When British soldiers charged across the Somme in September 1916, they were accompanied by a new, revolutionary weapon--the tank. After a stuttering start, armored behemoths such as the Mark IV, Mark V, and Whippet Tank played a crucial role in bringing World War I to an end.

Marking the centenary of their battlefield debut, this comprehensive volume traces the design and development of the famous British weapon system, from the initial concept of a steam-powered tank during the Crimean War, to the role the British military played in creating the infamous German Blitzkrieg tactic of...

Military forces around the world were quick to see the advantages of railways in warfare, whether for the rapid deployment of men or the movement of heavy equipment like artillery. From this realization, it was a short step to making the train a potent weapon in its own right--a mobile fort or a battleship on rails. Armed and armored, they became the first practical self-propelled war...

The Rolls-Royce Armoured Car is almost a legend: introduced by the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914 for shore patrols, modified versions were still in service with the British Army's 11th Hussars in the North African desert in 1940-41. Between the wars they were used for policing duties by the Royal Air Force in Iraq, Egypt and India.

From the Fokker biplanes to World War II fighters like the Supermarine Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf 109, from heft bombers like the Boeing B-17 to Cold War classics such as the MiG-21 and on to stealth aircraft such as the SR-71 and Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, each entry tells you all you need to know about the best there has been.

From propeller aircraft to jets, from fighters to bombers to transport aircraft, from America to Europe to Russia and Japan, the most impressive aircraft from a century of military aviation are selected.

Each entry covered over four...

Over the last 30 years, the "technical" or armed pick-up truck has become arguably the most ubiquitous military land vehicle of modern warfare.

Harking back to the armed Jeeps and Chevrolet trucks of the SAS and Long Range Desert Group in North Africa in the World War II, the world's first insurgent technicals were those of the Sahrawi People's Liberation Army in Algeria in the late 1970s, followed by the Chadian use of technical in the so-called Toyota War against Libya. Since then, technicals have seen use in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, as well as being used by Western...