Just Finished Reading: The Gun – The Story of the AK-47 by C J Chivers (FP: 2010)

The AK-47 has been in the news a lot lately and not just for the usual reasons. With the recent death of its official creator Mikhail Kalashnikov people have been talking about the legacy of this iconic weapon and what it has meant in world history. Coincidently, at least in the sense of timing as I was 2/3 of the way through this book when his death was announced, that was exactly the subject of this book.

But where do you start a history of the AK-47? With the Gatling gun of course, where else? Looking back from the giddy heights of the 21st century it’s possible to see the chain of events that led from Gatling’s awesome invention to the equally (if not vastly superior) awesome invention of the AK and its many variants. The author, in great style, makes that journey pointing out the initial reluctance of the US military to embrace rapid fire guns which forced Gatling and his many imitators to look abroad to make money. European governments seemed far more interested in the latest killing machine and it was enthusiastically adopted by the Russians in particular. In a particular interesting aside the story of Custer’s Last Stand and his refusal to use the Gatling in offensive operations was contrasted with the British use of Gatling’s against Zulu warriors in South Africa. When a contingent of British troops were ambushed by many thousands of that fearsome enemy who had already destroyed several British units they formed squares and deployed their Gatling guns.
Less than an hour later the Zulu’s where in disordered retreat and the Zulu Nation was effectively destroyed.

But the Gatling monopoly on killing could not stand forever and was first challenged and then replaced by the first true automatic weapons exemplified by the Maxim gun so familiar from photographs in WW1. Again, despite numerous examples of their brutal efficiency, the major European military powers, with the pronounced exception of Germany, turned their noses up at such a device. For the majority of the bloody conflict of 1914-1918 the Allies paid a stiff price for their reluctance to accept that the old style of warfare was forever gone. Indeed it could be readily argued that the whole of the fighting on the Western and other fronts was the result of the attempts to find a solution to the machine gun problem. Finally, after many false steps and many lives lost the machine gun began to be effectively countered.

So feared was the device that caused so many Allied casualties at the hands of Germans that such weapons where severely limited by treaty after 1918. With their usual ingenious methods the German military produced lighter weapons radically different from their Maxim forbears and hid their function by calling them machine pistols and assault rifles. One of these designs which fell into Soviet hands towards the end of WW2 became the clear predecessor of the most recognised gun in the world today – the AK-47 (or more accurately the later Ak-74 variant). After the initial design was agreed on, tested, refined, updated and field tested it was Soviet politics that determined its distribution across the world wherever NATO or US interests clashed with their Soviet counterparts. At first the West had no effective response to the AK but eventually managed to rush into production a radical design of their own – the AR-15 or M-16 as it became known. Unfortunately for the soldiers who had to use it in Vietnam the M-16 was clearly not fit for purpose and was, initially at least, hated by its users who, where possible, preferred to use their enemies weapons against them – quite an accolade from the richest and most technologically advanced country in the world.

Of course the AK and its many variants are no commonplace across the globe. No one knows exactly how many are in circulation but the figure of 100 million is recognised as a reasonable estimate. With its ease of use and uncanny robustness this most recognised of guns will be seen on our TV screens and its distinctive sound will be heard on streets, in jungles and in deserts across the globe. It is the most ubiquitous of guns and for very good reasons. The author of this fascinating, if sometimes long winded and overly detailed, work makes a very good case that the AK-47 shaped and continues to shape the world far more than any of its designers, distributors or users ever thought or planned it to do. Ignored at first it can be ignored no longer. If you want to find out where it came from and how it became the dominant weapon on just about every battlefield and in every post Cold-War confrontation in the world then this book is definitely a must read. Highly recommended.