At the beginning of the twentieth century, field artillery was a small, separate, unsupported branch of the U.S. Army. By the end of World War I, it had become the 'King of Battle,' a critical component of American military might. Million-Dollar Barrage tracks this transformation. Offering a detailed account of how American artillery crews trained, changed, adapted, and fought between 1907 and 1923, Justin G. Prince tells the story of the development of modern American field artillery - a tale stretching from the period when field artillery became an independent organization to when it became an equal branch of the U.S. Army. The field artillery entered the Great War as a relatively new branch. It separated from the Coast Artillery in 1907 and established a dedicated training school, the School of Fire at Fort Sill, in 1911. Prince describes the challenges this presented as issues of doctrine, technology, weapons development, and combat training intersected with the problems of a peacetime army with no good industrial base. His account, which draws on a wealth of sources, ranges from debates about U.S. artillery practices relative to those of Europe, to discussions of the training, equipping, and performance of the field artillery branch during the war. Prince follows the field artillery from its plunge into combat in April 1917 as an unprepared organization to its emergence that November as an effective fighting force, with the Meuse-Argonne Offensive proving the pivotal point in the branch's fortunes. Million-Dollar Barrage provides an unprecedented analysis of the ascendance of field artillery as a key factor in the nation's military dominance.

A concise history of the development and use of incendiary weapons--flamethrowers, incendiary bombs, napalm, and more--by the American military in the twentieth century, with a focus on World War II. * Describes how the U.S. created its incendiary weapons program virtually from scratch during World War II * Pivotal episodes include Omaha Beach on D-Day and the skilled performance of an armored flamethrower battalion in the Pacific * Also covers the history of incendiaries from ancient times to World War II and through Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm

This book focuses on Biopreparat, the Soviet agency created in 1974, which spearheaded the largest and most sophisticated biological warfare programme the world has ever seen. At its height, Biopreparat employed more than 30,000 personnel and incorporated an enormous network embracing military-focused research institutes, design centres, biowarfare pilot facilities and dual-use production plants. The secret network pursued major offensive R&D programmes, which sought to use genetic engineering techniques to create microbial strains resistant to antibiotics and with wholly new and unexpected pathogenic properties. During the mid-1980s, Biopreparat increased in size and political importance and also emerged as a major civil biopharmaceutical player in the USSR. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an acute struggle for control of Biopreparat's most valuable assets took place and the network was eventually broken-up and control of its facilities transferred to a myriad of state agencies and private companies.

This handbook provides critical analyses of the theory and practices of small arms proliferation and its impact on conflicts and organized violence in Africa. It examines the terrains, institutions, factors and actors that drive armed conflict and arms proliferation, and further explores the nature, scope, and dynamics of conflicts across the continent, as well as the extent to which these conflicts are exacerbated by the proliferation of small arms. The volume features rich analyses by contributors who are acquainted with, and widely experienced in, the formal and informal structures of arms proliferation and control, and their repercussions on violence, instability and insecurity across Africa. The chapters dissect the challenges of small arms and light weapons in Africa with a view to understanding roots causes and drivers, and generating a fresh body of analyses that adds value to the existing conversation on conflict management and peacebuilding in Africa. With contributions from scholars, development practitioners, defence and security professionals and civil society activists, the handbook seeks to serve as a reference for students, researchers, and policy makers on small arms proliferation, control and regulation; defence and security practitioners; and those involved in countering violence and managing conflicts in Africa.

Second World War British Military Camouflage offers an original approach to the cultures and geographies of military conflict, through a study of the history of camouflage. Isla Forsyth narrates the scientific biography of Dr Hugh Cott (1900-1987), eminent zoologist and artist turned camoufleur, and entwines this with the lives of other camouflage practitioners, to trace the sites of camouflage's developments. Moving through the scientists' fieldsite, the committee boardroom, the military training site and the soldiers' battlefield, this book uncovers the history of this ambiguous military invention, and subverts a long-dominant narrative of camouflage as solely a protective technology. This study demonstrates that, as camouflage transformed battlefields into unsettling theatres of war, there were lasting consequences not only for military technology and knowledge, but also for the ethics of battle and the individuals enrolled in this process.

This unique volume combines the book Tiger I In Combat with a facsimile of the original German wartime crew manual for the Tiger tank, the Tigerfibel. This overview draws on a wide variety of primary source accounts of the Tiger I in action from both the Allied and the German perspective. Rare photographs, technical drawings and contemporary reports of the Tiger in combat help to set aside the myths and bring the reality into focus. General Heinz Guderian authorised the publication of the Tigerfibel from 1943 onwards. This highly unorthodox publication was full of risqu drawings and humorous illustrations and was designed to convey complex battlefield instructions in a simple and memorable manner. The manual contains everything the reader could ever wish to know concerning how the crews were instructed to handle the Tiger I under combat conditions. The Tigerfibel contains detailed instructions on aiming, firing, ammunition and close combat. There are extensive sections on maintenance, driving, radio operation and the essentials of commanding a Tiger I in combat. This book contains the original German publication with a complete English translation, new overview and introduction by Emmy Award winning historian Bob Carruthers. Highly accessible, this book is essential and rewarding reading for all readers interested in the history of the Tiger I.

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.

Guns have existed in various forms for hundreds of years, and few objects have had such an immense impact on the history of the world. But how did firearms develop? Why did the styles of guns change over the years? Firearms tells the "life story" of the gun, from the hand-held weapons of ancient humans, to the medieval guns of China that propelled objects by chemical reactions, to the modern assault rifle, the gun as the primary weapon in the modern army, and the gun as a tool for hunting. Not only does the book demonstrate how firearms developed--an evolution dependent upon years of trial and error, and often based on the recurrent need for power, accuracy and a fast rate of fire--but it shows how these advances directly affected the everyday life of people in almost every civilization on earth. Firearms provides both students and interested lay readers with insights on how this ubiquitous technology came to be. The work does not focus on just one type of firearm, but covers all types of relevant weapons. Exploring the "life-story" of the gun enables the reader to understand how the firearm came of age in Europe, where competition between nations led to the development of different types of firearms--now known as matchlock, wheelock, and flintlock. As successful as these designs were, it was the precision manufacturing of industrialization that would allow the invention of revolvers, breechloaders, and repeating rifles. Eventually, recognition that the gas and recoil of a shot could be used to reload a gun encouraged development of the semi- and fully-automatic weapons that dominate firearm designs today. Firearms includes a timeline of significant developments in the history of guns, and a bibliography of the most important works for further research.

Beginning with World War II, missiles transformed the art of war. For the first time, cities of warring nations were vulnerable to sudden, unannounced, long-distance destruction. At the same time, rockets made possible one of the great triumphs of the modern age—the exploration of space. Rockets and Missiles traces the history of the technology that led to both the great fear of global warfare, and the great excitement of the Space Age. Beginning with the origins of rocketry in medieval and early modern Asia, the volume focuses on rocketry in late-20th-century Western Europe, Russia, and the United States, and also covers the spread of rocket technology in East Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Rockets and Missiles covers everything any student or interested layperson would need to understand the history of rocketry. The introduction reviews basic principles of physics and basic elements of chemical rocket technology. Chapters trace the history of rockets from their origins to the present day, with a particular emphasis on the years since World War II. All three principal uses of rocket technology are covered in detail: missiles as long-range strategic weapons and short-range tactical weapons, and rockets as launch vehicles for sending payloads into space The book concludes with a survey of several types of non-chemical rockets now under development for use in outer space. While Rockets and Missiles covers the development of the technology, including how rockets improved in performance, reliability, and versatility. The book also stresses the impact of rocket technology—both military and civilian—on everyday life.

A substantial amount of work has been carried out to explore the military systems of Western Europe during the early modern era, but the military trajectories of the Asian states have received relatively little attention. This study provides the first comparative study of the major Asian empires' military systems and explores the extent of the impact of West European military transition on the extra-European world. Kaushik Roy conducts a comparative analysis of the armies and navies of the large agrarian bureaucratic empires of Asia, focusing on the question of how far the Asian polities were able to integrate gunpowder weapons in their military systems. "Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400-1750" offers important insights into the common patterns in war making across the region, and the impact of firearms and artillery.

The military is moving slowly but surely toward a world in which weapons will be stationed in outer space, and officials argue that these developments are essential to the maintenance of US national security in the post-Cold War world. Handberg explores these recent proposals for change and assesses the policy implications that might well result in a challenge to proponents for the militarization of space. Taking the reader through the first "Sputnik" launch and then the Gulf War, the first space war, Handberg introduces his audience to a broad overview of space as an arena for the conduct of military activity. He argues that the new policies are likely to result in a world that is less, not more, secure.

Both technologically and organizationally, the Gulf War served as a watershed for military and political leaders. As a result, the great changes occurring across the spectrum of space activities, as well as the commercial applications of space, have become particularly critical to the field. Handberg argues that one unintended outcome of current policy decisions could well be a resumption of the global arms race as powers jockey for positions in the heavens. Too much of the current military advocacy is premised upon temporary advantages, both military and economic, which will dissipate in time. The political leadership of the United States must be fully engaged in this debate, given its crucial importance for future American national security.

Drawing on revealing new research, this richly informative volume is the definitive concise introduction to the crisis that took the world to the brink of nuclear war. Cuban Missile Crisis: The Essential Reference Guide captures the historical context, the minute-by-minute drama, and the profound repercussions of the "Missiles of October" confrontation that brought the very real threat of nuclear attack to the United States' doorstep. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the crisis, it takes full advantage of recently opened Soviet archives as well as interviews with key Russian, Cuban, and U.S. officials to explore the event as it played out in Moscow, Havana, Washington, and other locations around the world. Cuban Missile Crisis contains an introductory essay by the author and alphabetically organized reference entries contributed by leading Cold War researchers. The book also includes an exceptionally comprehensive bibliography. Together, these resources give readers everything they need to understand the escalating tensions that led to the crisis as well as the intense diplomacy that resolved it, including new information about the back-channel negotiations between Robert Kennedy and Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. 73 alphabetically organized entries that offer valuable insights into the leaders, events, and ideas that shaped the Cuban Missile Crisis More than a dozen expert contributors representing all countries involved in the crisis Seven primary source documents, including President Kennedy's speech to the American public and letters exchanged between Premier Kruschev and Fidel Castro Biographies of major figures, including the Kennedys, Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Adlai Stevenson, and Valerian Zorin A thorough chronology outlining all key events before, during, and after the crisis A comprehensive bibliography on the crisis, including a significant number of recent publications that have brought new understanding of the conflict to light

This highly detailed and well-illustrated single-volume work documents the evolution of warfare across history through weaponry and technological change. In war, the weapons and technologies employed have direct effects on how battles are waged. When new weapons are introduced, they can dramatically alter the outcomes of warfare-and consequently change the course of history itself. This reference work provides a fascinating overview of the major weapon systems and military technologies that have had a major impact on world history. Addressing weapons as crude as the club used by primitive man to the high-tech weapons of today such as unmanned drones, Instruments of War: Weapons and Technologies That Have Changed History offers nearly 270 profusely illustrated entries that examine the key roles played by specific weapons and identify their success and failures. The book begins with an introductory essay that frames the subject matter of the work and discusses the history of weapons as a whole. The text is concise and accessible to general readers without extensive backgrounds in military history yet provides the detailed information necessary to convey the complexity of the evolution of warfare through technological change. Contains more than 260 entries of weapons and technological changes Features 25 sidebars that provide interesting insights as to the employment of the weapons and changes Appropriate for students in high school, college, and military academies as well as general readers interested in the history of weaponry Provides a bibliography and index