weapons

Types of Weapons Used by Ancient Greece

By Mike Markowitz

When we think “catapult,” we imagine the types of weapons used for hurling rocks, dead plague victims, or unlucky cows against a castle. Read more

weapons

Wunderwaffen: Hermann Göring & the Messerschmitt Me-262

By Robert F. Dorr

A man who was close to Adolf Hitler and hardly impartial later saidthat the Führer had “a mood of merriment” for a brief period that day. Read more

weapons

What Made the B-25 Mitchell Bomber so Legendary

By Michael D. Hull

Little more than four months after the disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor, America went on the offensive against Japan with one of the boldest and best remembered bomber raids of World War II. Read more

weapons

World War I Weapons: Germany’s Big Guns

By William Scheck

World War I’s stalemate on the Western Front ushered up varied solutions. The Allies developed tanks for traversing no man’s land to get at the enemy. Read more

weapons

Polearms

By Michael Kluever

The medieval polearm was the Colt Pistol equalizer of the Middle Ages. it placed the common infantry soldier on par with the heavily armored horseman. Read more

weapons

Waffen SS General Felix Steiner’s WWII Legacy

By Pat McTaggart

“Where is Steiner?” Adolf Hitler demanded as his Thousand Year Reich crumbled around him in April 1945. “Is he attacking yet?” Read more

weapons

WWII Weapons Systems: The German Sturmgewehr

By Brandt Heatherington

With the conflict in Iraq, combat photography is once again prevalent in the media, and it would be impossible to miss images of U.S. Read more

weapons

The Gatling Gun: A Civil War Innovation

By A.B. Feuer

Richard Gatling was born in Hertford County, NC, on December 12, 1818. His father was a prosperous farmer and inventor, and the son was destined to inherit the “invention bug.” Read more

weapons

The Composite Bow: The Medieval Precursor to the Rifle

By O’Brien Browne

Orderly rows of Sumerian soldiers stretched across the grassy plain, their conical bronze helmets hard and bright under the sizzling sun. Read more

weapons

The Marine Corps’ Ka-Bar Fighting Knife

By Mike Haskew

When Private Clarence Garrett of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, United States Marine Corps, clung to the loose black volcanic sand on the sloping beach of Iwo Jima on Feburary 19, 1945, he probably had no idea that his photograph was being taken. Read more

weapons

The M60 Machine Gun in the Vietnam War

By Blaine Taylor

The time was early 1967, the place a crowded square over a body of water on a narrow bridge in downtown Saigon. Read more

weapons

The Workhorse Lancaster

By Nigel Price

Powerful, brisling with firepower and able to carry an amazingly large bombload, the majestic Avro Lancaster, along with the iconic Supermarine Spitfire, has come to symbolize the might of the Royal Air Force in World War II. Read more

weapons

The Strange Odyssey of USS Stewart

By Glenn Barnett

The Spanish-American War saw the development of the torpedo as we know it today. It was not the static mine of the Civil War but a propeller driven, waterborne explosive device. Read more

weapons

Learning from David and Goliath: The True Origin of the Sling Weapon

By Erich B. Anderson

More than 3,000 years ago, an army of Israelites led by King Saul confronted a force of Philistine invaders in the valley of Elah. Read more

weapons

America’s trusty M1 Garand rifle was “Woven into the fabric of the nation.”

By David J. Little

After the Great War, in which American troops were sent into combat with either the bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle or the bolt-action British Enfield, planners in the War Department realized that, if the United States were ever drawn in combat again, they would need a far superior weapon. Read more

weapons

Wreaking Havoc

By Sam McGowan

Few airplanes can claim the honor of being credited with changing the course of World War II, but the Douglas A-20 Havoc twin-engine light bomber is one that can. Read more

weapons

The Hood Has Blown Up!

By Mark Carlson

In one of the most gripping scenes of the 1960 motion picture Sink the Bismarck! the viewer is witness to the climactic moment of the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May 24, 1941. Read more

weapons

The 1903 Springfield Rifle’s Storied Military History

By Christopher Miskimon

On November 17, 1915, Major Smedley Butler and a small force of U.S. Marines approached the old French bastion of Fort Riviere in Haiti. Read more

weapons

Russian Antitank Rifles

By Christopher Miskimon

The German panzers approached the Russian artillery  column as it moved to a new position. As the troops trudged toward their new firing point, six panzers appeared, rampaging into the Russian rear area, no doubt searching for vulnerable targets to destroy. Read more

weapons

Controversial Allied Escort Carriers were Versatile Weapons

By Michael Hull

Ungainly, slow, and lacking armor, the escort carriers of the American and British navies were the versatile, unsung workhorses of the second half of World War II. Read more