Pelicans ISBN 0 14 02.2377 0 - Overkill The Story of Modern Weapons

Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books, 625 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10022, U.S.A. Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada, L3R 1B4 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

First published in Peacock Books 1977 Published simultaneously in hardback by Kestrel Books Second edition published in the U.S.A. by T. Y. Crowell 1978 Third edition published in Pelican Books 1981

Copyright © John Cox, 1977, 1981 All rights reserved

The diagrams were drawn by R. Sherrington and R. Paull

Filmset by Northumberland Press Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd Bungay, Suffolk Set in Monophoto Plantin

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser