This book is subtitled ‘The Story of the Men and the Weapon that changed the face of War’ and a fascinating story it is too. We are given lives of the men who invented machine guns – Gatling, Maxim, Colt, Lewis are all very familiar; others like Hotchkiss, Benét, Mercié, Nordenfelt less so. Then follows the uses to which their weapons were put. What is astonishing is that the Armies of the World were violently opposed to their introduction. The author argues that although they were very effective against Fuzzy Wuzzies and unruly natives, they were considered to be rather unsporting if used against proper enemies, especially those of your own colour. Furthermore, there was no glory or Battle Honours to be won in mowing down thousands of men with one machine gun, but plenty in throwing yourself single handedly against a ‘nest’ of the deadly weapons. This attitude was not that of the Germans, who wholeheartedly adopted the machine gun in the early 20th Century, egged on by The Prince of Wales who urged his cousin, The Kaiser, to play with this new toy.