DK - Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare

The Definitive Visual Guide t o the Objects of W arf are

LONDON NEW Y ORK MUNICH MELBOURNE DELHI Senior Editor Gareth Jo nes Editor ial T eam Hannah Bo w en, Hugo W ilkinson, Alison Sturgeon, Steve Setford, An dy Szudek, S atu Fo x Senior Art Ed itors Michael Duy , Sharon Spencer Design T eam Keith Da vies , S teve Wo osnam-Sav age Photographer Gary Ombler Production Editors Ben Marcus, To ny Phipps Production Controller Linda Dare Picture Research Sarah Smithies, Roland Smithies Cover Designer Mark Cav anagh Managing Editor Stephanie Fa rrow Managing Ar t E ditor Lee Griths US Senior Editor R ebecca W a rren US Editor Jill Hamilton Cobalt ID The Stables, Wo od Farm Deopham Road, Attlebor ough Norfolk NR17 1AJ Managing Editor M arek W a lisiewicz Managing Ar t E ditor Paul Reid Editors Ric hard Gilber t, Louise Ab bott Art Editors Darren Bland, L loyd T ilbury DK India Managing Editor Saloni T a lwar Senior Editors Neha Gupta, Priyanka Naib Editor ial T eam Surbhi Nay yar , Suneha Dutta Managing Ar t E ditor Romi Chakrabort y Senior Designer Govin d Mittal, An is Say yed Design T eam Pankaj Bhatia, Am it Va rma, Honlung Zach Senior DTP Designer Ha rish Aggarwal DTP Designers Vishal Bhat ia, Jagtar Sin gh, Dheeraj Arora CTS Manager Balwant Si ngh Production Editor P ankaj Shar ma Managing Director Apar na Shar ma Published b y Dorling Kinders ley Limited in associa tion with Royal A rmou ries Tr ading and Enterpr ises Limited Fir st Amer ican Edition, 2012 Published in the United Sta tes by DK Publishing 375 Hudson Street Ne w Y ork, Ne w Y ork 10014 12 13 14 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 001182907Oct/2012 Copyri ght 2012 Dorling Kindersley Limited All rights re serv ed. Without limiting the ri ghts under copy right re serv ed abov e, n o part of this publicat ion may be reproduced, stored in or introdu ced into a retri eval system, o r transmitted, i n any form , or by an y means (electr onic, mechanical, p hotocopying , r ecording, o r otherwise), without the pri or written per mis sion of both the copyri ght ow ner and the abov e pub lisher of this book. A catalog record fo r this book is av ailabl e from the Library of Cong ress ISBN 978-0-7566-9838-6 DK books are a vail able at special discounts when purchased in bu lk for sales promotions, p remiums, fund-raising, o r educational use . F or details contact: DK Publishing Special Mark ets, 375 Hudson Street, New Yo rk, 10014 or SpecialSales@dk.com. Printed and bound in China by Leo Pa per Products Ltd Discov er more at www. dk.com T HE R OYAL A RMOURIES , UK Thom Richardson K eeper of Ar mour and Or iental Collections Rober t C. Wo osnam-Sav age Curator of European Edged We apons Jona than Ferguson Curator of Firearm s Mark Mur ra y-Flutter Senior Curator of Firearm s Tre vor W e ston Modern and Military Firear ms M anager Karen W a tts Senior Cura tor of Ar mour and Ar t Nicholas Hall K eeper of Ar tiller y Philip Magrath Curator o f Art illery A DDITIONAL CONSUL T ANTS Brian Lav ery Curator of Na val History , National Mari time Museum, Greenwich, UK Stephen W oolford MBE Head of Interpre tation and Collections, Imperial Wa r Museum, Duxford, UK contr ibut ors R. G . G rant Philip Park er Ian Bottomley Charles Phillips Roger Ford Adrian Gilber t Malcolm Claridge We ights and measurements give n in this book are expre ssed in their metri c and imperial equiva lents, wherev er the inform ation is a vail able. H owe ver , there are vari ous dierent conv entions for the measurements of caliber and displacement. Please r efer to p .446 for fur ther details . consul tan ts Established in 1846, t he Smithsonianthe wo rld s largest museum and research complexi ncludes 19 museums and galleri es and the National Zoologi cal Pa rk. T he total number of art ifacts, wor ks of art, a nd specimens in the Smithsonian s collections is estimated at million, much of w hich is contained in the National Museum of Natur al History , which holds more than 126 million specimens and objects. T he Smithsonian is a reno wne d research center , dedicated to publ ic education, na tional ser vice , and sc holar ship in the ar ts, sciences, and histor y . SMITHSONIAN ENTERPRISES Carol LeBlanc, V ice Presi dent Brigi d Fe rraro, D irector of Licensing Ellen Nanney , Licensing Manager Kealy W ilson, Pr oduct Dev elopment Coordina tor SMITHSONIAN Sta of the Division of A rme d Fo rces History , National Museum of Amer ican Histor y , Smithsonian This trademark is ow ned by the Smithsonia n and is regi stered in the US P atent and Tr ademark Office

INTRO DUCTI ON The deve lopment of arm s and arm aments is central to the story of military hi story . W hile the aims and intentions of humans at war ha ve remained essentially the same since the very da wn of civilization, t he history of we aponry and tactics has been a process of near-constant adaptat ion, reinv ention, and progre ssion, with the result that battleeld tech nology has gro wn increasingly eective , a nd eve r more deadly . The earliest we apons took the form of stone axes and clubs, but, with the adoption of bronze , a nd then iron, t hese we re improv ed, devel oped, and then superseded. S wor ds, spears, and bow s dominated the eld of battle from the era of A ncient Egypt and Assyr ia to the high Middle Ages, until the introduction of gunpo wder we apons in Europe in the 14th century . T his inv ention herald ed a sea-chan ge in warfare , a s human strength was aided and th en all but replaced b y chemical and mec hanical pow er , a process that accelera ted during the Indust rial Rev olution, w ith an exponential gro wth in the range and accuracy of we apon systems, b oth on land and at sea. Wa r then reach ed the skies in the early 1900s, expanding the reach of military might across the globe , and, while the adv ent of the nuclear bo mb in 1945 made the prospect of full-scale conict almost too terr ibl e to contemplate, i t did not stop the pace of tech nological change in conv entional arm s during the rest of the century . In the modern age, t he increasing sophisticat ion of smart weap ons has heralded a rev olution in w arfare, a nd we have reached an era in which human com batants are slowl y being r eplaced by computer-controlled mach ines. The follow ing pages oer a beautifully illustrated account of this pr ocess, sho wcasing signicant ar maments and other military pieces across 5,000 ye ars and a va st geogr aphical range. H owe ver , this majestic booka fru itful collaboration betwe en leading military history writer s and exper t consultants from the Ro yal A rmo uries, the Smithsonian, and other specialist institutionsis much more than simply a catalog of w eap onry . It oers g ripp ing accounts of the ke y battles, l andmark ev ents, a nd historical gures wh ose legacies have changed th e reality of warf are; it explores the rol e technolog ies and tactics play ed in determ ining the outcome of conicts; and it c har ts the impact of these e v ents on the balance of pow er and boundary , the rise and fall of nation and empire, a nd on the course of hu man history .