Small fast boats with torpedos (or other explosives) have always been a threat to large warships. One of the weapons the British Royal Navy adopted to counter that threat was the Hotchkiss Model 1886 "Quick Fire" gun. This meant that it was a breech-loaded gun that used self-contained cartridge a...

Check out Headstamp Publishing's extensive catalog of excellent firearms books:
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/home-forgotten

Prior to 1986, Group Industries imported BAR parts kits and then manufactured and registered full-auto receivers for them. This produced transferrable guns which wer...

Les of @PegasusTests wanted to be shown how to run an SA80 / L85A1 properly. So this ex-UOTC peon pulled out the 25 year old memories and took him through it!

The Hovea M44 was tested by the Danish and Swedish militaries in 1945, competing agains the Carl Gustaf M45. It was designed and produced by Husqvarna (yes, the chainsaw company) and just 10 of them were made for testing. It was designed around the Suomi quad-stack magazine, which was also origin...

At DSEI 2025 I had the chance to handle SIG Sauer's product improved M7, this video gives an overview of the changes made to the rifle and runs down some of the information SIG shared with me.

With History of Weapons & War's impending shut down please consider supporting my work via Patreon, eve...

A look at the "Schwimmwagen" ("Swimming Car") Type 166 Volkswagen - Kfz 1/20 of the German Army in World War 2. We look at the development history, how it was used and not used, the claim that it was introduced to replace motorcycles (Kräder) and called "Kradschützenwagen", which has little infor...

The Czechoslovakian military adopted the vz.38 pistol as a simple blowback action chambered for .380 ACP (well, the Czech military version of .380 ACP). Other countries were interested in other calibers though, and the factory looked at making the gun in 9x19mm Parabellum as well. They first trie...

The FAMAS G1 was developed as a lower-cost option for FAMAS export sales. The original F1 model had been offered for international sale, but it attracted little interest largely because of its high price. In response, GIAT created the G1 with many of the extra features left optional. This allowed...

Experimental archaeology is an important leg of firearms history research. Follow Capandball as he walks the ewoods of Gyulaj, Hungary to understand how the early 16th century tinder lock arquebus was used for huunting by our ancestors.

Want to know more about the S.R.E.M. and other British bullpup rifles? Check out Jonathan Ferguson's book on this subject, "Thorneycroft to SA80":
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/bullpup-rifle-book

The Sniper Rifle Experimental Model (S.R.E.M.) was designed by the "Czech Section" of small ar...

There is a well-documented incident of the French intercepting a couple hundred CETME-B rifles being smuggled to the FLN in Algeria, and putting them into service with the Marine Commandos. I managed to get a CETME-B parts kit and have it built into a complete rifle (thanks, Parabellum Combat Sys...

This video covers a conference by Hitler from 1941, where he talks about the limitations of the Panzer III, which he calls a "failed design", the potential "end of the tank", the lack of anti-tank weapons, the capability of of HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank Tank), the capability of Soviet and Bri...

In 1951, Czechoslovakia received the technical data package for the Soviet SPSh flare pistol. This was a simple single shot break-action 26.5mm signal flare launcher, and they put it into production from 1952 through 1958. However, it was made with mediocre materials and the guns wore out in as f...

HOWW will be shutting down at the end of September, as it has simply not been able to grow enough to both pay for its own upkeep and also provide income to the member creators. At least some of the channels will be migrating to Pepperbox (pepperbox.tv), and all partial annual subscriptions will b...

Check out Headstamp Publishing's extensive catalog of excellent books:
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/home-forgotten

In the 1970s when the French Army was looking for a new rifle 5.56mm, they tested a number of foreign rifles alongside development the FAMAS at St Etienne. These included the...

In this episode of What Is This Weapon? Jonathan examines a rare Romanian AK variant, the PM md.94. carbine.

Often associated with the Draco pistols imported into the U.S., this model features distinctive Romanian design choices and a intriguing 3-round burst mechanism.

Japanese bayonets followed the same trend of simplification as Arisaka rifles towards the end of World War Two, culminating in what is today called the "pole bayonet". Abandoning even the fittings to mount to a rifle, these bayonets were intended to be lashed to a pole to create a spear. The Japa...

Steyr has just released its first new handgun since the M9. This new design is call the AT (Austria), with a competition model (AT-C) and a service/carry/defense model (AT-D). The gun is a Browning short recoil system that takes a lot of cues from the original Sig P226 handling and design. In fac...

The “American 180 Security Briefcase” is the best execution of the operational briefcase concept that I have yet seen. The idea is simple; hide a submachine gun inside an ordinary looking briefcase so that it can be carried in the open by VIP security without arousing attention. Sometimes this is...

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Jacques Sigaud-Barnerias ran a business in Theirs, France (in the south, east of Lyon) making a variety of cutlery and associated products. Among his various table knives, pruning knives, corkscrews, and pock knives he also sold some pinfire revolver knives. The revolver element was made under co...

In this episode of What Is This Weapon?, Jonathan takes a close look at examples of concealed pen guns from the Royal Armouries collection.

Watch as Jonathan breaks down their engineering and reveals why these unusual objects endure as icons of concealment.

Most of the transferrable Uzis in the US are not factory original guns, but rather semi autos that were converted and registered as machine guns in the US before 1986 (when such activity was legal). There were several different ways to do this, with the two main ones being the registered bolt rou...

Today we are considering two late World War Two rifles: the American M2 Carbine and the German MP-44 Sturmgewehr. Which would you take into combat? The Sturmgewehr is certainly iconic, with a more powerful cartridge, easy controllability, and a solid combat record. The M2 Carbine is much lighter ...