In Italy in 1943 British troops came upon a highly desirable billet abandoned by the retreating Germans, its front door invitingly half open. Entering cautiously through a window, to avoid the likely booby trap, they approached the front door from inside and found attached to it the expected explosive charge, apparently designed to function when the door was moved. They left the house and attached a line to the doorknob of the front door. They retreated across the road to a conveniently sited slit trench and pulled the line. A second trap hidden in the trench and connected to the door exploded and killed them all. This fiendish and lethal attack illustrates the effectiveness of booby traps and the ingenuity with which they can be laid. In a fascinating new book to be published by Greenhill, Malice Aforethought, bomb-disposal expert Ian Jones traces the history of the malicious use of explosives in booby traps and sabotages such as this, by all sides, from WWI through to Vietnam. Drawing on his first-hand, expert knowledge of the subject, and with the aid of never-before-seen photographs and detailed illustrations, the author provides an inside analysis of the design, deployment and effectiveness of the many various devices and the measures that have been taken to negate their effects and to neu-tralise them. In the course of this he takes the reader on a captivating journey through the dimly lit dugouts on the Western Front to the beaches of Normandy and the dark and dangerous tunnels in Vietnam. Ian Jones, MBE, has worked in bomb disposal for the last thirty-five years. As a major in the British Army he served as officer commanding for all bomb disposal in Northern Ireland, as well as working in Germany, Bosnia, Belize, Southern Africa and, most recently, Kosovo. He is now an Explosives Officer for the Metropolitan Police Force Bomb Squad. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 129 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com