Malice Aforethought: The History of Booby Traps from World War 1 to Vietnam

by Ian Jones

In Italy in 1943 British troops came upon a highly desirable billet abandoned by the retreating Germans, its front door invitingly half open. Entering cautiously through a window, to avoid the likely booby trap, they approached the front door from inside and found attached to it the expected explosive charge apparently designed to function when the door was moved. They left the house and attached a line to the doorknob of the front door. They retreated across the road to a conveniently sited slit trench and pulled the line. A second trap hidden in the trench and connected to the door exploded and killed them all. This fiendish and lethal attack illustrates the effectiveness of booby traps and the ingenuity with which they can be laid. A booby trap is any device which is designed, constructed or adapted to kill or injure, and which functions unexpectedly when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless object or performs an apparently safe act. Also included are manually emplaced munitions designed to kill or injure, which are set off by remote control or automatically after a lapse of time. Malice Aforethought covers the period from WWI to Vietnam, and examines the malicious use of explosives in booby traps and sabotage devices by all sides during this period. It looks at their design, development, deployment and effectiveness, and is fully illustrated with photographs and illustrations of many of the devices used.

Genres: History

270 pages, Hardcover

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, recommended read