[myrmeleo]

Hey military-gurus:
Can I get some suggestions about where I can learn sort of the basics of military hardware and history? Basically I'm looking for some "classics" or "must-reads" that can help me get introduced to the world of military hardware and military history. Any really good sites would be appreciated as well. Any suggestions appreciated!

[Typhoon]

Hi myrmeleo,

Sounds awful and I feel I should be whipping myself for saying it but wikipedia is the ultimate encyclopedic resource for the basics and a general understanding of military history and hardware and you can achieve a good basic understanding from here. Aside from that there is a lot of general interest military themed books in most commercial book stores (esp. on the big wars), have a flick through and see what takes your fancy.

Specific areas funnily enough would be easier to answer, is there the history of any particular nation or weapon that you are interested in or the operation of any piece of military hardware specifically?

That said I would not consider myself very competant or well read from the history point of view, im more interested in the technical details so perhaps someone else on the forum has some better suggestions?

[Nattering Nabob]

http://www.history.army.mil/catalog/browse/title.html

[Igor Antunov]

If you just want out outline of various historical wars/events and hardware, stick with wikipedia.