In 1917 America joined the First World War, desperately searching for a high-quality firearm to issue to their troops. Luckily for them, the greatest gun manufacturing pioneer in history, John Browning, had just created two new guns. One of these was the Browning Automatic Rifle, which he demonstrated with great success in Washington. The 300-strong crowd agreed that the weapon was excellent, and it was soon chosen to be distributed among American troops. The rushed production naturally resulted in some problems with the first set of guns, but these were soon sorted out. The M1918 BAR was used by Americans until the 1960s, and it also saw service during the Second World War with the British Home Guard. The great 30-06 bullet was part of Browning's original plans for the gun.

The First World War caused devastation across Europe, and over 70 million soldiers were involved in the fighting. It's near-impossible to summarise such an event, and there was no single cause of this war.

Unsatisfactory peace settlements from World War I were probably the greatest influence on the start of the Second World War. The Wall Street Crash was also a major factor, as it caused severe unemployment in Germany. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, expecting Britain and France to let him get away with it as they had before. However, they admirably refused, and by September 3rd the two allies honoured their agreement with Poland by declaring war on Germany. What followed was the deadliest conflict ever, which involved soldiers from around the world.

Despite getting incredibly close to overpowering the Allies on numerous occasions, they resisted with help from the USA, and the war ended in 1945. Hundreds of different weapons were used in both wars, but you can see a small selection below: