HME has played its part in death and destruction for centuries and in our lifetime has become a significant problem globally. It is the civilian who has absorbed the brunt of its effects and the first responder has been required to bravely return situations to normal. I was never able to find an easy reference to hand when HME was encountered, something that I took to be a huge capability gap in our corporate knowledge, not least the explosion hazard but also toxicity and longer-term exposure effects. Volumes exist on primary and secondary military explosives and munitions, but HME is marginalised because of the taboos associated. As such, I have drawn on my theoretical knowledge and practical experience to provide the reader with a relatively simple publication on the most-used precursors and their explosive performance. Much of what I say is scattered throughout the public domain but this is a distillation of the facts and first-hand experience of the effects. For those pursuing a professional engineering route through the Institute of Explosive Engineers, this guide also provides reference to the chemical engineering principles used in the manufacture and formulation of home-made explosives.

With thanks to Dr Mike Cartwright for once again checking over my chemistry homework, and to my family for allowing me to play with bombs and rockets for over thirty years!

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