Fire In Warfare: Seven Devastating Incendiary Weapons From Military History
Fire has played a devastating part in the history of war. Even when not weaponized, it could be unleashed during pillaging of towns, leading to…
A Brief History of Rifle Optics in the United States
War History online proudly presents this Guest Piece from Sam Bocetta Modern rifle sights represent the culmination of almost 300 years of development in optical…
The Bayonet Has Been A Part Of Warfare For Over 400 Years – Here Are 8 Essential Stages In Its History
The bayonet, capable of turning a gun into a stabbing weapon, has been a feature of warfare since the 17th century. It has gone through…
Fast Facts – History of the Hand Grenade – An Essential Infantry Weapon In Modern Warfare
Hand grenades play an important part in modern war as lightweight and hard-hitting infantry weapons. But their development hasn’t been a steady one, and for…
Massively Super-Sized Siege Guns From World War One And Two
In the 19th century, transport limitations restricted the size of artillery. If a piece of equipment could not be pulled by horses, then it could…
The Fokker Scourge: Imperial Germany’s Secret Weapon in the First World War
When World War 1 Broke out in 1914, most nations were ill-equipped for a sustained aerial war. The Treaty of Madrid, in 1911, outlined aircraft…
The Submachine Gun – An Infantry Weapon Which Changed The Face Of Warfare
From the First World War to the Second World War, the submachine gun played an important part in infantry fighting. A small machine gun firing…
Retired Marine reunited with his M1 Garand after 56 years
Marine recruit Pat Farmer was assigned the weapon at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego in 1960. He signed the receipt card for…
12 Key Moments in the History of Artillery
In creating gunpowder weapons, European engineers took a Chinese innovation and made a deadly weapon of war. From the start, this was as much about…
Saddam’s Secret Super Gun – Project Babylon
Project Babylon was an Iraqi code name for the construction of a supergun, commissioned by Sadam Hussein in 1988. The engineer in charge of the…
It Changed The Face Of Warfare, And Laid The Foundation For Modern Weaponry – The Maxim Machine-Gun
Hiram Maxim The Maxim gun was named after Hiram Maxim, an American inventor from Maine. He had an incredible talent for mechanisms, a skill he…
Post-World War Two, Infantry Weapons Developed Into Powerful Modern Versions
Fusil Automatique Leger (FAL) In the period after WWII, the Belgian Fabrique Nationale (FN) rapidly became a world-leading arms manufacturer. One of their most impressive…