Booby Traps!: The History of Deadly Devices, from World War I to Vietnam

by Ian Jones

War often provides a stimulus to technological development. Throughout the twentieth century, new technology was harnessed to produce increasingly deadly and malicious types of explosives in the forms of booby traps, mines, delayed-action devices, and mobile charges . . . often activated in the most inconspicuous places. Intended to kill or injure, these lethal mechanisms detonate when a person disturbs or approaches a seemingly harmless object. Other times they are set off by remote control.

Compellingly written and illustrated throughout with photos and schematic drawings, Booby Traps! traces the design, deployment, and effectiveness of these deadly devices, as well as the lengths armies have gone to gain an edge.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Genres: History

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Ian Jones, MBE has worked in bomb disposal for the last thirty-five years. As a major in the British Army, he served as officer commanding for all bomb disposal in Northern Ireland as well as working in Germany, Bosnia, Belize, Southern Africa, and most recently in Kosovo. He is now an explosives officer for the Metropolitan Police Force Bomb Squad in London.

Reviews

[Captain Dunsel]

Concentrated more on various occasions booby-traps, mines, and sabotage were used, not so much on details. Of course, being British, the book does focus more on British military (although there are chapters on the mostly-US fought Korean and Viet Nam wars).
I knew about the Brit problems in Northern Ireland, but I didn't know much about anti-British terrorism in the Middle East and Asia.
The book ends on a chilling note, where the author (rightly so, in my opinion) opts not to explain much about modern weaponry, so as not to give ideas to modern terrorists.

[Adrian]

Fascinating overview of the use of booby traps from WWI to Vietnam.

[Fredrick Danysh]

Booby traps have usually been a weapon employed by forces that are defensive and outnumbered, lack technological weapons, or as a weapon to instill confusion and terror. This book examines the history of booby traps from world War I through Vietnam. It also looks at construction and deployment of these devices. Primarily most attention of this work focuses on World War I.

[Garrick]

Quite a good read extremely detailed! Very reminiscent of lectures I have had in mines and booby traps with the army. Would have been good though if he had covered some of the more modern conflicts like the First Gulf War, Bosnia , Angola and the like.

[Ko]

Good read but it was very detailed in different types of switches but not very detailed about the different ways booby traps were used.

[Hans Marius]

Good book, recommended read