In addition to the comments on Amazon, the following reviews of Rapid Fire have been published:
1. In British Army Review number 126, Winter 2000-2001:
"This is an exceptionally ambitious
work, which covers the entire history of cannon and HMGs from
the 19th Century to the present day.
The study is very clearly a labour of love and leaves the reader
thoroughly impressed with the massive research effort which must
have gone into its preparation. Almost everyone will find something
new somewhere in its 297 pages. Some possibilities are startling,
notably the suggestion that the Luftwaffe's Panzerjadgstaffeln
may have been using (natural) uranium-cored 30mm APCR rounds by
the end of the war.
Other entries do support the idea that very little is really new
- as the book's final chapter suggests '...the US Army's M129
40mm automatic grenade launcher, flexibly mounted in various attack
helicopters, is remarkably similar in purpose and broad performance
specification to the Vickers 37mm 1pdr Mk III, one of the first
automatic cannon ever to see airborne service'.
Anyone with an interest in weapons development should do their
utmost to obtain a copy of this superbly illustrated book which
deserves to become a standard reference work on its subject."
2. By Bill Gunston in Aeroplane, July 2001:
"I begged the Editor to let me review this book. It is by no means the first to cover the field of automatic weapons with calibres from 12.7mm (0.5in) to around 57mm, but by a thousand miles it is the best.
It covers army and navy guns, but probably half the content deals with cannon for aircraft. Ammunition is described in detail. Beautifully written, copiously illustrated (much in colour), up to date (there is a section on future weapons, and our 25mm Aden is noted as having at last been abandoned) and comprehensive even in coverage of Japanese and Russian weapons, it is the first book for many years in which I could not find a single mistake."