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Ian V. Hogg (1926–2002)

Author of Military Small Arms of the 20th Century

125+ Works 2,611 Members 13 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Ian Hogg is one of the world's leading experts on small arms, artillery systems, ammunition and defence systems in general. He is the author of numerous books on these subjects including The Big Guns 1939-45, A History of Artillery and Military Small Arms of the 20th Century.
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Works by Ian V. Hogg

The Guns: 1939/45 (1970) 126 copies
Twentieth-century artillery (2000) 95 copies
The guns, 1914-18 (1971) 68 copies
Artillery (1972) 63 copies
Weapons of the Civil War (1987) 48 copies
Israeli War Machine (1983) 46 copies
Guns and How They Work (1979) 46 copies
Naval Gun (1978) 39 copies
Grenades & Mortars (1974) 37 copies
Pistols of the World (1978) 34 copies
Gas (1975) 27 copies
A history of artillery (1974) 22 copies
Story of the Gun (1996) 19 copies
Modern Small Arms (1983) 18 copies
Artillery (Colour) (1980) 18 copies
Weapons of the Gulf War (1991) 16 copies
Encyclopedia of Weaponry (1992) 15 copies
Janes Military Review (1985) 12 copies
Anti-Aircraft Artillery (2002) 12 copies
Jane's Military Review (1986) 11 copies
Jane's Military Review (1987) 11 copies
Mortars (2001) 11 copies
Fighting tanks (1977) 9 copies
Janes 1983-84 Military Review (1983) — Editor — 6 copies
Handguns 1870-1978 (1978) 4 copies
The Tank Story (1977) 4 copies
Jane's infantry weapons (1994) 3 copies
I cannoni 2 copies
Janes 1981-82 Military Annual (1982) — Editor — 1 copy

Associated Works

Book of Guns and Gunsmiths (1977) 37 copies
Penda's Fen [1974 TV] — Actor — 13 copies
Decisive Battles: The Turning Point of World War II (1986) — Foreword, some editions — 5 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1926
Date of death
2002-03-07
Gender
male
Nationality
UK
Occupations
soldier
military historian
Organizations
British Army
Short biography
Ian V. Hogg enlisted in the Royal Artillery of the British Army in April 1945. During World War II he served in Europe and in eastern Asia. After the war he remained in the military. In the early 1950s, he served in the Korean War. Altogether he served in the military for 27 years. Upon retiring in 1972, he held the appointment of Master Gunner at the Royal Military College of Science, where he taught on the subjects of firearms, artillery, and their ammunition and use. Hogg also had an interest in the subject of fortification and was one of the founding members of the Fortress Study Group in 1975.His first books were published in the late 1960s while he was still an instructor. After retiring from the military, he pursued the career of military author and historian.

Members

Reviews

This read was another nostalgic look back at authors and publications that wouldn't be published today. The Digital Age may be full of wonder, but the intellectual costs of this technological advance may take decades to reveal themselves, although some may say we can see the toll even today. However, back in the day, works like Ian Hogg's "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artillery" were the greatest thing sinced sliced bread for readers like me.

Hogg enlisted in the British Army's Royal Artillery towards the end of the Second World War, and stayed on long enough to be designated a master gunner at the Royal Military College of Science. During the latter part of his career and into his retirement, Hogg began his prolific writing career, which included a stint as editor of Jane's Infantry Weapons from 1972 to 1994. I first encountered his work back in the 1970's when I picked up a copy of "Barrage: The Guns in Action", part of Ballentines multi-volume Illustrated History of the Second World War series. I have since acquired several more volumes of Hogg's work.

"The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artillery is one of three similar works by this author published in collaboration with Chartwell Books in the 1980's, the other volumes being about ammunition and small arms. This volume, published in 1988, is fairly brief for an encyclopedia at 255 pages and is divided into two parts. The first part of 65 pages length provides a short history of artillery, written in Hogg's succinct and witty style.

The second part is the encyclopedia itself. Hogg includes alphabetical entries on a wide range of ordnance topics that span the 600 year history of artillery ordnance, many of which are quite technical, such as auto-frettage, firing tables, and racer. Specific prominent weapons recieve their own entries, such as the French 75 and the German 88, in addition to the entries on terms peculiar to the construction of artillery weapons and the art of the artillery gunner. Hogg also points out the differences between British and American ordnance and gunnery terms, showing his exposure to American artillery practices as some point in his professional career.

A useful feature Hogg included in this book is the data table of artillery pieces specific to several national armies. In pre-Wikipedia days, these tables were a useful starting point for additional research, as it was difficult to find similar weapon lists in other publications, especially for lesser known armies such as the Japanese and Italian armies of the 20th century.

Accompanying Hogg's entertaining and informative text are many illustrations, drawings, art work, and photographs of weapons, parts of weapons, and gunners doing their work. I have not seen most of these illustrations in other publications--Hogg made some good choices here.

Although found today only on the dusty shelves of used book stores, the "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artillery" would still be a useful addition to the traditional library. Although somewhat out of date 35 years later, the book still provides a basic grounding on the the subject of ordnance and gunnery. I bet it would have been an interesting class at the Royal Military College of Science if you had Ian Hogg as the instructor....
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Adakian | Jul 10, 2022 |
In January 1941 staff officers of the U.S., British, and Canadian militaries met in Washington D.C.. Though the United States was still a year from declaring war, planning was already underway in anticipation of that prospect, and the decisions they reached shaped much of the war that followed. Among the most important of these was that Germany was the primary opponent in any war involving the Axis powers. While there were several excellent reasons for this, one of them was that the Germans possessed the greatest capacity for developing weapons which might radically transform the war, and thus needed to be defeated before they did.

Ian Hogg's book provides evidence of the wisdom of this decision. In it he provides an overview of the major weapons research bring undertaken by the Third Reich before and during the war. Diving his examination into categories, he summarizes the major projects to design new aircraft and air-launched weapons, air defense weapons, naval weapons, and the Wunderwaffen and nuclear and chemical weapons programs. His focus throughout is on their development, providing technical details and accounts of the decisions whether to undertake or abandon them and avoiding more than a brief mention of their deployment in the cases where the weapons were introduced. As befits a former artilleryman in the Royal Army, his section discussing the "big guns" is the best, but he provides interesting details throughout about the technical and bureaucratic challenges that slowed or stopped the development of weapons that might have changed the course of the war. The result is a work that is an excellent introduction to Germany's secret weapons programs, one best suited for the reader familiar with military technology but an informative read for anyone interested in an overview of the topic.
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Flagged
MacDad | 1 other review | Mar 27, 2020 |
This reads like a series of lectures on how artillery of World War II developed and was employed. Logical, once you realize that is how it is structured, but it can be confusing. Very little is presented on Soviet and Japanese artillery, which limits this book. More recent Osprey books would be better.
½
 
Flagged
EricCostello | 1 other review | Oct 8, 2019 |

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Statistics

Works
125
Also by
3
Members
2,611
Popularity
#9,836
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
13
ISBNs
292
Languages
8
Favorited
1

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