JOHN NORRIS

Military drummers have played a crucial role in warfare throughout history. Soldiers marched to battle to the sound of the drums and used the beat to regulate the loading and re-loading of their weapons during the battle. Drummers were also used to raise morale during the fight. This is the first work to chart the rise of drums in military use and how they came to be used on the battlefield as a means of signalling. This use was to last for almost 4,000 years when modern warfare with communications rendered them obsolete. Even so, drummers continued to serve in the armies of the world and performed many acts of heroism as the served as stretcher bearers to rescue the wounded from the battlefield. From ancient China, Egypt and the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan the drum was used on the battlefield. The 12th century Crusaders helped re-introduce the drum to Europe and during the Napoleonic Wars of the 18th and 19th centuries the drum was to be heard resonating across Europe. Drummers had to flog their comrades and beat their drums on drill parade. Today they are ceremonial but this work tells how they had to face enemies across the battlefield with only their drum.

Many thousands of different types of vehicles were used by the armies during the Second World War for various roles, including the fighting vehicles such as armoured cars and tanks. Today these are very popular with enthusiasts who restore these historic vehicles to their pristine state and attend specialist gatherings around the UK, Europe and the USA.This book explores original and reconstructed military vehicles from British, US, Russian, Italian and German forces using stunning colour photographs. It also provides a detailed history of each vehicles development and use in the war, plus a wealth of technical information and rare internal shots. The range of vehicles includes trucks, ambulances, half-tracks, motorcycles, bulldozers, armoured cars and of course the impressive range of tanks, from tankettes to the fearsome German Tiger. Some vehicles are so rare that examples have been recreated using designs of the era and together with the original vehicles their fascinating wartime experiences are revealed.From the Moto Guzzi tricycle to the Schwimmwagen, the T-34 to the Austin ambulance, this is the perfect book for recreating, restoring and exploring the history of these classic military vehicles.

By the time the guns fell silent on 11 November 1918, vast tracts of the European landscape had been so utterly devastated by artillery fire that they were virtually unrecognisable. Of all the many weapons invented by man for the purpose of waging war, artillery must rank among the most destructive of all. Through detailed research, John Norris has traced the development of artillery through the ages and up to the dawn of the twenty-first century, to provide a fascinating study of this principal weapon of warfare. From its earliest recorded use in battle about a millennium ago, up to the recent Gulf War, Balkan and Afghanistan conflicts, artillery has often been the deciding factor in battle. And yet its origins are somewhat vague. The Chinese had been working with gunpowder since the tenth century, yet it was another 200 years before the compound was used to propel a projectile from a long-barrelled bamboo piece of apparatus. Not long after this, the use of artillery spread to Europe and changed the art of warfare. This book traces the development of artillery and its use in battle through the ages.

When fighting for honour has tragic consequences...In modern society the thought that someone would organise a deadly competition with a rival, risking his life over a point of honour, is incomprehensible. That this form of resolution would become an accepted sport, with noble gentlemen even possessing sets of special duelling pistols, is insane. This fascinating history of the practice of duelling takes the reader into the intriguing world of pistols, fields of honour and mortal combat, a world where complex rules governed a system of dispute which often ended in death. With tales of tragic loss, ridiculous quarrels and often hilarious combat, John Norris takes the reader on a journey of discovery through some of the most dramatic disputes of history.

Un espectacular joc d’observació de la natura als Boscos En els boscos del nostre planeta hi viuen alguns dels animals més fascinants del món. Molts d’ells estan amagats en les magnífiques pàgines d’

Un espectacular joc d'observació de la fauna dels oceans d'arreu del món. Molts essers vius estan amagats en les magnífiques pàgines d'aquest llibre. Desplega-les per trobar-los i per saber mes d'alg

Un espectacular joc d'observació de la fauna dels rius i llacs d'arreu del món. Molts essers vius estan amagats en les magnífiques pàgines d'aquest llibre. Desplega-les per trobar-los i per saber mes

Un espectacular joc d'observació de la natura a la selva Aquestes enormes taques verdes sobre el mapa són les selves, un dels tresors que necessiten urgentment la nostra protecció. Molts dels seus habitants estan amagats en les magnifiques pagines d'aquest llibre. Desplega-les per trobar-los i per saber mes d'algunes de les mes boniques i estranyes criatures de la natura.