Gun Craft

Gun Craft examines today's artisanally made guns, as well as the craftsmen who make them. In it, the author takes the reader into the workshops and factories of the world's best gunmakers, making their sometimes-arcane craft skills accessible and relevant to anyone who shoots, owns or collects fine guns. Each chapter explores a separate topic; each has been chosen, however, to provide readers with a unified insight into the complicated task of making hand-made guns in both Europe and the United States.

The definitive history of this enduring and versatile anti-aircraft weapon, including many photos and drawings. The 40mm Bofors gun, first produced in the 1930s, has become one of the most famous artillery pieces of all time. It shows no sign of fading from the defense scene as, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, it performs in many roles that were not contemplated by its original designers. It has also proven to be so versatile that it is now allied to electronic and other technological marvels that were mere pipe dreams only a few years ago. When the Bofors entered the international defense market, its primary quarry, the military aircraft, was still a slow and fragile machine that could be terminally damaged by a single hit from a 40mm projectile. Terry Gander describes this early period in the gun’s development and he shows how, despite recent increases in target speed and other performance parameters, it can still inflict a one-hit kill on almost any aircraft, helicopter or guided missile. Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the story is that the fundamentals of today’s Bofors guns remain virtually unchanged from the very first examples to come off the Karlskoga production line in Sweden. In all its forms, the Bofors continues to be a sound, reliable, and lethal piece of military hardware that has given good service to gunners all over the world. Terry Gander’s comprehensive account of the history of this remarkable weapon over the course of almost eighty years is fascinating reading and an invaluable work of reference for military historians and artillery specialists alike.

This WWII naval history chronicles the development of small fighting boats as well as the evolution of their tactics and coastal warfare operations. Small, fast and highly maneuverable, gunboats and motor torpedo boats were a vital part of naval combat through the Second World War. Every major naval power built their own versions: The Germans had Schnellboote, the Royal Navy had MTBs and MGBs, and the Americans had PT boats. With their daring night raids and close-range battles, they displayed the buccaneering spirit of an earlier age. These small boats fought in coastal waters across the globe, from the narrow waters of the English Channel to the stormy North Sea; in the Mediterranean off the coasts of North Africa and Italy and among the islands of the Aegean; across the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to Leyte Gulf; in Hong Kong and Singapore; and off Burma's Arakan coast. In The War of the Gun Boats, historian Bryan Cooper traces the development of these craft, beginning with their limited use in the First World War and the fast motorboats designed to break water speed records in the 1930s. Cooper then details their widespread implementation during the Second World War and the development of their own form of naval warfare.

As she lay in dry dock, devastatingly damaged by one of Hitler’s newly deployed magnetic mines after barely two months in service, few could have predicted the illustrious career that lay ahead for the cruiser HMS Belfast. After three years of repairs to her broken keel, engine- and boiler-rooms, and extensive refitting, she would go on to play a critical role in the protection of the Arctic Convoys, would fire one of the opening shots at D-Day and continue supporting the Operation Overlord landings for five weeks. Her service continued beyond the Second World War both in Korea and in the Far East before she commenced her life as one of the world’s most celebrated preserved visitor ships in the Pool of London. Her crowning glory however came in December 1943 when, equipped with the latest radar technology, she was to play the leading role in the Battle of the North Cape sinking the feared German battlecruiser Scharnhorst, the bête noir of the Royal Navy. In doing so the ship’s crew made a vital contribution to, what was to be, the final big-gun head-to-head action to be fought at sea. In The Last Big Gun Brian Lavery, the foremost historian of the Royal Navy, employs his trademark wide-ranging narrative style and uses the microcosm of the ship to tell the wider story of the naval war at sea and vividly portray the realities for all of life aboard a Second World War battleship. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs and illustrations and will appeal to all those with an interest in military history and life in the wartime Royal Navy. • The illustrious survivor of the last big-gun head-to-head ‘broadside’ engagement at sea • The very first complete ‘biography’ of HMS Belfast • Exhaustively researched from primary sources and interviews and written in the matchless narrative style of the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author Brian Lavery • An original work of popular history juxtaposing an in-depth technical understanding with an highly evocative use of quote and anecdote