An annotated list of web sites useful in the further study of weapons and warfare.
The AK Site.
http://kalashnikov.guns.ru/
Affiliated with:Military Parade magazine
Contains detailed specifications and history of the development of the Kalashnikov rifle, in all of its variants the most widely adopted infantry weapon of the late twentieth century.
American Battle Monuments Commission.
www.abmc.gov
Affiliated with: Same
Contains information on all American military personnel who died in World War I or World War II, and all foreign cemeteries where they are buried.
Arador Armour Library.
www.arador.com/main.html
Affiliated with:Sword Forum magazine
In addition to discussion forums on arms and armor, this site features photographic galleries from many of the world’s leading military museums, as well as detailed discussions on the manufacture and use of armor throughout history.
Arms and Armor Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has one of the world’s leading collections of military equipment, and this site presents an online version of a growing percentage of the museum’s collection of arms and armor, focusing on Europe and Japan but with some representation from other regions.
Army Technology.
www.army-technology.com/index.html
Affiliated with: Net Sources International
Provides current information about modern military equipment used by the armies of the world, including tanks, armored fighting vehicles, artillery, missiles, and helicopters.
Australian War Memorial.
www.awm.gov.au
Affiliated with: Same
Contains photographs and reports, as well as vast array of genealogical information on Australians in World War I, World War II, and other conflicts.
The Aviation History On-line Museum.
www.aviation-history.com/
Affiliated with: Aviation Internet Group
Details the history of civilian and military aircraft and includes text and photographic galleries primarily for U.S. engines, armaments, and aircraft, as well as discussions of avionics and the theory of flight.
British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.
www.bacsa.org.uk
Affiliated with: Same
Contains details on Britons and others from the British Empire who are buried in India and other parts of Asia, including much on soldiers and monuments in the region.
Center for Arms Control, Energy, and Environmental Studies.
www.armscontrol.ru/
Affiliated with: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Focuses on arms control connected with the various phases of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), beginning in 1986, between the United States and the Soviet Union, and details the ongoing nuclear capabilities of the two powers as well as the technical specifications for their arsenals.
Chemical and Biological Weapons Site.
www.cdi.org/issues/cbw/
Affiliated with: Center for Defense Information
Presents an examination of the current chemical and biological capabilities of major nations and rogue states, as well as details about the effects of chemical and biological weapons on military and civilian populations.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
www.cwgc.org
Affiliated with: Same
Contains details on the war graves maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, including details on all service personnel from the British Empire killed in World War I or World War II.
This primary source site contains more than three hundred documents on military history from ancient times to the modern era, including land, sea, and air campaigns. Although its focus is not primarily on military technology, many of the documents do discuss weapons, armor, and fortifications.
First Empire.
www.firstempire.net
Affiliated with:First Empire magazine
Established by the leading magazine about the Napoleonic period, this site contains a number of sample articles from the magazine.
The French Army Museum.
www.invalides.org/
Affiliated with: Government of France
Home of Le Musée de l’Armée, Hôtel National des Invalides, this site contains extensive selections from the holdings of the museum. Much of the focus is on the Napoleonic Era and World Wars I and II, although there are important images and texts from France’s colonial history as well. Much of the collection is in French.
Applies and interprets geometry in its military application to Renaissance warfare. These applications include cartography, gunnery, and ballistics. Based on an exhibition at Oxford University.
The High Energy Weapons Archive: A Guide to Nuclear Weapons.
www.fas.org/nuke/hew/
Affiliated with: Federation of American Scientists
Dedicated to nonproliferation and disarmament, this site provides extensive detail on the history, capabilities, and spread of nuclear weapons and technology over the past decades.
History and Archaeology of the Ship.
www.history.bangor.ac.uk/Shipspecial/SHIP_int.htm
Affiliated with: Department of History and Welsh History, University of Wales, Bangor
An outlined history of military and commercial ships, from ancient vessels to early modern galleys, this site focuses on archaeological evidence to account for changes in technology and military applications.
The History Channel.
www.historychannel.com/war/
Affiliated with: Same
Provides links to previous History Channel programs on military equipment and conflicts, as well as to book and video resources. The site also contains a detailed time line of history from 500 b.c.e. to the present, which includes many events of military significance.
The History Net.
www.thehistorynet.com/
Affiliated with: Primedia History Group
Primedia is a publisher of a variety of military history journals, and this site features articles and source material from these periodicals, as well as additional materials on weapons and warfare from all periods of history.
Imperial War Museum.
www.iwm.org.uk/
Affiliated with: Government of the United Kingdom
Contains representative text, photographic, and image collections from the holdings of the museum, taken primarily from British and Commonwealth military history.
Jane’s Defense Information.
www.janes.com/index.shtml
Affiliated with: Jane’s Information Group
Provides extensive information about military equipment, contractors, arms purchases, weapons specifications, and intelligence about world events. Jane’s is the world’s leading private consulting group on military affairs and publishes standard works on military hardware.
Land Forces of Britain, the Empire, and Commonwealth.
regiments.org/milhist/
Affiliated with: T. F. Mills, University of Denver
Provides detailed information about the historical structure, military equipment, weapons, personnel, and campaigns of the armed forces of the United Kingdom and its associated territories.
MagWeb.
www.magweb.com
Affiliated with: Network Solutions
This subscription site contains thousands of articles from military and war-gaming magazines from around the world.
MILNET.
www.milnet.com/milnet/index.html
Affiliated with: Same
This open-source intelligence site provides current information about the military forces of the world, including their equipment, interests, and rivals, with particular focus on those of the United States. Areas of military technology covered include ground forces, military aviation, space-based weapons, intelligence capabilities, and naval warships.
Museum of Antiquities.
http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/archive/index.htm
Affiliated with: Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
This museum of archaeology in northeast England concentrates on the Roman era in Britain. In the collection are photographs of Roman weapons, fortifications, and armor, along with a virtual book on Roman military equipment.
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
www.museum.upenn.edu/Greek_World/Index.html
Affiliated with: University of Pennsylvania
Contains a text discussion of warfare in the lives of the ancient Greeks as well as photographs of Greek artifacts of war and representations of combat in artistic forms, taken from the museum’s collection. Relevant sections of the online museum include warfare, hunting, chariots, horses, and daily life.
Napoleon.
www.napoleon.org/index_flas.html
Affiliated with: Napoleon Foundation, Paris, France
Provides detail about the military campaigns of Napoleon I (Bonaparte) and Napoleon III through extensive image and text databases.
National Atomic Museum.
www.atomicmuseum.com/
Affiliated with: U.S. Air Force
Provides image and text representations of the U.S. nuclear weapons program, including information about the Manhattan Project, the Cold War arms race, and the history of disarmament efforts.
Naval Historical Center.
www.history.navy.mil/
Affiliated with: U.S. Navy
Provides image and photographic galleries, technical specifications, and the history of naval campaigns of the U.S. Navy since the American Revolutionary War.
Nihon Kaigun: Imperial Japanese Navy Page.
www.combinedfleet.com/
Affiliated with: Jon Parshall, independent researcher
Based on years of research into the history of the Japanese navy, this site includes detailed representations of the armaments and equipment of Japan’s air and sea forces of World War II. In addition, it provides operational histories of major Japanese vessels during the war and thorough discussions of ballistics, ship armor, and other technical areas, as well as details of both major and minor naval campaigns.
Official History of New Zealand.
www.nzetc.org/projects/wh2/
Affiliated with: New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs and Victoria University of Wellington
Provides the official history of New Zealand in World War II.
Affiliated with: University of Kansas and Brigham Young University
This photographic database includes almost two thousand images of World War I, mostly from U.S. sources. Main areas of focus include weapons, equipment, military aviation, animals at war, and naval campaigns. Features include liberal rules for using images, as well as an accompanying link to a World War I text site.
Redstone Arsenal Historical Information.
www.redstone.army.mil/history/
Affiliated with: U.S. Army
Provides historical, photographic, and technical information about U.S. military capabilities in space and about missile technology since World War II.
Regia Anglorum.
www.regia.org/index.html
Affiliated with: Same
This living-history site includes photographs, descriptions, and illustrations of Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman, and British weapons, armor, and daily life from the period from 950 to 1066.
Royal Museum of the Army and Military History.
www.klm-mra.be/
Affiliated with: Government of Belgium
The Royal Museum of the Army and Military History contains more than ten centuries of texts and artifacts from Belgian and world military history, and its Web site includes online exhibitions of main galleries and holdings, as well as a text and image database.
Springfield Armory National Historic Site.
www.nps.gov/spar/home.html
Affiliated with: U.S. Park Service
The Springfield Armory, a National Historic Site, was for almost two hundred years a critical manufacturer of weapons for the U.S. military. Its online site demonstrates most of the equipment produced during the history of the armory, and its archive contains more than twenty-five thousand documents.
A Storm of Shot and Shell: Weapons of the Civil War.
www.chipublib.org/003cpl/civilwar_catalog.html
Affiliated with: Chicago Public Library
This exhibit presents photographs, engravings, and illustrations of weapons of the American Civil War, taken from the collection of the library and including artillery, ammunition, and small arms.
Strategic Air Command Museum.
www.sacmuseum.org
Affiliated with: U.S. Air Force
Contains an online exhibit of the bomber aircraft and other equipment used by the Air Force, as well as a virtual reality tour of the museum. The museum also features special exhibitions online, on a rotating basis.
The Tank Museum.
www.tankmuseum.org/home.html
Affiliated with: Same
This online museum for the Tank Museum of Bovington in the United Kingdom presents some of the collection from the actual museum, which contains more than three hundred tanks and armored fighting vehicles from more than twenty-five countries. In addition to photographs and illustrations, the site has detailed technical information for an increasing portion of its collection.
Trenches on the Web: An Internet History of the Great War.
www.worldwar1.com/index.html
Affiliated with: History Channel Affiliate Program
Provides images, documents, maps, and other material about World War I. Also contains a book-search engine, discussion forums, poster sales, and extensive links to other sites.
U.S. Air Force Museum.
www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/index.htm
Affiliated with: U.S. Air Force
This online presence of the U.S. Air Force Museum has special image collections, taken from the holdings of the Air Force, and is especially strong in the areas of aircraft weaponry, fighter and bomber engines, and ground equipment.
U.S. Army Ordnance Museum.
www.ordmusfound.org/
Affiliated with: U.S. Army
The museum contains more than eight thousand artifacts, with the online collection focused on photographs and technical specifications primarily for U.S. tanks, armored fighting vehicles, and artillery.
U.S. Civil War Navies.
www.tfoenander.com
Affiliated with: Terry Foenander, military historian
This site has a vast array of material on the Union and Confederate navies in the American Civil War.
War, Peace, and Security.
www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/index.html
Affiliated with: Information Resource Centre, Canadian Forces College
A detailed site, organized by period, subject, and conflict, with links to archives, photograph galleries, texts, and other resources from the ancient era to the late twentieth century.
The War Times Journal.
www.wtj.com/
Affiliated with: Same
Provides extensive archival information, photographs, and other materials about warfare from the Napoleonic era to World War II. Also contains an extensive collection of articles about conflicts in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as war-gaming information and hundreds of links to other military history sites.
Warfare in the Ancient World.
www.fiu.edu/~eltonh/army.html
Affiliated with: Department of History, Florida International University
The focus of this site is on Greek, Roman, and Byzantine warfare, with sections devoted to bibliographies of specific as well as comparative weaponry, fortifications, and other areas of military technology.
Web Sources for Military History.
http://home.nycap.rr.com/history/military.html
Affiliated with: Richard Jensen, University of Illinois, with support from the Gilder-Lehrman Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Japan Foundation, and the Luce Foundation
Provides a bibliography and extensive Web links to hundreds of military history and technology sites, especially those dealing with the modern era.
World War II Armed Forces Orders of Battle and Organizations.
http://freeport-tech.com/wwii/index.htm
Affiliated with: Dr. Leo Niehorster, independent military historian and publisher
Thoroughly details the equipment, weapons, personnel, and campaigns of nearly all military forces involved in World War II down to the company level.