The Archive — Catalogue Index
Every documented piece
Filter the catalogue by era or type, sort by date, caliber or mass. Click any record to open its full entry with citations and license information.
Heilongjiang Hand Cannon
The oldest surviving confirmed firearm — a bronze hand cannon from 13th-century China.
Faule Mette
A 15th-century German super-sized bombard, melted down centuries later for scrap.
Pumhart von Steyr
The largest known wrought-iron bombard by caliber, built in early 15th-century Styria.
Mons Meg
A medieval bombard of staggering caliber, gifted to King James II of Scotland.
Basilic
"Orban's Bombard"
The legendary super-bombard that shattered the walls of Constantinople in 1453.
Dardanelles Gun
"Great Turkish Bombard"
An Ottoman bronze siege bombard cast a decade after the fall of Constantinople.
Culverin
A long-barrelled smoothbore prized for range and accuracy in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Tsar Cannon
"Царь-пушка"
The largest bombard by caliber ever cast — a colossal bronze monument in the Moscow Kremlin.
68-pounder Carronade
The short, brutal 'smasher' that gave Royal Navy broadsides their devastating close-range punch.
Canon obusier de 12
"Napoleon"
The smoothbore workhorse of the American Civil War, named for Napoleon III.
Mallet's Mortar
A Crimean-War-era 36-inch siege mortar — built but never fired in action.
Parrott Rifle (10-pounder)
A wrought-iron-banded cast iron rifle, instantly recognizable in Civil War batteries.
Edinburgh One O'Clock Gun
A blank shot fired daily at 1 p.m. from Edinburgh Castle since 1861.
Gatling Gun
Richard Gatling's hand-cranked rotary gun — the ancestor of every modern minigun.
Armstrong 100-ton Gun
A Victorian rifled muzzle-loader of monstrous proportions, defending Mediterranean fortresses.
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Zalinski Pneumatic Dynamite Gun
A compressed-air gun built to lob dynamite shells too unstable for gunpowder.
Canon de 75 modèle 1897
"French 75"
The first modern quick-firing field gun — a hydropneumatic recoil revolution.
Big Bertha
"Dicke Bertha"
Krupp's super-heavy howitzer that demolished the Belgian forts in August 1914.
BL 9.2-inch Howitzer
Britain's standard heavy siege howitzer of the Western Front.
Paris Gun
"Pariser Kanone"
The longest-ranged gun ever fielded — shells reached the stratosphere on their way to Paris.
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8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37
"The Eighty-Eight"
An anti-aircraft gun turned legendary tank-killer.
Bofors 40 mm L/60
The Allied anti-aircraft gun of WWII — pom-pom of every cruiser and destroyer.
Krupp K5
"Anzio Annie"
An elegant 28 cm railway gun whose shells fell on the Anzio beachhead.
M1 155 mm Long Tom
The hard-hitting US heavy field gun of WWII and Korea.
Oerlikon 20 mm
The ubiquitous 20 mm autocannon mounted on warships, aircraft and trucks of every navy.
Karl-Gerät
"Mörser Karl"
A self-propelled super-heavy siege mortar firing 2-tonne shells.
40 cm/45 Type 94 Naval Gun
"Yamato's Main Battery"
The largest naval guns ever mounted on a warship — three triple turrets on the Yamato class.
Ordnance QF 25-pounder
The Commonwealth's standard field gun-howitzer of WWII.
Schwerer Gustav
"Heavy Gustav"
The largest-caliber rifled weapon ever used in combat — a 1,350-ton railway gun.
7.5 cm Pak 40
The Wehrmacht's standard anti-tank gun from 1942 onward — feared on every front.
BM-13 Katyusha
A multiple-launch rocket system that became the voice of the Red Army.
8.8 cm KwK 36
"Tiger's Gun"
The Tiger I's main armament — an 88 mm tank gun derived from the Flak 36.
28 cm SK L/50 Coastal Gun
Heavy naval guns repurposed into the concrete bunkers of the Atlantic Wall.
16-inch/50 Mark 7
"Iowa's Main Battery"
The 16-inch guns of the Iowa-class battleships — last fired in anger in 1991.
Little David
An American 914 mm siege mortar — the largest-caliber gun in the U.S. arsenal.
M40 Recoilless Rifle
A jeep-mounted 'tank-killer in your driveway' that vented its recoil out the back.
M110 Howitzer
A self-propelled 8-inch heavy howitzer, the largest in the US arsenal during the Cold War.
GAU-8/A Avenger
The seven-barrel rotary cannon built around the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Phalanx CIWS
"R2-D2"
A radar-guided 20 mm Gatling — the last-ditch shipboard defence against missiles.
M270 MLRS
A tracked launcher firing twelve 227 mm rockets in under a minute.
2S19 Msta-S
Russia's standard 152 mm tracked self-propelled howitzer.
Rheinmetall 120 mm L/55
The smoothbore tank gun that arms the Leopard 2, M1A2 Abrams and K2 Black Panther.
M777 Howitzer
A titanium-built towed howitzer, half the weight of its predecessors.
CAESAR
A truck-mounted 155 mm howitzer designed for shoot-and-scoot survivability.
M142 HIMARS
A wheeled, air-transportable rocket launcher made famous in Ukraine.