyard in France. It was used by a squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service in Flanders in 1914. Backed by First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill more and better versions followed until, by 1915 there were about 100 of them which were then handed over to the Army. "They searched the world for War" as Sir Albert Stern said of them and before long there were Rolls-Royce armoured cars operating as far apart as German South West Africa, the Western...

While the Pacific campaign is not well known as a theater for tank combat, the US Army deployed nearly a third of its tank battalions to the Pacific, and Japan was among the top five tank manufacturers during the war. The obscurity of Pacific tank battles largely hinged on the tactics used in the Pacific theater due to terrain. Tanks were generally used as infantry support weapons, and the terrain precluded the use of tanks in maneuver warfare that might have led to large scale tank-vs.-tank battles. This book begins by surveying the early tank battles in the Pacific between US and...

Several factors delayed and greatly hampered the development of an Italian medium and heavy tank during Rommel's Desert War in World War II. The first was the strategic stance of the country, focussed on a war against neighbouring countries such as France and Yugoslavia, and ill-prepared for a war in the Western Desert. Since these European countries bordered with Italy in mountainous areas, light tanks were preferred as these were deemed much more suitable for the narrow roads and bridges of the Alps. The failure to develop an effective operational plan for North Africa was another factor...

The bazooka was the popular name given to the innovative US rocket-propelled, man-portable antitank weapon that saw widespread service with US and other forces from 1942 to the early 1980s and was described by Eisenhower as one of the four "Tools of Victory" - with the atom bomb, the Jeep, and the C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft - that won World War II for the Allies.

Most belligerents entering World War II armed their infantry with bulky and ineffectual antitank rifles as their primary means of combating tanks, but US planners realized that what infantrymen needed was a relatively...

Between the two world wars, the United States contributed significantly to the evolution of the tank, a weapon invented by the British and the French seeking to break through the lines of German trenches. From the employment of the French Renault FT and British Mark V during their involvement in World War I, the United States branched out with its own indigenous designs, including the M1 Cavalry Car and the M2 Light and Medium tanks, the precursors to the Stuart and Grant tanks of World War II. Tank designers in this period faced unique challenges, and the story of early American armor is...

The Border War saw the biggest armored battles in Africa since World War II. Starting as a counterinsurgency operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF) against the South West Africa People's Organization, South Africa became embroiled in the complex Angolan Civil War, where they came up against enemies well supplied with equipment and armored vehicles from the Soviet Union.

With the aid of stunning illustrations and photographs, this study details the characteristics, capabilities, and performance of the wide variety of armored vehicles deployed by the SADF, from the Eland...

The tank battles in the Soviet Union during the summer of 1941 were the largest in World War II, exceeding even the more famous Prokhorovka encounter during the Kursk campaign. Indeed, they were the largest tank battles ever fought.

This book examines two evenly matched competitors in this conflict, the German Panzer 38(t) and the Soviet BT-7. Both were of similar size, armed with guns of comparable firepower, and had foreign roots--the Panzer 38(t) was a Czechoslovak design and the BT-7 was an evolution of the American Christie tank. With full-color artwork and archive and...

In 1836, Samuel Colt changed the face of warfare with the production of the first of a series of iconic and influential single-action revolvers, including the .44-caliber Colt Walker and the seminal .45-caliber Colt Single Action Army, which remains in production today. These weapons shifted the role of the pistol from single-shot weapon of last resort to a practical and powerful sidearm that gave the soldier the ability to defend himself once his primary armament was discharged. It transformed cavalry tactics and relegated the sword to a largely ceremonial role in many...