G.O. Noville and Associates

Weapon Mounts

for

Secondary Armament

This massive book is a reprint of an exceedingly rare (20 copies reported, solely intended for government use)  1957 book that was commissioned by the Detroit Arsenal, U.S. Army Ordnance Corps. This book was contracted to be assembled by the G.O. Noville and Associates firm, and was compiled from a wide variety of vintage military sources, training manuals, technical manuals, etc. The purpose of this book was to document all weapon mounts for secondary armament on fighting vehicles from World War I right up until 1957, when this work was compiled and written. This work was also intended to serve as a reference tool for those interested in design and development of new secondary armament on AFV’s. 

This vast compilation includes weapon mounts for tanks, soft skinned vehicles of all types, non-vehicular applications, half tracks, armored cars, motorcycles, amphibious vehicles, and even some naval or aircraft applications are included. The sheer volume of the information presented here is a credit to the thoroughness of the staff that compiled all of this knowledge into one volume.

The vast majority of the material in this massive book was put together in 1957, with a small amount added for a second addition printed in 2007. Regardless of original source material, the information presented in this volume is as accurate as was possible in 1957, and remains as valid as it was when first compiled.

Fair Warning - sometimes I tend to go a bit heavy with the review photos when I’m impressed with the subject of the review. That is the case here. I also had to include so many photos due to the huge range of subject matter in this book, and it wouldn’t be quite fair to only provide a handful of images in this review, given the scope of this work.

Vital Statistics

Format - hardcover, portrait format

Page Count - 1167 pages

Size - 9” x 11.5”

Photos - Black and White throughout

Tables / drawings / diagrams - many vehicle and weapons systems drawings,  component diagrams

All text and art captions are in English.

What's between the Covers?

Above and below - This book is so large and covers so much ground that the table of contents runs a whopping SIX pages long.

Above - table of contents continued…

Above - table of contents continued…

Above - table of contents, final page

Although this book isn’t arranged along chronological lines, the volume does open with some looks at some of the earliest examples of armament mounts, used on WWI tanks. Note the use of text, cut-away drawings, photos and line drawings, all on just a two page spread. This is typical of how much is packed into this almost 1200 page book.

Above - a spread illustrating secondary gun mounts on various Soviet armor. In addition to gun mounts, occasionally there are tidbits of additional interesting information given on the pictured vehicles. This adds value to the book.

Some rather rare, obscure or experimental vehicles are seen quite often in this book, either via photograph or line drawings. The range of vehicles seen in this book is incredible!

Above - armored cars of many nations are well represented in this book. At times the coverage on specific vehicles isn’t in great overall depth, being focused on the secondary gun mounts, but even so, it’s a good start for vehicles you may not be too familiar with.

Amphibious vehicles are well addressed in this book. Above we see nice drawings and photos of Japanese amphibious tanks.

As you can see on the image above, bottom left side, references to the material presented are sometimes provided. 

In many cases labeled diagrams are provided of the subject matter, quite useful for learning the correct nomenclature for various components of the item. 

Above - WWI and interwar period tripod mounts for .30 cal machine guns

Above - very interesting pedestal mounts for .30 and .50 cal machine guns, caisson and truck mounted.

Above - Want to get those machine gun bracket mounts correct on an LVT-4 build? Everything you need is right here.

The amount of detail provided on various subjects in this book is jaw dropping. Above we see a treatment on the cupola machine gun mount on the M3 medium tank, with a labeled cut-away view of the entire tank thrown in for good measure!

Above - highly detailed and labeled ( in German ) diagrams of ball mounts for German MG 34 tank machine guns.

Above - Some really obscure things are seen in the pages of this book. For example, the German WWI era anti-aircraft mount for the Maxim machine gun. Note the caisson mounted version on the right side of the image. That would be an interesting model!

To make this compilation of secondary armament mounts as complete as possible, even various naval and aircraft gun mounts are examined in good detail in this book. The folks who compiled all of this information were evidently quite serious about doing as complete a job as possible of it.

Above - fans of WWII German armor will get a kick out of the above pages, showing the legendary Stg 43/44 automatic rifle mount with curved barrel as mounted for anti personnel use on tanks. The text and photographs really explain very well how this unusual contraption was intended to work.

Vehicles of all sorts mounting racks of rockets are not neglected in this work. Above are seen some U.S. examples, including on the amphibious LVT.

The thoroughness of those who compiled all of the information in this volume frankly amazes me….please see the image above. Yes, those are mounts for attaching machine guns to TREES. Who even knew that there was such a thing?

And finally, at the end of this huge book are organized lists of photo plates, the vehicles themselves organized by nation, and a bibliography. The lists will get you to the correct page for your subject immediately without any wasted time.

Conclusions

Simply put, this book is staggering in size and scope. 

The range of subject matter examined in this book is vast, and yet there appears to be quite adequate coverage ( text, photos, diagram/drawings ) of each subject. The inclusion of so many varied subjects hasn’t minimized the information provided for any of them.

Depending on the source of the original information on the subject matter, some of the images are a bit dark. However, in most cases an adequate amount of detail can be clearly made out. The line drawings and labeled diagrams are clearly reproduced and legible.

I rarely mention a book’s cost in a review, as I consider a good reference work to be a good reference work without any thought regarding price. But I’ll make an exception in this case, as I believe the $69.95 price for this massive volume to be a steal. Almost 1200 pages of well presented, useful reference material for this price is a bargain.

If you are a serious modeler who is meticulous about getting even the smallest of details right, or simply highly interested in secondary weapons as mounted on the widest variety of subjects possible, this book is well deserving of a spot in your bookcase. Make sure that you reinforce that shelf though, this book is heavy…

Highly Recommended!

Thanks to David Doyle Books for the review copy

Reviewed by Chuck Aleshire, AMPS Chicagoland

AMPS 2nd Vice President, Midwest Region

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