During the arduous campaigns in theaters of war from the Pacific to North West Europe, American infantry weapons played a key role in the eventual victory over the Axis forces. In so doing they earned a special reputation for ruggedness and reliability. In addition to being used by US ground forces they were widely adopted by other Allied nations.Expert author Michael Green puts the full range of small arms, be they rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, machine guns as well as mortars, anti-tank weapons and close infantry support artillery under the microscope.Many names such as the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and the incomparable semiautomatic Garand will be well known whereas others (the Johnson Rifle and Reising SMG) are not. The typically informative text completes the wide range of photographic images.