The development of cavalry firearms and the widespread disappearance of armour from the European battlefield saw a decline in the use of the cavalry lance in early modern warfare. …
Adopted from the Celts in the 1st century BC, the spatha, a lethal and formidable chopping blade, became the primary sword of the Roman soldier in the Later Empire. Over the …
This fully illustrated new book describes and analyses the weapons and equipment traditionally associated with the samurai, Japan’s superlative warriors. It examines the range of …
The M4 carbine has become one of the defining military firearms of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Developed as a fusion of the XM177E2 Colt Commando and the M16A2 assault …
Making its debut in 1935, the Browning High-Power was the world’s most widely used military pistol for much of the 20th century. Military and law-enforcement agencies in more than …
Although muskets delivered devastating projectiles at comparatively long ranges, their slow rate of fire left the soldier very vulnerable while reloading, and early muskets were …
Created by a long-forgotten Austrian nobleman, Adolf Odkolek von Augezd, the air-cooled Hotchkiss machine gun was the first to function effectively by tapping propellant gas from …
The conduct of combat operations in open order during the 18th and 19th centuries required an improved firearm with more accuracy than the standard-issue smoothbore infantry …
In response to the challenge of the Soviet Dragunov self-loading rifle, the British Army adopted the 7.62mm L42A1 bolt-action sniping rifle in 1970. The L42A1 was deployed in …
Designed by a motorcycle racer turned small-arms engineer, George Patchett, the submachine gun that eventually became known as the Sterling was developed during World War II. Some …
