Machine Guns: An Illustrated History of Their Impact

• Book ID: 125979163
• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 2 MB
• Category: Standards
• ISBN-13: 9781851094806

✦ Synopsis

Издательство (www.abc-clio.com) сообщает:
The machine gun—often called the killing machine—revolutionized modern ground combat, brought an end to the traditional infantry and cavalry charge, and changed the battlefields of war forever.

In World War I, the Maxim machine gun, used by virtually every soldier, caused more casualties than any other weapon in history. It was an unprecedented display of lethal firepower, and changed the face of ground combat forever. Subsequent versions, offering increased precision, range, and firepower, are now the ubiquitous mainstays of armies worldwide.

This volume in the Weapons and Warfare series describes the history of machine guns from the mid-19th century to the present, following both the evolution of small arms technology and the impact of machine guns on the battlefield, on military strategy, and on human society.

This book discusses subjects ranging from the forerunners of mechanical and automatic guns, to the unusual history of the Civil War-era Gatling gun (the first practical machine gun, not used by the Union army because Gatling was a Southerner), to the machine guns developed for the world wars and those for present day use. Readers will see how the advent of the machine gun revolutionized ground combat—and how in some instances, technology outran tactics and doctrines, with disastrous consequences.

✦ Subjects

sci_history