The first instruments and machines of 'modern' war

For as long as people have formed themselves into factions there has been warfare. The nature of conflict changed little in its fundamentals until the industrial revolution. It is a sad but inevitable consequence of the age of industry and mass production that it introduced not only the benefits of manufactured goods and improved transportation, but the development of new and ever more efficient methods by which man could destroy his fellow man. It was during the American Civil War, with the introduction of the Minié ball and the emergence of the submarine and the ironclad warship that the science and technology of waging war took its first steps in a race which would result-just half a century later-in a transformation in the kinds and numbers of instruments of destruction employed on the field of battle, on and under the oceans and-for the first time-in the skies. The author of this book examines weapons of war employed in the first globally significant conflict of the 20th century-the First World War. Here the reader will not just read about mines, shells, bombs, guns, torpedoes, submarines and aircraft of the period, but also gain an understanding as to how they were constructed, their constituent parts, how they worked and their capabilities in battle. This book is an invaluable addition to the libraries of students of the Great War and will interest all those fascinated by the development of modern weaponry. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket.