Subtitled ‘The Development of Aircraft Guns, Ammunition and Installations 1914-1932’ this book is an immensely readable and comprehensive account. Writing as one who in past years has spent a great deal of time researching this important subject, the two authors’ ability to condense a vast amount of diverse material and present such a well written narrative within the covers of this work, is admirable.

The text which covers the 1914-18 years and the stagnant decade which followed, is broken down into four main essays, starting with an account of the technical development of the machine gun in plain English, explaining how the various guns worked and were developed over the period, along with a description of ammunition, mountings, synchronisation systems etc. Subsequent chapters include a detailed account of aircraft cannon and an overview of the post-war period up until the early 1930s.

There are four appendices listing all of the main operational aircraft of the period and their armament, an ammunition and gun data table with drawings in a constant scale, a glossary, an impressive eight page bibliography and an index. The book is liberally illustrated with photographs and drawings.

Much of the reference and source material is of a highly technical nature and not intended for the lay reader, and it is quite an achievement to convert this into a digestible form, a skill not always apparent in other books by specialists and ‘experts’. As this writer has frequently emphasised, aircraft armament is a subject of paramount importance, and some knowledge of this is essential to an understanding of how military aviation developed, particularly during World War I. The price of the book is modest in view of the compendious coverage presented and if you want a valuable reference book for your library, don’t buy any more books on von Richthofen, buy this one instead, it is a better investment.