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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Weapons & equipment > General
This book shows how the Dutch accumulation of great wealth was
closely linked to their involvement in warfare. By charting Dutch
activity across the globe, it explores Dutch participation in the
international arms trade, and in wars both at home and abroad. In
doing so, it ponders the issue of how capitalism has often
historically thrived best when its practitioners are ruthless and
ignore the human cost of their search for riches. This complicates
the traditional Marxist understanding of capitalists as
middle-class exploiters in arguing for a much greater agency among
lower-class Dutch soldiers and sailors in their efforts to benefit
from skills that were in high demand.
This book, first published in 1983, contains articles written as a
result of the UN 1978-81 study on the relationship between
disarmament and development. They analyse the disruptive, retarding
and weakening effects of large-scale military preparations on the
economic and social fabric of societies around the world. They
discuss the benefits of disarmament, and how resources could be
converted into constructive civilian uses and national development,
particularly in developing countries.
Siberia - infamous for its brutal winters, and larger than the
entire United States - is not the only wilderness within the former
Soviet Union. Harsh southern deserts, arctic islands, disputed
border regions, and minority populations beligerent towards the
their present government are spread all across the gigantic nation.
Flying over Russia presents risks few other aircrews in time of
peace must face. And while Russian combat aircraft are world
renowned for their reliable performance, what happens when
something does go wrong? Given their exceptional egress systems -
odds are the pilot will eject safely, but how does he survive and
advance under such potentially dire circumstances? MiG Pilot
Survival: Russian Aircrew Survival Equipment and Instruction
explores the components and details of Russian survival science
with color photographs, in depth descriptions, and a full
translation of the exact manual - with original illustrations
intact - as used by Russian aircrews in time of crisis, Alan R.
Wise is a consultant, writer, and photographer who has done work
for the Department of Defense, Department of State, U.S. Army, U.S.
Air Force, U.S. Air Force Museum, and the Kansas Cosmosphere and
Space Center. He has served as a military advisor and has written
numerous articles for magazines such as National Defense, Journal
of Defense and Diplomacy, Armor, and Behind the Lines: The Journal
of Special Operations. He is also the coauthor with Michael S.
Breuninger of Jet Age Flight Helmets (see page 5 of this catalog).
He resides in Middletown, Ohio and is an experienced collector
specializing in flight gear, survival and special operations
equipment, and military vehicles.
This new book covers the great variety of secret and largely
unknown German missile programs: GUIDED MISSILES: Ruhrstahl/Kramer
X1 "Fritz-X", Henschel Hs 293, Hs 294, Hs 295 and Henschel
"Zitterrochen", Blohm und Voss Bv 226, Bv 246 "Hagelkorn" and
Lippisch GB-3/L, Blohm und Voss Bv 143, Henschel G.T. 1200 and
other gliding torpedos, Arado E-377 and E-377a, Mistel Me 262
A-1/A-2 and Me 262 A-1a/Ju 287b-1, Fieseler Fi 103 Series; PILOTED
MISSILES: Blohm und Voss Bv 40, Daimler-Benz Projekt E and F,
Messerschmitt Me 328, "Gleiter Bombenflugzeug" 1945, Projekt
"Reichenberg" Series, Sombold So 344, Zeppelin "Rammer"; BALLISTIC
MISSILES: EMW A-3/A-5, EMW A 4/A 4b, EMW A 5/A 8, EMW A 7/A 9/A 10,
Blohm und Voss "Manuell Gesteuertes RAketen Projektil";
ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES: Ruhrstahl/Kramer X-4, Ruhrstahl/Kramer X-7
"Rotkappchen", Henschel Hs 298 V1 and V2, Henschel Hs 117
"Schmetterling", Messerschmitt "Enzian", Rheinmetall-Borsig F-25
and F-55 "Feuerlilie", Rheinmetall-Borsig "Rheintochter" I and III,
Rheinmetall-Borsig "Hecht" 2700, EMW C2 "Wasserfall."
The third book in Professor Christian Potholm's war trilogy (which
includes Winning at War and War Wisdom), Understanding War provides
a most workable bibliography dealing with the vast literature on
war and warfare. As such, it provides insights into over 3000 works
on this overwhelmingly extensive material. Understanding War is
thus the most comprehensive annotated bibliography available today.
Moreover, by dividing war material into eighteen overarching themes
of analysis and fifty seminal topics, and focusing on these,
Understanding War enables the reader to access and understand the
broadest possible array of materials across both time and space,
beginning with the earliest forms of warfare and concluding with
the contemporary situation. Stimulating and thought-provoking, this
volume is essential for an understanding of the breadth and depth
of the vast scholarship dealing with war and warfare through human
history and across cultures.
Covers the types and usage of German heavy reconnaissance vehicles.
Weapons of Mass Destruction are diverse and pose unique challenges
to governments attempting to keep them out of the wrong hands and
preparing to respond to an attack. This text analyzes Chemical,
Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) weapons and terrorist
groups with a known interest in them. It presents accessible
information about the technical challenges posed by each type of
weapon, assesses the threats, and reviews the US governmental
responses. It provides structured CBRN case studies and allows for
easy comparison of threats, challenges, and responses. The text
combines weapons and policy information in one comprehensive and
comparative resource for researchers and students interested in key
issues in modern terrorism and international security.
The collecting of military theater made knives of World War II is
one of the fastest growing fields of collecting in America today.
These knives are very historical. They were individually handmade
by people who wanted to contribute to the war effort, as well as
the service men who used them. Most of these knives differ in style
and have very colorful handles. This is the only book available
that donates its entire contents to the collecting of theater made
knives and their values.
The full story of Aston House in the Second World War has never
been told before. Its activities were top secret and as important
to the Allied war effort as those of Bletchley Park, but in a
different way. Situated near Stevenage, Aston House was one of many
British country houses requisitioned during the Second World War by
the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Born out of Bletchley Park,
where it began life as SIS Section 'D' (for Destruction), Station
12's scientific and military personnel invented, made and supplied
'toys' for the Commandos, Special Boat Service, SAS, and resistance
groups. Included in their deadly arsenal of weapons were plastic
explosives, limpet mines, pressure switches, tree spigots,
incendiary bombs, incendiary liquids and arrows, and a variety of
time fuses. They worked on the tools for famous operations, such as
the St Nazaire and Dieppe Raids, and the assassination of Himmler's
deputy in Prague. Also revealed are the human stories of personnel
stationed in this extremely remote village and the explosive pranks
they played on each other, and certain visitors, which add some
light relief to their destructive purpose.
This book studies how the arms trade has continued to receive
generous state subsidies, along with less direct forms of financial
and intellectual support from academia in the UK. It examines the
ways in which arms dealing has contributed to the violation of
human rights in the Middle East, North Africa, South America,
Indochina and other regions of intense conflict, and in doing so,
reveals how the industry sells a particular image of itself to the
public. The volume: Extensively covers the arms trade and its
impact across the world. Shows how the UK arms trade has developed
research, investment and consultancy links with universities,
museums and other public institutions. Discusses the future of the
arms trade and explores alternatives in terms of job opportunities,
economic growth and academic research criteria. A major
intervention in international politics, this volume will be of
great interest to scholars and researchers of military and
strategic studies, international relations, human rights and the
social sciences in general. It will also be of interest to policy
analysts and defence professionals.
The 1950s were a vital time in the history of science. In
accordance with the intensification of the Cold War, many
scientific talents were mobilized to several military-related
research and development projects not only in the United States,
but also in the Soviet Union. Contrary to the expectation of
General Leslie Groves, a leader of the Manhattan Project, the
Soviet Union succeeded in their nuclear weapon development in a
very short time. And then, by the end of the decade, mankind
reached the dawn of the Atomic Age proper with the beginning of the
operation of the world's first civil nuclear power plant in Obninsk
in 1954. The risky and costly developments of new weapons such as
rockets, jet warplanes, and computers were achieved by the Soviet
Union in a very short time after World War in spite of the heavy
economic damage caused by the battles with German troops in Soviet
territory. Why were such a great number of scientific talents
mobilized to various Soviet Cold War research and development
projects? What were the true natures, and real consequences of the
rushed Cold War projects? How did Soviet scientists approach the
nuclear age? Thanks to the study of formerly classified Soviet
archives, a more nuanced view of Soviet society has become
possible. To resolve the above-mentioned questions, Ichikawa
analyses the complicated interactions among various factors,
including the indigenous contradictions in the historical
development of science in the Soviet Union; conflicts among the
related interest groups; relationships with the political
leadership and the military, the role of ideology and others.
When America declared war on Germany in 1917, the United States had
only 200,000 men under arms, a twentieth of the German army's
strength, and its planes were no match for the Luftwaffe. Less than
a century later, the United States today has by far the world's
largest military budget and provides over 40% of the world's
armaments. In American Arsenal Patrick Coffey examines America's
military transformation from an isolationist state to a world
superpower with a defense budget over $600 billion. Focusing on
sixteen specific developments, Coffey illustrates the unplanned,
often haphazard nature of this transformation, which has been
driven by political, military, technological, and commercial
interests. Beginning with Thomas Edison's work on submarine
technology, American Arsenal moves from World War I to the present
conflicts in the Middle East, covering topics from chemical
weapons, strategic bombing, and the nuclear standoff with the
Soviet Union, to "smart" bombs, hand-held anti-aircraft missiles,
and the Predator and other drone aircrafts. Coffey traces the story
of each advance in weaponry from drawing board to battlefield, and
includes fascinating portraits the men who invented and deployed
them-Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project; Curtis
LeMay, who sent the Enola Gray to drop the atom bomb on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki; Herman Kahn, nuclear strategist and model for Stanley
Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove; Abraham Karem, inventor of the Predator
and many others. Coffey also examines the increasingly detached
nature of modern American warfare-the ultimate goal is to remove
soldiers from the battlefield entirely-which limits casualties
(211,454 in Vietnam and only 1,231 in the Gulf War) but also
lessens the political and psychological costs of going to war.
Examining the backstories of every major American weapons
development, American Arsenal is essential reading for anyone
interested in the ongoing evolution of the U.S. defense program.
This title presents new research highlighting the invention of new
weaponry and its front-line combat use. No army went to war in 1914
ready to conduct trench warfare operations. All the armies of the
First World War discovered that prolonged trench warfare required
new types of munitions alongside the conventional howitzers,
large-calibre guns and explosive shells. This volume examines how
the British went about inventing and manufacturing new weaponry
such as hand grenades, rifle grenades and trench mortars when no
body of knowledge about trench warfare munitions existed. It also
examines how tactics were developed for these new munitions. Based
on new research, this is the first book to discuss the complexity
of invention and manufacture of novel weapons such as the Mills
grenade and the Stokes mortar, and to consider the relationship
between technical design and operational tactics on the ground. In
so doing the book presents a different model of the trench warfare
conducted by the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front,
and also provides a blueprint to understanding the relationship
between technology and tactics applicable to all types of weapons
and warfare. "Continuum Studies in Military History" offers
up-to-date, scholarly accounts of war and military history.
Unrestricted by period or geography, the series aims to provide
free-standing works that are attuned to conceptual and
historiographical developments in the field while being based on
original scholarship.
Knife / Counter-Knife Combatives by W. Hock Hochheim describes
offensive and defensive knife fighting tactics in all ranges of
combat including standing, sitting and on the ground. This is a
complete survival tactical manual for all aspects of knife combat.
W. Hock Hochheim is known worldwide as an authority on knife
fighting tactics and strategies. He's the author of more than a
dozen books and more than 200 dvds on a broad range of self-defense
subjects. He teaches military, police and citizens in 9 countries
annually.
Developed in response to the 1899 Hague Convention, the 37-mm gun
met the restrictions on the size of weapons that could fire
explosive shells, yet was also light and lethal enough to be used
in battle. After World War I, in which the French Model 1916 37-mm
was used extensively, several countries developed or adopted the
37-mm gun. Behind in their development of an anti-tank gun, the
United States relied on the German Pak 36 37-mm design as a basis
for development. By the mid 1930s, the US Ordnance Department
designed the M3 37-mm gun and M4 carriage resulting in a towed
anti-tank gun, the first anti-tank gun in the U.S. Army. This gun
proved effective at the beginning of World War II, but as German
armour protection increased, it could not penetrate the frontal
armuor of many German tanks and was relegated to lesser roles.
However, the gun proved effective against the Japanese tanks and
Japanese strong points in the Far East. The US military used the
gun on several production and experimental armoured vehicles
including the M3 Lee Medium Tank, the M3 Stuart Light Tank, the M5
Stuart Light Tank, the M8 Armored Car, the T17E1 Staghound Armored
Car and the M3A1E3 Scout Car. The gun was also used on several
non-armoured vehicles, the P39 Aeracobra, and selected naval
vessels. Despite its small size, the U.S. M3 37-mm gun served
throughout the war, on many vehicles and performed exactly as
designed. Fully illustrated, this is the first complete account of
the development and use of the US 37-mm gun in World War II.
The American Civil War saw the creation of the largest, most potent
artillery force ever deployed in a conflict fought in the Western
Hemisphere. It was as sizable and powerful as any raised in prior
European wars. Moreover, Union and Confederate artillery included
the largest number of rifled pieces fielded in any conflagration in
the world up to that point. Earl J. Hess's Civil War Field
Artillery is the first comprehensive general history of the
artillery arm that supported infantry and cavalry in the conflict.
Based on deep and expansive research, it serves as an exhaustive
examination with abundant new interpretations that reenvision the
Civil War's military. Hess explores the major factors that affected
artillerists and their work, including the hardware, the
organization of artillery power, relationships between artillery
officers and other commanders, and the influence of environmental
factors on battlefield effectiveness. He also examines the lives of
artillerymen, the use of artillery horses, manpower replacement
practices, effects of the widespread construction of field
fortifications on artillery performance, and the problems of
resupplying batteries in the field. In one of his numerous
reevalutions, Hess suggests that the early war practice of
dispersing guns and assigning them to infantry brigades or
divisions did not inhibit the massing of artillery power on the
battlefield, and that the concentration system employed during the
latter half of the conflict failed to produce a greater
concentration of guns. In another break with previous scholarship,
he shows that the efficacy of fuzes to explode long-range ordnance
proved a problem that neither side was able to resolve during the
war. Indeed, cumulative data on the types of projectiles fired in
battle show that commanders lessened their use of the new
long-range exploding ordnance due to bad fuzes and instead
increased their use of solid shot, the oldest artillery projectile
in history.
This book presents the history of the second largest arms
manufacturer in Europe, the Skoda Works, and of those of its heavy
guns that were transported in an innovative and unique way -
gasoline-electrical trains.
As a leading expert on non-conventional weapons and explosives, the
author focuses on the bombs and explosives and shows how the IRA
became the most adept and experienced insurgency group the world
has ever seen through their bombing expertise and how - after
generations of conflict - it all came to an end. The book is a
comprehensive account of more than 150 years of Irish republican
strategic, tactical, and operational details and analysis covering
the IRA's mission, doctrine, targeting, and acquisition of weapons
and explosives. Oppenheimer also colourfully presents the story
behind the bombs; those who built and deployed them, those who had
to deal with and dismantle them, and those who suffered or died
from them. He analyses where, how, and why the IRA's bombs were
built, targeted and deployed and explores what the IRA was hoping
to accomplish in its unrivalled campaign of violence and insurgency
through covert acquisition, training, intelligence and
counter-intelligence. The book focuses entirely on the IRA's
bombing campaign - beginning with the Fenian 'Dynamiters' in the
19th century up to the decommissioning of an arsenal big enough to
arm several battalions - which included an entire home-crafted
missile system, an unsurpassed range of improvised explosive
devices, and enough explosives to blow up several urban centres.
The author scrutinises the level of improvisation in what became
the hallmark of the Provisional IRA in its pioneering IED timing,
delay and disguise technologies. He follows the arms race it
carried on with the British Army and security services in a Long
War of Mutual Assured Disruption. Oppenheimer fully describes and
assesses the impact of the pre-1970s bombing campaigns in Northern
Ireland and England to the evolution of strategies and tactics. He
also provides an insight into the bombing equipment and guns from
the IRA inventory held at Irish Police HQ in Dublin.
Covered are the variety of guns and ordnance used during the
pre-World War I period.
Radar-based imaging of aircraft targets is a topic that continues
to attract a lot of attention, particularly since these imaging
methods have been recognized to be the foundation of any successful
all-weather non-cooperative target identification technique.
Traditional books in this area look at the topic from a radar
engineering point of view. Consequently, the basic issues
associated with model error and image interpretation are usually
not addressed in any substantive fashion. Moreover, applied
mathematicians frequently find it difficult to read the radar
engineering literature because it is jargon-laden and device
specific, meaning that the skills most applicable to the problem's
solution are rarely applied. Enabling an understanding of the
subject and its current mathematical research issues, Radar Imaging
of Airborne Targets: A Primer for Applied Mathematicians and
Physicists presents the issues and techniques associated with radar
imaging from a mathematical point of view rather than from an
instrumentation perspective. The book concentrates on scattering
issues, the inverse scattering problem, and the approximations that
are usually made by practical algorithm developers. The author also
explains the consequences of these approximations to the resultant
radar image and its interpretation, and examines methods for
reducing model-based error.
This book covers all classes and types of small arms, from pistols
to heavy machine guns, known to have been used by the Italian
partisans during WWII. It provides a brief history of the origin
and development of the partisan movement in Italy following the 8
September 1943 armistice between Italy and the Allies and
subsequent occupation of the northern portion of the country by
Germany. There are many relevant examples of correspondence between
partisan units relating to acquisition, distribution, use,
maintenance, and problems encountered with the various types of
small arms available. The majority of the pages of this book are
dedicated to a complete, thorough, and extensive coverage of each
individual type of weapon known to have been used by the partisans,
including specifications, supported by current as well as vintage
photographs showing the weapons in use by the partisans.
The famous and versatile World War II German seaplane.
The intense and polemical debate over the legality and morality of
weapons systems to which human cognitive functions are delegated
(up to and including the capacity to select targets and release
weapons without further human intervention) addresses a phenomena
which does not yet exist but which is widely claimed to be
emergent. This groundbreaking collection combines contributions
from roboticists, legal scholars, philosophers and sociologists of
science in order to recast the debate in a manner that clarifies
key areas and articulates questions for future research. The
contributors develop insights with direct policy relevance,
including who bears responsibility for autonomous weapons systems,
whether they would violate fundamental ethical and legal norms, and
how to regulate their development. It is essential reading for
those concerned about this emerging phenomenon and its consequences
for the future of humanity.
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